SEVENS

CASSEROLE

A|N:
Shoulda killed me when you had the chance.

The St. Joseph's schedule was a never ending mystery. Somehow everything balanced out to us having an entire four weeks off for winter break. Like thanksgiving the school would be shut down over break which meant I was called into the office three days before to have a stern talking to and the day before to make sure I'd made arrangements, though I doubted they cared who with and more if I'd be kept from campus.

Luckily I had.

It had taken almost an hour for me to calm down after I'd gotten back to the dorm and everyone had waited quietly and concerned while Raf had tried to calm me down. He'd first fed me some of his leftovers and water but I threw it up within five minutes of finishing it and hadn't been able to leave the bathroom because of the flow of vomit.

Somehow the whole team crowded into the bathroom, with Mal, Bleu, Amir and Phoebe perched on the edge of the tub and Jean on the counter. I laid on the cool tile with my head in Raf's lap and my eyes screwed tight.

Raf laced the fingers of one hand in one of mine and the other ran calmingly through my hair.

"Does lunch have anything to do with your mom?" Phoebe asked.

I shook my head, barely, and Raf filled in for me. "He says no."

"Then what happened at lunch."

Everyone was silent and I could only shake my head again. "He doesn't want to talk about it." Raf answered for me.

"Can you let him talk for himself?" Jean snipped.

"Why does it matter?" Raf snapped back.

"I don't want to talk about it Jean." I whispered. "I won't talk about it- it doesn't matter and-"

"Like hell it doesn't matter! You fucking booked it out of that restaurant like the devil himself had showed up to damn you!" Jean wasn't wrong but I didn't say that. "And then you come back eight hours later with a black eye and puking your guts out! We care Alexei and that's why it matters!"

"Listen Alexei- I- we don't- can't imagine what you must be going through with your mom going through cancer, or why you might have left at lunch but we care and we're here for you." Phoebe added.

Before I could answer another wave of bile rose I'm my throat and I flung myself over the toilet.

"Alexei well help in anyway we can." Bleu said once I was done heaving. And I was too tired to argue.

They didn't let me down though I tried to refuse. After sleeping I explained, in a non incriminating way, that I needed twenty five thousand expecting gawking and apologies that they couldn't conjure that much. But I was met with nodding heads before they turned to each other and figured out how to divvy it up.

I wasn't allowed to know what amount of money came from where but two days before break I was presented with a yellow envelope full of cash.

Mal frowned at it when he handed it to me. "I tried to convince them that we should have written a check but Phoebe got Bleu hooked on the idea of doing a "cash drop" like in the movies."

I had gone back to the dorm after and stared at the envelope. Waiting for it to go up in flames and to destroy my one remaining bridge to my mom.
But it didn't and I was faced with the first real piece of hope I'd held in awhile. Raf had come in later after his daily afternoon workout and I asked if he would drop me off at the apartment on his way to the Bisset's.

"Why don't you come with me? We can bring your mom too. Plane tickets aren't much and we already have the houses booked." He crawled over me and laid with his face in my neck. I wouldn't be surprised if he fell asleep.