Somebody Else ✔

Cossack.

Sam.

Edited.

The few days after Vinnie died, I spent with Alex. At first it was at his house, and Izzy gave me a crash course in sign language when she was on her lunch break from Miss E's, and I had met her in the back alley, wearing gloves. I spoke to Ollie, well I'm sure I messed up and he just read my lips, but still.

Anna and Vas, came into the kitchen and both Ollie and I stopped mocking around. Anna had tried to start conversation with me, but I just chewed my cheek and thought about all the shit Alex had talked on her.

Anna and Vas didn't want to let Alex out of their sight, and they weren't the only parents in Eastwood who had that thought. Parties were suspended and rumours went around that parents had put bars on their children's windows to keep them inside, where they could see them.

And for four days, the only thought I had was that Vinnie had killed himself, in his house, in his room, after telling his parents that he would be studying - and for four days I wanted to be sick.

Sitting on Alex's couch, curled up in his arms my mouth went dry as I watched the daytime cooking show on. I glanced at Alex, who was staring off out the glass sliding side door.

"Kiss me," I said. "Please?"

Alex's lips twitched, and bent down, kissing my mouth.

The next few days passed in a blur. Jace, Cole and I took turns checking in on Alex, with Izzy and Corey subbing in occasionally. And apparently  after an incident with Jace watching which way the toilet flushed and Vas shouting that's the fucking Canadians for you, they decided it was time to get Alex out of the house.

Cole and Jace smuggled him out of the house, and Anna watched them take her son from the loungeroom window, arms folded - or so the Snapchats told me. The Snapchats also told me that by midday the boys had left school and gone back to Jace's to get high.

All I had on at school was double English so I decided to pull a sickie at lunch and go home, but the girls were studying for a test they had in Politics and Law.

I drove to Jace's, glancing around to make sure I couldn't see my parents car drive down the one way road. Hallelujah was playing on the radio and I smashed my hand into the console as I recognized the opening tune, my stomach curling.

I parked underneath the shade of the rows of eucalyptus trees on Jace's property, and then started the arduous journey around Jace's house to get to the back door. The trip around his house was longer than the trip to Izzy's house, no lie.

I crossed onto Jace's patio from his backyard and avoided the pool and the horses, entering through the open back door. As I walked through Jace's maze like house, I heard the boys voices, eventually finding them in the kitchen.

They were bickering, Cole was shirtless, smoking, displaying his scars and his tattoos, dancing to The Weeknd. Alex was blowing smoke rings, laying on the bench. Jace was standing in the sink, in a pair of shorts and a singlet, dripping wet.

"You think I'm lying?" Jace asked Alex and Cole, his hand on his hips.

"I fucking do," Cole mumbled, burying his smile in his 2 litre bottle of milk.

"You shut your mouth you - you -"

"American prick?" Cole smirked and Jace's nostrils flared.

"For the last time, I'm more French than I am American, fuckwit."

"Yeah, that's not something I'd be overly proud of either, if I was you mate."

"Oh piss off, Cossack."