Somebody Else ✔

Silence in the night.

Jace.

Edited.

The day after half of Eastwood scoured the streets with flashlights, for Cole, Izzy showed up on my doorstep. It was after school, at dusk, and she was still wearing her uniform.

"Wanna come for a walk?" She asked, a smile on her lips, and her hands firmly on her hips. I glanced behind me, where Alex and Cole where engrossed in footy strategy talk.

I should've told her to get fucked and gone back to my friends. Cole had told us about them hooking up, when he was still caught up in the delirium of laced caps.

But she glanced up at me, her eyes desperate. I had her wait outside and ran to grab a pack of salt and vinegar chips, Cole and Alex too preoccupied to notice I was leaving.

It was dusk as we walked down my driveway. We did it in silence, but when we hit the road and took a turn to put the dense bush between both mine and Sam's houses, Izzy started talking.

"Like, I don't know if this is much of my business." I popped open the bag of chips and shook them up, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach. "But it's about Cole."

I offered her the packet and she took a handful of chips. "What about him?"

"So, like, when we hooked up the other day," she said, and peaked at me out the corner of her eye, "he had done Coke or speed or whatever with my cousins, and I was drunk so it was just a fucking mess. I feel like I shouldn't say this, but he said his dad was back."

I stopped. Izzy took the pink packet from my hands. It started to rain, softly. The wind had been knocked dark my chest. "What?"

"I just thought someone close to him should know what's going on." She held her hands up, and caught the rain drops falling. "I swear, if I get sick."

"What did Cole say?"

"Just that his dad was back and that's why, I guess, he's been acting weird recently."

"I don't know what to do, to help him."

"You gotta talk to him dude. Let him know you're here for him." Izzy said, her mouthful. I thought back to how ow we might've seen Brett leaving the ball. Izzy handed me back the empty bag and dusted off her hands. "Also? Wanna get a group together to go to the movies tonight?" I nodded, my eyes focused on the green poking up through the gravel road.  "There's this new horror movie that we've got to see."

"Yeah, sure."

She smiled at me, and began to walk away. She pulled her ringing phone from her pocket. As she walked away I could hear her saying on the phone, "I'm seventeen, mother, not an idiot."

On my solitary walk back home, I made the mistake of checking my tests results on the school system. I was hungover as hell when I did the test, and it went fuck all toward our final mark, but still. It's just, I mean. I thought I'd done a good job.

I came back into my house after Izzy and I spoke — to Cole throwing my little brother into a headlock, while Alex videoed it.

"Jace!" Damien cried, Cole throwing him on the leather couch and smirking.

"I'm sure you deserved it, bub." I said, my stomach grumbling.

Cole echoed, "Yeah, little brother."

"I'm not your little brother." Damien snapped, shoving Cole in the chest. Cole didn't move.

"Ain't it past your bedtime, bub?" Alex asked, tapping on his phone. "Oi, checkout my Snapchat. It's of him." He smiled, pointing at the disheveled Damien.