it echoes through

nine; angel in red, devil in gold

The cars kept moving after a while, the silence between all three of you deafening, and Harrison wouldn't stop biting the side of his tongue. You couldn't seem to ignore it, causing you to constantly lick your lips and move your tongue around–anything to stop the probing ache of his teeth. You were grateful Harrison couldn't see you, and you were grateful Tom insisted on turning up the music so loud, it vibrated against the car seat. Anything to distract you was welcome, and you even managed to sing along to one of the overplayed songs on the radio.

As Tom pulled up to your destination, the prison his little brother was incarcerated in, he let out a small groan once he saw his other problematic brother sat on the hood of his car–waiting.

"Nice of you to show up, fucker," Tom let out in a rush as he slammed his door shut. From the rear view mirror, you could see Harrison's blue eyes rolling to the sky, before he stepped out of the car, you quickly following him out.

Your first instinct was to run over to Sam and hug him, make some joke about the now yellow bruises on his face, but you couldn't even bring yourself to look at him not after the way he spoke to you last night. You tried to be understanding, you knew he was high when he said those things–but that was just adding insult to injury. It was bad enough he was disrespectful to you, his best friend, but he wasn't even honest with you about the one thing that mattered to you most; his well being. Everyone knew about it except for you, and you felt like such an idiot for not seeing the signs. But they were there, they were all there and you were too caught up in your own mess to see it. Maybe you were the bad friend, maybe it was guilt that stopped you from looking at him, checking that he was okay after his fight with Skyla, checking the things were still good between them, checking if his eyes were puffy like they usually were after a night full of crying. But you didn't even move towards him, instead planting yourself behind Tom.

The four of you stood by the cars, no one saying a word–as Sam's disloyalty last night stood promptly in the air. No one said a word to him, no one acknowledged how (or why) he decided to stay behind after Tom made his thoughts about Skyla so very clear. He wanted nothing to do with her, yet Sam stayed.

"Right," Tom said, taking his gun and his spare magazine and his wallet out of his pockets, "you hold onto this," he gave his belongings to Harrison, the boy quickly throwing them back in the car before anyone saw them, "and I'll be right back."

The three of you stood around each other, with nothing to say. Harrison perched himself on the hood of Tom's car, while Sam leaned on his. Twenty hours ago, you wouldn't even have had to think about it, you would've placed yourself next to Sam and the pair of you would send jokes in the air to evaporate the tension you all felt. Now, something in your core pulled you closer to Harrison–begged you to be closer to him, and you obliged, sitting yourself by his body against the hood.

"Won't even talk to me now?" Sam hissed your way, and all you could do was roll your eyes in response. You had nothing left to say to him after last night. You wanted to find comfort in him, you wanted him to tell you that you weren't actually crazy for feeling Harrison now–but Sam was too occupied with himself, and you couldn't bring yourself to stop being occupied with your own problems, either.

"What do you want me to say, Holland?" You spat his way.

"Stop acting like a little girl," he mumbled, and you heard Harrison gasping next to you–unaware the two of you were even capable of speaking that way to each other. Harrison thought something would change when you found out about the relapse, but not like this. Harrison never thought you'd turn your back on Sam.

You ignored Sam's accusation, your eyes fixated on the entrance to the prison, on the guard that walked up and down the gate, on the trees. "Bet if I had drugs he would be kissing my feet right now," you hissed towards Harrison, loud enough for Sam to hear you, too.