Alex thought he was done being terrified of the sound of a phone ringing, but as he and Matthew were getting ready to leave their flat that next Monday morning he jumped at the sudden and shrill tone of it. Matthew put a steadying hand on Alex's back before going to answer it himself. Alex's body tensed and he involuntarily held his breath as Matthew picked up the phone and gave a slightly wary greeting.
"Oh, hey Ellie," Matthew said, his tension relaxing a little. "What's up?"
Alex moved away from the front door and towards Matthew as whatever Eloise was saying on the other end of the line made him scrunch his forehead and frown slightly. "No, he's not," Matthew said. "But we'll stop by his dorm, okay? You need me to come over there and walk you?... You sure?... Alright, cool. See you at the dining hall."
Matthew hung up the phone and turned to Alex, his frown slightly deeper. "You know how Farrow's been walking Ellie everywhere this past week?"
"Yeah," Alex said, immediately put on edge by the mention of Jack's name.
"He didn't show up to walk her to breakfast this morning. She wants us to"
Alex barely heard the first half of Matthew's second sentence, because he was already dashing out the door and towards the staircase to get to Jack's flat on the floor above them. He vaguely registered Matthew following behind him, but he couldn't make himself slow down enough to wait or even hold open the stairwell doors. He got to Jack's flat quicker than he would have thought possible and knocked on the door, his heart rate spiking every second that went by without an answer.
"Jack?" Alex called, upgrading his knocking to banging. "Jack, are you in there?"
"Ellie said she called him before us," Alex heard Matthew's voice chime in behind him. "But she didn't get an answer."
Alex's banging turned into pounding, his panic making him barely register how that made Matthew wince and flinch. "He could just be sleeping in," Matthew suggested in a soothing voice. It reminded Alex of how he talked to that year seven girl they found crying in the courtyard, that morning Baptiste died.
Unfortunately, his association of that tone with that day only made his anxiety rise, as he started to hear his father's voice calling out for Jack in a panic. He could feel Jack's name rising in his throat again, and Alex had a feeling if he had managed to get it out, he would have sounded alarmingly like Utkarsh had. But before he could the door to Jack's flat swung open, and Alex was met with an extremely dishevelled and grumpy-looking Jonathan Farrow.
"What," he seethed, "the hell?"
"Jack," Alex breathed out, his relief blinding him to how ready Jack looked to smack him. "You're alright."
"Of course I am," Jack said with a yawn. "What do you want?"
"Ellie asked us to come get you," Matthew explained, and Jack's squinted eyes opened slightly at the realization that there were two people outside his door. "She got worried when you didn't show up to be her chauffeur."
Alex could practically see the gears in his friend's head turning as he processed what Matthew had said. After a couple of seconds, his eyes widened and his head snapped to look back at something in his flat. "Shit, it's that late already? Fuck."
"Do you sleep in your dirty gym clothes, Farrow? Why does your shirt look like that?"
Jack turned his head back towards them to look down at the shirt in question. As he did Alex realized for the first time that it and the joggers he was wearing were caked in dirt and dried mud. Jack looked back up at them, his grumpily sleepy expression replaced by something Alex couldn't quite put a name to.
"None of your business, Montoya," he muttered, almost sounding embarrassed. "Look, tell Ellie I'm sorry. I forgot to set my alarm last night and overslept. Would one of you go make sure she doesn't have to walk to breakfast alone?"
"She's walking with Mikayla," Matthew explained. "What are you-"
"Cool. I'm going back to sleep. Goodbye now."
Before either of them could get another word in, Jack slammed his door shut. Alex blinked at the wooden door for a few seconds before letting out a shaky breath. He never thought seeing Jonathan Farrow in a bad mood would have ever brought him that much relief.
"That was weird, right?" Matthew asked.
"For Jack? Not really," Alex answered, his voice still a little shaky. "He's pretty foul when he's tired. The dirty clothes were a little odd, I guess."
"You gonna try to wake him up for classes?"
"I think I'll let him have this one. He looked tired."
"You okay?"
Alex forced himself to take a few more breaths until they were coming out steady. "Yeah. Sorry. I just... My brain jumped to the worst scenario."
"I get it. Come on, let's get some food in you."
Alex glanced at Jack's door one last time before nodding and following Matthew to the elevator, swallowing his lingering bits of fear and panic. The two made their way to the dining hall in silence, but Matthew stayed so close to Alex's side that he could feel his body heat. When Alex realized that his simple presence was easing his anxiety, a different feeling started swirling in his stomach.
Alex had been keeping his head down on the walk, but when they reached the courtyard, he snapped it up after he heard Matthew mutter a curse. A small bundle of students was gathered by the steps of Timber Hall, all staring at something on the ground.
"What are the odds nothing's wrong?" Matthew wondered as the two rushed to cross the courtyard.
"Minuscule," Alex answered.
Alex's new surge of anxiety calmed a little bit when he noticed Ellie's familiar head of curly hair among the small crowd. She turned her head when Matthew called out, and Alex saw her expression was calm if a little perplexed. When they got closer Alex saw why. A portion of the immaculately maintained row of bushes that lined the outside of the building had a new addition in front of them. A dozen barely budding little flower sprouts had been haphazardly planted, right about where Ellie had imagined her memorial bed of flowers.
"Here I thought you guys did this," Ellie said when Alex and Matthew approached. "But you two look as confused as I am."
"No one else took credit?" Matthew asked, glancing around at the group. Mikayla was there, along with a few other scholarship students who had started sitting at their table for meals. Alex noticed Mary Somers there too, looking down at the flowers with a small smile.
"No. Maybe they just sprung up overnight."
"Doubt it," Matthew muttered, giving Alex a knowing look. Jack. No wonder he had been filthy and exhausted. "Someone made a hell of a mess rifling through the dirt."
"Someone's gonna get in a hell of a lot of trouble when Headmaster Conrad sees this."
Mary Somers' smile suddenly fell, and she turned her head towards them to join the conversation. "You don't think he'll rip them up, do you?" she said, her voice genuinely distraught. "They'll look so pretty when they bloom."
"If," Eloise said. "We've not exactly got the weather for it right now."
"I've got it," a new voice chimed in. Alex turned to see Warren approach and walk up to the little sprouts without hesitation. He knelt on the ground and put his hands on the freshly disturbed dirt, curling his fingers through it as he closed his eyes. The sprouts started to dance as if they were sped-up nature documentary footage and went from budding to blooming in only a couple of seconds. Alex felt Matthew flinch slightly as the flowers revealed themselves to be bright red poppies.
"There," Warren said as he got up and attempted to clean his dirty hands on the knees of his dirty pants. "Not sure how long they'll last in this cold. I can keep them prolonged for a few months, at least, if I visit in the mornings."
"Thanks, Ren," Mary said. Alex was surprised at how invested she seemed to be in it.
Some of the onlookers dispersed to go off to breakfast, while others stayed to take in the newly blooming flowers. Matthew tugged on the sleeve of Alex's blazer and pulled him slightly to the side, just out of earshot of their friends.
"Farrow didn't tell you he was gonna do this, did he?" Matthew asked.
"No," Alex said, thinking back to Jack's cryptically contemplative mood on Friday. "He did ask though. About the kind of flowers we would plant if the proposal was allowed. I thought he was just being curious."
Matthew raised an eyebrow. "He asked you? Or Ellie?"
"Um, me."
"Why did you pick poppies?"
Alex warmed slightly, debating for a second if he wanted to make up some reason that would pass off the choice as a coincidence. But he settled on the truth, mostly because he doubted he could get away with lying even if he was creative enough to think up one.
"Back in the first few weeks of school, I think it was. There was a day when you and Baptiste had gone to the stables so he could use the horses to help with his powers. I was there, by the back stalls. I heard you guys talking, and remembered he said red poppies were his favorite flower."
Matthew's forehead scrunched slightly as he thought back to that day that felt like a lifetime ago. He blinked slowly and his face flushed a bit as he remembered it. "You heard all that?" He mumbled.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I, um, left when it seemed like the conversation was getting personal. Sorry."
Matthew cleared his throat and shook his head. "It's fine," he muttered, still looking a little embarrassed. "Uh, thanks for remembering, I guess. I… It's nice someone finally got him flowers. Even if Farrow needs to take a gardening workshop."
Alex glanced back at the haphazardly planted flowers and noticed one of the campus security guards at a distance. He was eyeing the small bundle of students and speaking into his two-way. Probably calling in the technical act of vandalism.
"You might be right, Ellie," Alex said, inching back towards the group. "I don't think my uncle will let these stay."
Eloise looked down at the flowers with slightly wet eyes before letting out a deep breath and raising her hands to her sides, a bit like a prayer pose. She looked at Alex and Matthew while wiggling her fingers, and after a second the boys got the message and each took one of her hands. Ellie bowed her head, closed her eyes, and tightened her grip. None of them said anything while they stood there like that. Matthew kept his gaze on the flowers, and Alex noticed Mary lean against Warren and mutter under their breath what he was pretty sure was a Christian prayer. When Ellie finally let go of their hands, he also saw Matthew make a sign of the cross.
"Come on," Ellie said, her voice thick. "We don't want to miss breakfast."
The three of them headed to the dining hall in silence, leaving Warren and Mary alone by the flowers.
Jack never showed up for breakfast. Once it was clear he was going to skip chemistry too, Alex wasn't expecting to see him for the rest of the day. But to his surprise, he showed up halfway through their Trigonometry class. Their teacher just rolled his eyes and wordlessly handed Jack the quiz they were all in the middle of taking. Alex fought back the urge to immediately question Jack about the flowers once he sat down next to him. When both their quizzes were turned in, though, Alex risked a whisper.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going to do that?" he asked as Jack started folding up his scribble-filled scratch paper.
"You would have told me not to," Jack answered simply, not needing to ask for specifics on what Alex meant.
"My uncle will just have them ripped up."
"Yeah? That would make him come off as a little callous, don't you think?"
"Callous is a reputation he probably strives for."
Jack just hummed as he put his concentration into the elaborate folding he was doing. "Ellie saw them, yeah?" he said without pausing in his craft.
"She did."
"Did you tell her it was me?"
"No."
"Good. Don't."
"You weren't trying to impress her?"
"Did she seem impressed?"
"I wouldn't say that. Confused as to who did it. But mostly... happy."
Jack smiled as he continued on his folding. Alex had thought he was just fidgeting, but soon the paper took shape into a haphazard origami flower.
"When did you learn that?" Alex asked.
"One of my old detention buddies at Highlands taught me," Jack said, handing the flower over. "Got a lot of practice. If your uncle tears up the poppies, I'll put in new ones. Dare him to stop me."
Alex turned the math-covered paper flower in his hands, his chest warming in that pleasant way. He frowned when he noticed the scratchwork Jack had done for his quiz.
"Jack, you need to spend more time studying," he said. "Even I can tell this math is complete nonsense."
"More important things in life than Trig, brother."
Alex twirled the flower in his fingers, a phantom floral scent tickling his nose as he mentally agreed with Jack about academics for the first time in their lives.