The next morning Caleb was dressed and ready for school, when he walked to Alex's room. He frowned, she usually would come to his room with a cup of coffee and lay with him on his bed before they would get up to get ready for school.
Walking in her room he noticed that her bed was already made and that the room was empty.
Oh well, Caleb though, she probably just left for school early. So he left as well as he wanted to see Sarah before school.
At Spencer Academy, Caleb was not the only one, who was waiting to see someone special. Reid was also waiting for Alex to arrive, smiling as he thought of her, he'd been dreaming of her all night. He was standing at their usual meeting place, under the tree near the entrance where, he could see the cars as they came in.
Everyone has already arrived at school and the bell was going to ring at any time. Reid was starting to get worried, it was not very Alex like to be late for school or ski p school, it was more something that he would do.
He took out his cell phone to see if there were any messages, but none.
"Reid are you coming?" Tyler appeared from nowhere and was standing next to his friend.
Reid looked at him frowning. "Is there something wrong?" Tyler asked.
"Huh, oh no. Lets go to class." Reid said starting to walk to their first class still frowning.
In class he could not concentrate (not that he ever listen to what the teacher was saying), his mind was with Alex, why was she not at school.
Taking out his phone he text her.
Hey babe, where are you?
He waited a few minutes and then the reply came.
Not feeling well. Will see you tomorrow.
The frown on his face deepened and he text again.
What is wrong babe?
Mr Higgins was ranting on about the history of America, but Reid was not listening, he grew impatient by the minute. It was already ten minutes since he sent his message and Alex had still not replied. He just wanted to sent another message when her message came through.
Migraine. Don't worry. xx :)
As the day progressed so did Reid's impatience, he had already two classes with Caleb and not once did he mentioned to any of them that Alex was sick, usually it was the only thing that he would talk about, worrying about his twin sister, but not today. A thought came to his mind, what if Caleb did not know that Alex was not feeling well or that she was not even at school. It's not like Caleb and Alex had all their classes together, in fact he knew that on Thursdays they only had their first class together after lunch.
During swim practice the boys were standing, in their small black swimming briefs, by the side of the pool watching the others swim, when Tyler turned to Caleb and asked "So, where is Alex today?"
"What do you mean, where is Alex today? She's here at school." Caleb asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"Well she was not in my physics class this morning?" Tyler said
"Come to think of it, she was also not in Latin" added Pogue.
Furry grew in Reid and he lost his cool "Fuck it, Caleb. Surely you of all people should now if your sister is at school or not."
Caleb looked at Reid, pulling his brows together. "What is it to you, if Alex is at school or not?"
Reid realized that he just gave himself away and he'll have to cover himself and fast.
"Well, she was supposed to help me with a English Lit assignment before class, and she never showed."
"English Lit?" Pogue asked.
"Yes, is there something wrong with that?"
"Well since when did you give a damn about any assignment of any kind?" Pogue asked again.
"Well since I wanted to get into Harvard, dimwit." nice recovery Garwin, Reid thought to himself.
During lunch Caleb was seriously becoming worried about Alex, he did not really took what Pogue and Tyler said to heart, he just thought that she might be in the library, where she normally is, because she had above average grades, she got some free time to use in the library when ever she felt like it. But Alex never skipped lunch, she would always join them.
Looking at the empty seat next to him where she usually sits, he took out his phone to call her. It just kept ringing and ringing and with every ring his frown grew deeper and deeper. Caleb just wanted to end the call when he heard the phone been picked up on the other side.
Caleb frowned into his phone when he recognized the voice answering, but it was not Alex. "Gorman? Why are you answering Alex's phone?"
He listens to what the old man had to say. "I will be right there." Caleb ended the call and looked at the rest.
"I have to go." He looked at Sarah and gave her a swift kiss before getting up and left the table in a hurry.
Reid was gripping the edges of his seat, he wanted to jump up and ran after Caleb and demand him to tell him what was going on. He knew something was wrong, he could feel it in the pit of his stomach.
Caleb was breaking every speed limited as he raced to the Danvers old colony house. He could not understand why Alex had not come to him this morning, mentioning that she was not feeling well. She did not have to hide anything from him.
Stopping at the house, he got out of his car and ran up to the house. Once inside of the house he went straight up with the stairs.
"Where is she Gorman?" Caleb demanded as he reached the top of the stairs.
Gorman pointed with his finger to the sofas that was near the fire place and Caleb walked over to them. Alex was curled up, fast asleep, on one of the sofas, her hair hanging over her face. Caleb walked around the chair and bent on his knees in front of the sleeping girl. Reaching out a hand he slowly pushed her hair away from her face to look at her. Her cheek was still red and swollen and he immediately felt anger towards his mother. Caleb ran his finger softly over the bruise. Alex murmured something in her sleep but did not wake up.
Without saying a word to their caretaker, Caleb stood up, carefully picked up his sister in his arms and went to lie her down on the bed in the room that she usually used when she would have stayed the night with their father.
Walking back to Gorman, Caleb ran a hand through his hair.
"What happened, Gorman?" he asked in a soft voice.
"I should asked you that, Caleb. She came in here this morning, face all red and swollen sitting down on that chair," the old man pointed to the sofa that Alex was in "and started to cry, saying something about her head that was splitting in two. Who did that to her, Caleb.?"
Caleb sighed and sat down in the chair that Alex was sleeping in. "You know who?"
"Your mother." It was a statement not a question.
"Yes, they had a fight again last night."
Gorman walked past Caleb and went to stand in front of the fireplace, placing a log on the fire before turning to look at the boy sitting in the sofa. "Caleb, this is your sister. I don't want to tell you how to look after her. But did you know that ever since Alex ascended, she suffers from sever headaches, especially when she gets mad or upset."
Caleb looked shockingly up at the old man.
Gorman continued. "From the expression on your face, I guess not. Caleb you have to do something. These fights with your mother is not helping it is only making things worse."
"I will." was the only thing that Caleb said and rested his head back against the back of the sofa.
Reid was pacing up and down his and Tyler's room. He pulled out his phone from the pocket of his pants for the hundredth time. He wanted to phone Alex so bad, but he knew that Caleb was still with her, as he saw Sarah a while ago and when he strategically asked her if she and Caleb had plans for the evening, she told him that Caleb as still with Alex and that he will only see her the following day at school.
"Reid please?" Tyler who was lying on his bed reading a book begged.
"What?" Reid asked.
"Stop pacing. You are making me sea sick. What's your problem anyway?"
Reid stopped for a second, looked at his friend and started his route between their beds again. "I don't have a problem, Tyler!"
Tyler dropped the book and looked at his friend. Something was off and he just could not put his finger on it. Reid has been acting very strange since the Fall Fest. Suddenly a light went of in his head and he sat up on his bed.
"I know what is wrong with you." he explained. "You have not had sex for over five months and now you're frustrated. Why don't we go down to Nicky's and maybe we can pick up a girl."
Reid stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Tyler as if he had sprung horns or something from his head. The old Reid would have jumped at the opportunity, the old Reid would never have stayed with a girl longer than a week. But this Reid is trying so damn hard to do the right thing.
"I don't think so!" was his only reply.
"What, you're giving up on getting laid? Are you coming down with something?"
Reid just shook his head. "There is nothing wrong with me. This time, I just want to do it right."
"You want to do what right?" Tyler asked curiously.
"What? Oh nothing. Forget I said anything. I'm going for a walk." With that Reid walked out of the room closing the door behind him.
Tyler just frowned at the closed door. He suddenly had a feeling that this had all to do with a girl or his name was not Tyler Simms. But who? He did not know, lying back on his bed he vowed himself that he was going to find out.
Alex stirred in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes. She was totally disorientated. She could have sworn that she'd fallen asleep on the sofa and now she was lying in bed. Yawning she stretched her sore muscles and got up.
Walking out of the room and up the stairs she saw Caleb sitting on the same sofa that she used to sit in when she visited their father.
"I used to sit in that exact same chair and would read to daddy until he fell asleep." Alex said, walking slowly up to him.
Caleb's head snapped up and he looked at his sister, her hair was all tousled, her eyes puffy from sleep. But she wasn't looking that pale anymore and the bruise on her cheek seemed lighter.
"Alex, hon. How are you feeling?" Caleb asked and held out his hand to her. Taking his hand, Alex let Caleb pulled her closer and down onto his lap.
"Better. Gorman's concoction usually works like a charm." Alex said and rested her head under his chin.
Caleb wrapped one arm around her and Alex sighed. She really loved her brother and he was the only reason why she still tolerated their mother.
"Why did you not tell me about the headaches?" Caleb asked.
Alex lifted her head and looked up in her identical eyes. "Because you would have worried and be all over my case."
"I am worried, Alex. Always, I'm your older brother."
"Caleb William Danvers! You're only older by fifteen minutes." Alex wanted to get up off his lap but he just held her tighter.
"I'm sorry sis, I can't help it. I felt this overprotective ever since we were little and I promised dad that I would look after your." Caleb placed a kiss on her forehead.
Alex looked up at her bothers handsome face with tears in her eyes. "You know that daddy loved you right. He would sit in that chair," Alex pointed to the sofa opposite of them, "and his face would light up when I told him what you've done and accomplished."
A tear rolled down her cheek. Caleb gave his sister a hug and swallowed past the lump in his own throat. "I know Alex, I know."
After that the two twins were quite, each starring at the fire, each busy with their own thoughts.