don't blame me | alex walter

ten

She passed Alex and Nathan's bedroom, the door slightly ajar. It was quite dark inside, the only light source was coming from Alex's gaming computer, where he was sitting with his headphones on, his face in the screen.

Jules' eyes shifted down to his hand that was grasping the mouse. Across the knuckles sat a harsh red from where he'd punched his brother. A wave of mixed emotions hit her and it made her realise that she cared for Alex.

She made her way to the bathroom. The door was already open but Cole was inside, looking at his wound in the mirror. His eyes shifted to meet hers. He silently turned and started to leave the bathroom, his eyes never leaving hers. His stare was daunting to her. She could never fully read what was going on behind them.

Jules entered the bathroom, closing the door behind her. After using the toilet and cleaning her face and teeth, she rooted around the cabinets. When she found what she was looking for, she made her way back towards Alex's room. Before she could reach it, he was already walking out of the door.

The house was so quiet and she didn't have anything to say to Alex, so she remained silent as she stopped in front of him. Alex looked as though he wanted to say something but he stopped when she held her hand out.

His eyes fleeted down to the antiseptic wipe and bandage wrap in her grasp. He took it from her, letting his eyes meet hers. In the dim light Alex could see hers were cloudier than usual, she could barely keep her eyes at him.

He never would've had hit Cole if it meant she'd never look at him the way that she used to again. There was so much emotion radiating between the two bodies standing in the hallway, not a word even needed to be said.

As much as Jules wanted to make sure Alex was okay, she backed away before hurrying up the flight of stairs to her room. Alex's head followed her, his heart sinking deep into his stomach as he watched her disappear.

━━━━━━ † ━━━━━━

The annoying alarm on Jules' phone woke her from a deep sleep. She grumbled, running a hand over her tired eyes before turning the noise off. She debated laying in bed and missing school entirely, until she remembered she wasn't New York anymore with her parents, and that her education was more important right now than thinking about the other night.

Jules rose from the bed and headed to the window to slide open her curtains. Down in the pen, Alex was riding Murphy. She could sense he wasn't feeling great from the way his body looked so tense and the way he wasn't fully in control of Murphy. She hadn't spoken to him since the bonfire.

When George came to talk to Alex, Jules backed away from the window and went to the wardrobe to grab an outfit for school.

An hour and a half later Jules was standing at her locker with Kiara. Jules was sorting through her books, listening to her friend talk about two nights ago, "You've really been avoiding him?"

"I'm not the one who did something wrong." Jules stated, digging out a pen stuck in one of her notebooks.

"Thought you said Cole deserved the punch." Kiara said, picking at her nails.

"He did." She heard what she'd just said and realised it sounded too harsh, "Okay, maybe not being hit but to be told the truth. Although I'm not bothered about Cole, not right now, but Alex... I'm just very confused about--"