Chapter Forty
❝It was on a cold and dark night,
that he saw the calm before the storm.❞
Everything was perfect.
His legs were pumping, shoes scraping against the pavement as the rock music blasted through his earphones. Theo hadn't had another run in a while. It was time to get back in shape, especially at the fact of how utterly good his life had become so far.
He and his family were getting along. Chase was having the best time of his life. Theo got the girl of his dreams. Zach was winning what he wanted. It seemed like everything was finally clicking into place.
But Theo had a habit of expecting the worse. And the silence was so loud. Like it was the calm before the storm; like it was a waiting game.
Waiting for what, he didn't exactly know.
He shook his head repeatedly as if that would shake off these thoughts, increasing his speed a bit. He was just being paranoid. El had told him the exact same thing.
Morning had quickly transitioned to afternoon, and the sun became too unbearable. The blistering heat had one advantage though: he was starting to get a tan.
A far cry from the pale, sullen boy who stumbled at night.
A café-coloured street met his view, with the aroma of pies and macarons teasing him from every corner. One bakery caught his eye, as it was adorned with various, colourful flowers that made the bakery seem to grow right out of its roots with it.
He thought of coffee and pastries and a sunshine-filled girl.
His hands were already on his phone, about to invite her for brunch or literally anything just to have her here with him. But something caught his eye. Near the said bakery.
Travis.
But he wasn't alone. No, he was talking to... Alex?
What the fuck?
His eyebrows furrowed as he squinted at the scene, making sure he wasn't imagining it. It was them. But what was El's ex-boyfriend doing with Alex? How did they even know each other? And why did it look like they were the best of fucking friends?
His fingers itched to take a picture but, despite Travis and Alex not noticing him, he still didn't want to look like a creep. So he just watched, seeing their conversation unfold through hand gestures and facial expressions. Alex passing Travis something. Them laughing. A typical pat in the back.
Once they both parted ways, Theo whirled around, continuing his run like nothing had happened.
"Hey," Theo breathed out once he was back at the apartment, not bothering to slump down on the couch. He just slowly sat himself on a stool by the kitchen island, deep in his thoughts.
"'Sup." Zach was chilling by the balcony.
"No practice this week?"
"Nah, coaches want us to relax a bit before the finals. Why do you think I sat all day and watched reruns of The Big Bang Theory?"
"Right." Theo licked his lips. "Listen, I know this is going to sound weird." His friend was already turning around, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. "But remember when... Alex crashed our party?"
Zach tensed at the mention of his name. "Why are you bringing him up?" He rushed inside and closed the balcony shut. "Did that bastard show his face again? I swear I'll — "
"No, no!" He held his hands out. "Nothing like that. It's just... how did he know we were having a party? Did you end up finding out?"
Zach frowned. "Oh. Yeah, I think I told you." He scratched his head. "Er, I might've told Len actually and not you. You were in one of your moods." Understandable. "Apparently Alex goes to college here. I told Len the same thing some time ago when we were talking about you."
"He goes to — wait, you guys talked about me?"
Zach blinked. "Uh, yeah, we... we were both really worried."
A surge of appreciation built in his chest. How did he get so lucky to have his best friend and girlfriend?
He ducked his head down. "Thanks." Theo cleared his throat, returning to the subject at hand. "So Alex, he goes to college here? Do you know which one?"
"No, unfortunately. It's supposedly far away," Zach shrugged, "like some really good preppy school." He paused, noticing Theo's weird, quiet behaviour. "Why? What do you know?"
"Nothing." Zach gave a look like you're bullshitting. He sighed. "I just want to know all the details before I jump into conclusions, alright?"
"Fine," his friend said slowly, walking backwards into his room. "Whatever you say." He gave him the I'm-watching-you hand gesture.
Theo rolled his eyes. But he still felt something wasn't right. So it was time for a little investigation; he needed to get those answers.
And he knew just who to ask.
***
"Hey, Jeff," he smiled, leaning on the counter.
Jeff frowned at Theo for a while, a crease appearing on his forehead. Then he checked behind him, into the shack, as if expecting El to be there. She wasn't; she'd gone out with Daisy somewhere. "Uh, hi."
"How are you doing?"
"I'm good." Jeff held his towel in front of him like some sort of shield. Theo held the urge to snort at how ridiculous he looked. "What are you up to? What do you want?"
"Is it weird that I just want to hang out with you?"
"Yes, Theo, this is weird."
Jeff was smarter than he made himself out to be. "It's about Travis," he cleared his throat.
The boy straightened up. "Oh?"
But Theo heard the real question: then why don't you just ask El?
"He goes to college here, right?" he prompted. Jeff nodded, still having that doubtful look. "Do you know the name of the school?"
"Uh, Warwick University. It's a pretty big deal around here."
Warwick. Wasn't that the same school El was talking about? Was that part of the reason why she decided not to go — because Travis was there?
"Why does it matter?" Jeff asked hesitantly.
He shrugged, giving him an honest answer. "I don't know yet."
He sighed, not knowing what to do with all this information yet. He had a gut feeling he knew what was going on but he didn't want to give El the wrong facts, and he wanted to be sure.
"Fuck it," he breathed, and opened the Facebook app.
Theo wasn't a social media person. Though he had that and an Instagram account, he would almost never publish anything. That didn't mean the whole app was useless.
Alex Marshall, he typed into his search bar. Sure enough, he got his profile in less than a second, and confirmed it was him through his profile picture. He scratched his neck; seeing his face still made him uncomfortable sometimes, or at least slightly angry at who he was and what he craved for.
And then there it was. In his biography on the left-hand side, the writings were inscribed:
Warwick University (2017 — )
Theo put his phone down flat on the counter.
Alex was attending the same university as Travis.
This explained how Alex knew about the party that day; Zach hadn't just invited El, but extended that invite to Travis as well. Travis must've told Alex about it and heard that he and Zach had arrived in town.
Holy shit, he thought. This was bad. Real bad.
Alex was a monster. An enabler of sorts. And what Theo saw earlier... he's got Travis right in his clutches.
I think things started to change, Daisy had told him just after El and Travis broke up, when Travis finally started college. That was over a year ago; she had just turned seventeen, and he was twenty.
If only Theo had known that things were going to get worse than that.
Everything was perfect.
Until the moment it wasn't.
A/N:
Hang on. There's going to be explanations.
Side note: Alex is a character I added during the editing process. He's a figure from Theo's past; one of his "tormentors" or "enablers" of bullying/toxic behaviour.
**refer to Chapter 14 for more.