The End of Summer

Chapter 20- 'Keep Watch? What are you a Cowboy?'

A/N: Thank you to Caution117 for the banner it is so amazing and I want to make love to it!

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It always fascinated me how when sleeping, even the most damaged person could look so peaceful.

The medical room was dark, now the only light shining in once the door was closed was from the tiny window. I sat on the edge of the single bed, looking down on the floor at a sleeping Alex.

He had not moved from the spot we found him what must have been about an hour ago by this point. The danger did pass and we heard the footsteps walk straight past the locked door of the medical room, but Archie and I agreed it was probably safer to stay here for a while. What neither of us said was it was best to wait until Alex was in a fit state. If he ever could be.

He was still hysterical, talking frantically just as he had when we walked in about not being able to help. My stomach lurched as I realised that meant that Mr Cook had probably joined the Principal and everyone else. We knew Alex was going to snap, and witnessing something like that was probably just the thing to do it.

Archie sat with him the entire time, calming him down and telling him it wasn’t his fault. Alex kept insisting he couldn’t help. It got to the point where even Archie looked lost at how to calm his brother down. Eventually, Alex fell asleep. That’s how they were as I looked over, Archie was sitting up while Alex’s head was on his knee and he was out cold.

He looked so peaceful, like he was the perfect picture of innocence. Looking at him now, it was hard to believe that he had been through anything horrible in his life. In a way, I was happy for him.

If only he got as much peace awake as he did when he was asleep.

Sitting in this dark room, especially considering I was sitting on a bed, made my eye lids grow heavy. I could feel myself getting tired, and I started to wonder how long we had gone without sleep. We were well into Saturday, and judging from the light coming through the window it was almost morning.

I don’t know how, but through the darkness of the room somehow Archie picked up on it.

“Get some sleep Summer.” Archie’s voice was quiet, and he wasn’t looking at me but down at his brother.

“I’m not tired its fine.”

He tore his eyes away from Alex and up at me, one brow quirked “Don’t bullshit me. You haven’t stopped yawning for the past half an hour.”

“Probably boredom not tiredness.”

“Oh sorry, are you not entertained enough? We must apologise.” Archie replied back sarcastically, and I glared at the imbecile. I decided to ignore the comment and be the bigger person, which took more strength than superman had.

“We can’t all decide to have a snooze Archie.” I pointed out. That would be great, all of us having a nap while knife boy charges in and carves us all up in our sleep like a Turkey on Christmas day.

Suddenly, he was on the move. He gently lifted Alex’s head up off his knee so not to wake him. He slid out of the way as he placed it back onto the ground so carefully as if not to break him. He walked towards the door and just like I had earlier, slid to the ground until his ass was on the floor and his back was pressed up against the door.

“You guys can sleep; I’ll stay up and keep watch.” He told me.

I tried to suppress a grin “Keep watch? What are you a cowboy?”

Through the darkness, I swear I saw the corner of his lip twitch. Of course, he had to keep up this ‘I hate Summer’ parade he was currently on. He didn’t say anything.