CHAPTER FOUR: IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT

 Meanwhile, Austin, Beckett, and Amy were sitting wide awake in Beckett and Jonas's room. Jonas had been banished to Johnathan's room, because if he really wanted to sleep that badly then he could go away, in the words of Amy.

Austin pulled out the game of scrabble that he had brought with him, and currently it was a battle of the wits, or, more accurately, it was a battle of who was able to think the fastest with the least amount of sleep. All three of them had a mug of coffee in their hands, Beckett's was black with no sugar in it, Austin's had an absolutely unhealthy amount of sugar in it, and Amy's was a mixture of creamer, milk, and sugar.

"Is 'and' even a word that you can use is scrabble?" Austin asked lazily as he watched Amy put down the letters, who looked up at him and shrugged.

"I figure it counts, because why not, you know?" Amy replied, and Beckett just shrugged his shoulders as well.

"I'm too tired to figure out if you're being serious or not, but I say we just go with it," Beckett replied, and Amy smiled, knowing full well that 'and' was not a word that was usually allowed while she was playing scrabble. (At least whenever she would go over and play with the Leon's, Lourdes Leon would never allow that word, said it was a cheap shot, and those were absolutely not allowed in her household.)

The game continued on in silence for a while, before Beckett tapped out, and chose to instead lie down on Austin's lap as Austin continued to play the game.

"How long do you think it'll be until he falls asleep?" Amy asked playfully, and Austin chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not going to be falling asleep," the black haired boy murmured, his eyes already starting to get heavy, and Austin rolled his eyes as he tried to take the tile that Beckett was holding from out of his hands.

"So, what do you think of the road trip so far?" Austin asked, pulling on the cord of his hoodie. Amy laughed as she saw the word that he played down, 'awkward.'

"I think that it's been going well so far, I mean, I dunno, it is like two AM in the morning and we're still awake playing scrabble, and one of my best friends like, up and vanished, which you know, is kind of stressful," Amy replied, laughing bashfully as she noticed how her hands had ended up over gesturing along with her words.

"Yeah, I get that," Austin responded. "I mean, I dunno, I figure that this is something that was going to be good for all of us. Just to like, get out, learn what it's like to be, on our own, with no one to catch us."

"When did you get so deep?" Beckett asked, and Austin glared down at the boy that was currently using his thigh as a pillow. "You should also totally get me a blanket please."

"When did you get so needy," Austin asked in response, pulling one of the blankets off of the bed and draping it over his friend.

"I think I should probably go and check on Fable," Amy muttered, standing up, and Austin gave her an apologetic look.

"How long have you been in love with her?" Beckett asked, and Amy gasped.

"I don't know what you mean," Amy replied, cautiously.

Beckett sat up, leaning heavily upon Austin, clearly very sleep addled and deprived. "How long have you been in love with Fable? It's a simple question."

"I'm-, I'm not in love with Fable, I don't even know what you're talking about, you're just making things up and saying things and I don't know what you're talking about, besides you're practically asleep so it's not like you have any idea of what you're saying," Amy blurted, her words running together as she rushed to get out of the room. She walked out of the door, and closed it behind her quickly.

"Amy?" Austin asked hesitantly, as he quietly opened the door. "Look, Beckett had no right to ambush you with a question like that, and if he wasn't asleep right now I'm sure he would be out here apologizing to you as well." Amy nodded her head, wiping at the tears in her eyes that didn't seem to want to fall. "But if it's any consolation, neither of us are going to tell her." Amy nodded her head once more, looking over to the blond haired boy.

"Thanks," Amy replied weakly, not really feeling fully up to forgiving Beckett for his choice of words, but she knew that it was because he was so tired, he had lost his filter. Amy wrapped her arms around Austin, giving him a quick hug, and then making her way down the hallway.

"Amy, is that you?" Evie asked, approaching the blonde haired girl with her phone flashlight on. "Did you get lost?" Amy shook her head, and Evie wrapped an arm around Amy, escorting her back towards their room.

Jonas Alfredo could not believe that Fable Leon snored. This was something that he never really thought that he was going to have to find out, in this lifetime or the next. And yet, here he was, standing in the doorway of what was supposed to be Johnathan and Austin's room, listening to Fable snore as he looked at the boy that was sitting down on the other bed.

"Come on in," Johnathan said to the younger boy, gesturing for him to come in, as he stood to close the door behind him. "What's up?"

"I just was told that if I came in here I would get some sleep," Jonas explained, gesturing down to his baggy t-shirt and shorts. "Austin and Beckett and Amy are playing Scrabble in my room. Should we be talking, I don't want to wake Fable up."

Johnathan laughed, and sat down besides the dark haired boy. "Yeah, you can take this bed and I'll sleep on the floor then." And then, as an afterthought, he added. "You don't have to worry about waking Fable up, once she's asleep, there's nothing that can wake her up until she's gotten at least five hours of sleep. She literally snores so loud, Soren's called me several times just to complain, and he's down the hall from her." Jonas laughed, slightly surprised that this was the case. He looked over to Johnathan, who was looking at Fable with a sad look in his eyes.

"How long have you known Fable?" Jonas asked Johnathan, crawling under the covers, pushing the pillows up behind his back so that he could look at Johnathan.

"Since we were seven," Johnathan replied, looking back at Jonas. "She's my family." Jonas nodded his head, his eyes starting to feel heavy. Johnathan leaned back beside Jonas, who scooted down so that his head was on one of the pillows. "So, why didn't you want to play Scrabble?"

"I'm awful at Scrabble," Jonas admitted, and he watched as Johnathan's torso moved while he was laughing.

"Well, everyone's bad at Scrabble this early in the morning," Johnathan replied, and Jonas nodded his head.

"Why were you still awake?" Jonas asked softly, not sure that Johnathan even heard him.

"Nightmares," Johnathan replied, and they both fell silent for a moment.

"Did you get them often?" Jonas asked, unsure if it was the right thing for him to ask, if Johnathan didn't want to be asked at all, or if he wanted to talk about it at all. Jonas knew little of Johnathan's situation, from his own assumptions confirmed mostly by Fable and Johnathan himself.

"Yeah, sometimes," Johnathan responded. Silence fell upon the two boys, as Jonas stared up at the ceiling, he heard a loud snort, and tried to hold in laughter.

Johnathan was one to complain about snoring, Jonas guessed no one ever told him that he also snored too loudly.

Austin had no idea how Beckett was both almost asleep, and yet still talking. It reminded him of when his cousin was younger, she always seemed to be able to talk and talk and talk until she talked herself to sleep.

"Do you remember Felix?" Beckett asked, and Austin felt his face flush.

"Yeah, why?" Austin asked, and he looked down at the boy that insisted upon laying on the floor still, even though Austin suggested that he just move to one of the two beds they had in the room.

"I dunno, I was just thinking about him and you," Beckett replied, and Austin knew that if Beckett's eyes weren't closed, he would mock him for his red face.

"You have no filter when you're sleep deprived, do you?" Austin asked in response, not bothering to comment on why Beckett was thinking about his ex-boyfriend.

"Austin, I'm practically asleep, if I hadn't had that cup of coffee I probably would have been asleep by now," Beckett replied, and Austin laughed. "Besides, I don't feel the need to like, I dunno, hide from people, and not tell them what I'm thinking." He then sighed. "That sounds stupid, I mean like, I guess it's a side effect from moving around so much, which I guess in hindsight also doesn't sound the smartest, and i'm tired and having a hard time thinking of the right word that I want to say."

"No, I get it," Austin said after a second, and Beckett gave Austin a charming grin. Austin's heart swelled, and he felt the inherent need to change the conversation immediately. "How was it that you fell in with Fable? I feel like one day you didn't hang out with us, and then the next day you did."

"Sophomore year, around the same time you were sitting with her I think," Beckett began to answer. "I was her assigned chemistry partner. There was this girl in our class that she was hardcore crushing on, and she looked at me and she said, 'I'm not sure who you are but I need you to know that there is this girl that I'm crushing on, and you look like a smart fellow, so I'll help you with all of the work and everytihng, but if I could do all of the presenting and talking that would be great.'" Austin laughed, and Beckett did as well. "Very Fable-esque. I think what I liked most about her is that she wanted to help do the work, but also purely just wanted to talk in front of the class. I mean, I could never do that, I hate the very idea of presenting to people, and I guess from that point we were kind of just, friends." After a beat of silence, he added, "I always hated how little she planned though. I mean, some of us like a little organization, you know what I mean?" Austin tried to hold back a laugh, but couldn't help it, and began to laugh aloud.

"I mean, I met her the first day of freshman year, when she saw me playing my guitar, walked up to me, and said, 'I will pay you never to play like that again.' And I guess from there, we just, became friends," Austin told Beckett, to which he received no response. He looked down at the dark haired boy, trying to figure out if he was really asleep or not.

"Goodnight Austin," Beckett said, curling up against Austin, who gave the boy a frown. Austin pulled down a pillow and a blanket, and set them behind his head, closing his eyes and preparing to sleep.

"Goodnight Beckett," the blond haired boy said as he drifted off to sleep, unaware of what the next morning would bring.

story gif made by: skaikrurogers

AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS:

Hi welcome to the chapter that I uploaded really late at night and now i'm just finally going back and editing more awake lol.

Anyways I don't really have that much to say about the chapter, I hope you liked it!