"Have you spoken to your brother?" Kim asked as she finished the laundry, Nick was at school and Adam had the day off and had just returned from the gym.
"No..haven't seen him in awhile" Adam pulled the sweat soaked shirt off and tossed it in the laundry room, it landed at Kim's feet.
"Really?" She huffed as she picked it up, "This is nasty.." She tossed it in the machine, "is Alex okay?"
Adam shrugged, "I think so..but he's icing me out"
"Ashley called"
Adam has started down the hallway and stopped and turned back to her, "What did she want?"
Kim joined him in the hallway, "She said she needed to talk to us..she's coming over in a little while"
Adam nodded, "Alright, well maybe she can clue us in to what's going on with Alex" he wasn't going to reach out to their mother, he figured Alex would eventually get back to him. He knew the kid was devastated over missing the rest of the baseball season and he didn't want to add to it.
Her heart was breaking for him, he was obviously in the midst of a serious depression. She knew he was up most of the night and had probably only just recently fallen asleep. His usually clean shaven face was now covered in a beard that was unkept and his hair was greasy and much longer than he normally wore it.
She was worried about him, she gathered his laundry and found the bottles shoved under the bed, six empty beer bottles and end empty bottle of Percocet mixed in.
"Damn it" She whispered softly, he was going off the rails and she didn't know how to help him.
Ashley rang the bell and clutched her purse in front of her, her stomach still queasy. This pregnancy was seriously kicking her ass, she could barely keep anything down and if she wasn't puking she was eating everything in sight. She had a serious addiction to sunflower seeds, she couldn't get enough of them.
Kim smiled warmly as she opened the door, "Hey Ash! Come on in" she hugged her, Kim really liked her and hoped she and Alex could work through whatever it was they were dealing with.
"Hey Kim" she smiled awkwardly, "is Adam home?"
Kim nodded, "He's in the shower....can I get you anything? Coffee?" She went into the kitchen, Ashley following her and sitting at the table.
"No thanks, I'm okay"she declined. She picked up the picture of Nicky and Alex up off the table, "how's Nick?"
Kim smiled, "He's good, finally got cleared to go back to baseball. He really wants Alex to come to his next game..but we can't seem to get a hold of him"
Ashley groaned inwardly, she was hoping to avoid the topic of Alex until Adam had joined them. It was going to be hard enough to talk about it, she didn't want to have to explain it twice.
Adam finally joined them in the kitchen, his hair still wet. Ashley smiled as Adam gave Kim a quick kiss on the mouth before greeting her, "Ashley...hey" he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her on the top of her head, "how's my little brother...he hasn't shown his face her in weeks"
She knew she had to just jump right in, that the longer she waited the harder it would be.
Ashley cleared her throat, "I came to you guys because I haven't seen Alex since the night he and I had that fight, the night he broke his hand"
Chapter 18
Start from the beginning
