The Walter Boys Assistant

Chapter 31: One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

(This chapter is dedicated to IamJustLadyD
The song in this chapter is inspired by her Alex Walter fanfiction: Your Freckles Lead the Way. Love you, DiDi! ❤️)

~Third POV~

His house doesn't feel the same. Of course his family is still there and behaving like nothing has changed. His younger siblings continue to play and argue. Cole and Jackie still date behind George and Katherine's backs. Everyone seems to have returned to this familiar lifestyle without a hitch...

Everyone, except Alex, that is. (Y/n) has only been gone two days, and yet, he feels as though he hasn't seen her in years.

He knew this was coming, it happens at the end of every summer. Yet, this time, he should be more grateful. She didn't have to leave the state for the beginning of the school year this time around. Now she will be finishing out this summer in her new home, and then return to Silver Falls High School with the rest of them in August.

A lot has changed this year. So much, that it causes his head to spin upon just thinking about it.

Saturday came and went in the blink of an eye. The family went about normal business.

This Sunday morning, the entirety of the family decided to go into town. Alex opted to stay at home. Most didn't push the matter, but a select few prodded at him. Those few consist of his mother, Cole, and Nathan.

While Katherine didn't know of anything going on, she had an inkling that her son was dealing with inner turmoil. Alex prayed she just assumed it was because his best friend moved out. He couldn't deal with his mom giving him pep talks about his personal affairs, let alone his love life. Therefore, instead of informing her of these thoughts, he faked a migraine.

Katherine might have accepted this excuse, but Cole and Nathan certainly didn't. His brothers were more in the loop of what was going on, after all.

How does Nathan know about Alex's crush on (Y/n)? He pieced it together like the smarty-pants he is. Between that day Alex was hung over and questioning about events at the party, and becoming a bundle of nerves in the presence of (Y/n), it became quite apparent to Nathan what was going on.

"Just take it from me," Cole verbalizes, "staying here and feeling sorry for yourself will only make things worse."

"I just want a day alone. What's wrong with that?" Alex heaves, remaining still on his back. His eyes are set on the ceiling, finding different shapes in the paint.

"You'll feel better if you get out and distract-" Nathan begins to counter, motioning forward, but stops all together when Alex springs upright, flickering his attention between his brothers.

"Everything I do, everywhere I go, leads me back to her," Alex sputters, "there's no distracting me from that."

"Come on, Alex." Cole huffs out before the car horn sounds off, making them all stop. One more warning honk before their dad will just drive off, leaving them all at home for the day.

The room falls into silence. Nathan takes in the sight of his brother. He looks worse than he did after Jackie left for New York. His eyelids droop with weariness, dark circles shrouding beneath. His hair is greasy and unkempt, disclosing that he has yet to shower, let alone run a brush through it the past couple of days. Hell, Nathan can't recall the last time Alex changed his clothes.

"Just text or call if you need anything, okay?" Nathan pleads, tapping his foot against Alex's.

"I will."