Jersey Boy

(10)

{Jace pov}

I rolled over towards the middle of my bed, like usual, ready to wake up. Opening my eyes, I saw Alex's blanket laying in my bed, but he wasn't here.

"Li, I um, I really don't want to." Alex's voice shook from the kitchen.

"It'll be okay! And I'll do it too, Kid. On the count of three."

I walked out and into the kitchen, where the voices were coming from.

Right in front of me stood Alex and and Li by the sink. Li poured salt on Alex's arm, and he was shaking. Li then put salt on his own arm.

"What the hell are you doing?" I snapped. The fucking salt and ice challenge!

"Alex, you're okay with this, aren't you?" Li asked him. Actually, it was more like manipulated him. Alex nodded, then reached over and grabbed an ice cube.

"On the count of three." Li looked at him hard. It was scaring AJ.

"One.

Two.

Three!"

Both ice cubes where pressed onto their arms. For a moment, a look of confusion was on Alex's face, then his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. I wasn't paying attention to Li. I didn't care if he was in pain from this or not, honestly.

"Aw, fuck!" Alex pushed harder down on his arm, and kept gasping and cringing.

"Alex, stop!" I rushed over to him. Turning on hot water, I grabbed Alex's arm and shoved it under the water, melting the ice the rest of the way.

Looking intently at Alex's arm, there was a patch of white. Dead skin. Great, Alex has fucking frostbite.

"Liam, what the fuck is your problem! Why would you let Alex do this?" I shouted. "You know how pressured he is, and you talk him into this!"

Li picked at his own arm, not caring about what I had to say.

"Li, listen to me!" It now felt like I was responsible for him as well. "Don't fucking do shit like this again! We watch out for Alex here. We don't let him do stupid things, or especially talk him into them. Do you fucking understand me?"

"Yeah." Li sighed. "I understand. He seemed to handle it fine though."

"Li, don't. Stop. I don't care if he did handle it fine. Just no more!"

"Okay, if he can get a pounding in the ass every night or so, he can survive a little burn."

Alex stood behind me, and whimpered a little.

"Li, you dumb fuck!" I shouted, starling the both of them. "Shut the fuck up! Don't fucking talk to or about Alex that way!" I grabbed Alex's good arm, and dragged him into our room. "Get dressed." I went through his things, and tossed him some clothes. Without any more noise, he got dressed, as did I.

"Are we going somewhere?" He asked, softly, getting his socks on.

"Yeah. I think you need some time away from Li." I snorted. How could I be so dumb, and not listen to Alex on this. He's the type of kid who knows when something bad is going to happen.

Walking out of the bedroom, Li sat on the couch wrapping his arm up in a bandage. "We'll be back later." I snapped,  pulling Alex behind me. I could sense him struggle to keep him, and felt him stumble.

Automatically, he made his way to the passenger side of the door and got in.  I looked over to see him violently shaking in his seat. Rolling his sleeves up over his hands, he slouched down, and hunched over.