Fire In Our Bones (NovaHD)

Chapter 17

Aleks woke up from his nap and immediately buried his head under his pillow. He was still embarrassed about going crying to Kyle about his problems, even though he had assured him that he was happy to help. Aleks wasn't sure how much of a help he had been, but it had felt good to cry some of it out. He would never admit it out loud though.

"God, I'm a mess," he groaned, dragging his hands down his face. "Pull yourself together, Aleks."

Cooper had walked him back to camp then Aleks had stuttered some excuse about being tired and escaped to his tent. But he had to face the world, so he stood up, squared his shoulders and stepped through the tent flap. Unfortunately, his hoodie snagged on the zipper so his stoic exit was rather dimmed.

He squirmed around until he became unstuck, then straightened out his clothes, looking around to see if anyone had noticed. His eyes met a pair of large dark ones.

"Oh, hi Charlotte," he waved.

"Aleks!" she grinned. "I wanted to come say hi but Kyle said not to bother you. Are you feeling ok?"

"I'm fine," he smiled. "What's up?"

"Nothing really," she sighed. "Like always."

"Mmm," Aleks nodded, trying to look sympathetic.

But she brightened up quickly.

"Hey, do you want to see something cool?" she asked, looking excited.

"Sure," Aleks shrugged. "What is it?"

"You'll see," she grabbed his hand. "Come on."

Charlotte pulled Aleks across the camp, ignoring the people who gave them strange looks. Aleks caught a glimpse of Kate eyeballing him, but Charlotte kept pulling him forwards. Finally, they stopped in front of another tent. "This is my tent. You and I are the only ones who have our own."

This surprised Aleks.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Kyle said you should have your own. Kate didn't like that very much, but..." she trailed off and shrugged.

Aleks scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Wow, Kyle's pretty nice isn't he?"

"The nicest!" Charlotte beamed. "He was my brother's best friend."

She ushered Aleks into the tent. Instead of a cot there was a sleeping bag on the floor. A pile of books in the corner and a box of clothes were the only other things that Aleks could see. Charlotte sat down and patted the ground beside her. Aleks sat down creakily, holding in a groan.

"Have you had a best friend?" Charlotte asked as soon as he sat. Aleks looked down and shrugged.

"Yeah, sure."

"Where are they now?"

"Uh, I don't know where he is now," Aleks confessed.

"Are you looking for him?"

"No."

Charlotte looked confused. "But why not? If he's your best friend and you don't know where he is, why aren't you looking for him?"

"It's complicated," Aleks said looking away. "You wouldn't understand."

Charlotte looked offended. 

"I mean, I don't really want to talk about it to be honest."

"Ok," she nodded. "You don't have to." Aleks breathed a sigh of relief.

"What did you want to show me?"

"Oh yeah!" Charlotte jumped up and rushed over to the pile of books in the corner. She pulled out one and plopped it down in his lap. "This my scrapbook. It's more like a diary with a few pictures, but I call it my scrapbook." She opened it to a page near the middle. A photo was haphazardly glued to the middle of the page. "This is my family," she handed the book to Aleks. "And this is my brother."