The Thoughts Between Us // CHALEX

Thirty

Alex

"My dad knew how much Diego and I have been texting," Jessica was saying, as I looked at her. "And he knew what was on the texts."

When Jessica messaged me saying that she and Clay wanted to talk, I didn't expect us to have a discussion over our parents. We were sitting at a small round table at Monet's, with our ordered beverages.

"He probably tracks your GPS too." Clay explained from beside me, but I looked dumbfounded by the mere idea of it.

"But this is crazy, right?"

"I mean, I bet it's not a coincidence."

Jessica sighed loudly and sat back in her chair.

"But it's not just us," She informed, looking at both of us. "It's why Beecher canceled his party."

"We have more to lose than Beecher does." Clay pointed out, then turn towards me again. "Isn't your dad on you all the time?"

"Yeah, he's been watching me closely," I replied, nodding. "But he doesn't track my phone."

I just assumed he checks up on me due to what happened during the camping trip.

"That you know of."

"He trusts me," I stated, then realized the look they gave me. "Yes, I get the irony."

"Tony, I mean..." Clay finally addressed Tony, who was sitting silently and just listening to us. "This isn't crazy, right?"

"Your folks don't seem like the type to track you." He replied, being honest about his opinions.

Truth be told, I think Tony must be the only one among us whose phone will be the safest if anything Clay and Jessica are saying is true.

"How else have they known everything?" Clay questioned again as we all sat there thinking.

If all this comes out to be true then we all were in deep shit.

"Where's Justin?" Jessica suddenly asked. "Why isn't he here?"

"I, um..." Clay stammered as we all looked at him in confusion. "I didn't tell him."

Before Jessica could say anything, Tony interrupted.

"You did right. We don't want any more attention on us."

"Yeah, if what you say is true," I said, agreeing with Tony. "The less we use our phones, the better."

"But then what should we do now?" Jessica asked, and looked at her phone kept on the table. "Turn off our phones for the rest of the school year?"

I frowned at the thought of not using my phone at all. Even if I'm not social in person, I do use social sites to keep me entertained.

"No, of course not," Tony replied, then stared down at all our phones. "First thing we need to do is not use any messaging apps to talk about important stuff. Not even emails."

"Then what about when it's too important to talk?" I asked my doubt, as Jessica nodded too. "I am assuming we all do share things urgently over the phone because it's easy."

"Then we would need kind of a signal to talk about our stuff." Clay said. "Like a codeword."

"Something our parents wouldn't know much about," Jessica commented as I wondered too. "Because if they mentioned the word to any of us, it would mean they are actually reading our messages."

"But it shouldn't be suspicious," Tony said next. "Considering that if they do find out about everyone using a codeword, then there would be a lot of questions to answer."