InsaneJournal

Morning brought snow again instead of rain, and cold in the form of two feet pressed against his leg. A quick glance confirmed his suspicion, and Alex groaned as he kicked at the owner’s leg.

“Zayne, move your feet. They’re freezing.”

Zayne grumbled as he rolled away, burying himself further under the blankets. Alex sighed as he got up, frowning down at the blond curled up in his bed. “I thought you were sleeping on the couch,” he said, which made Zayne finally crack open an eye to peer up at him.

“Too cold out there,” he yawned. “Figured you wouldn’t mind.”

Alex sighed again, not bothering to give Zayne a reply and instead going to his closet. “Well, get up. We’re making that trip to the police today.”

Zayne yawned widely as he sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “Has it even been long enough to go to the police?” he asked. Alex frowned at him in response, throwing some dry clothes at him.

“It had better be,” he grumbled. “Jayden’s been missing for two days now and it’s freezing cold outside. If the police don’t do anything I don’t know what I’ll do.”


“72 hours! Are they insane?! He could be dead by then!”

Alex let out a frustrated scream, hands wringing the neck of a person only he could see. Next to him, Zayne frowned; while the sight of Alex so worked up was normally amusing, this time it was downright unnerving.

“Alex,” he said simply, putting his hand on the shorter man’s shoulder. “Breathe. I’m sure Jay’s fine.”

Alex muttered some unintelligible curse, likely directed at the unhelpful officer they had just spoken to, before sighing heavily. “But what if he’s not fine?”

“He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself,” Zayne said firmly. “Stop stressing so much before you give yourself an aneurism.”

Alex grumbled under his breath, leaning into Zayne’s side. “Yeah, but I can’t help but worry. You know how Jayden is.”

“Which is why we’re going to look for him ourselves,” Zayne said, wrapping his arm around Alex’s shoulders. He grinned hearing Alex’s confused, “huh?”as he led his friend further away from the police station. “What’d you do with Jay’s phone?”

“It’s back at the apartment,” Alex replied, sounding as confused as he looked. “Why?”

Zayne patted Alex’s head as he steered him in the direction of their apartment building, using his free hand to tug his scarf back into place. “Maybe Jay’s disappearing wasn’t so random. Don’t you think he’s been acting funny lately?”

Alex frowned, shrugging slightly. “He hasn’t been as off-the-wall hyper as usual, if that’s what you’re talking about.”

“Good fluffy-head, you’ve been paying attention!” Zayne ruffled Alex’s hair, ignoring the indignant cry the action earned him. “And Jay not being off-the-wall hyper means what?”

Alex was quiet a long moment as he pulled Zayne’s hand off his head. “Something was bothering him,” he said at last. “And he didn’t want to tell us.”

“You know Jay better than I do,” Zayne said, “so any ideas on what might’ve been bothering him?”

Alex sighed, shaking his head. “It could be so many different things. His grades could be slipping, he might’ve had another fight with Lea, I know he was upset about Angel being out of town for the week…”

“Maybe he went to see Angel then?” Zayne suggested. “Where’d she go?”

Alex chuckled softly, shaking his head again. “Probably not. She’s in the Bahamas with her family.”

“Oh.” Zayne was silent, thinking, as the two of them reached their building and started up the stairs to Alex’s apartment. “Have you talked to Lea lately? Maybe she knows something.”

“I’ll call her after I talk to Mom and Aunt Tara,” Alex replied, fumbling with his keys as he tried to open his door. “What did you need Jay’s phone for, anyway?” he asked, letting Zayne in the door, following him through and closing the door behind him.

Zayne grinned at him, already headed for the still-blinking phone on the counter. “Call history is a wonderful little thing.”

Alex had to grin in response, even as he shook his head. “You’ve always liked snooping through his stuff. I’m not surprised that’s one of the first things you think of.”

The blond shrugged, sprawling out on Alex’s couch with the phone in hand. Leaving Alex to call around to his family, he fiddled with Jayden’s phone, clicking his way past all of the missed alerts on the front screen to get to his most recent text messages. One number on the list of recent messages caught his eye, and he sat straight up with a curse, not even hearing Alex jump and drop his own phone.

“Zayne?” he asked as he quickly picked up his phone, thankful he had not been talking to anyone at the moment. “What’d you find?”

“I’m going to kill those bastards,” Zayne nearly growled, before getting to his feet and taking the phone to Alex. “Look at those messages.”
Alex took the phone, glancing through the messages Zayne had indicated. Zayne watched on in silence as Alex’s expression hardened with each click, as he scrolled past one threatening message after another.

“Zayne,” he said after several minutes of silence, “who are these from?”

“Darrius.” Zayne all but spat the name, scowling. “You know, the one you punched out a few years back?”

Alex snapped the phone shut, looking up at Zayne. “You sure it’s him?”

“Positive,” Zayne replied, grabbing his coat. “I’d recognize that number anywhere. The idiot transferred it every time he got a new phone and apparently he hasn’t decided to get a new one yet.” He tossed Alex his coat before tugging on his own, shuffling into his shoes.

“Do you know where to find him?” Alex asked, pulling on his coat as he walked over to get his own shoes.

“If Darrius is still as big of an idiot as he was back then, yeah,” Zayne said, waiting with one hand on the doorknob. “Ready to go?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Alex said, nodding. “Let’s go get Jay.”