A Wall Between

Chapter 26

The biggest problem with Sasha taking a few days of quiet time to himself to recuperate was that the apartment building was not actually very quiet at all. Every raised voice, every slammed door, every stretch of too-loud music added to Sasha's stress levels in a way that felt like a physical force bearing down on him.

This was not a good environment for him. He suspected that if his parents hadn't just happened to only come here during quiet times when there were no shady characters lurking around in the corridors, he never would have ended up here in the first place. If he called his parents up right now and told them about some of the things he'd seen and heard around here, he was pretty sure he'd be sleeping at their house tonight and he'd never see this place again.

But things were more complicated than that, because now he had friends. It wasn't like he saw Cooper all that often anyway and maybe Cooper would be willing to come to visit him at his parents' house or wherever he ended up, but it wasn't the same. Even if he couldn't deal with spending time with Cooper all the time, at least not right now, at least not when daily life held him constantly on edge, he still liked hearing him and knowing he was right there. He didn't want to let go of that.

Living here was an overwhelming experience, though, and this evening, a few days after he'd last seen Cooper, was one of the worst. Loud arguments weren't a rare occurrence in this building, but the one currently going on was just a couple of doors down on the other side of the hall and it was showing no signs of burning out.

Sasha had tried blocking out the noise with music, but with his ears so sensitive, he couldn't play it loud enough to drown out the noise without causing himself more auditory discomfort and the mix of sounds was almost worse than the shouting on its own.

He physically jumped when his phone binged.

You okay? the message from Cooper read.

For a moment Sasha was confused, then he realised Cooper was at home and he was right next door, so of course he was hearing the same thing and knew Sasha would be too.

Sasha didn't know what to say, so he just sent a bunch of random letters.

No? Cooper sent back.

That was indeed a clearer way to communicate his sentiment.

Aaahhh, Sasha sent in response.

Want to go for a walk together until they're done?

Sasha had to read the message a few times before his brain focused long enough to comprehend it, and then it took a couple of minutes longer to actually get it into decision making mode. It didn't help that his neighbours were still screaming at one another.

Yes, Sasha sent back. He didn't particularly want to go out, but it sure beat staying here and listening to yelling. Gotta clothes.

Sasha quickly dressed, put his shoes on, and then grabbed his wallet, making sure to double check his key was still in it. Sasha had two modes when it came to making mistakes. Either he would keep making the same one over and over or he would learn through trauma and dedicate a small allotment of his anxiety towards never repeating the error again.

Not that getting locked out had ended up being traumatic, exactly. Everyone had been really nice and made sure things were as easy for him as they could be. Just... once was enough. If he was going to spend time with people, he wanted it to be on his terms and under his control.

Cooper had texted him back to say that he'd be waiting outside the door, so Sasha cautiously cracked it open until he saw him before more confidently opening it the rest of the way.