Orange Crush

Chapter 5 - But There's Wolves

***KELLY***

I can't say anyone's disturbed me more than Alex has in the last couple of days. And that's without him having interacted with me once since Sunday night. But that one video chat with him being high on snake venom was so out of character, and I still can't stop thinking and worrying about him because of it.

Should I reach out to him? It's so unusual that I'm the first one to do so. He usually gets my phone ringing first. Last time it was the other way around was the time I enticed him to have Snapchat sex. And since then, I've been so hesitant to take control, because I just feel like I'm going to screw up if I do.

Maybe I should've said something a little earlier. Maybe I should've reached out again once I was sure he wasn't high anymore.

God. Listen to me. Talking about Alex being high. I never thought I'd live to see that day. Well, maybe one day he'd try weed or something. I'd have smoked some dope with him if we were at a party and it were offered to us both. Though, let's be honest, people party pretty clean in Coldfire Creek. It's like, the angels expect the demons to bring the booze and drugs, and we demons, banking on this stereotype, troll the angels by bringing soft drinks as the most hardcore shit. But the angels are so happy to party with us, thinking they'll get to fuck us in the bushes, that they don't mind.

At least, so Alex has told me about the few parties he's been to on the Heaven side of town.

"Hey, Kels." Ty saunters into the kitchen, abnormally cheery. His chirpy good morning snaps me out of my funk, and keeps me from letting myself lower my head hairfirst into my cereal. The only cocoa I need to consume this morning is in puff form, not the butter that goes into my conditioner. Though upon seeing that he's wearing no pants - as usual - I immediately regret looking up. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one whose first time seeing a naked boy was my brother coming out of the shower and forgetting he was not home alone. But still, it never fails to bug me how bizarrely comfortable Ty is with showing off as much skin as he does. At least he keeps clean, though.

He kisses the top of my head as he comes into the kitchen, then goes to the cabinet and pulls out the Reese's Puffs. Monique side-eyes us for continuing to eat kiddie-type cereals, but as long as the parental units are cool with buying them, we're going to keep eating them. It's hard to break away from these particular bad habits.

"You think your phone's gonna explode if you let it go?"

"Huh?" I realize I've got my phone death-gripped in my left hand. My right, on the other hand, is holding my spoon very loosely.

"You okay?" Ty asks.

I haven't told him what's been bothering me these last couple of days, but now I do. "It's just...you remember when we went with Alex before?" I finally put my phone down after about a full minute of spitting out those worries almost at freestyle speed. "I'm scared he's gonna pull some shit like that again."

"Well, let's see. Does he have an iPhone too?" Ty pulls his phone out of his pocket.

"Um...yeah. But..." I shake my head. "Ty. Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Look up his GPS. What are you, his...?" I'm about to say "his dad," but then he'd sense that disturbance in the Force and probably explode in a shower of snow wherever he stands.

"Already did," Ty says. "At least you didn't do it with yours, and you can put all the blame on me this way. Plausible deniability."

"When did you even get his number?"

"He's not just your boyfriend. He's my friend too." He draws in a sharp breath, no doubt from waiting to see where it says Alex's phone is. It'll take longer to get a result since he's in Heaven. Longer, but it can still be done. As long as he didn't already go to the Second 'Verse. Or worse- "Wait, what?"