𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑢𝑠

Ch.6

📍Elaine's house
Elaine (1st person pov)
Saturday, 10:00am

I feel that familiar beam of heat shining on me. I don't even know what the point of having thick curtains are if they're completely useless.

First thing I do is check my phone, per usual. I have a few random notifications and a text from Fez. I should feel happy about it, but I'm kind of dreading reading it. I don't know why him doing something to Nate bothers me so much. I just don't want anything to get worse than it is.

Fez
Fez: drop by the house today

Me: not feeling the best.

How am I a bad liar...over text?

Fez: c'mon ma just for a minute

Me: Fez I really don't wanna get you sick or something

Fez: Lainey for real😕 I miss you
_____

I honestly feel too bad not to go. I know it seems like nothing, but Fez and I are the world to each other. It's time I pay a visit anyway, since I rushed out the last time I saw him.

I do my morning routine - Hair, teeth, makeup, that kinda shit - and I'm out by 11:00am.

༄ ༄ ༄

I make it to Fez's house, via bike this time, and rhythmically knock 7 times.

"Who is it?" I hear Ash yell.

"Ash it's me! Who else do you know that knocks like that?" I respond through the door.

He opens the door, attitude clear on his face. I start to ask where Fez is, but he answers before I can get it out.

"Room." He says, locking the door.

I roll my eyes at the annoying little kid, and go upstairs. When I get there, I see Fez lounging on his bed with his phone.

I already feel awkward.

I take off my shoes and kind of just... stare at him.

Fez finally stands up, breaking the space between us. He gently hugs me as he always does and I awkwardly return the gesture.

Loosen the fuck up Laine.

"You alright?" He asks, noticing my stiffness.

"Huh?" I say looking up at him. "Oh. Yea. Yea, I just don't feel the best, remember?" I lie.

"Yea..." He says eyeing me.

He grabs my arm and leads me to his bed. I sit criss cross with my hands in my lap as he lays beside me. He turns on some Netflix show as background, and we scroll on our phones. Usually I'd cuddle with him at this point, but my brain was all over the place.

After what felt like forever of awkward silence, Fez gets up. I was zoned out in my own head this whole time, so I immediately snap back and look at him. He's walks around the bed and reaches into his dresser, pulling out a familiar brown coat.

"You left this a while back. Forgot to tell you." He says as he tosses it to me.

"Oh, thanks." I catch.

He continues to walk around the room. I'm paying attention enough to know what he was doing. The Nate thing is still really bothering me...I had to break the silence.

"Please don't do anything to Nate." I blurt out, he doesn't turn around.

"I told you not to worry about that shit." He sighs.

"I know but... it's just been bothering me. Sure he's an asshole and does terrible things but- I don't know. He didn't mean it. Like...it just happened. I just don't want anyone to get hurt. I don't want anything to happen. I'm fine, Fez. I swear." I ramble.

"It's too late for that, E." He says, back still turned to me.

"What?" I ask, getting no answer. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just drop it."

"Did you do something? Fez, what'd you do?"

"Don't fucking worry about it. I'm serious, Lainey.." He lets out a huff.

I can tell I'm not gonna get anything out of him, but that just worries me more. Did he already do something? Is that why Maddy's mad at me?

       ༄ ༄ ༄ 9:00 pm ༄ ༄ ༄

I change into one of Fez's shirts and pajama pants before entering the bathroom. I remove my makeup with whatever shitty face wash he has, and brush my teeth with the toothbrush I leave over here.

When I walk back into the room, Fez is already sitting on his bed, legs under the covers. I turn the lamp off and lay beside him. He was never one to stay up late just to stay up late. He lowers himself under the covers, plugs his phone in, and goes to sleep. Quick sleeper, but light sleeper. I try not to move too much as he rests.

I'm scrolling through Instagram when I see a post from Maddy. It's her and Cassie with their tongues out and middle fingers up. A guy is there too, I assume it's Nate. But I can't see his face. He has his hood on and head down. It kind of looks like he wasn't supposed to be in the picture but he happened to be in frame.

Seeing Maddy and Cassie on my timeline reminds me of how they acted yesterday. How they saw me and didn't say anything. I'm already stressed, might as well make it worse. I close out Instagram and open messages.

Maddy
Me: r we good?

Maddy: hell no

Me: huh? Why?

Maddy: u need to get ur crazy ass boyfriend under control

Me: what'd he do?

Maddy: fuck it. Hmu when you're not dating a psychopath.

Me: wait what? I'm so confused what did he do??
———

You won't be surprised to know that Maddy left me on read. Lately, Fez has been causing me more stress than happiness, but this just confirms that he did do something. And it was bad enough to make Maddy this mad at me.