The Thoughts Between Us // CHALEX

Four

Alex

"Alex, fuck. Help Me!"

Bryce was drowning, he was screaming for me to help him.

Zach had done a good job of injuring Bryce, he couldn't even stand. And because of this, it was becoming hard for him to keep his head above water, literally.

"Alex, help! I can't..."

It was becoming difficult for him to stay afloat, and at the same time he was screaming for my help.

Bryce was drowning, and I was just standing there on the pier. Seeing him drown.

I wanted to help him. That's why I came back to get him home. But when he said he's going to ruin Zach, I knew it needed to stop. Because of him, many people have gotten hurt.

The cycle needed to be broken.

Bryce was drowning, and then his cries died down, his arms stopped moving. He went under water infront of me.

I killed him. I killed Bryce Walker.

I could feel someone standing beside me. I knew it was Jessica, she was the one to bring me here.

Turning to look at her, I expected her face to be of shocked. But the face wasn't hers.

"You killed me." Bryce said, staring me in the eyes. His face was clear, not any blood visible. "You killed me, Alex Standall."

I woke up in my bed, covered in sweat. The t-shirt I was wearing was clinging to my body. I looked around my room and everything was just as I've left it.

It was a nightmare, again. I have been having this dreams for some months now. Even before I pushed Bryce over the edge of the pier.

Before then I would sometimes see Hannah, smiling at me. It was actually a memory. Then somedays I would see a game in motion. I would be holding a controller, and Monty would be there too.

Every nightmare of mine was a memory. And it would always show things that I've done wrong.

Well, a month ago I added one more memory which is what I'm seeing everyday.

This was becoming a regular thing now. Sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night, sometimes I couldn't sleep in fear. Atleast, I wasn't screaming in my sleep or something, because of which my parents didn't knew about it.

Yeah, as if Dad didn't knew I was a  murderer.

I checked the time on my alarm clock, which was showing it was just half past seven in the morning.

Suddenly I remembered it was Christmas today. This would be my last Christmas of high school.

To be honest, I don't think it would be that different after this. If in the upcoming year no one knows what I did, then I'll be with my family next year too.

After yesterday's events, I'm kind of worried what's going to happen. Even if Tyler got caught because of the guns, I trust him enough to not say anything about Bryce's murder. He knows everyone of us is always there to help him. Tony is wrong, Tyler would never push everyone of us under the bus just so he could cross the road safely.

We were all in this together.

Clay and Ani has said that they would handle everything. And I trust them too, because till now no one has suspected me to do anything with Bryce's murder.

Because according to both of our statements, Tyler and I were at Rosie's diner that time.

I didn't realised how much time passed since I woke up and just sat on my bed thinking about things.

Dad came in, knocking at my door and pulling me out of all the thoughts.

"Morning, buddy. Merry Christmas." Dad greeted, opening my door. "You ready to come down and, uh, open some presents?"

He was all ready for the day. Showered, dressed in a red checkered shirt, ready to celebrate Christmas. And here I was with a secret that will put me in jail.

"Yeah, sorry," I replied, nodding. "I'll be right there."

"Just don't take too long, though. Your mom made breakfast. Yeah."

It was a joke in our house. Mom is always serious about her cooking, and if she cooks for us we had to be at the table on time.

As Dad was leaving to go downstairs again, I suddenly remembered something important I needed to ask him.

"Hey, Dad?" I said, as he turned back to look at me and I sat straight up. "I heard about Tyler."

He gave me a look, glanced at both ways outside the door, came inside the room and closed the door behind him as he sighed loudly.

Now that wasn't suspicious at all.

"What'd you hear?"

"He said everything was fine." I replied to him.

"And it is." Dad replied hurriedly. "Okay, that's not something you have to worry about. You kids just keep doing what you're doing."

Like covering up a murder?

"Let's just try to enjoy Christmas." He continued, looking at me hopefully. "Can you do that for me?"

I just nodded in reply. I can do that for him. Afterall, he helped me in a way no one else could have.

We heard Mom shouting for us, and we knew the conversation was over. For now, atleast.

×××××××××××××××××××××

Yeah I know, I know, this chapter was short compare to the previous ones.

But as I've said before, the book covers the whole season 4 from Alex and Charlie, alternating between them.
And as we saw Clay going through the aftermaths of covering up a murder, and also framing someone else for it, it was possible that Alex could go through something similar, but maybe not that extreme as Clay's. So yeah, maybe he will have nightmares.

Also apologizing as there was no mention of Charlie in this whole chapter. It didn't seem proper to mention him here as we saw Charlie and Alex conversing after about half the season. But don't worry,  we'll still have Charlie's POVs.

Bye for now!