January 30, 2024
"Mr. Moskal. There are deliveries here in your name."
"Send them up through A1." He says, hanging up and paging Micheal to be at the main elevator.
The frail man stops what he's doing to attend to Petro's direct order. He stands by the elevator doors, waiting and tapping his right foot impatiently. A ding pierces the silence and the automatic doors slide open. Frayer moves quickly, announcing his presence and the man behind the cart jumps.
"I'll take this, thank you." He feigns a smile, putting his tablet on the stacked boxes, before pulling the man's job out of his grasp.
Stunned, he stutters, "O-okay...uh...s-sign this?" The delivery guy holds up a clipboard with a pen and form attached to it.
Micheal signs in Petro's signature and both men are on their way.
Meanwhile, Alexa is on the roof where she has always been lately, making her appearance scarce in the building. She sits on her and Katya's spot, staring into nothingness, frozen like the sky today, of unmoving clouds. Her heart is beating, she's breathing; she doesn't want to feel sorrow, nor pain, but she's conflicted. Does this fact make her a bad friend? Not wanting to feel, not wanting to relate to Kat? She's out here, while her only girl friend is locked away, in the deepest, darkest corner of her room, bawling her eyes out. Alexa is even scared to approach her.
"Lexy."
"Phillip." She acknowledges the boy without turning around.
"What are you doing to yourself?" he whispers, coming to sit beside her.
The way he asks makes her heart catapults in her chest and life begins to pump in her veins; humanity gives her a slap in the face.
She turns her head away from him, croaking, "Nothing. How's Kat?
"Haven't heard from her." He states, looking down at his partner. "You're sad."
"I don't feel sad. I–I can't feel anything right now." She grits out, trying to push back the overwhelming emotions.
"Look at me." Phillip says, stepping before her and she hangs her head in shame. He stoops to her level, glaring at her blank face. "You can't? Or, you just don't want to?" She lifts her gaze to his, as he continues, soothingly, "It's okay to feel." Her eyes become glazed with long awaited tears and she sniffles. "Feeling is all a part of being human and if you don't let out what you feel, it'll keep piling up inside, until it gets overbearing. Eventually, you'll pop..." He tells her, imitating an explosion with his hands, "Boom!"
By now, tears are rushing down her face in salty streams. "Ryan is gone, Katya is sad and I don't know what to do...!" She throws her weight off the vent and clings to Phillip with her face in his shirt.
The force pushes him backwards and both of them splay out on the concrete, her between his legs. He rests a hand on her head in comfort, ignoring the stiffness in his muscles.
"I'm horrible!" She wails, body shaking with every sob.
He pats down her hair, eyes casted ahead at the sky. "You're not."
"I am!"
"You are not."