Strands of Blue

Chapter 5: What to do

It was midnight. I kept calling Beau, but he wouldn't answer me. I paced around my room and tried to get rid of the stress.

"What's wrong, Al?" El whispered. I jumped. I didn't mean to wake her.

"Nothing, I'm fine." I lied straight through my teeth. I should've just said the truth, El knows me too well.

"What's wrong?" El said, sitting up. All of it was suddenly coming to me. I felt my face turn red, the shivers went all throughout my body, and all of the butterflies were coming to life. I sat next to El and burst into tears.

"It's bad El, It's too much." I said. She got up and pulled me out to our spot.

"With everything going on right now, it's ok. You can tell me anything and I promise I won't say anything to anyone." Her voice was comforting. It was cold and windy outside, but every teardrop was warm on my face. I started to shake; not because it was cold, but because the stress was too much.

"Beau and I are trying to hide something bad and I don't know what to do and he's not answering his phone." I choked up. There was nothing else I could say.

"Al, if he's pressuring you into drugs again-"

"No! He's not." I cut her off. She squeezed my hand.

"Al, tell me what's going on. Now," she said assertively. As much as I wanted to say something, an immense weight held me back from saying anything at all.

"The stuff we are trying to hide..." I paused, "... Drugs..." I said, choking up. El sighed and put her arms around me. She was warm; I heard her heart beating faster than a rabbit's. She was handling this situation better than I was.

"You aren't using, are you?" she asked. I was slightly offended by this question, but I knew she was only curious.

"No," I whispered. We sat there for a moment holding on to each other. I started to calm down, I was no longer shaking, I was ok. Then, my phone started to ring. It was Beau. I looked at El for a moment, and then answered.

"Hey, is everything ok?" He asked. He sounded like he had just woken up.

"Everything's fine." I said. There was a hiatus in the conversation. I didn't know what else to say. I had lied, nothing was ok.

"Actually, Beau. No, it's not 'fine'. What are we going to do? Please don't say that you don't know because we need to figure this out." I said angrily.

"Don't get mad, Al. We'll figure it out. Okay?" he said, brushing it off like it was nothing. At that point I was furious. I couldn't handle the amount of stress this situation was causing. I wanted to yell at him, but I didn't want to jeopardize our friendship. I looked at Ella for a moment, then at the sky.

"I am mad, but we will figure it out," I said calmly. I hung up without even saying goodbye.

"Al, I think I might I have an idea," El said. "First, let's go back inside. It's cold." I followed her back into our room and she pulled out her phone.

"What are you doing?" I asked. She ignored me and continued to tap away on her phone screen.

"I'm texting Jeremy," she said. Who's Jeremy? I thought to myself. His name sounded so familiar, but I couldn't quite remember who he was. I sat and waited to see what idea was brewing in El's head.

"El, who's Jeremy?" I asked. She looked at me but didn't give me an answer. Part of me was worried, but the other part of me just wanted to get this over with.

"Finally!" El turned to me. "Jeremy's coming over. He's going to ask you a lot of questions, some of which you may not know how to answer. Just try your best." She laid back in her bed and tapped away on her phone.

"El! What the fuck is going on?" I yelled at her. "You can't just leave me in the dust like that. Who's Jeremy? What is he going to do?" She stared at me. She sat up and turned off her phone.

"Jeremy is just a friend who can help you out of your situation," El exclaimed. I didn't want to trust her, but she was my sister and it was all I could do.

Jeremy arrived and El helped him climb into our window. His face was a beautiful marble-made structure, his hair made of gold, and eyes bluer than the Aegean sea. Just like El and I. His figure was quite slender.

"Hey, you must be Alex," he said, smiling. I nodded nervously.

"So what's your plan?" I asked firmly.

"Well, you're one to jump straight to things," he said. I rolled my eyes and looked at El with disappointment.

"Come on, Jeremy. Just tell her," El said, nudging him. Jeremy sighed and took a seat on my old desk chair.

"Haven't you thought of selling?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, yeah. It was the first thing that came to mind. My only problem is that it's not a job for me," I said.

"Oh, don't worry. That's where I come in." He smirked. I wasn't so sure how to felt about this Jeremy character. He got up and leaned against the wall.

"Why are you friends with this guy?" I whispered to El.

"I can't explain it to you, at least not right now," she replied. Not only was I confused, but I was angry. Ella used to tell me everything, now itś like I have to pry it out of her.

"Is he your boyfriend? Your crush?" I asked.

"Gross! No!" she said in disgust.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to know where these drugs are," Jeremy said in a deep, serious tone.

"Right. We need to drive to them though," I said getting up. I put on some sneakers, climbed through the window, and down the ladder on the side of the house. El, Jeremy, and I got into the car and headed out. My stomach started to churn the closer we got to our destination. I kept trying to remind myself that after it there would be nothing else I needed to worry about. It worked, but only a little bit.