My Saving Grace (Book 3)

May 4, 2030

Scott was sat in the office working on some music, his fingers moving back and forth along the keys, adding notes in here and there. He tried to concentrate hard but was cut off by the fact that he was so tired. The last couple of nights had been little to no sleep for him. He was so worried about how Toby was doing. His thoughts were drifting back and forth between work and worry. His eyes focused and unfocused, the notes before him becoming blurry and then sharp. His eyelids drifted closed before they snapped open again.

That was when he heard the ringing sound coming from the kitchen. He let it wash through his brain, not making a single effort to go and answer it. His body and mind was so out of it that he didn't even care. That was when the ringing stopped and he assumed someone else had answered the phone, not that either Alex or Jessica were home. He zoned out back into his head, humming the tune that was running around in his brain.

"Scott!" The voice in the doorway snapped him out of his thoughts. He swivelled around in his chair, having being startled by the abrupt disruption. Considering he hadn't realised anyone was in the house he had a fair reason to be. He was relieved though to see Alex. But that relief quickly dissaparated when he saw the anger that shone off of Alex's features. His lips were moving but Scott was hearing nothing, his brain having switched off quite suddenly again.

He blinked a bit before asking, "I'm sorry, what?" Alex laughed, humourlessly. He rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air.

"Jesus Christ! Don't you ever listen to me?!" His voice was raised. Scott could clearly see the bags hanging low under his eyes. He was probably just as tired as himself.

"Sorry, I'm just tired." Scott's voice was quiet in contrast to Alex's. He wasn't up for a fight tonight, they had been doing enough of that in the last few days.

"Tired? Aren't we all?!" Alex rolled his eyes again. He held the phone in front of Scott's face. "Just to let you know we have ten missed calls on our house phone, all from your band mates should I add." Scott's eyes almost popped out of his head.

He spun around grabbing his cellphone. There was message after message flashing up from Mitch, Avi, Kirstie, Kevin, Esther and even Jonathan. He could've sworn he had only heard the house phone ring once. "Oh..." He breathed.

"Yeah, oh!" Alex stated, sarcastically. "I thought you were going out today. I had to come home early to check that you were okay. Mitch has been frantic!" Alex's voice began to raise again.

"Okay! I made a mistake! I'm sorry!" Scott snapped, pushing the chair out from under him and coming face to face with Alex, who backed away slightly.

"No need to snap!" He retorted. Scott let out a huge breath, almost as if he were breathing fire. It felt like he was seeing red.

"Me, snap?! You literally started shouting at me the second you walked in the door!!" He answered back. Their chests were pressed against each other, both of their faces red. They were ready for a fight, the dominant male seemingly creeping up on both of them. Something that rarely showed on both of them at the same time.

"That's cause you don't listen if I talk normally!" Alex pursed his lips, biting his inner cheeks in anger.

"I didn't hear you! As I said before, I'm tired! This last week has been overwhelming!"

"You're not the only one it's effected! The rest of us are getting on with our lives!" Scott stepped even closer, pushing Alex back a little.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?" He spat.

"It means that you need to go to work and stop moping around here all day! That's not gonna 'fix' him is it?" Alex spat back.

"You never went through what he's going through, I have!"