Sing Me To Sleep

“Oh, hello Katy,” Peter Gaskarth greeted the chocolate-haired girl with surprise clear in his voice the next morning. “I didn’t know that you stayed over.” The father’s English accent took on an accusing tone when his eyes shifted to his son, narrowing his brows. Alex grinned sheepishly at his father.

“Sorry, dad; you and mom were asleep… I didn’t think you’d mind…”

“I’m messing with you, boy,” Peter told him gruffly, waving his hand at his son. His eyes shifted to Katy again. “Has my son offered you any breakfast yet, Katy?”

Katy blushed and looked at her feet. Peter always had that tone to his voice… as if he thought something was going on. How could he? Wasn’t Lindsey here enough for him to clearly know that wasn’t the case?

“I’ll take that as a no,” he concluded with amusement in his voice. “Alex – be the gentleman I raised you to be whilst I go and see if your mum’s washed my shirts.” Alex rolled his eyes, following by a “sure, dad” before grabbing Katy’s hand and pulling her over to the breakfast cupboards.

“What’re you in the mood for?” he asked, his brown eyes flickering over the cardboard boxes of breakfast. They finally settled on Katy’s tired blue ones. She shrugged, playing with her hair and looking vaguely at the cereal boxes. Alex bumped his shoulder into Katy’s. She looked back at him, raising her eyebrows slightly.

“You alright?” he asked, searching her face. “You seem a bit… out of it.”

Katy shrugged, and looked down at the countertop. Alex’s mind wandered back to last night, when Katy’s hand grasped his arm tighter when Jack told them about the sleepover. Alex nudged her again.

“Don’t you want to go to the sleepover?” Alex asked, reaching up and grabbing a box of non-descript cereal, moving to pour out two bowls.

Katy bit her lip and took the bowl Alex handed to her.

“I dunno… I guess I do.” Katie stared off into space, and then jerked back to reality. She shook her head and smiled at Alex. “I’m being stupid. Don’t worry.” She looked into her bowl and grimaced. “Alex, why the fuckp/i] have you poured raw pasta out for breakfast?”

Alex raised his eyebrows, and looked down into his own bowl. He blushed, and attempted a shy smile. Katy laughed and handed him the bowl back.

“Where did Jack say the sleepover was?” Katy asked, watching as Alex poured out appropriate breakfast. Alex scrunched his eyebrows, thinking for a moment, before shrugging.

“I don’t think he did,” he told her, handing her a bowl with an apologetic smile. Katy smiled and looked down, before both of the teenagers sat down at the kitchen table. “It’ll probably be at his, though,” Alex added a minute or so later. “I can’t think of any of our parents but Momma B that would put up with us all in their house.

“True, that,” Katy agreed, nodding. She took a mouthful of breakfast and swallowed, before speaking again. “I’m really worried about Rian and Cassadee, though.” She grimaced, looking at the bland cereal as if it were offensive.

Alex frowned, and placed his hand over Katy’s on the table for a moment before speaking.

“They’ll be okay,” Alex told her. Katy’s eyes flickered to Alex’s.

“But what if they’re not? Cassadee’s stubborn by nature and… I don’t know. Rian’s just… he’s right, and so I know he won’t back down with this. Cassadee shouldhave told him she was going to miss practise, and, failing that, she should have at least given him some explanation.” Katy sighed loudly, pulling her hand from under Alex’s and resting her jaw on it. “The worst part is it’s my fault. Cassadee got caught up at my house, and…” Katy trailed off, realising how dangerously close she was to casually telling Alex what the whole thing was about. Alex cocked an eyebrow.

“So why didn’t Cassadee just tell Rian that?” he asked suspiciously. “That’s nothing secret…”

“I don’t know,” Katy said quickly. “I guess it’s not a good enough explanation or something. Anyway, we should probably call Jack and ask where the sleepover is.” Alex’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline at the shock of the abruptness of the subject change.

“Uh, okay. Let’s finish eating first and then we’ll call him?”

Katy nodded, and seemed to shrink in on herself, eating her breakfast quietly. Alex watched her subtly, wondering what the hell was going on with his best friend.

Jack frowned, and wondered what the hell was going on with his best friend.

Currently, Cassadee was sitting at the foot of Jack’s bed with her arms wrapped as tightly as possible around her small form, her eyebrows set in a narrowed position like cement and there was a scowl etched on her face that could last for centuries. And she hadn’t said a word since she’d stormed past Jack at the front door, and up into his room.

Yet.

“Cass,” Jack asked again, nudging the girl with his foot from his position at the top of his bed. “Speak, child!”

She growled, but all it sounded like was a kitten mewing. Jack smirked and Cassadee shot daggers at him. He faked a gulp before pulling her up into a hug.

“Come on, ice queen. What’s up?”

Cassadee huffed, and started inspecting her nails.

“Katy stayed over at Alex’s last night,” she muttered. Jack gave her a confused look.

“Yeah, I kinda figured…? Why is that a reason to be pissed?” Jack asked, and then realised this was the very worst thing to say as Cassadee stared at him like he had punched her and he had taken drugs all in the same instant.

“Don’t you care that he’s the reason she’s cutting herself?!” she roared as well as a kitten could. “Jack, she takes sharp objects and cuts her flesh open so she bleeds, because of him! It doesn’t bother you that he invites her around to his house, and then she feels like complete shit?”

Jack narrowed his eyebrows at Cassadee. Alex was his best friend. He knew that he didn’t know any of this. In his mind, Katy was his best friend, so why should sleepovers be a trivial thing? Cassadee just cared a little bit too much about Katy and couldn’t see the whole situation.

“Cassadee,” Jack said slowly, holding the girl slightly tighter, “Alex does not do this on purpose. I need you to understand that. Katy’s in a bad place right now. Alex’s oblivion doesn’t help, that’s true, but it’s not his fault. I hate to say this, but Katy’s only hurting herself by hanging out with him, and keeping this a secret.” Cassadee frowned, picking more at her nails. “I think you know that, really. The only thing we can do is be there for her while we figure out the best way to stop her from doing this. Getting angry at Alex won’t help that. Getting angry at Katy won’t help that. We need to stay calm, okay?” Jack nudged Cassadee, and she grunted. Jack took that as agreement.

After a while, when Jack and Cassadee had decided to watch Home Alone – more, Jack had forced Cassadee into watching the Holiday-themed film – Jack’s mom came into the room holding the phone, her hand over the receiver.

“Jack,” she said, propping the door open with her foot. “Alex is on the phone.”

She passed the phone over when Jack reached for it.

“Thanks, mom,” he said, sitting back down in his place.

“Do not lose that phone in your room, again, Jack Bassam Barakat, or there will be a heavy price to pay.”

Jack rolled his eyes, confirmed to his mother that he would not, indeed, lose the phone in his room, and then put the white handset up to his ear.

“Jeez, bro; is your room really that bad?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Shut up, asshole. What do you want?”

“Charming,” Alex sniffed in a mocking tone. “We wanted to know the details of this sleepover, obviously.”

“Oh! Yeah!” Jack grinned, and turned to Cassadee, who had paused the movie. “What time do you think we should have this sleepover, Cass?”

Cassadee shrugged, muttered out a time and Jack deliberated it.

“Cass says five this evening. That cool?”

“Fresh to death, bro,” Alex told him. “I’ll see you then. Oh, your house, right?”

“Obviously, dude. ‘Bye.”

Jack rang off, and chucked the phone on his bed. Cassadee was sulking heavily again.

“What now?” he asked, pushing her fringe out of her eyes.

“Why did you invite Alex to the sleepover?” she grumbled.

“Holy shit, Cass!” Jack exclaimed, making the small girl jump and her angry expression falter for a second. “Alex is my best friend. I’m not not going to invite him. For one, I want him there, and secondly, how weird would that look? ‘Oh, by the way ‘lex, you can’t come to the sleepover at my house which includes all of our friends!’.” Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Look, I told you, we’ll figure it out, okay? But making things weird and awkward isn’t going to help.” Cassadee sighed and pressed into Jack’s side.

After a few minutes, Cassadee whispered, “I miss him, Jack.”

Jack didn’t need to ask “Who?” to know Cassadee was talking about Rian. He hugged her a little tighter and kissed the top of her head.

“I know, Cass,” he murmured. “Have you… y’know… ever just thought about saying sorry?”

“It’s so hard…,” she murmured, her eyes starting to water.

“I know it seems like a big thing,” Jack told her, rubbing her arm in comfort, “but Rian’s not gonna think you’re silly. He loves you, Cass, and you know that. He’s right this time. You and he both know that, and maybe he’ll back down eventually, but I think maybe you need to cut him some slack this time.”

Cassadee was silent for a minute or two, mulling over Jack’s words. Then she set her jaw and looked at Jack defiantly.

“Stop being logical, Jack. It doesn’t become you.”

Jack laughed as his best friend sat in the corner in a huff.