Peppermint

Chapter 12 - Unsustainable

***ALEX***

Subway tunnels. Nothing bad happens in there, right? Especially when you're traveling with strangers who are linked to the next enemy who wants your heart roasted on a spit. That must taste lovely, am I right? But I wouldn't know. Ask Daenerys for her opinion, though. There's plenty of GIFs for proof that she knows, but I won't link you to them, especially if you don't watch Game of Thrones. Those GIFs are pretty gross, even for me as a fan.

As the train takes off away from San Castiel station, Josh fixes me with his warm brown gaze. "Is there...uh, is there anything you'd like to know? We got time to talk."

I look around at the car we're occupying. There are only five of us, and room for maybe sixty passengers in all, but since it's a rainy Saturday, we're all alone in here. Alone with the harsh fluorescent lights (they haven't upgraded to LEDs yet?) as they contrast sharply with the pitch darkness visible through the windows.

"Where do I begin?" I feel like I've been saying that a lot more often lately. Starting, for instance, in the first of what turned out to be many mandatory Saturday counseling meetings with Jasmine Holly after the Black Mirror incident. "I mean, I know next to nothing about...well, any of you guys." I look between Josh, Firdaus, and Ahmad. And over to AK for a split second too - I can't help that. I do feel like I know him better, because he's my blood relative, and I've technically known him longer than any of the others, but that's not saying much when I only just met him yesterday as opposed to today.

I shouldn't be here. I really should be watching that movie with AK. Hell, I could simply have stayed home and not agreed to meet him. As much as I hate staying home all day (even though I do that most of the time when I'm on vacation anyway - it doesn't help that I've got tons of homework, which I'm neglecting, of course), I think today would've been a good day to be lazy. Play some video games, though that's a lot less fun when it's just me. Binge Sherlock, armed with a giant bowl of popcorn and consuming pretty much the entire supply in the house - or, even better, taking the DVD into Gabe's old room and working out while watching it, though that wouldn't last as long as me eating all the popcorn. Looking up boxing gyms to join in either Spellman or Bearville - blame Justine Larbalestier because I just finished reading My Sister Rosa. Or maybe just napping if I'm feeling particularly out of it, but that's not likely. I've heard of seasonal affective disorder, but if I've got that (not that I've been diagnosed with it, or any other mental illness, but Jasmine's been trying for months), I've got it in reverse, because summer gives me the blues more often than winter. Or maybe I'm just using last summer as an example because it came right on the heels of Gabe's death, and I spent more days than I'd care to admit sleeping in, alone with Gabe's childhood Psyduck plushie because I'd snuck it into my room and hidden it under my pillow-

"Whoa." Josh interrupts the current of my thoughts, regarding me with the same kind of concern I so often see on Jasmine's face. "You okay, Alex? Your thoughts are looking a little stormy."

I avert my eyes for a moment, but find them drawn back to his very quickly. It's funny, I'm so bad with eye contact, but Josh, he's got a certain magnetism to those big brown eyes. "Sorry...I'm a little flustered here."

"I get it. Riding the subterranean rails with perfect strangers, it's not something most people would choose to spend the day doing, am I right?" He folds his hands in his lap. "Maybe...maybe intros are in order, huh? Firdaus, why don't you go first?"

She raises her eyebrows, as if to criticize him for even a moment of "ladies first." But she goes on to follow his suggestion. "So, uh, I'm Firdaus Sayid, and I'm a human. Which you probably noticed 'cause you couldn't hear our thoughts-"

"We can," says AK. "It's just that they're really quiet, 'cause you don't, uh, broadcast."

She twirls an end of her hair around her fingers. "Just testing you." But she then shoots another raised eyebrow at Josh. You liar!