Fix You ~Completed~

Act Eleven

"You look like you could use a few pumps of caffeine."

I picked my head up and gave Gale a brief eye roll that sent him into a fit of giggles. "I stand corrected. You, my friend, need about fifty pumps of caffeine," he said, slapping a cup down beside my bent figure. I stared in shock at the gesture and Gale, apparently reading my surprise, let out another chorus of laughter. In the library, that should have gotten him shushed, but there was no one around this late at night. He lucked out. "What? You texted earlier that you were working your ass off in the library, so I went to get your favorite cinnamon latte from the café."

"Why?" I asked, blushing when he refers to the latte as my favorite. It wasn't exactly my number one choice, but I drank it quite often because it was Eddie's favorite. I liked tasting something that meant so much to my friend. In a way, it was similar to the time Kyla let me smoke one of his cigarettes; to me, it felt like intimacy.

"That's what friends do, Lem," he responded, plopping down beside me at my battle-zone of a work table. Gale's eyes scanned the sheets of paper I had spread out, all in my line of view as I wrote a seemingly endless essay on... on... Jesus, I couldn't even remember. I was so fried. "From the looks of it, you definitely needed this."

"Thanks. That's really kind of you," I complimented, beaming up at my friend. I wanted to call Gale one of my best friends, but we'd only known each other for around a month and best friend felt like it needed to wait until at least two months.

Gale took a lingering sip of his own drink. "So, wanna take a break and slack off with me? Your essay isn't due until the day before winter break, right?"

Winter break was starting in about two weeks and, as Gale said, most of my teachers stated a few of our assignments would be turned in around that time. "Yeah," I said, going about collecting my papers. "In fact, I'm done for the night. I was falling asleep before you came in."

"Kinda noticed!" he teased, jabbing me with his elbow. "Your head was lazing on top of your book, sleepy head."

I rubbed my eyes, forcing myself to appear more awake. I hadn't gotten much sleep in the past few days. Kyla was very active lately during the nighttime hours I usually reserved for catching my forty-winks. Any sleep I got was captured while he was passed out after drinking. I considered downing some of the liquids that put him to sleep as well, just to see if it'd help me, but I wasn't stupid. I saw what it did to Kyla; he was an addict and sometimes it felt like it was taking over both our lives.

Maybe it was my sleep deprivation, but I let Gale talk me into going to the mall and chilling out in the food court. "I like to people watch," Gale explained when I threw him a confused look.

"The mall is practically empty. Most people are clearing out since it's about to close," I pointed out, gesturing to the dark mini-restaurants and the sparsely populated area we were currently sitting in. The only other inhabitants I could see was a janitor clearing some food someone was rude enough to just abandon on the table and a group of teenage girls on their phones, squealing about some new clothes they got. "What people are you watching?"

"Okay, fine. I asked you to come here because it's quiet around this time of night and I thought you'd appreciate that," Gale admitted with a sheepish shrug. I threw him a confused look, my hand tightening around my coffee cup until I felt a slight sting. Why would he think I'd want that? I mean, I did, but... "Plus it's a good place to just chill and talk."

"Talk about what?" I mumbled, scared for a moment. Eddie promised me he wouldn't say anything to Gale about what I told him about in the car that day, but there was no guarantee he kept that promise. He was a bit of a hover-friend; I got a truck-full of texts every day from him, asking if Kyla was being nice and if I was doing alright and if I needed anything. It was strange how much I loved that. Nobody had ever seemed so afraid for me before.

"About life! I mean, we've been buddies for a month and you still haven't told me your favorite color or your dream job! Wait, do you have a job right now? I've never seen you in a McDonalds shirt or anything, so I take it no?" Gale leaned forward on the table, tilting his chin up at me in interest. I stared back, feeling a grin on my face. He just wanted to know about me.

I loved my friends so much.

"My favorite color is blue and no, I don't work. Kyla said he wanted to support us, so I let him. I think he likes taking care of me," I responded, my voice lowering in volume when I got to the bits about Kyla. The grin Gale was wearing so brightly drooped a little. "What is it, Ale?"

About a week before was when the nicknames started. Gale had appeared behind me in the hallway while I was walking to my first class of the day and shouted, "Lem! Long time no see, pal!" I went along with it, allowing him to poke me in the cheek and giggled, "Ale, mon ami, it has been far too long!" We got into a long talk about the French language after that and it ended only when we were forced to part ways and enter our classrooms. Since then, the names had stuck and Eddie was in a fit over trying to find his own nickname for me. I tried the same, but it was hard to find a nickname for a guy named Eddie besides Ed or Die and that last one really sucks.

"No offense, but Kyla seems like a control freak. He gives you a curfew, he won't let you get a job, he forces you to get permission to hang out with us... Sorry if I'm overstepping or anything. That's usually Eddie's department."

I forced myself to put on a smile, the smile I wore for my mom when she used to give me evaluations to test my happiness levels. It was my lying smile. I hated this smile and I had prayed I'd never have to use it around my friends.

"Ale, it's all fine," I insisted, dismissing him with a wave of my hand. "Eddie does tend to pry."

"Yeah, he can get very intense. You should have seen him in our speech class back in high school. He annihilated kids. It was actually kind of scary when the teacher would assign him topics he really- OKAY! Off topic, sorry!" Gale chuckled, slapping his hands over his cheeks sheepishly. One thing I'd noticed was that Gale could be a tiny bit of a scatterbrain; it was easy to derail his train of thought. Eddie promised me that often did more good than it did harm. If Gale started talking about something you'd really rather not, simply start up a conversation about the first random topic that popped in your head and let him roll with it. (Apparently, smoothies were a good way to go.)

"Back on Kyla, though-"

I shook my head. "Ale, Kyla isn't a control freak. He just likes for us to have our time. He's not used to sharing me," I explained quietly, trying to keep any lilts from my voice. Sometimes, when I talked about Kyla, I fell out of reality. I'd go on and on for an uncomfortably long time, apparently. I noticed this when I was talking to Eddie the other day and I felt so bad making him sit through my droning. He assured me it was all cool, but he didn't look totally happy.

"Yeah, and Eddie isn't used to sharing me either, but he doesn't act like a dictator," Gale pointed out with a faux-indifferent shrug.

"That's different. You're just friends." It was like a repeat of my conversation with Eddie, only slightly modified. Gale had never been on a date, though he had liked girls in the past. He never had been in love. Neither of my friends would understand even if I did my best to explain it. They hadn't felt the kind of love I had with Kyla, they might not ever experience it.

"Well, I guess so," Gale gave in, clicking his tongue. I thought he was going to say more, but then he burst in a gravelly voice: "What's your favorite scary movie?"