Beyond Bloodline - Unbreakable Bonds

sixteen

Nigel was unable to pen down a word. A lot had happened to him these past few weeks since his last journal entry. His friends were still being themselves. Aries, like always, bottled up any and every thing he was going through and acted like nothing was wrong and he didn't need anyone interfering.

And Alfie— well, he was still being Alfie. His cheery self at least, save the rare days everything seemed to choke him up to here and he finally realized he needed an outlet. There was some progress with Hayley, one rare plus now that he actually sat down to think about it. Then there was Saxon.

He tried, hard, not to think of his brother. Especially not if it was something he ended up penning in his journal. Thinking of his brother made him think of the family. And thinking of family, well, the good memories were so scant he'd rather not go down that direction. So, he avoided it.

Thankfully, he was unable to put down much of anything for whatever reason so him penning –venting– his problems wouldn't have to bring him back to Saxon, their family or the frayed wires that struggled, and failed, to bind their family together.

Seemed like he was due to give Riele a visit anyway.

"You're going out," Saxon noticed when he walked into the living room, hand holding onto a medium-sized duffel. "You coming back tonight?"

"Not sure yet," Nigel said, raking a glance over the scripts he had spread all over the love seat in the living room and keeping his comment to himself. "I'm going to Alfie's."

Saxon hummed before going back to looking over his scripts.

Nigel wanted to ask what was really on his mind but in lieu that it'd been less than twenty-four hours since their last disagreement, decided to keep it to himself instead. "See you," he said, stopping by the kitchen for a drink and then leaving through the backdoor.

Positioning his duffel in front of him on his motorbike Aries had ended up having to help him drive over due to a crippling onset of laziness, he rode off.

He felt his brow begin drawing together at the sound of argument coming from inside the living room. That was strange. No, not the argument. Alfie argued constantly with his elder brother. It was a no-brainer given he and Saxon even needed arguments to sometimes properly function around each other.

What was strange was the raised voice of his friend's mother. Winona never got mad about anything. She was the most quiet person he knew and more likely to help ease Alfie's punishment when he got into trouble with his father, which quite frankly was all the time.

He eased himself into the house, two hauntingly similar appearances, blotchy in the face due to their heated trade-off earlier turning on him in synch.

"Aunt," he greeted with a somewhat stiff smile.

Her lips were pursed in a thin frown, as though not expecting to be interrupted so soon. "Nigel," then her blue eyes were softening when they dropped to the duffel in his hand. "Are you okay?" She was once bosom friends with his mom though he couldn't for the life of him ever figure how that could have ever worked out.

Alfie rolled his eyes so hard it hurt. "Can I just have the stuff back?" he said, not wanting to stand through all of this.

Nigel's mouth nearly fell open at the sight of the item Winona was pinching so hard between the fingers of her right hand that her knuckles had turned white. It was weed, he could decipher that much through the transparent cellophane. It was no wonder she was so incensed. To his knowledge, it had always been Paul to catch Alfie.

Winona turned a glare on him so scathing even Nigel had to force back a shiver.

"What?" Alfie said. "I already told you it's not mine."