A Wall Between

Chapter 32

Abra had sent Cooper the promised instructions. They were very thorough, but they still ended up confusing him when he tried to follow them the next morning because he had a normal morning schedule and now he had a list of morning tasks entirely separate from that, so how did that work?

Especially since the two just simply didn't align. The first thing he normally did each morning was go for a jog before everyone else was up, and that meant dropping by to pick up Piper, but talking to George and Joy was below getting the key from Sasha and talking to Sasha's parents on the task list.

In the end he just skipped jogging. It probably wasn't anywhere near as complicated as he was making it out to be, but he couldn't deal with it right now.

Unfortunately this led to him jumping up to talk to Sasha the second he came out of his room, sleepy eyed and on his way to the bathroom. Sasha shut his eyes, yawned, and leant his forehead against Cooper's shoulder.

"Sorry." Cooper rubbed Sasha's back. "You can wake up. It can wait."

Sasha murmured something and headed into the bathroom.

It was around half an hour later that Sasha came to find Cooper, still in his pyjamas but fully awake now and smelling of toothpaste. "I can be a useful human now. Maybe. Probably not."

"I just wanted to ask if you'd feel comfortable giving us the key to your apartment," Cooper told him. "Ellie wants to get started on packing, and she figured going back there just to pack would be rough on you, so she'll do it for you if you want."

"Oh, um. I should do it myself, shouldn't I?"

"Depends what you mean by should. If you mean that you want to then yeah, of course. If you just think you should because it's your responsibility or whatever, then no. It just doesn't make sense for you to do it if it's going to be at all stressful because with how little stuff you have, it'll probably only take her like an hour to pack it all up."

"Well... hm. Do you think she won't mind?"

"It was her idea. She's not the kind of person who'll offer to do something for you and then resent you for saying yes."

"Okay, but. Um. Remember my plant? Herbert?"

"I do."

"Herbert is outside on the deck, so don't forget him."

"Got it." Cooper whipped out his phone and sent Ellie a message that said, Don't forget Herbert.

What? she sent back, but Cooper ignored her.

Next on the list of instructions Abra had sent him was to talk to Sasha's parents, which was vague and unhelpful and Cooper was pretty sure that hadn't even been in the original plan, but they were in the kitchen making coffee and Cooper was on a roll.

"Coffee?" Sasha's mum offered when Cooper stepped into the kitchen.

"Yes, please," Cooper said as he leant back against the kitchen counter. "So. Moving. With Sasha."

"Oh!" Sasha's mum said. "He talked to you about that, did he? We brought it up with him yesterday, but he has a hard time when he's stressed. It's all a bit much for him right now."

"He wants to do it. We just need to figure things out. Lots of things."

"The money's there," Sasha's dad said. "And if it isn't, you know, we can make sure it is. If he can have a real chance at finding somewhere he's happy, that's what really matters."

"I'm glad we agree on that," Cooper said. "I don't know about money, but we might need some help with things. The house isn't furnished and we don't own a fridge."