On Call

Chapter 10

Everett up top

Alex

Everett was standing on my doorstep, his hair was messed and his usually smiling face was set in a frown.

"Everett?" His green eyes looked like he was fighting a battle inside.

"Alex, can I come in?" He rubbed his chin roughly. I opened the door, he slowly walked in.

"Are you okay? What happened?" He took in a shaky breath and slumped down on the sofa.

"I didn't know where to go." I sat down beside him.

"What happened?" I repeated, he looked at me for a moment before a tear slid down his cheek.

"It's Nina, she...died." I gasped, I looked at him wide eyed. I could feel the tears starting to roll down my cheeks too.

After her 4 year struggle with lung cancer, she died.

I took his hand in mine,squeazing it softly.

"But...the other day you said she was doing better and cancer has stopped spreading." He swallowed hard.

"The calm before the storm, it spread far enough to cause severe heart failure and kidney damage, they only found out two days ago and this morning..." His voice cracked slightly.

I wrapped him in a hug. I have never seen him this wrecked. Even when Xavier died (also one of his friends) he didn't look like this. 

After his parents died Nina was already working so she needed to look after him and when he graduated she was diagnosed and he needed to look after her. He graduated before me and was currently working to support them.

Nina was an amazing person, I've met her before and would visit when he couldn't.

Our hug ended when he pulled back and looked at me.

"I'm sorry for coming here and breaking down but I couldn't stay there."

"It's fine that's what friends are for -how about we watch a movie and eat ice cream like we use to." He leaned his head back against the sofa when Xavier died, we did his ritual, when his parents died we watched movies for 12 hours straight to try and ease the pain, crying through the whole marathon. 

This was our thing.

It didn't fix much but just for a moment, we could forget the world.

"Anything to occupy my mind.Please." I smiled and got a tub of ice cream out, 2 spoons and a movie, I decided on '5 to 7'.

We talked throughout the movie, I tried my best to not talk about Nina or anything in that line of discussion.

At the end of the movie, the ice cream was done and we were both still trying to comprehend the ending. 

He left her because even if he loved her it was never going to work out. 

Everett looked a little better but still a wreck. I suck at movie choices.

"So, what has been happening in your life?" He asked intrigued trying to lighten the deadening mood.

He was my best friend I could tell anything to. Back in highschool, he'd tell me about his dates and things like that, I remember telling him years back when I had my first time, we were just so close.

"Well..." He scanned my face and had a small smirk on his face.

"Oh, there's someone." He narrowed his eyes at me.