Chapter Text
Alex POV
Two days after his breakdown, practice for Julie and the Phantoms recommenced. If there was any tension left from last practice, it had basically doubled, since nobody had even heard from Alex since he walked out. He could admit that it was probably his fault, but what was he supposed to say? It wasn’t like he could tell them he was a moonlighting vigilante who was training the son of the man who hired their band but supposedly didn't know who Phantom even was!
“Alex, man, what the hell?” Reggie said before he even had his drumsticks out of his bag. “You didn't even react to the pic I sent to the group chat of me eating that hotdog!”
“Yeah, and you left me at Julie’s house without a ride,” Luke said. “I had to call my mom. I’m 21 years old and I got dropped off in her minivan.”
“Sorry you guys, I had kind of a family emergency.” That sobered everyone up pretty quickly. Alex hated pulling that card because they knew how shitty his mom was, but it was an automatic free pass, and Alex had enough on his plate with this festival coming up and his nightly work without having to placate his band on top of it all.
“Are you okay? Did she reach out again?” Julie asked softly. Alex thought about his mother’s blocked number on his phone and her countless unread Instagram messages.
“Everything’s fine, Julie. Let's just bang out some tunes. My head is in the game.”
***
Two hours of rehearsal later had Alex driving Luke to his job at Grinds, the local coffee shop a block away from Dirty Candy. Alex was hoping for a pretty quiet ride, or at least for Luke to fill the space with light chatter about his regular customers, but naturally Alex had no luck.
“Hey man, you know you can talk to me about what's going on at home, right?” Luke said about five minutes into what Alex had hoped would be the start of twenty minutes of silence.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” Alex said, his grip tightening on the wheel. “Just trying to help out my sister.”
Technically, that wasn’t entirely false. Alex was always trying to help out Rebecca; there was no way he’d ever let his mom do to her what she did to him. She was sixteen, for God’s sake— she should be learning to drive and buying dresses for prom, not stitching up knife wounds and learning to fight. Obviously she had no idea who he really was, and he intended to keep it that way for as long as possible.
“Is Jennifer taking her issues out on Becca now?” Luke asked.
“No, no, of course not. My mom loves Becca. I just had to sort some things out, it's over now.”
That was also true. Rebecca had always been the golden child— Becca Mercer, homecoming queen as a sophomore. Becca Mercer, varsity lacrosse player as a freshman. Becca Mercer, budding astronomer with an internship at Boeing. She could do no wrong in his mother’s eyes, and Alex was inclined to agree with her. How could he possibly be resentful when she was also the kindest person he’d ever met and the first and last person he talked to every day? The last time Alex woke up without a ‘good morning’ text from Becca, she was in surgery to get her appendix out, and he still drove out to the hospital to see her after the procedure.
“As long as she’s okay,” Luke said, though he looked like he wanted to say more. Instead, Alex sent him what he hoped was a reassuring smile and cranked the music up to drown out his thoughts.
***
Willie POV
When Willie got to Dirty Candy a week and a half into his training, he waited with Alex at the reception desk like usual, but even after ten minutes of waiting, Carrie didn't appear.
“Do you want me to give her a call?” Alex asked after the silence got unbearable. Willie felt himself blush.
“If it’s not too much trouble… I forgot to get her number,” he said, pocketing his phone. Alex gave a blinding grin and pulled out his own phone, outfitted with an Otterbox case. He put it on speaker and set it between the two of them on the desk, watching it ring before Carrie picked up.
“Lex?” Carrie said through the receiver, sounding groggier and less awake than Willie had ever thought she could be.
“You okay, Carrie?” Alex asked, his smile dropping. Carrie lapsed into a coughing fit, heavy and rough and painful-sounding.
“Peachy. Do you mind taking care of my diligent student for a day or two?” Carrie rasped.
“Uhh…”
“Lexi, you’ll be fine, you won’t even need to do much. Unless you’d rather I come in?” She punctuated her question with another coughing fit.
“No, I’ve got it, get some rest. Don't come in until you’re at 100%!” Alex rushed out. Carrie snorted.
“You’re one to talk, mister ‘unless I’m actively dying, I’m at work’,” Carrie said. “Take care of Willie for me.” Alex’s phone beeped and went silent, signaling the end of the call.
Well shit. Willie really needed to talk to Phantom about what Caleb had said, and Carrie was as close as he could get. Now, all he had was three hours with a really hot guy while his adoptive father planned to kidnap the most famous hero in America and force him to fight in his club.
The aforementioned hot guy seemed to have his own reservations, of which Willie hoped were not because of his specifically.
“Listen, if you don’t feel comfortable with fighting and stuff…” Willie said, noting the pained look on Alex’s face.
“No, don’t worry about it. We can do some basics until she feels better, if you’re okay with that,” Alex said. “I don’t know how much advanced stuff I can really do with you, but it won’t be good for you to be out of practice if you’re doing what I think you’re doing.”
Wait. Hold on, record scratch, run that back, Alex knew?
“What do you think we’re doing?” Willie said slowly. He must have looked as bewildered as he felt, because Alec laughed, his posture losing some of its tension.
“I’ve been working at DC long enough that it would be sad if I didn’t have some idea of what goes on at night. I try to stay out of it, but I’m not clueless.”
“That makes this so much easier, then,” Willie said. “You’re probably more than qualified to help.”
***
Willie spoke too soon. Alex seemed to know his way around the machines and the gym side of the facility, but as soon as there was anything to do with fighting, he was tripping over his feet and fumbling the training clubs.
“I told you I’m not very good at this,” Alex groaned, splayed on his back on the mat for the umpteenth time. “At this point, you’re just getting practice beating the shit outta someone.”
“Are you sure you’re okay doing this?” Willie asked, glancing at the bruises forming on his hands. He hadn’t even rolled up his sweatshirt sleeves, but he wasn’t sweating— was Alex really so bad that he couldn’t break a sweat before being defeated?
“Think of it as character building,” Alex joked. “You’re deflating my ego.”
“After three hours of this, there can’t be much ego left to deflate.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. At least I don’t have to worry about being in the field!”
“You look like you could have been, with all that bruising,” Willie pointed out. “C’mon, let me see the damage to your arms. I hit you pretty hard that last time.”
“No,” Alex said, almost too quickly. “Seriously, I’m fine. Hey, time is just about up— didn’t you have something you needed to talk to Carrie about? Maybe I can pass along a message.”
Willie thought for a moment about telling Alex about his father. He was much more involved than he thought, even if he didn’t know Phantom personally; anyone who knew about him was in danger. But he knew so little about Alex and how much he knew. There was no way he could burden him with this kind of thing, especially when he had proven how much protection he really needed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Willie said. “I’ll talk to her later. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sure,” Alex said, standing from the mat with a funny look on his face. “Sounds like a plan.”
***
Alex POV
“Do you think he’s hiding something?” Alex asked Carrie as she helped him ice his bruises from three long days of getting pummeled.
“Maybe. Probably not. Stop moving, you baby! You didn’t even flinch when you got stabbed the other day!”
“He looked so nervous at the beginning though,” Alex said. “He, like, really needed to talk to you, but then he just played it off, you know?”
“No, I really don’t. Hey, do you know Julie’s friend, Flynn? Do you think they wanna make out with me?”
“Sure. But I think I’m going to visit him as Phantom, just to make sure. Is that stupid?”
“Yep, definitely, but you’re gonna do it anyway. Shit, it would be so much easier to make out with Flynn if I had abs like yours. I bet you’re not even flexing right now.”
“Stop talking about my abs, it’s weird. I’m certain Flynn wants to make out with you. Do you think I should talk to him tonight or is that too soon?”
“If you talk to Willie tonight, I’ll make out with Flynn tonight,” Carrie offered.
“Deal.”
***
Luke POV
“You must all be wondering why I’ve brought you here today,” Luke said. Flynn snorted.
“It’s about Alex, isn’t it?” They asked. Luke frowned.
“Why do you have to ruin all of my fun?
“Literally everyone is here, and I’m not even in your band, dumbass.”
“Hey, don’t say that!” Julie said. “Of course you’re in the band— you’re the holder of the braincell!”
“You also do, like, everything except play the instruments,” Reggie volunteered
“As heartwarming as this is,” Luke interrupted, “I seriously think we need to talk about Alex. Haven’t you all noticed how distant he’s been lately?”
“I mean, he’s always been pretty private, hasn’t he?” Julie said. “We didn’t even find out about his mom until she literally came to a show to harass him, and even then, we barely have a clue what's going on.”
“Yeah, but he’s been extra out of it recently. Do you guys think something’s wrong with his sister?” Luke asked. Reggie scoffed.
“Definitely not, you guys all remember what happened with her appendix. He wouldn’t even be here if something was up with Becca. But I think Luke’s right, he’s totally been spacey recently.”
“I don’t know if this is any of our business,” Flynn said. “If he’s chosen not to tell any of us, should we really be investigating it?”
“Maybe Flynn is right, Luke,” Julie said gently. “I see where you're coming from, and I know you’re worried, but it’s not really our place to go digging where he clearly doesn’t want us to dig.”
“You guys know Alex, though, Historically, his decision making regarding opening up to the people he cares about has been shit. He won’t even tell us if he has a stomachache, there’s no way he’ll willingly tell us if there’s something up right now. And there is, I can feel it.”
“I’m on Flynn and Julie’s side here, man,” Reggie said, earning a betrayed look from Luke. “Something is definitely up, but he’ll just run away if we try to find out. Like that stuff, what’s it called? Oobleck or something?”
“Reggie, what the fuck are you on about?” Flynn said incredulously.
“You know, if we come on too strong, he’ll harden up and all that. We have to ease into it.”
“That was… strangely insightful, but Reggie is right, we can’t just rush him. Luke, I love you, and you have really great intentions, but I think we should just leave it be,” Julie said. Luke sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Fine. Maybe they wouldn’t help him, but Luke was going to figure this out. Something was eating at Alex and he was going to help.