Antidote [18+]

Quince.

The more Seth had thought about it, nothing was adding up.  They had been in Dubai for over two weeks now, Xander made sure he could attend all his lectures and tutorials online. He didn't care enough about track to deal with it but Xander insisted on calling the school and sorting it out. 

Alex was never around, he was always out, leaving Seth alone in the high-rise building by himself. It gave him plenty of time to think. He first met Xander on the bus, why would he be taking the bus? His explanation of lending his brother the car had made no sense, someone with such a high profile would never be taking the bus especially when he had several cars, drivers and body guards. 

Naive, he thought to himself. 

A knock sounded on the bedroom door, "Come in." 

It was Marco, Alex's cousin. 

"Pariente said to give this to you," he handed him a black gift bag, "Keep it on you at all times." 

Seth had learnt bits and pieces of Spanish after being around them for so long, he knew the code names and who they referring to. 

"Thank you," Seth answered taking it from him. 

"It is not my business but you seem very troubled and my advice to you is to give him time to explain to you, he is still the same person you thought he was." 

His words resonated with Seth as he left the room closing the door behind him. Seth opened the bag, it was a new phone, but the seal of the box  was broken. 

He felt bad that the first thought that came to him was that there was a tracker embedded rather than being grateful. 

The phone was already set up and fully charged, he looked in the contacts, four of them. Marco, Alejandro, Xander and Palo, the driver. 

Typical. 

He had no more classes, it was only a three hour time difference between London and Dubai. He checked the clock, 9:07 p.m.

His old phone chimed, a text from Duncan. 

Hey, where have you been? 
                               Delivered at 9:08 p.m.

 Seth wondered if he should even text him back, he didn't have the strength to talk to anyone but he hadn't had any real contact besides the few words between Xander's people and Hadley calling to check on him. 

Hey, just dealing with some personal stuff.                                                                                                                                                                 Read at 9:10 p.m.

Can I call?                                                                                                                                                                                               Delivered at 9:10 p.m.

 Yeah.                                                                                                                                                                                                    Read at 9:11 p.m.

Seth's phone rang immediately, fucking hell it was a videocall. He sighed and swiped to answer, Duncan's face appeared on screen. 

"Yo," he grinned.

"Hey," Seth gave him a smile. 

"I haven't heard from you, coach said you were dealing with some family stuff, did someone die?"