Jellyfish

7. And Another

Going to work was different now, among other things. I didn't walk with Blair anymore for one, rather with Winter who had picked up another job nearby to cover Diego's absence. Eddy too had pulled a second day job and I was in the process of finding my third. What little free time we'd had before was nonexistent now as we all worked to pick up extra shifts both to cover our bills and pay back the money Diego had stolen. His trial was set for that weekend so we weren't yet sure how long things would be like this. All we knew was that things were different, and nobody really knew what to do about it. On the bright side, Winter and I got in more time than we had before with our nightly travels. Though I hated that he had to work more, I appreciated the extra time with my brother.

Truthfully, meeting the others had changed our relationship. Before the great escape, the only person I knew for sure was on my side was Winter. We were two pieces of meat dangling in a cage of lions, but we had each other and that had been enough to get us through. When we finally found our way here, to the house with our new family, things changed. Suddenly, there was more than Winter there for me. I didn't need to turn to him for everything because there were other people there for me. The change wasn't necessarily bad, it just was, and we weren't as stuck together as we once had been. Walking to work with him each night was bringing some of that back. Conversation over nothing made it easy to forget that bad things followed us wherever we went and when he left, I hardly had time to focus on that.

Every day after the sixth, all fourteen of them, proceeded the same way. Blair avoided me, Oliver did his best to keep the peace, Eddy pretended he wasn't about to explode, and Winter walked me to work. The worst part about it was that they were all the people I went to for help and now it felt like I couldn't. Everyone was upset, so they avoided the subject. I couldn't talk about it, couldn't work it through or apologize and it was driving me insane. Perhaps that's why I decided to tell Miles; because I'd lost my mind amongst the frustration. I figured Oliver would say something eventually anyway considering he was close with his coworkers, so when Miles texted me a simple 'what's wrong? Somethings wrong'. I hardly even thought before replying.

Two weeks wasn't a huge amount of time, but people like Miles worked differently than the rest of the world. There was something so comfortable about talking to him that I felt like we'd been friends for much longer than two weeks. He was just so friendly and happy that it was hard to not talk to him, not that I was even considering that anymore. I needed all the friends I could get right now, and Miles was a perfect distraction, so I sadly recounted the tale of our misfortune. I don't know what I expected him to say in reply. Maybe the generic apology most use when faced with another's melancholy. I didn't expect him to promptly respond with 'where are you right now?' A question I wasn't sure how to answer considering we were walking.

'Walking to work?' I replied quickly wondering if his first response had really been to just hunt me down in person. Unfortunately, the universe seemed to want me to wonder as he hadn't responded by the time I reached work. I said my goodbyes to Winter and gave the phone one last sweep before shoving it in my pocket and briskly forgetting its existence. There was no time to think when feeding the night life, and even less time to breathe. The whole place was filled with a thick cigar smoke tonight courtesy of a few special guests seated in my corner and if I wasn't already certain of lung cancer in my future, perhaps I would've been upset by it. No, the only thing upsetting me tonight was my complete inability to maintain a good life. There was always something I'd screw up apparently. This time I was just lucky it didn't mean fleeing the country.

For hours I worked, and paused, then worked some more. Whatever dazzle the club had on its patrons had been lost to me a long time ago and all I got from the time was fatigue. By the time my break rolled around, it felt so much later than usual. It felt like years had gone by and I could barely convince myself to walk upstairs. Once there, I finally remembered Miles and found myself faced with three missed messages. The first was simply, 'Do you need a hug?' It was cute and likely would've led to a very soft conversation had I been able to answer. Instead it led to, 'August?' And then finally, 'you should go outside'. Startled, I checked the time on the message to see it had only been sent fifteen minutes ago. Miles hadn't actually come out here had he?