𝚂𝚄𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚄𝙽𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 ✩ ɢʀᴜɴɢᴇ

𝚒𝚒𝚒. 𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚢 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜

Alex woke up early the next day, once again fearing she'd be late for work before realizing it was Saturday. The next thought on her mind was that she was not in her apartment. One look to her left cleared the mystery; there was Jerry, still peacefully sleeping. She looked around at the rest of the sleeping group and mentally cursed the fact that she always woke up so early. But she couldn't stay mad for long; at least she got to enjoy the morning. She slowly stood up, her knees cracking as she did, stretching before making her way over to the door and very carefully opening it and slipping out.

Alex looked around, realizing she hadn't actually seen what the street in front of the apartments looked like when they'd arrived the night before. These were motel-style apartments, so she was facing that street as soon as she walked out the door. After looking around for a moment she leaned against the railing lining the narrow walkway and took a deep breath of the icy air, filling her lungs to their utmost capacity before letting it all out. The low temperature made a large cloud of her breath. Fuck's sake, it's only August. Then again, mornings were always cold anyway.

Feeling a sudden familiar urge, she opened her old flannel's front pocket and pulled her last cigarette from the box stashed in it. She made a mental note to go buy more and took the pink lighter from the pocket of her jeans, quickly lighting the smoke. Before putting the lighter back she took a moment to admire it. Charlie had gotten it for her because pink was kind of their color, and seeing it made her happy. Alex smiled to herself as she replaced it in the pocket and leaned against the railing again, looking up and down the mostly silent street.

"Hey, why are you up so early?"

"Shit, Jerry, I almost inhaled this thing!" Alex exclaimed as she turned around to face who'd joined her outside.

"Sorry about that," Jerry said with a light laugh. He looked down at Alex with an amused look on his face and she looked up at him without letting go of her startled expression. Before Alex even had a chance to react he lifted a hand and plucked the cigarette from her mouth.

"Hey, I wasn't done with that." She tried taking it back, but he put his hand up high so she couldn't reach it.

"You know, you really shouldn't smoke..."

"You were smoking during the show yesterday!" she tried forcing his arm down by the shoulder but failed, moving higher to grab his upper arm instead.

"No I wasn't."

"What--yeah, you were."

"I don't believe you."

She didn't even know what to say that would hold up against that and so was reduced to half-formed sputters. She shook her head and focused on trying to get his arm down.

"Can I get a hit, at least?"

"What if I have a disease?" Alex said, not even sure if diseases could be spread by sharing cigarettes.

"We'll share it." He lowered her hand by taking it in his free one and took a long drag from the cigarette. Once satisfied he promptly flipped it around and stuck it right back in her mouth. She was surprised to say the least but made no attempt to remove it, instead simply stared at him with an appalled look on her face.

"You're weird," was all she said.

"Not as weird as you."