Good Luck Anna

Headache

We continue to text back and forth for the next few hours, being able to talk about anything with Thomas elevates a little of the pressure in my chest.

I probably should feel bad for stealing so much of his attention from his girlfriend, but I decide to be selfish for this one weekend then he can get back to his life.

Alex stumbles through the door, I dive to my feet to meet him at the bottom of the stairs while he wrestles off his trainers. For a moment I'm sure he is swaying but it seems to stop once I get to the hallway.

When I catch sight of his face I gasp horrified, he is as white as a ghost the only colour on his face -minus the outrageous bruising- is the faint blue tinge to his lips.

"What's wrong Alex?" He grimaces at the sound of my voice.

"Headache... I'm just going to go to bed." His voice is hardly a whisper but even that still seems to cause pain.

In response I drop my voice to match his, "OK, go sleep it off text me if you need anything." Alex nods placing a light kiss on my forehead before dragging himself up to his room. He definitely seems to be shaking by the time he reaches the top but that's probably due to going out in October wearing only a t-shirt.

Dropping back into the couch, the silence of the house is over whelming, its truly unnerving. Whenever we have been here before is always buzzing with noise, new year's parties -when we weren't dragged off to dads boring company ones- were always some of my favourite holidays.

Edward knows some of the wildest people, mum used to tell me when I was little, I would just throw endless question at strangers, and everyone was absolutely thrilled to have someone interested is whatever weird niche subject they specified In.

Even outside of the parties, normally mum would be distantly singing from another room, music always playing from somewhere in this house. Alex and Edward would be talking or laughing nearby, I wonder if I will ever hear Alex laugh again.

This house used to be alive but now it is cold, empty, like a morgue.

The living room is bathed in a dull light by the time Edward returns, I'm not sure if I fell asleep or just took a page out of Alex's book and dissociated out for a few hours but I can't for the life of me recall the sun setting.

"Your late." I mumble struggling to sit up right.

"I had to rent a van to move that enormous table you wanted... we are going to have to put it in the garage for now." I hadn't thought about where it would go when I requested Edward retrieve it but obviously there is no space for it here.

"Sorry, I didn't think, thank you for getting it for me." Edward clicks on a lamp illuminating his tired face and bloody split lip.

Scrambling across the room to Edward I demand, "how the hell did that happen?"

He absently touches his lip before responding "Julian didn't appreciate being given some hard truths about his appalling behaviour." Edward leaves the room muttering about selfish pricks and when he returns a bag is placed into my hands.

Rifling through the bag of clothes, most of them are mine which he must have gotten from my room. I am frantically searching for the striped jumper before its scent gets mixed in with mine. When I find it, I drag it to my face, breathing in a deep lungful.

When mum's scent finally calms me down, I ask "please tell me you hit him back." Edward smirks and that is all the response I need to know he gave as good as he got. I'm generally not a fan of violence but can make an exception for those who deserve it and our dad is number one on my shit list.

Can't help returning his smirk with a "thank you."

Getting dragged from sleep I assume that the rain thundering against my window is the cause until I hear the quiet whimpers of "no" through the wall, that sends me rushing straight to Alex's room.

I swing open his door Edward hot on my heels as a blood chilling scream rips through him. We get to the bed when his eyes snap open, hair is plastered to his face with sweat, short shallow breaths rattle from him.

Alex covers his face attempting to hide the pain from us. "I'm alright. Thanks for checking on me, you can go back to bed now." His voice is so broken I don't need to see his face to know what agony lies beneath.

"You need to talk and if you can't talk us then you need to go to therapy." Ever since that first session he has dodged all questions about when he will be returning. When I thought he was getting better I was willing to let it slide but now that we can see otherwise tough love is on the cards tonight.

"No, I can't...please." Those words break my heart making me almost cave, instead I push on, this will be worth it in the long run.

"If you don't agree to regular therapy sessions, I swear to fuck I will call an ambulance right now and have you admitted. You don't need to live like this, you deserve to get better." I keep my voice soft, praying he doesn't force me to have him sectioned.

He is silent for so long I don't think he is going to respond but eventually he finally quietly murmurs. "I'll book back in to see Dr. Crawford, I promise."

I give his shoulders a squeeze and say, "thank you, try get some sleep Alex." He nods but like myself I'm sure sleep is going to be impossible.