If There's a Reason He's Still Alive

vingt-sept (and another important PSA)

Trigger Warning:

Alex POV

Maria and I are sitting in the community room right now. She's got a piece of paper I tore out from my notebook in front of her and is scribbling down lyrics and what I guess are ukulele chords on it. I keep glancing around the room: first at the door, then at the clock, then back down at my notebook where I'm writing some ideas for an essay we're doing in the college program. 

People always say I'm amazing at focusing. Most of the time that's true, I guess. Right now, though, something is bothering me. 

Thomas. 

It's currently 11:14, which is exactly eleven minutes later than Thomas normally arrives in the community room on movie day. It takes him, as he tells me, three minutes to walk down from his office in the staff wing to the community room and he has a meeting right before this which runs right until eleven. 

That's not creepy at all, Alexander. 

Seriously, though, why isn't he here yet? Does he not want to be around me anymore? I can't lose another person, I just can't.

Anyways, there's something else that's bothering me right now that isn't Thomas.

The beeping.

Whenever something goes wrong here (and I would know, I used to be behind most of it) they play tones over the loudspeaker until whatever the issue is gets resolved. Personally I think that's really stupid as some people here react to loud and/or persistent noises, but hey, I'm not the one running this idiot party.

I call it the Oh Shit sound. It's probably the most annoying thing on the planet. Five quieter beeps, followed with a louder, longer tone, and then it repeats again.

At least that's what I heard whenever I got out of my room or attacked somebody.

The more you know, am I right?

Today, however, is a different tone, one that I haven't heard that much before. It's a series of high-pitched beeping noises and it sounds much more urgent than the one I'm used to. 

I lied earlier when I said my worrying about the beeping had nothing to do with Thomas. In fact, he's the exact reason I'm worried about it. See, I have a few friends, if you could call them that, here, but Thomas is the most important. I'm pretty sure all of them are in here anyways, except for him that is. 

Normally when you hear it, the shit has hit the fan, pardon mon anglais. (Translation: my English.) I don't want Thomas getting hurt. Anybody else here, even me dammit? I wouldn't really mind. But Thomas? Thomas is different. 

To prevent myself from having a mental spiral I decide to bother Maria, who seems unbothered by the beeping. Probably because Peggy is safe off at high school. Maria is strangely good at helping to prevent mental spirals, except her own. Maybe she can help?

Why did I compare Thomas to Peggy?

"Hey, Maria?" I say.

"Yes, Alexander?" she says. 

"What are you doing?"

"What's up with you? Oh my god, you want my advice about Thomas, you do, right?"

"No, I just wanted to talk with my friend."

"Alex, not everybody has that weird-ass 'capability' of yours to look at somebody and figure out their life story but even without that, I can tell something's up. You keep looking at the door, and then at the clock, and you keep tilting your head. Normally somebody could throw a chair at your head while you were writing and you wouldn't notice. You get in the zone. Auto Zone."