Tempest (Royce/Winston)

076

"I told you to go to the funeral" Ray sighed.

"Yeah, but at the time, I like... I couldn't, Ray. I would've probably had a fucking melt down in the middle of the service, especially if I had seen Jacob. I would've lost my shit entirely".

"Have you been to talk to Axel?" Elijah suddenly asked, "like at the cemetery?"

"No..."

"Oh, you don't believe in that sort of thing, do you? I know tons of people do it. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if you tried it".

"I'll think about it..." I trailed off, looking away from him.

I skipped out on Axel's funeral because I was too scared and too upset to go. I didn't think I would be able to handle the service, so I chickened out and stayed home. I was never sure if Axel had been cremated or not because it's not like I could ask his parents or anything. Jacob's never hinted towards Axel being cremated, but then again he rarely ever talks about his brother in the first place. If Axel had been buried, then maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea if I decided to pay him a visit.

I continued to eat my sandwich, deciding not to speak anymore unless spoken to.

"How's your anger management classes going?" Elijah asked curiously.

"Do I seem less angry?" I questioned.

"Um... I guess so, yeah. Well except for that time where you were going to fight Winston, but that was a while ago so..."

Ray looked at Elijah in amusement but he didn't say anything. Elijah noticed and he smiled.

"You guys are gross" I proclaimed, "absolutely disgusting".

"But we didn't do anything" Elijah replied.

"I wanted you guys to tell each other how you felt, but I didn't think I would become the third wheel with you two dating" I huffed.

"We're not dating though" Ray pointed out. "We're just friends, you know that".

"You both might as well be dating, what with the way you interact and all that" I shrugged my shoulders. "Makes me feel like I'm the third wheel, it really does".

Elijah awkwardly cleared his throat and I looked at him, he took a second to scratch the back of his neck. "Have you, um... Have you thought about like... You know, finding someone new? To be with, you know?"

I stared at him blankly before shaking my head. "No..." I thought for a moment. "I mean, I don't think I'm stuck up on Jacob anymore? At this point it's really about just wanting to make sure he's getting through things okay. I want to be his friend. I haven't thought about finding someone else though, I don't even think anyone would want to deal with someone like me anyway".

"You're not that bad, Chresanto" Ray stated.

"You don't have to lie to me" I shrugged my shoulders, "I know I have a shit attitude and I've finally come to terms with the fact that I have an anger problem. It is what it is, I'm working on it though. So to answer your question, Elijah, I haven't thought about it. I think I should just worry about myself or whatever".

"Sometimes it's good to do that" Elijah nodded his head in agreement. "How's Mia?"

"She's good" I answered, "she's got herself a boyfriend now".

"Yeah? That's cool, what's his name?"

"It's James, Mia asked me to give her my opinion on him or whatever. He seems like an okay guy, he's twenty two. I don't know how they started talking and all of that, but Mia seems to really like him and he doesn't seem like a bad guy".