Blue Lupus

Chapter Twenty Eight: Cleaning and Kisses

"Wow, did a tornado come through here?"

Jared sighed as Ray welcomed himself into the house, unannounced. It was fine though; the two had become such close friends that knocking was no longer a requirement. Jared greeted Ray with a quick head nod, before continuing his cleaning: "No, my siblings did."

"Ew, ew, ew." Jared heard Alexandria squeal from the kitchen where he could only imagine the horrible goo-monster she had just encountered as she tried to do the dishes.

The house was a disaster; so Jared had summoned the help of his two closest friends to help him with disaster relief. The past two weeks of his sibling's lives had been one of the worst times of their lives. Between Jakes traumatizing break up and Alyssa's tear-jerking rejection, both of his siblings were at an all time low.

Jared always joked that they both had their own unique "stages" of depression. Jake's were simple and obvious: He would start by locking himself away from a little while. Usually just a day or two at most—though after Alaska left he was locked away for a record of four days.

Next stage for Jake was denial. He pretended everything was normal. He in a way backtracked to his pre-Alaska ways. He just played video games and watched TV all day. He stopped cleaning and cooking, which were all things that he only started to do once Alaska came into his life. Pizza was ordered almost every night and a good bit of beer chugged every day. The only thing Jake didn't do that he normally would have done was go out to a bar to pick up some sad, lonely girl and rocked her night. But Jared knew Jake wasn't ready for that. After all, Jake's "everything is OK" mask was only a façade and eventually he would start his third phase of depression.

Jake hadn't quite reached his third stage, but Jared knew it was coming: Raw sadness. Jake would essentially break down, and Jared knew he would hear heartbreaking sobs coming from his room. Jared hated that sound more then anything else in the world. He only heard Jake in such agony once before: when their dad left. Jared prayed he would never hear that noise again.

Alyssa's stages were a little different then Jakes. Jared wasn't as familiar with the gritty details of each of his brothers. Alyssa always hid her pain, as if it would make her seem weak if she let her own family know how hurt she was. He tried to reach out to her, but as usual, the more he tried the more she retracted from him. Still though, Jared wasn't oblivious and knew the basic parts of each stage.

First, Alyssa would stay outside a lot. She would sit on her roof, or go on border patrols in the woods. She would rarely be inside, and Jared never knew if she did that to avoid talking to her brothers or to avoid being near things that reminded her of her lost love. But it was early January and he knew it was too cold for the young girl to be outside for hours at a time and often worried that she would get sick.

Thankfully though, Alyssa entered her second stage: anger. This stage terrified him, but at least she wasn't putting her health at risk right now. Everything could trigger her anger. Everything was at risk of her wrath. Books would be thrown, glasses shattered, the TV cussed out. Jared was so amazed at how much anger could come out of such a tiny woman.

Next was her third stage, and this was by far Jared's least favorite: self-loathing. Just like Jake, she went back to her pre-Deven days. She didn't speak to her brothers, she didn't eat, and Jared was terrified that the cutting would begin again. Now, Jared didn't know all that went down with her and Deven, all he knew was that they broke up and some hard words were said on her part. But on the rare times he saw Alyssa around the house, he saw the regret and pain in her eyes. For the first time, she looked completely shattered. She was just a shell of her past self, and Jared would do anything to here a sarcastic joke or rude comment from her.