fires and floods. | dominic fike

09

Dominic, Celeste, and Maxwell all stood side by side outside of the Naples Juvenile detention center. They held silly signs saying FreeALXTillItsBackWardz and Congrats on ur freedom JIT! with a bunch of hearts and doodles surrounding the words. "Why did you capitalize the W in backwards?" Celeste asked Max, who was in charge of that sign. "Shit if I know, them shrooms we took had me making my own rules." Maxwell shrugged, taking one last drag of his cigarette before flicking it towards the ground and rubbing away the flame with the bottom of his shoe.

"This shit is corny," Dominic mumbled to himself, hiding behind the sign slightly as he spoke. Without hesitation, Celeste raised her left hand and smacked the boy upside the head. "You thought that glitter was the shit once I pulled it out," Celeste fought back, rolling her eyes as Dom yelled Ow! and rubbed where Celeste smacked him. Max laughed, agreeing with Celeste and causing Dom to frown a bit, jokingly.

The warm Naples breeze kept them cool in the heat as they patiently waited for the younger boy to be released from the detention center. 4 days of no Alex Fike, and although Dominic claimed he was in heaven being away from his annoying brother, Celeste and Max knew how badly he missed Alex.

Suddenly, a loud beep could be heard, signaling that the doors to the detention center were to be opened for a release. All three teens felt themselves become excited for Alex's release, with Dom bouncing on his tippy toes as he waited for the doors to open. When they did open, Alex Fike walked out the center a free man now.

"THEY COULDN'T KEEP ME IN THERE, WHATS GOOD!" Alex yelled triumphantly, as he exaggerated a deep breath in, taking in the moment of his release. Dominic yelled "MY BOY!" and ran up to his little brother, literally jumping into his arms and wrapping his legs around Alex with his sign still in his hands.

"Damn, you missed me that much?" Alex laughed into his big brothers ear, patting his back loudly as he tried his best to keep the weight of Dominic and himself upright. "Something like that, jit."

"You fuck with our signs, Alex?" Max teased, moving his sign side to side slightly.

"Lowkey, yeah. I need to hang these up in my room." Alex laughed lightly, admiring the signs a bit more and pointing out the silly details.

Suddenly. Celeste approached Alex, tapping him on the shoulder so he could now face her. Alex wasn't too tall yet, Celeste's eye level met his. She held a joint to his lips, causing confusion for the boy but parting his lips nonetheless when he realized what was in front of him. Celeste lit the lighter but paused right before igniting the tip. The girl turned 180 completely, now facing Dominic.

"You should do the honors." Celeste handed the lighter to Dominic, patting his shoulder as she walked past him so he could replace her spot in front of Alex. Dom chuckled to himself, he loved how considerate Celeste was about everything and anything.

Dominic ignited the flame with a flick of his thumb, cupping a hand over it to block whatever wind was being blown in their direction. The end of the joint was engulfed in flames, with Dom peeking down and blowing towards the end of it so the flame could spread.

Alex felt the warm welcome of the heavy smoke in his mouth, ghosting it before inhaling it again and blowing it in the direction of the detention center.

"Waste of my damn time." Alex mumbled to himself, taking another puff of his joint as he pointed a middle finger to the Naples detention center. The quartet began to leave, walking away from the center and towards Maxs car.

LATER IN THE EVENING...

Alex burped loudly from the burger he had just inhaled. Dominic, Celeste, and Max let the boy pick whatever he wanted from the menu, his reward for getting through four days in juvy.