Tempest (Royce/Winston)

076

Chresanto's P.O.V.

"Isn't that like... Your fifth cigarette?" Elijah asked me.

I nodded my head and slowly blew the smoke out through my mouth. "I've been chaining lately".

"Chaining?"

"Chain smoking, Elijah".

"Oh..." He cleared his throat, "sorry".

"It's fine" I murmured, roughly tapping my finger against the cigarette so the ash would fall away.

I looked around, wondering where the hell Ray was. Elijah was desperate to get out of the house and Ray was surprisingly up for going somewhere. Lately Ray's been too exhausted to do anything but stay in his house. I think this was the first time I've really seen him in about a week. I mean, I see him at school, he still sits with me at the bleachers and at lunch, but he never seems like he's there mentally.

From where I was sitting, I could see Ray walking back over to the table. It was Sunday and we decided to go out for lunch because why the hell not?

"You're going to get cancer" Ray stated as he sat down at the table. "Like seriously, cancer is going to consume your lungs".

I shrugged my shoulders because at this point in my life, I really didn't care.

"I've just been really stressed out lately... And smoking helps, so..." I explained. "I know it's bad, but I don't care".

"What's got you so stressed out?" Ray asked curiously, taking a sip of his water as he looked at me expectantly.

"What do you think? It's Jacob, of course. It's like it's always Jacob now. I thought we were doing okay after we had talked when he was in the hospital, but now that he's out, he's trying to figure out what happened to his brother. I'm stressed out because I don't want him to find anything that will lead him to me".

"What could he find?" Elijah asked.

"I don't know, and that's got me stressed out too. I have no idea what's in Axel's room, I haven't been in there in ages".

Ray opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he noticed that our waiter was bringing us the food we had ordered. We all said a quick thank you and that we didn't need anything else before watching him walk away.

"I think you need to calm down" Ray stated, mixing his salad around. "I understand what you're stressed out about, but I think you should just breathe".

"Yeah, I agree. So what if Jacob finds something?" Elijah asked.

"Then he'll have another reason to be pissed off at me? I'm so tired of him hating me".

"What would he be pissed off for?"

"I've just been keeping so much from him, I feel like he's going to find something that will lead him back to me. Something that I should've told him a long time ago".

"Jacob knows you know something about Axel's death though, he already knows that you know something that he doesn't. I don't see how he could get pissed off about something that he already knows".

"I wish Jacob would just let his brother's death go" I confessed, leaning down so I could press the end of my cigarette into the concrete. I made sure it was completely out before flicking it away. "Like I get that Axel is his brother and all, but why can't he just let it go?"

"It's his brother, Chres..." Ray stated. "Jacob probably needs to do this for himself, for closure".

"I never got closure" I murmured, taking a bite of my sandwich.