Chris pulled up to the house about at 1:30, in the middle of the night, and Dylan was already downstairs when he did. The rain was falling hard against the streets and Dylan was still a little tired from sleeping. Despite this, he unlocked the door. Not a minute passed before the door opened and Chris came in through it, followed closely by Felicia.
"Wha-" Dylan stopped his sentence, his eyes widening at the state that Felicia was in. Her makeup was smudged, eyes red with tears and her clothes were soaked. He didn't say anything else, just hurried over to his friend, wrapping his arms around her.
"What happened?" He hissed towards Chris.
"She was walking in the rain when I was on the way home, I didn't do anything," he defended, looking more than a little shaken up, "I couldn't just let her continue, it's pouring!" Dylan's gaze softened, then hardened again.
"Did you drive here drunk?" He gasped, a deep frown taking place on his face.
"I'm not drunk, I had like two beers."
"Don't be so loud, my parents are home. You have alcohol in your body." Dylan started to lead Felicia, who had been worryingly quiet, towards the living room and Chris followed behind.
"Barely," Chris mumbled, looking around the dark house. Dylan sat down on the sofa with Felicia next to himself and Chris grabbed a seat in one of the armchairs. "Do you really live three people in this house?"
"No, four, why?"
"You have siblings?"
"Yes, two," Dylan let out a sigh as Felicia turned away from him and leaned down into the sofa, resting her head against a pillow. "A fourteen-year-old sister and an older brother, but he doesn't live here."
"Cool."
"Do you? Have any siblings, I mean." Dylan gently placed a blanket over Felicia, who was already fast asleep, snoring softly. Then, he stood. "Do you want tea?"
"I... have an older brother, and I'm not staying," Chris made a move to get up, but Dylan was already what Felicia would call full-mom-mode.
"You are intoxicated, you aren't driving."
"What the hell, Brooks?" The raven-haired boy frowned. "You're not the boss of me."
"I am your tutor."
"That is not the same."
"Come on man, you could get in trouble, or hurt." Dylan sighed heavily and Chris frown turned into a cocky smile.
"Aww, you care about me," he smirked and leaned back into the armchair.
Dylan couldn't help rolling his eyes. "You wish."
"Alright, well if you're going to keep me a hostage here then yes, I'd like some tea." Dylan gave a tense smile, moving towards the kitchen. "Do you have red?"
"We have blueberry, is that fine?" Dylan called back as quietly as he could.
"Yeah."
When the tea was done, Dylan returned into the living room. Chris was huddled up in his armchair with a blanket wrapped around himself, and Dylan couldn't help but stare. He was so unlike himself, the usually tough exterior softened. He soon returned to reality, taking a few steps and placing the two mugs he'd been holding on the coffee table.
Chris uttered a quiet 'thanks' and leaned forward to pick up the steaming mug.
"So, now you gotta tell me what happened." Dylan sat back down on the sofa, careful as to not accidentally land on Felicia's sleeping frame.
"I don't know, man, I was just driving home," Chris started, his brow furrowed, "and I saw her walking alone. At first, I didn't think much of it, but as I drove closer I noticed that she was crying, and look, I know what you think of me, and what you've heard, but I'm not the type of person that just ignores a crying girl."
"I asked if she needed a ride, and she got really flustered, which I understand. I mean, she probably didn't think anyone would drive by, especially in the rain. She got in the car and I asked if she wanted to call anyone, and she kind of stuttered too much for me to hear, so I just asked her to unlock her phone, and then I called you."
Dylan nodded slowly, frowning. It wasn't like Felicia at all. "So you don't know what happened before that?"
"Nah, man, I told you all of it."
Okay, Dylan thought to himself. He was gonna ask Felicia about it the morning after if she felt up to it. His eyes drifted to his sleeping friend, then back to Chris, who already had his eyes on Dylan. The intense gaze that met him almost made him dizzy, a strange feeling settling in the pit of his stomach, and he quickly averted his eyes. It was like the other boy could see right into his soul, even though they weren't talking.
Dylan cleared his throat. "Um, I was thinking that Felicia could sleep in my bed, she... seems to be needing good rest. I have an extra mattress in my room, so you could crash there."
"Thanks, but I can take the couch if you want-"
"No, my parents are gonna wake up early, and I wanna avoid questions, so you'll sleep up there," Dylan explained. "Please."
"Alright." Chris took a long sip of his tea, then putting the now-empty mug on the table. "Do you want me to carry her up?"
Dylan shook his head. "I'll do it, you can just grab the mugs and put them in the sink." Chris nodded and collected both of their mugs in one hand while Dylan carefully lifted Felicia off the sofa. He held her tight, and with caution, he started walking towards the stairs.
It wasn't easy, carrying someone up the stairs while at the same time trying to be as quiet as possible, but he kind of made it work. Chris was close behind him, slowly moving up. Luckily, Dylan's room wasn't that far from the top of the stairs. He stopped a moment and let Chris open the door, entering before him and Felicia.
"Did you take these?" He asked, wandering around the room and looking at the various under-water pictures that clad Dylan's walls. Dylan gently placed Felicia on the bed.
"No," he chuckled, "I found them online and printed them on the school printer." Chris hummed, still walking around the room, staring at everything while Dylan started to remove the extra mattress from under the bed.
"There," Dylan said when he finished, making Chris turn to look.
"Okay," he answered, "...okay."
"I'm just gonna change into something else," Dylan said, moving to his drawer and getting out a t-shirt and some sweatpants. Chris nodded understandingly as Dylan left the room and going to the bathroom. It felt a little weird, Dylan realized, having Chris, whom he'd previously disliked to an extreme extent, in his room. Especially when he wasn't in the room.
He pulled the shirt that he'd been wearing over his head and replaced it with the pajama, then did the same with the pants. When he got back into the room, Chris had taken off his shirt and was laying on his mattress with the blanket wrapped carelessly around himself, staring at his phone.
"Alright, goodnight, I guess," Dylan scratched his neck, then got into his own bed, building a small pillow-wall between him and Felicia.
"Yeah," Chris breathed, turning his phone off and turning to his side.
Dylan could not sleep. His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and he didn't know why. He thrashed once, ending up facing his alarm clock and seeing that it was almost three in the morning.
But, eventually, the sound of rain from outside combined with the slow breathing of the others in the room soothed his mind. Soon he drifted away from consciousness, into a restful sleep.
__
Waking up to sunlight was one of the best experiences that Dylan knew, and when he opened his eyes the morning after, the memories from last night were temporarily forgotten. That was until he felt something move on his right. He sat up, suddenly wide awake, and looked around the room. Felicia was laying with her back toward him, facing the wall, and when he looked to his left on the floor, there was nothing but an empty mattress.
The sight of the latter made his stomach drop a little, though he didn't really know why. Slowly, he rose from the bed, swinging his feet over the edge and leaving the warmth of his covers.
"Are you awake?" He asked softly, starting to collect the sheets from Chris's bed.
"Yeah," Felicia whispered.
"Do you... wanna talk about it?"
"Later."
"Okay," Dylan hesitated a moment. In all of the years that he had known Felicia, she'd never been this gloomy. She was always the most energic person in the room, shining bright even on her bad days. This, however, was something different. "Do you want me to make some tea?"
She didn't answer, only nodding her head slightly. Dylan mimicked the action, even though she couldn't see it. He left the room, throwing the sheets in the wash-basket before going downstairs and putting on the kettle. Soon after, Felicia came down the stairs as well, holding the fluffiest blanket that Dylan owned around her body.
"I could have come up with it," Dylan said but she shook her head.
"No, I gotta get up, gotta move some," she explained, walking past him and into the living room.
The house was empty except for the two of them. Dylan had found a note on the dinner table saying that his mom and dad had gone to visit his grandparents and that they would pick up Riley when they came back.
"Blueberry or Earl Grey?" He called towards the living room, not waiting for an answer before making a cup of Earl Grey for her and Blueberry for himself. As he'd expected, Felicia called back a hoarse:
"Earl Grey."
When the tea was finished, he grabbed the mugs and carried them with him to the living room, just like he'd done for Chris in the middle of the night. Felicia had sat herself down in the middle of the sofa, her knees folded up so that she could rest her chin on them. She barely noticed him entering, keeping her eyes locked on her phone.
"Do you... want to talk about it now?" Dylan asked cautiously after placing the mugs on the table and taken a seat in one of the armchairs.
"I'd like that, yes," Felicia smiled softly at him, "...He cheated."
Dylan's jaw dropped, eyes widening in pure shock. "What-" He started, but Felicia held a hand up to stop him.
"I got a text when we were at Cole's party, that's why I wanted to go to him, to investigate. It just said 'Come over', so I reminded him that I was at a party to which he replied 'Oh, sorry, that was for Pete, see you XOXO' or something like that." She sighed heavily, lower lip trembling just a little. "I got this really, really weird feeling in my stomach as if I already knew, so I tried to push it away with alcohol. But then I decided that I was going to go over there."
Dylan sat completely still, focusing on every word that his friend said. She continued:
"After you dropped me off I realized that I couldn't go over there as drunk as I was, so I took a walk around campus. I walked for about thirty minutes, but then it started to rain so I went to check his dorm..." A cough, or a sob, Dylan couldn't be sure, escaped her. "She was on top of him, naked when I opened the door. I left as soon as I saw it. I think he followed me out to the hall, and she was shouting at him when I left the building, but I don't..." She broke out crying, as silently as she could, but the tears still rolled down her cheeks.
Dylan moved to the sofa, wrapping his arms around her.
"Then Christopher came and picked me up. Did he stay over?"
"Yeah, I went full-mom-mode when I realized that he'd been driving drunk."
"He didn't seem like you've described him."
Dylan thought quietly. He had to agree. He hadn't been like he usually was, and it left him feeling odd. Maybe he'd read the guy wrong.
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