James was back in his room again after everything. He was dropped off by Sylvia and her roommates after being assured that they will take care of everything and thus he had nothing to worry about.
Of course, his own roommates had something to say after he came back.
"Jesus Christ James!" Betty Exclaimed after he came in bandage and bruised. "I know we give you shit for your relationship, but we didn't mean to get yourself almost killed!"
"It's fine" James tried to say but Betty cut him off again.
"No, it isn't if your girlfriend is getting you involved in some shady shit than–" Betty continued until Fred put his hand on her shoulder.
"Now let's not get ahead of ourselves." Fred said calmly, "We don't know what even happen so let's not jump to conclusions so soon."
James will be thankful with Fred for this later but right now he needs to come up with a good excuse for why he kind of looks like shit,
"Well while I was going to visit Syl I was, well, mugged by a bunch of thugs." James tries to lie convincingly but it didn't seem like either believed him. Betty was about to say something, but Fred spoke first.
"Well if that's what you said happens then we should probably figure out what stuff you're going to replace." Fred spoke looking pointedly at Betty, who looked even more angry than before sighing and throwing her hands up.
"Fuck it fine we won't push it any longer." Betty said as she walked out leaving James and Fred together.
"You know." Fred starts "you can tell anything alright?" he turns as he says this, and Fred looks almost disappointed. That look almost makes James want to tell him but….
James knows that no one would believe him if he told them at best, they make fun of him and worst? He didn't want to know.
"I'd tell you if it was something, alright?" James tried to joke but Fred's look remained unchanged.
"Alright." and just like that Fred left the room leaving James by himself until his phone buzzed.
Picking it up he sees a text from Sylvia number. James signs and opens the logs.
>Are you ok?
James signed and began texting back.
>Yeah, are you?
>yeah, Amber said she was going to get with some people
> hopefully that clear everything up
James's breaths a sign of relief. If the people Amber were getting in touch with could fix this the sooner everything would, well, he couldn't say go back to normal but will at least tone down and he could rest for a bit.
>James, do you want to talk?
James thought about it and after a while responded.
>can we talk about it tomorrow?
>k see you soon.
After that exhaustion finally caught up with him and James had to lay down and get some sleep. After everything at least, it was all over now.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James woke up next morning with a knock on his door. He groggily got to and opened it to find Fred on the other side.
"Yo." Fred said before pointing downstairs "Betty bought breakfast."
"Thanks man". James said, after the night he really needed to eat something and followed Fred down the stairs where Betty was there. She had gotten Perkins which was a bit weird cause he didn't think there were Perkins around here, but he could be wrong.
After a while James noticed that the two were acting really different around since last night. 'Did they know?' he thought before suppressing that feeling. It wouldn't do him any good and it not like they would know right?
As James thought, the phone began to ring.
"I'll get it." Fred said moving to the phone leaving James and Betty on the table. The silence became more palpable, and James couldn't keep it in anymore.
"Hey Betty, is something going on?" He asked nervously. Betty looked down and was about to say something when Fred ran back to the dining room with a look of pure fear in his eyes.
"Fred what's–" James began before being cut off.
"You need to go to Sylvia house right now." Fred said with an urgency James had never heard before.
Before he could even question Fred was already pulling him to the showers.
"Wait, hold up. What's going on? Why do I-"
"If you don't you and your girlfriend are going to die" Fred said as if it was a fact, and a chill ran down Jame's body. After the shower Fred gave him the key to his car and shove him out the front door.