Something More | Randy

chapter twenty-four | fight

Received 3:24am

Rye: Heyy

Rye: Whoops im not sposed to text u 🤫

Rye: sorryyyy im drunk 😛

Rye: ok ill stop niw

Rye: I miss youuu

Rye: did I woke u up?

Rye: k sorry bye 

Rye: xxxxxxx

Received 10:43am

Rye: Shit sorry I don't remember sending these. You can ignore. 

Rye: Hope I didn't upset you x

Received 11:11am

Rye: Do you think we could talk sometime soon tho? If your ready. 

I stared numbly at my phone screen as I scrolled up and down the string of text messages for the hundredth time. After three days of radio silence, three sleepless nights, this was the last way I had expected our communications to recommence. Any clarity I had found during the break instantly dissipated as I surged straight back into confusion. 

Why was he getting drunk? Because he was upset? Bored? Was he not taking the time apart seriously? Because I had been a walking shell ever since he left. 

Without a clue how to respond to him, I left the texts on 'read', and tried unsuccessfully to go about my day. Autopilot got me through breakfast and a game of kick outside with Mikey. It got me showered, in fresh clothes, presentable to the world despite the stubborn bags beneath my eyes, but that was as far as it got me. The second I tried to perform any creative task, my usually overflowing mind failed me. 

"Are you sure you want to keep doing this today, Fovvs?" Brooklyn asked gently as I spaced out for the third time in the first twenty minutes of our rehearsal. 

"It still feels pretty pointless without Rye," Mikey muttered.

I snapped out of my trance. "Sorry guys. Didn't get a lot of sleep again last night."

The three of them exchanged knowing looks. Jack and Mikey nodded at Brook.

"Have you heard from Rye yet?" Brook burst out. We hadn't discussed him since the first day he left, but I could tell it was weighing on the others from the whispered conversations which stopped the second I entered a room. Not only was I barely holding it together, but I had left them hanging too. Rye was their brother and they missed him. We weren't complete with him gone from the house. 

By way of admission, I handed Brook my phone. "Last night," I informed him. 

Brook read the texts, then passed the phone along the line to Jack, who passed it on to Mikey once he was finished reading. It was weird having them all involved now, but I was lost. Might as well use the support now things were out in the open. 

"What does it mean?" I asked them dumbly.  

"Drunk texts? Means he's thinking about his feelings for you, like you told him to," Brook stated.

"Too many feelings for Rye," Mikey added knowingly.

"Or it could mean he's not dealing with his feelings at all!" I countered.

"Could just be horny?" sniggered Jack. Mikey smacked him round the back of the head. 

"Thank you," I addressed Mikey, "what do I do though?"