"Draco! Draquito! Draco!" Alex burst into the alley, looking around in a cold sweat, "Draco! Where are you?!" Oh no. Draco could get into so much trouble without supervision. "Where are you, Draco? I never want to call 911 again because you got stuck in a tube!" Alex yelled, turning around just to find Draco already swinging upside down from the fire escape of the neighbouring building. "Ay madre mia, gracias a Dios. Get down from there, you're going to get hurt."
"Kiss me, Mary Jane," Draco chuckled a little and, with a somersault, landed on his feet.
"You brought me here to recreate a scene from Spiderman?" Alex looked around and then at his friend. "Because in that case, you would be Mary Jane."
"I'd rather be Gwen Stacy," Draco motioned for both of them to sit on a wooden bench. "Remember I told you I'd been here before?"
"Yes, you said that this afternoon," Alex nodded, "Why?"
"It's just that almost nothing has changed, but you and I? We have changed a lot."
"Sure thing. I never thought I'd come back here." Alex laughed, "In this alley I used to smoke cigarettes after every show, and from time to time I got lucky with a client or two back here, on this very bench."
"Well... Cred cÄ am dat cândva o muie aici." Draco lowered his gaze and avoided putting his hands on the bench.
"I don't speak Romanian, Draco," Alex said with a laugh, "But I guess you said you don't like it when I talk about my past as a womanizing asshole."
"That's not what I said but you're kind of right about that," Draco replied with a nervous laugh.
"Sometimes I think I'm still the same idiot I used to be, and I feel like no matter how hard I try to look for something good in my past, there's just nothing. My life ñstarted when I was accepted into the band." Alex sighed. "It's hard to think about my past when almost everything is about my mistakes. I guess I was looking for something I couldn't find. I never liked feeling like the bastard and failure of the Glorious Alfaros," he made an exaggerated gesture with his hands, "But despite everything, Grandpa Loberto always said that I would grow up to be someone important, but no one ever believed that I would achieve anything."
"Loberto?" Draco chuckled, and Alex raised an eyebrow.
"What's so funny?"
"Was your great-grandfather's name Alfanso?" Draco laughed and Alex nodded, erasing the vampire's smile, "Are you serious?"
"Yes, why?"
"It seems that history does always repeat itself as Zeth says," Draco put a finger on his chin, "Please tell me your great-grandfather didn't force a daughter named Deltania to marry a psychopath!"
"How do you know?"
Draco blinked rapidly.
"Wait, are you serious?"
"Yes. Deltania married a psycho who turned out to be a serial killer who..."
"I don't want to know more," Draco raised his hand, "I just hope that psycho's name wasn't Zehtt Greak."
"Well, they called the guy the Monster of Villa de Cortez, it is said that he killed several women, but Deltania was the one who realised and that's how he got caught. They found the bodies of six women in his backyard."
"That's horrible," Draco looked down, kicking a pebble, "It reminds me of my life on Evalon. I can't believe I got used to seeing corpses all over Kizah, and the vast majority were there because of my father and my sister. They were fanatics of punishment by death."
"Your life in Evalon sounds cruel."
"Too much, there you died for talking too much, for being homosexual or... Oh! Of course! That's why I asked you to come here! Alex, do you have a problem with Finn or Zeth being..."
"Bi? Nah, not at all." Alex dismissed with a hand, "You have a problem with that?"
"No! No, not at all," Draco looked down and fiddled with his fingers. "It's just..."
"You and I are telepathic at this point," Alex said and put his hand on Draco's back, rubbing a little. "Something's wrong." It was a fact, not a question.
"Telepathic, huh?" Draco smiled a little, moving his legs anxiously.
"Telepathic," Alex whispered and looked up at the sky.
It was so strange, now that Draco was remembering his life in Evalon, how unlikely this friendship would have been in the past.
Draco's family, and even his ancestors, would be very ashamed of him for being friends with a Lycan, and even worse for being madly in love.
"You didn't hear anything I said, did you, Von Stroker?" Alex grumbled and Draco blushed.
"Ãmi pare rÄu, I got lost in my thoughts again," Draco and Alex laughed a little.
"I suspected it when you started swinging your feet and looked up and away."
"You know me well, I think we really are telepathic at this point," Draco bit his lip.
"Remember when Zeth didn't make it to the concert because a truck parked outside his door, and you and I just nodded at each other on stage to know who was going to sing which of Zeth's verses?"
"That's not telepathy," Draco said with a chuckle, putting his hand on Alex's warm knee. "You sang the lows and I sang the highs."
"You rocked Zeth's verse on 'I've Seen The Darkness' that night. You are the most talented in the band."
"Oh shut your mouth! That's Zeth and Finn," Draco, ever humble, said.
"Oh please! Zeth has the strongest voice, Finn is on a whole other level, but you have the sweetest voice! You had the Mashers going crazy! You could imitate a coyote and all girls would still say you were adorable!"
"The girls..." Draco looked down, squeezed Alex's knee as he took a long breath, then dropped the bombshell. "I like girls, but I think I fell in love with a man."
"What?" Alex sat up straight and stared at Draco with half-shut eyes, "When did this happen?"
Draco shrugged, looking away.
"I don't know," Draco said quietly.
But he knew.
"And who's the lucky guy?" Alex asked, and Draco grunted.
"The lucky guy is a very fucking blind character just because it suits the plot! My Gawd!" Draco looked up at Alex with a frown. "And I actually didn't know I loved him so much until the day I literally found him dead in his bed."
"You say it was someone who died?" Alex asked, and Draco nodded. "And that someone... Was he in the audience or on stage?"
"Whut? Obviously on the stage! My Gawd!" Draco closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "I already knew this boy from before, I already felt attracted to him, but that night I knew it was love or maybe obsession, and then I..."
"Is he rich?!" Alex interrupted him.
"Well, not rich. I mean... He's technically rich, but..."
"Do you remember that concert when I fell down the stairs and broke my foot? In Tokyo."
"Whut?" Draco blinked rapidly.
"You and Zeth sang my parts and you both looked very close together," Alex snapped his fingers and laughed, "God! You like Zeth, don't you? He's the only guy in the band who has died, other than me."
"OOOOOkay, the author really crossed the line with this," Draco looked up, surprised but not really shocked. It was obvious this would be confusing, but it was his fault for taking the long road instead of being direct, like Everett always said. "Alex, I was not talking about Zeth."
"You were not?" Alex put his arm around Draco's shoulders and looked him square in the eye, "Hey, you can tell me who you like, I promise not to say anything."
"It doesn't matter now," Draco shook his head, leaning against Alex's shoulder, "Sometimes I wish I were braver."
"Come on, Draco! Spill the tea!"
"But..." Draco dropped his shoulders. "I don't see how to get out of this one now."
"You'll get out of this by talking about that special someone."
Draco ran his hands furiously through his hair, pulling at his scarlet strands, then turned to look at his friend with desperate eyes.
"I can't tell you because the person I like is..." It was all or nothing now. It was the moment Draco had nightmares about. It was the right time! So he took a long breath and decided to finally break free, "Because the man I love is..."
Suddenly, the back door opened, and out came Jade, like a weary bride left at the altar, with a sad face and messy hair. Her clothes were all wrinkled, and she had bags under her eyes.
"Thank you, Author!" Draco shouted into the air "I... I mean... Jade? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she nodded. "I'm going to walk home."
"We'll drive you home," Alex said, but Jade shook her head.
"It's not necessary," she whispered, "I have to go to school in the morning, and I'm exhausted. I don't live far away, as you may know, so... Leave me alone for a moment."
"Oh no! You're spending the night with us. You look terrible," Alex insisted. "Draco, go get your car. I'll get mine. Tell the guys I'm bringing Jade to our home."
"Okey-dokey," Draco said.
Jade wanted to protest and tell them that she did not want to go with them, but she was so tired that she preferred to shut her mouth and accept.