~Althia~

"Jess told you everything?" Alex asked me as we heard the water running

I nodded

"Did she say what he did tonight?" He questioned

I shook my head

"She just said that he grabbed her" I told him

Alex's jaw clenched as he shook his head

My eyes looked down towards his hands and saw that his right hand was bruised

I walked over to the fridge and took out an ice pack from the freezer

"Here" I handed it to Alex

"I don't need it" He pushed it away from me

"Alex you need to ice your knuckles" I told him as I handed it to him again

When Alex didn't budge, I reached and grabbed his hand to put the ice pack on it myself

Alex winced at the sudden coldness but eventually he held down the ice pack with me

I examined him and saw that there was something he wanted to say but he didn't

"You're not blaming yourself for what happened tonight, are you?" I asked him gently

"How could I not blame myself for this? It's all my fault" He answered "I should have been there with her tonight. Nothing would have happened if I was just by her side but no I had to stop to talk to some guy from band" He added

"That's not fair to yourself, you can't blame everything on you. You had no way of knowing that what happened tonight would happen. Even if you were by Jess' side, who's to say that Bryce wouldn't still have done what he did" I said

"You don't understand Al" Alex sighed "I made a promise to not only Jess, but to myself that I would never let anything bad happen to her ever again. Tonight I broke that promise. I broke it all because some kid wanted to ask me about a song. Why the fuck did I stop? I quit band years ago and yet I still stopped and didn't even realize that Jessica kept walking to the kitchen until it was too late" He told me "Seeing her tonight, crying and having to relive the worst thing imaginable killed me. It tore me apart and I knew she was crying because of me in a way. I didn't do my job, I didn't keep my promise to her and now she has another nightmare to think about" He finished

I looked at him empathetically

"Alex I get what you mean but it's really not your fault. It's nobody's fault except for Bryce's and I know that I didn't know Jessica when everything went down the first time but I know her now and I know that she is so strong. She'll get through this and so will you. We all will and nobody here is blaming you for anything so why should you blame yourself?" I responded

Alex looked up at me as his eyes went soft

"It just I feel like I failed her" He whispered

"You didn't" I replied gently "I promise" I added as I placed a hand on his upper arm

Alex didn't respond, instead he wrapped his arms around me and brought me into a hug

I quickly hugged him back

"Are you guys coming up?" Jessica called from upstairs, making us pull apart

Alex gave me a small smile before gesturing for me towards the stairs

We walked upstairs and went into Jess' room where she was on her bed

"Can we watch That Awkward Moment or something with Dave Franco? I'm down for whichever" She asked us once she saw us

"We can watch That Awkward Moment so you two can get some Zac and Michael" Alex said

"Alex, stop pretending like you don't have a big fat lesbian crush on Miles Teller" I replied

Alex rolled his eyes at me as he went to Jess' DVD cabinet

"Stop quoting Mean Girls" He responded

"You know we can't do that" Jessica told me

I joined her on the bed and she hugged me again

"I appreciate you greatly" She whispered

"And I appreciate you even more" I whispered back as she laid down on her side and placed her head in my lap

Alex put the movie on and took a seat in front of the bed

Not long after the movie started, Jessica was passed out on me

I glanced down at Alex to see that he had his head slightly leaned back on the mattress with his eyes closed

"Alex" I whispered "Are you sleeping?" I asked him

"No" He answered while looking back "Just thinking" He added

"Do you wanna switch places? I'll give you the bed" I questioned

"No, I'm fine down here. I think it's best that you stay up there with Jess so when she wakes up, she sees you first thing" He told me

I nodded but then realized that he couldn't see me

"She's gonna be okay, right?" I asked him, as I looked down at Jess

"She will be" Alex answered

I waited for him to go on but instead he sat up straighter and stretched

"We'll have to tell her dad and he'll probably get the cops involved again to get another restraining order. Therapy sessions might be recommended again, I don't know" He finally told me

I nodded as I looked at Jessica again

"Hey have you heard from anyone since we left the party?" Alex suddenly asked me

"Shit, no, I think I left my phone in your car" I answered "Have you gotten any texts?" I questioned

Alex grabbed his phone and opened it

"Montgomery texted me awhile back saying that he got home, he probably left not that long after us" Alex said

"How bad was the fight on a scale of one to ten?" I asked him

"Negative 10 for us because we walked away with nothing but bruised knuckles. For Bryce and Scott, though, I would say it was a solid 8 when I walked out and Monty probably finished it with a 10" He answered

"For once, I'm entirely glad that you guys got in a fight" I sighed as Alex chuckled slightly

"You want me to go get your phone?" He asked

"Please, I made Jeff promise to text me when he got back from his run and when he got home which he should be there by now" I said

"I'll make sure he texted and respond to him, you try and get some rest okay?" Alex looked at me

I nodded

"And make sure that everyone else is home too please since I'm sure they didn't bother to text me to tell me" I told him, referring to Justin and Zach

"I'm sure they texted you but yes I'll make sure, now you sleep" He replied

I nodded once again as I watched him leave the room

I slowly moved Jess off of me then placed a pillow in front of her before lifting her head onto it

I got up and covered her with a blanket

I went into her bathroom and searched for her makeup remover, I took my makeup off before going back in her room and doing the same to her

I got back on her bed and placed myself sideways next to her as I wrapped myself with a blanket

I closed my eyes as I heard the front door being closed again

I tried to wait up until Alex came back into the room but I slowly drifted off to sleep as he didn't come upstairs