What If

Forrest Questions

Forrest's POV

It's been six months since that night, and Alex has been weird. He's drinking a lot more and sad a lot more. But he was still kind, sweet, and caring. After that night, something broke, and he rebuilt those walls.

I walk into his cabin, it's 4:30 on a Friday, and I see him drunk on this couch. "Hey, Alex." but he doesn't hear me. So instead of staying to try and probably fail to cheer him up, I leave because I know how tonight is going to end. First, he will start drunkenly singing, then punch or kick a new hole in the closet wall that he thinks I don't know about. However, I do like the irony that he is breaking his closet. But still, I need answers, and he won't give them to me.

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I spotted Gregory entering The Crashdown. I'll follow him in.

"Hey, Gregory! Can I talk to you? It's about Alex."

"Hey Forrest, what is it," he asks, condensed.

"It's about that song... the one about the high school guy... Can you tell me about him? Please! Please, it's killing me!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't. Ask Alex."

"He won't tell me. Please... tell me!" I beg.

"I can't!" he whispers and yells, and before I can even open my mouth, he continues, "And before you ask why I think you like and maybe even love my brother, and I don't want to hurt your feelings."

"I do! I really do. And that's why I need to know, have you seen him lately? He's either drunk or breaking things, singing that song repeatedly. I need to know why. Please, I need to know." I'm earnestly begging now. I need him to tell me.

And right before I think he's about to tell me, Liz walks over. "Here's your food, Gregory. And Forrest, can I get you Anything."

Perfect, she's exactly who I was going to go to next for information. Still, considering how hard it is to get his brother to tell me, it'll probably be a lot harder to get his best friends, so I'm going to need alcohol. "No thanks, I just needed to talk to Gregory. And I also wanted to see if you and Maria wanted to go to Planet 7 tonight," I asked happily, hoping she would say yes.

"Just the three of us. Alex isn't coming," She sounds confused, reasonably so.

"Yeah, Alex isn't feeling well, and his leg is bothering him, so I thought maybe we could hang out without him. If that's okay." I'm not technically lying. Yes, he will probably stop drinking within the hour and go down a drunken spiral. He will probably be sobering up by the time we go out, so he won't feel well. And his leg has been bothering him because he's been using it to kick drywall. Therefore I'm not lying; I'm just spitting the truth. It Still feels wrong. For the last six months, I've been trying to find ways to tell our friends that we can't go out for whatever reason without telling them why we can't go out. It's not like I can tell all of our friends that he's drinking and super depressed without him getting upset and worrying everyone.

"No, that's fine. I would love to. I get off at 6, so I could be ready for 6:30 - 7:00ish," Liz says, super rushed like she thinks she offended me.

"Perfect, I still have to ask Maria. Did you want to meet there at 7:00?"

"Don't worry about it. I can text Maria, and we'll meet there," She says before she walks back to the kitchen.

"Anyways, what were you saying about Alex?" Gregory brings the conversation back to the original topic. "You said something about drinking and breaking things. Is he okay?"

"Not really grab your takeout, and I'll show you" So we leave, get in my car, and I drive back to the cabin.

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