Chapter Five

Their trip to the U.S lasted roughly 8 hours.

Alex had managed to pack all his things in just two boxes, surprising Aunt Carol. She commented on him not having a lot of stuffs but unknown to her, he had left dozens of stuffs back at home. Locked up in his room and the house with him having no plan to return to.

He was going to be starting a new life and thus was trying to get rid of as much things as possible from his past.

As they boarded the plane and sat in their designated seats, Aunt Carol looked at Alex and took his hands in hers. She squeezed them not looking away from him and managed a smile.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Alex wasn’t sure of what exactly she meant but knowing his answer was going to be the same regardless, he replied. “I’m okay.”

“Are you sure you packed all your things? You sure you didn’t leave anything behind? You know you would be away for a very long time.”

He nodded in response. “Yes, I packed everything necessary.”

“Alright then,” she said then adjusted her sitting position to pull out a candy from her pocket. “Here. In case you’re nervous. It helps.”

He collected the candy from her and without hesitation, tore the wrapper open. It was his first time on a plane and though he could feel a nervous feeling crawl up towards him, he wasn’t sure if it was because he was on a plane.

Feeling the strawberry flavour from the candy dissolve in his mouth, he exhaled. The moment he spotted the air hostess walk in with the default smile on her face, he rested his back and much to his surprise, fell asleep in no time.

He was woken up hours later by the gentle taps from his aunt and sounds of people shuffling. He opened his eyes and immediately he was miles away from home. He was finally at the U.S.

He asked no questions as they got down the plane, retrieved their luggage and made their way to the main entrance of the airport. There were dozens of people roaming the airport with their travelling bags tailing them. Different emotions filled the air with some people laughing, some crying and some just like him, wondering what exactly was going on. They stood there for a few minutes and Alex was tempted to ask what exactly they were doing until he saw his aunt smiling and waving.

“Aunt Carol?” he looked at her, confused at her sudden excitement. On noticing her attention had completely shifted from him, he followed her eyes and spotted a guy standing next to a car, waving in return.

“Aunt Carol?” he asked then looked at the subject of her attention again. From a distance, he could notice the guy was tall. He seemed young with dark hair- black or brown, Alex couldn’t quite figure out which shade it was.

She seemed excited as she smiled at the guy making Alex wonder who exactly he was. From his memory, his Aunt Carol didn’t have a husband anymore. He was completely uninterested when he got the news broken to him which led to him forgetting if her husband was dead or if they’d just gotten a divorce. Realizing it’d be dumb and rude to ask if her husband was still alive or just away from her, he never asked and just concluded he was out of the picture regardless.

The guy she waved at looked too young to be someone she could be with. He looked at her in horror as a thought suddenly struck his mind.

“Let’s go,” Aunt Carol finally said, lending Alex her attention. “Lucas is waiting.”

“Lu-Lucas?” he almost stuttered, wondering if it was going to be okay to call him by the name. He swallowed, terrified to ask his next question but asked it regardless. “Who’s Lu- he?”

“My son, Lucas,” she slapped him lightly on the shoulder, Alex letting out a loud exhale. “Your cousin! Don’t you remember him?”

He didn’t even know she had a child regardless of the gender. “Oh he’s my cousin? Ah, yes I do.”

“Come on, let’s go,” she grabbed one of his bags and led the way. “Let’s not keep him waiting for too long.”

He nodded and watched his aunt lead the way. His supposed cousin was only a few meters apart from them as they got to his presence very shortly.

“Hey mum,” he walked towards them as he spotted them, reaching to collect the bags from him. “Thought you said you’ll be getting back tomorrow.”

“Well I missed you too,” she smirked at him. “Come on. Collect the bags from your cousin.”

“Hey man,” he did as his mum said and walked up to Alex. “Hi. I believe you already know me but I’m Lucas John, just in case.”

“Hi,” Alex awkwardly waved. Now staring at him from a closer angle, he could spot some similarities between him and his aunt. “Yeah, I do. I don’t think we’ve met before so well, I’m Alex. Um, Alex Croft.”

“About your dad,” Lucas bit his lip. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Alex somewhat smiled. “Thank you.”

“Would you put the luggage in the trunk?!” Aunt Carol interrupted their introduction. “You know we still have a long way to go, don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lucas groaned then shoved the luggage into the drunk. When he was done, he turned to face Alex and put his arm around him.

“Come on and ah, a not-so-late welcome to the U.S. I bet you’ll love it here.”

“Lucas!”

“Oh and,” he quickly added as he let go of Alex to walk to the driver’s seat. “My mum can be really naggy so that’s just a heads up. But don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to it.”

“LUCAS!”

“Coming!” he yelled in response then got into the car after Alex had successfully gotten into the back seat. “Are you all ready? We have a long way to go so let’s go!”

He looked so full of energy as he brought the car to life and Alex could only imagine if that was going to be him in a few months.

After all, he was in the U.S.

---

“This is your room.”

They had arrived at the Johns after close to a two hour drive. Alex didn’t expect them to mean having a long way to go very literally and as that was surprised at the long and seemingly never ending drive.

Their house was totally different from Alex’s back in London. It was big, to be fair, but not as big as theirs. It had a friendlier and homelier theme in compared to theirs that looked like an extension of his dad’s office. It was a duplex with the living room taking majority of the down floor and the upper floor housing the rooms.

Aunt Carol was obviously very tired as on getting home, she took quicker steps to her room and assigned the job of helping to tour the house to Lucas. He took the job very dutifully as he quickly showed Alex around the down floor and to his favourite part of the house other than his room- the kitchen. He showed him the fridge, managing to marvel Alex with the number of snacks and unhealthy foods that filled it and then granted him an eternal permission to access it.

“Oh,” Alex muttered as he stepped into his new room. “Thanks?”

“Luckily we had a spare room so you don’t have to share a room with me,” Lucas said, confidently walking further into the room.

“A spare room?”

“Yes,” Lucas nodded. “There’s my room, mum’s, the guest room, the library, the room for all sorts of old stuffs and this one. Your new room. All the others are occupied so yeah it’s a spare room.”

“Of course,” Alex said then laughed lightly. “By the way, you have a library here?”

“Boring, I know,” Lucas shook his head. “Mum’s a professor in case you don’t know so I guess it’s parts of the perks of having such a boring job.”

“It can’t be all that boring,” Alex was already imagining having free access to various study materials. “My dad was a doctor, imagine how boring that must have been for me.”

“Hell no,” Lucas plopped on the bed. “With my mum, all that’s guaranteed is a mountain pile of books, nothing else. But with your dad, you’ll at least know there’s no falling sick and even if you do, premium treatment guaranteed.”

“Oh? My mum still died from falling sick though,” Alex said then watched an awkward silence fall between them. “Perks?”

“I’m so sorry,” Lucas got up from his bed. “I didn’t mean-”

“It’s fine,” Alex cut him off then smiled. “She died many years ago anyways so you can feel free to talk about her.”

“I know but,” Lucas ran his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry. I’m just so excited to have you here I’m saying a lot of rubbish.”

“You’re excited to have me here?”

“Of course!” he jumped back on the bed. “Ever since mum and dad’s divorce, it’s been just us at home and it can get really boring sometimes. As I said, mum’s a professor so she gets busy a lot so though I have my friends and pretty much spend most of my time in school, the house can still get a bit lonely sometimes.”

“Oh,” Alex nodded, grateful he had finally being able to clarify the state of his aunt’s husband. “Well, thanks for having me over. Oh and school. Do you go to a college around here?”

“Oh, college,” Lucas smirked. “Nice to know you think so highly of me but nah, not yet. I’m still in high school.”

“You’re still in high school?!”

“Don’t say it like that,” Lucas gestured with his fingers. “I’m in my final year so don’t worry, I’ll be joining you in college next year.”

“I-”

“God,” Lucas interrupted, getting off the bed again. “I talk too much, right? Sorry. I should allow you unpack, rest and get freshened up. My bad.”

“I-”

“I’m leaving now,” Lucas said as he walked towards the door. “Bye. Take care. I’ll see you around!”

Alex watched him slam the door then completely go out of sight then smiled. He turned to look around him and sighed.

Everything was new, fresh and seemed exciting. He was in a new family with new family members who seemed eager to have him. He wasn’t sure if he deserved any of it but since life seemed to be offering it to him, he simply decided to go with the flow.

The room was wide and empty. Painted in a subtle cream colour, the walls were bare and obviously in need of company. The bed was a fairly sized one and had a clean bedsheet was now rumpled thanks to Lucas jumping on.

He nodded to himself then pulled his suitcase close to him to get to work. He unzipped it, revealing his last minute stuffed clothing all rumpled inside.

He paused then got up to open the curtains. Feeling better with the light entering the room, he walked to his new closet and checked it out to mentally note how he was going to be arranging his clothes.

He returned to the floor and dug his hands into the suitcase. He transferred about half the contents to his bed and stopped halfway the second his eyes caught a piece of clothing.

Getting up as fast as he could, he pulled out the familiar clothing. With eyes widened, he stared at the white hoodie with splattered paint in his hand.

“How is this still here?” he muttered to himself, feeling the memories of that day flood back towards him.

‘Come on Blue, I really do want to see you again.’

He shivered as he felt goosebumps crawl towards his skin at the thought.

“No, no,” he immediately snapped out of it and squeezed the hoodie. “No.”

He needed to get rid of the hoodie. He looked around him for a scissors or anything he could use to successfully get rid of it and on seeing none, he groaned and simple shoved it into the wastebasket by a corner of his room.

“This is a chance to start all over again,” he said to himself as he glanced at the hoodie in the wastebasket. “A new beginning.”

Taking deep breaths, he managed to not look at the hoodie and then resumed arranging his new room.

---

Time flew fast and before Alex knew it, a week had gone by.

He was settling in well with his aunt and his cousin as Aunt Carol never failed to make him welcome with Lucas not hiding his excitement of having someone around his age at home. He spent the whole week at home with his aunt leaving early for work and his cousin doing the same for school. He had enough time to be alone with his thoughts and to his surprise, found himself anticipating their arrivals once it was past 4pm.

He was content and could only wish everything kept on going smoothly as it was.

"Good morning!" Lucas said the moment he spotted Alex walking into the dining. "Oh, you're dressed for the first time in over a week. Are you going somewhere?"

"You talk too much," Aunt Carol shook her head, taking a seat. "Good morning, Alex. How was your night?"

"Good morning," Alex replied the duo with a smile as he took a seat. "It was great, thank you."

"I'm guessing you're ready seeing you're all dressed up already?"

"I knew he was going somewhere!" Lucas interrupted before Alex could respond. "Is it college? Woah, are you resuming today?"

"Maybe you'll get the answers to your questions if you did less of talking and more of listening," Carol scolded her son and faced Alex. "Alex, dear?"

"Yes, I'm ready," he nodded. "I'm not resuming today, Lucas. It's actually tomorrow but Aunt Carol suggested checking out the college first today before my actual first day."

“Oh, sounds nerdy,” Lucas scrunched his nose. “Anyways, do have fun.”

He truly was having fun as he walked around the college. His aunt had driven him and promised to come back to pick him in two hours giving him enough time to walk around and have a fill of the scenery to his heart’s content.

He wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting but he was sure what he met was more. The college was beautiful and with every new building he stepped into, he marvelled at the architecture. It had attractive trees and flowers around, adding to the already beautiful environment.

After visiting several spots and locations, he finally headed to his most anticipated location- the library. The librarian demanded an ID to enter but as he explained he was to resume the following day with a sulky face, she smiled at him and allowed him in.

He was feeling ecstatic as he stepped out of the library. It had all the features he needed in a library and he could already see it becoming one of his favorite places to escape and of course, sleep.

He glanced at his wristwatch as he walked around the campus. He had spent exactly two hours and if he’s aunt was a punctual time freak, she was to appear in any minute. Hoping she was one of those, he quickly slid his phone down his pocket and walked towards the spot she was to pick him up from.

She turned out to not be all that about punctuality as Alex was standing and still waiting for her after ten minutes. To keep his company, he had taken out his headphones and plugged them in his ears as he waited for her.

He had only listened to a couple of songs when he felt he was hearing his name get called. He took a pause to pull out his headphones and was about to look around him when he felt someone tap his shoulder.

Alex felt his heart beat faster than the tempo of the music playing loudly in his right ear as he stared at the one who had suddenly tapped him. He blinked, unable to utter a word and before he could try to regulate his heartbeat, heard him say,

"Blue? It's you, isn't it?"