Incurable

Twenty Seven

The next morning, Jake sat up in bed, standing up quickly to head to the bathroom. He stopped halfway there, when he noticed that Alex's bed was empty.

He turned toward the bed, to confirm his thoughts, and sure enough. Alex was sitting on the ground between his bed and the wall, merely hiding in the corner of the room where Jake couldn't see him until he got closer.

Jake walked around the bed, and knelt down in front of Alex. "Allie...?"

Alex looked up slowly, knees bent, and his elbows resting on them as he sat on the ground. "Morning, Jake."

Jake gave him a friendly smile. "Good morning. How'd you sleep?"

"Didn't."

"You didn't sleep? At all?"

Alex shook his head slowly, and tears began to fill his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away and then looked across the room so he wouldn't have to look into Jake's eyes anymore.

Jake frowned in sympathy, and moved a little closer to him, reaching out to set his hand on one of Alex's forearms. "Allie... What happened? Why didn't you sleep? I could swear you were out cold when I went to bed."

"I was. But... The nightmares kept me up."

Jake felt another surge of sympathy course through him, crashing into his heart and making it feel even heavier. "I'm sorry... After breakfast, we can come straight back here so you can sleep. Okay?"

Alex scoffed, having lost faith in sleep altogether. "Yeah. Okay."

"I know you're tired, Al. But don't give up on it. Maybe we can talk to the nurse again and--"

"More medications. Great."

"There's nothing else we can do, Allie." Jake responded, still trying to keep a kind edge to his voice.

"We could get him fired."

Jake sat up a little straighter, squinting a bit as he pieced it all together. "It was about Mr. Riley?"

Alex looked over at him slowly, and then stood up abruptly, trying to get past Jake when Jake stood up too. "No. Please get out of my way."

Jake took a small step out of the way, although his eyes were wide in concern. "Allie... Did he do something to you? Not... Verbally. I mean.. Did he physically hurt you?"

"No. I don't want to talk about this."

"I know you don't. But if it's bad enough to keep you up at night, and bad enough to keep you from getting better, then--"

"Stop it." Alex shook his head a few times, and then walked past him quickly, heading for their door.

"Stop what?" Jake called after him.

"Stop pretending that you care." And then he slammed the door behind him.

*********

Scott was now sat beside Mitch on the edge of Scott's bed, taking the pills that were being administered to them from their nurse.

Mitch was in a conversation with the nice nurse, about their interests in music.

Scott of course, didn't say anything, even though he listened very closely to the things Mitch said he liked.

All around, it was a pretty good morning. Until;

The nurse smiled at Scott. "That reminds me! Don't forget to see Mr. Riley after lunch. And remind Kirstie too, if her nurse forgot."

Scott nodded once.

Mitch frowned a little. "Does he have to?"

She chuckled a little. "Yes, Mitch. He has to. But it shouldn't take longer than 45 minutes. You can just hang out with someone else until he comes back."

"I didn't mean it like that. I mean it like... I don't want him to have to talk to Mr. Riley."

"Why not? He seems nice enough."

"No. He isn't. He's mean. Allie told me so."

"Allie...?" She paused. "Oh! You mean Alexander?"

"Mhmm. He said that Mr. Riley was super mean to him. He even cried about it."

She nodded slowly. "I'm sorry to hear that... I'll look into it, okay? And if I find anything, I'll tell you two in the morning."

Mitch nodded, and looked over at Scott. "Maybe he won't be mean to you."

Scott just smiled back.

After their nurse left, the two boys proceeded down to the cafeteria to meet the others for breakfast.

As they walked through the line, Scott held both of their trays as Mitch walked in front of him, filling both of their trays with things.

Mitch was talking the entire time, Scott intrigued as usual. "So then I burst into tears in front of everyone, because I was too scared to sing. And I was seven years old!"

Scott grinned down at him, still not speaking.

"But my mom insisted that I do it, saying that I was just as talented as I was adorable."

"You are." Scott finally whispered back.

Mitch giggled, putting an apple on each of their trays as they walked by the second window of food. "Thank you! You're so sweet."

Scott smiled again, before following Mitch to their table, both of the trays in his hands.

When Mitch sat down, Scott sat beside him and set the trays down in front of each of them, kissing Mitch's forehead as he sat down.

Kirstie smiled at Scott from the other side of him. "Hi, Scottie."

He smiled at her, so she'd know he heard her.

Avi was the last to sit again, across from Kirstie but beside Kevin. "Hey guys. How is everyone?"

Kevin was staring at Alex though, who was next to Mitch and across from Jake. Jake had reached across the table to set his hand on Alex's, because Jake was sitting beside Kevin instead of Alex.

Kevin raised an eyebrow at the action. "Alex? Is everything okay?"

Alex's eyes stayed on his own lap, as he was very tired, and didn't really feel like eating anything. "Mhmm."

Kevin looked to Jake for an answer instead.

Jake took a deep breath, truly feeling awful for Alex. "He couldn't sleep last night."

Mitch, mouth full of breakfast, just quietly reached over to set a hand on Alex's back, running his hand up and down.

Alex smiled a little, glancing over at Mitch with half-lidded, red eyes. "Thanks, little guy. I'll be okay."

Mitch took a small bite of a piece of bacon, and then offered it to Alex. "Want some?"

Alex shook his head a little. "No thanks."

Scott tapped his arm though, his eyes locked on the bacon in Mitch's hand.

Mitch turned to him, and giggled, before leaning over to feed the bacon to Scott instead.

Scott chewed happily, having diverted Mitch's attention completely.

Kevin looked at Alex, still wanting to know if everything was okay. "Is there anything I can do, Alex? I hate that you're hurting."

"No, thank you. I'm just going to go back to sleep after breakfast."

Kirstie's face suddenly lit up with an idea. "Kev, can we read our book in Alex's room after breakfast? That might help him sleep."

Kevin looked to Alex for any objections, and then smiled at his silence. "Okay. We can do that."

****