The Curious, The Truth, & The Dead

10

I woke up to a quiet house. No one had said anything further of that night, I was just sent to bed. I picked up my phone and saw messages from Jax and Thomas.

Just making sure you got home safely.

I smiled and replied to Jax that I was fine and thanked him. I opened the second one from Thomas.

I hope your dad wasn't too pissed at you.

I sighed. I didn't know Noah well enough to know how mad he was. I quickly replied anyway and got up to take a shower. When I was ready for the day, I headed downstairs and saw Lilly and Noah at the breakfast bar. I walked over cautiously.

"Come sit, I made you a plate," Lilly said motioning to the seat with the breakfast in front of it.

It was silent while I ate. Uncomfortably silent. I wished for Mike to come down to join us but he never did. I felt like they wanted it that way though because the second I finished, Noah spoke up.

"We need to discuss last night."

"I'm sorry about that," I mumbled.

"We can't come up with a punishment for you," he said ignoring my apology.

"What?"

"Well if we were to punish Mike we would ground him, take away video games, deflate the basketballs, take his keys, anything really fun would be gone. However we can't think of a single thing you like, you spend all your time in your room, and you don't drive, so there's nowhere for you to go," Lilly tried to explain.

"So the consequence for last night is that you will tell us where you are at all times and if you don't then we'll start tracking your location on your phone," Noah said sternly.

"We hope that it won't come to that, Alex," Lilly said.

I nodded slowly. "Is that it?"

Noah nodded so I went upstairs, Maybe if I finished all my other homework I could finish Catch-22, anything to keep my mind off of what Jax showed me. When I walked into my room I saw Mike waiting for me on the bed. I closed the door and he looked over at me.

"So what were you actually doing last night?" he asked.

I sighed and sat down next to him. I didn't say anything for a while. "Just revising my old life," I said eventually.

"Alex, you are being frustratingly vague."

I don't say anything. I was so conflicted. If I told him he would worry about the kind of life I had. Plus getting him wrapped up in all of that could hurt him. However, him not knowing might also hurt him.

"Fine don't tell me," he said standing up. "But don't expect me to cover for you without telling me the truth ever again," he warned.

I didn't say anything and looked away. He got to the door but turned around before leaving and sighed. "Just tell me if it has to do with Thomas or not. I told you he was trouble."

"Thomas didn't do anything, he just took me home."

He doesn't say anything for a while, he just stared at me. "You can trust me. You know that right? I'm not my mom or dad. I'm your brother I just want to help."

"I do trust you, Mike," I said looking up at him. "I just don't trust the people in my past around you."

Truth be told, I planned on making Jax spy on Nick and Garrett with me and involving Mike in that would hurt him.

Mike started to smile. "Aww that's cute Alex. You're trying to protect me."

I blushed. "Well, you're my brother."