Sick Little Games

Alex Gaskarth couldn’t believe the lack of awkward awareness present in the room. It was hard for him not to feel it; he couldn’t ignore it if he tried, but everyone else seemed to be carrying on just fine. If they felt it, they were doing a really good job hiding it. Better than him, at least.

Alex couldn’t work up the nerve to actually start some sort of conversation, so he watched the television screen silently, not even knowing what was going on in the show as his thoughts consumed him. Meanwhile, Katherine and Christine left the room, but all Alex could hear was a faint shuffle.

“Alex!” Lucy laughed from across the room, “Will you color with me? Jack isn’t good at it!”

“Hey!” Jack pouted, clutching his heart and staring at the pages of the coloring book set on the counter. Alex smiled and nodded at her, walking over to the two of them, laughing along with Lucy when he saw Jack’s picture. Jack continued to stare at it, searching for flaws. In his mind, there were none. Oh, but there were. The picture looked like it was colored in by a five-year-old; no, scratch that, even Lucy’s three-year-old coloring skills were better looking than Jack’s.

Alex laughed at himself as he joined in the fun, coloring in a picture of a girl petting a puppy. He smiled at the outline of the dog, thinking of his own at home.

“Done!” he shouted a few minutes later, throwing the crayons down and portraying his masterpiece.

Lucy clapped, leaving Jack to pout more, while Alex grinned cockily in response. Their laughter that occurred afterwards was broke off from the sudden yell of Christine’s voice.

“Alex!” she called, running into the living room. “Katherine has—“

“No, I don’t!” Katherine yelled, trying her best to cover Christine’s mouth. It babbled on under her fingers, and Katherine smiled sweetly in Alex’s general direction as Christine was unsuccessful in forming words correctly under her grip. When she stopped trying to talk, Katherine slowly released her hand from Christine’s mouth, and Christine stared at the dumbfounded Alex.

“What?” he asked, completely confused. He hated situations like the one standing before him; he hated feeling out of the loop.

“Something to tell you,” she finished, smiling in accomplishment. Katherine rolled her eyes and shook her head, disagreeing with her.

“And what’s that?” Alex smirked at Christine as if Katherine wasn’t standing right besides her.

“Not my place to tell.”

Alex groaned, for secrets did not fancy him one bit. Especially ones being kept from him. Especially ones being held by a pretty girl. Especially ones held by Katherine. Them involving him was just an added discomfort.

-----

Katherine Murphy hated her best friend. So maybe that wasn’t true, but she was getting a very long, annoying talk that night, that was for sure. If Alex didn’t already know something weird was going on, he definitely did after that episode, and she couldn’t stand that he was one step closer to the truth.

“Mommy, Awex colored a pretty picture!” Lucy screeched, not caring about their current dilemma. Alex grinned shyly in the background and a smile played on the corners of Katherine’s lips as Lucy threw the picture up for her mother to see. She went back to coloring herself, and Alex turned to face Katherine.

“So, uh,” he started awkwardly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“I gotta go find Christine,” Katherine stated quickly, realizing both her friend and Alex’s had went missing. Really, she was just running away from the situation like she always did. She walked through the kitchen, into the dining room, just to see Jack and Christine whispering to each other.

“Uh… guys?” Katherine asked, causing both Christine and Jack to jump a little. Katherine laughed as Jack scratched the back of his neck, frowning a bit.

“Why aren’t you in there?” he questioned pointing in the general direction of his living room. Katherine looked at him questionably before he quickly added, “You left Alex alone with your kid?”

Katherine frowned a little bit, thinking of how that was his kid, too, smacking the smile right off of Jack’s face.

“Katherine, what’s going on?” he asked, curiosity sparkling in his dark brown eyes.

“Nothing,” she mumbled, picking at her now black nail polish.

“Girl,” Jack shook his head and Katherine tried her best to hide her laughter, “If you don’t tell me, I will get Christine to tell me, and then you would get mad at her like you did Alex and become twice as miserable. And no one likes that. Or, well, at least you don’t.”

Katherine scowled, causing Jack to stick his hands up in defense, proving that he was purely kidding.

“You might want to sit down,” she instructed, thinking of how useful Jack could be if he knew. Jack looked at her, confused, but did what he was told. “I swear to you, Barakat, if you tell Alex this, I will murder you in your sleep.”

Jack nodded slowly.

“You have to promise me you won’t tell him,” she pleaded, hurt evident in her eyes.

“Pinky promise?” he questioned, sticking his finger in her direction. She smiled softly at him and conjoined the two of their pinkies.

“Lucy…” she whispered, “Lucy… well, um,”

“Out with it!”

“Lucy is Alex’s, too.”