Believe Me

One: Screening

so apparently all the odd chapters are gonna have to be really long oops  

Believe Me

Ch 1: Screening

Ty's POV

"Alesa!"

Ashley jumps as I fling open the door to her house and march inside. "Ty! How are you?"

"Where is Alesa?"

"Bedroom, playing video games. Wanna play with us? I was just getting snacks," she says, beaming. I growl and walk past her to the bedroom. "Uh, is that a 'no,' or a 'yes?'"

"Alesa!"

The girl drops her game controller after hearing her name called so loudly. "Ty?" she asks, tilting her head.

"Are you taking your medicine?" I ask sharply.

"Well, no, not at this very moment-" My eyes widen, and she rolls her own eyes and huffs. "But, yes, I took it this morning."

I nod and then turn to Ashley. "Does it seem to be working? No, scratch that, is it working?"

Ashley shrugs. "I guess so."

"Yes or no," I hiss. She puts up her hands in a defensive gesture.

"Yes, Ty, it's working. What's wrong?"

I take a deep breath and then blow it out slowly. "Nothing, nothing is wrong. What are you guys playing?"

"Something Seth coded recently," Alesa replies, brushing off my earlier panic. "Wanna play?"

"Um... Yes, please."

"Geez, Ty, loosen up," Ashley jokes, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously, there must be something wrong."

"No, there isn't. How do we play?" I sit down by Alesa on the floor and grab one of the extra controllers.

"Pretty simple, really," Alesa says, pushing a few buttons and causing the game menu to pop up. "It's like parkour, kind of? You'll see. Press that button to jump, that one to crouch, and that one to sprint."

"Thanks." Three more deep breaths, and I'm playing a video game with Alesa without trying to kill her. Props to me. Five minutes later, and I'm actually enjoying the game. "You said Seth made this?"

"Yeah, he works on this kind of thing when he's not doing huge builds," Ashley confirms, munching on some food.

"Oh, that's cool. Is-" I'm cut off by the annoying ringing of my phone. "Ugh, hold on... Hello?"

"Hey, Ty!" Sky's overly excited voice shouts, and I blink. "Are you ready to screen some people?"

"Um... what?"

"You know, screening! You said you'd screen all my potential future partners. Or friends."

"I- Oh, right. Okay, then. Where are you?"

"We're all meeting at the pizzeria."

"The pizzeria?"

"The pizzeria."

"Maybe 'the pizzeria' can be your 'always,'" Alesa giggles, and I glare at her and make a mental note to actually turn down the volume on my phone.

"I'll be there in ten minutes, Sky. How many people am I screening?"

"Thirty." I can almost hear his obnoxious grin.

"Thirty!? What the heck, Sky, that's ridiculous!"