The adults had all left the room, leaving Alex to stew in his own pit of emotions, and Lev and Ziro to watch over him.

"So that was your mom, huh?" Lev asked Alex. He'd taken Garrett's former spot on the chair that was closest to the head of the bed. "And your uncle...? What happened there?"

Alex had glided himself back horizontally into the bed, keeping his head propped up on pillows, and letting Lev tuck him in while watching his hands work to rearrange the deviated ice packs back against either side of Alex's ribcage. Alex wanted those hands wrapped around him, to envelop him and block out the rest of the world, or at least the rest of his family (except for Grayson, of course).

"I'll tell you later," Alex croaked out. His throat had been left a scratchy internal mess by his restrained crying fit and bouts of incensed outbursts, and pain came in scattered prickles at the back of his head, as sensation was slowly finding its way back to the entirety of his skull.

He tilted his head and peered across the room opposite of him, at the partially opened door to the compact washroom in the corner. Ziro emerged from it seconds later with a tiny, white plastic cup in his hand, filled to the brim with cold tap water.

As Ziro reached the bedside he offered it to Alex, and Alex hesitated a for a split-second before accepting the cup, wondering if either Lev or Ziro had noticed. He hadn't entirely registered the sight of those two standing in the same room peacefully for so long, until the cup had made it into his grasp. He wasn't sure what to say, if anything at all; he didn't want to set fire to what was likely still a perilous building.

"Umm," he mumbled, eyes fluttering up at Lev, "you, and Ziro...?"

"It's fine," Ziro answered, parking himself beside Lev. Perhaps it was the prickling at the back of his head pestering his brain, but to Alex, Ziro genuinely seemed and sounded like the most gentle and kind being on the planet right now. "We're fine."

"It's true, Prior," Lev affirmed. He had hidden one hand away inside a pocket of his joggers, while the other hand stayed outside lingering on Alex's shoulder.

Alex couldn't help but nuzzle his head against the touch. "How did that happen?"

"I'll tell ya later," Lev told him.

"What you do need to tell us now," Ziro started, taking over from the end of Lev's words as if receiving an invisible baton passed to him, "is what happened today. My mom heard from Martin that Evan was arrested."

Alex raised his head away from Lev's hand, his eyes going wide with bemusement. "W-what? Arrested? Why did they do that when she was the one getting attacked?"

"Attacked?" Ziro repeated. "By who?"

Alex moved to sit up again, but his torso only made it halfway from under the blanket when Lev's grip on his shoulder tightened, preventing Alex from shifting upwards any further.

Alex didn't protest, instead squinting his eyes and puckering his forehead as he rallied his memories. "U-umm...there was this guy, black hair — curly too. He and Evan were next to my house, in the alley. The guy was getting in her face, pissed about something, and eventually he pushed her into the wall. I ran out there to help her; took a swing at the guy."

"You hit him," Lev figured.

Alex gave a meek nod. "Well, with a golf club." Lev raised an eyebrow at that. Alex couldn't really tell if he was shocked or amused, or both. "Didn't go over so well, though. He got back up, beat the shit out of me."

Lev's grip tightened another notch, a lethal tint in his fidgeting eyes. His voice, husky and homicidal, as he asked Alex, "where is he?"

Alex attempted to lift an arm but the IV drip embedded in his hand made it uncomfortable to do so, so he settled for more head-nuzzling. "Don't know. Someone else heard us in the alley — I think it was Martin. When he showed up, the other guy ran off. No idea where. After that I just blacked out, and now here I am."

One of the ice packs was still pressed against a tender spot on the right side of his torso, but the one on the left had fallen astray, and Lev was quicker than Alex to readjust it upright.

"What was he saying?" Ziro asked Alex . "That guy. Did you hear anything specific when he was talking to Evan?"

"Ummm..." Alex rummaged through his thoughts. "I think I heard that Evan was supposed to sell something...and that guy kept getting on her about money, like, she didn't have enough it..."

Alex trailed off, his eyes drifting upwards at the silent exchange between Lev and Ziro; their looks at each other knowing, unsettled.

Alex wasn't following. "What? What's wron-"

The door was suddenly tugged open yet again, the sound of its creak watered down by turbulent voices.

"Lexy!" Carsyn stormed into the room with Evan at her heels. She had first caught a glimpse of Alex, but then her eyes veered, landing on Lev. "Wha- Lev-"

"Lev?" Evan uttered at the same time. Her bulging eyes shot over to Ziro as she practically yelled to him, "are you seeing this?"

"Always the drama queen, Hale," Lev scoffed, turning partway at the two girls, but keeping his hand on the ice pack. Evan scoffed too, as if offended that anyone would ever associate her with such a label.

Carsyn broke in before Evan had time to protest. She turned her gaze on Ziro, the look in her eyes not particularly kind, yet guarded. "Are you two-"

"Yes," Ziro cut in, as if he had the answer prepared from the moment Carsyn came into view. "We'll explain later. But Evan," his eyes, a tense calm, shifted to her, "Alex just told us his side of what happened. Now we need to hear it from you."

"...w-what?" Evan went pale, her orange nails on her right hand threading through strands of her orange highlights. Carsyn pivoted around to stare at her too, arms crossed in waiting.

"Syn, do you already know yet?" Ziro asked her.

"No. Martin called Silas earlier, told him Eva was arrested and Lexy was in the hospital. Ms. Acera and Ms. Novas were already on their way here, so Silas and I headed for the police station. By the time we got there though, Eva was just about to leave it, to come here and see Lexy. No explanation, really. We just ran straight here a while ago, and Mr. Delgado saw us and told us what floor to go to," Carsyn summarized.

"It's a temporary release," Evan said quietly. "They didn't know about Alex's condition, if he'd woken up yet or not, so I begged them to let me go and see him myself. I've been cooperating with their questioning, so they agreed to let me go. I have to go back later, though. My dad's calling a lawyer, and I have to give a statement..."

Ziro took a steady step towards her. "So," he said softly, "what happened then?"

Evan's nails paused at the ends of her hair, locking in place and strangling her tresses. "Ummm....he — the guy who did that to Alex, he's my supplier..."

Alex blinked repeatedly, Evan's words going in one ear and out the other. "Supplier..." he echoed. "What was he supplying?"

"V-dust," Lev filled in.

Alex blinked again, his eyes blown wide and mouth gaping. He looked around the room, but no one else seemed as shocked as he did, just...anxious.

Evan went on, her voice trembling as she did. "He was meeting me to collect money today. He got angry when I didn't give him the amount he was expecting. The supply he gave me was nearly done, but the money didn't equal that..."

"...so that means someone's been dusting without paying for it," Ziro added.

Carsyn looked somewhere between distraught and disheartened as she looked at Evan. "Tell me you didn't, Eva. Tell me you haven't been sampling the merchandise."

But Evan couldn't tell her that. Carsyn, Lev, Ziro, even Alex now as he recalled two days ago how erratic Evan's behaviour had been under the influence of v-dust, just two days ago during their team competition — they all knew it already.

Tears spouted from Evan's eyes where they slid down her cheek and spattered onto the floor. "I'm sorry...I swear I only took a little the first time, but I wanted more — I couldn't help it. I kept taking a little here and there, hoping he wouldn't notice. I thought maybe I could convince some buyers to pay double the price for an amount that was a bit more, but I realized I didn't have time. I forgot that he was coming to collect money today, and when I tried convincing him to come back a different day, he dragged me to this alley — I didn't know we were right next to Alex's house until he came and..."

And her eyes flitted over at Alex, more tears cascading down her face, muffled 'I'm sorries' lost in even more muffled sobs. Alex's heart twinged; he wanted to go to her and hug all her tears away, but he could still barely move his upper body, and the pain was coming in worse from the back of his head.

But then, his heart leaped with a bit of hope when someone crossed the room over to Evan — Ziro — pulling and folding her into his taller frame.

"Why'd you do it? Why get into dealing?" Ziro asked, as Evan rested her forehead on his shoulder. His gentle and kind intonation hadn't curbed, and Alex noticed it had to be doing some good, with Evan's sobs quieting down.

"...my dad..." she whispered, but they all heard her just fine.

"What? Eva, your dad is fine, though. I mean, he's clearly been looking alright lately," Carsyn interjected.

Evan sniffed. "N-no...not that. It's the house...I saw an eviction notice on our front door a month ago. My dad doesn't know that I saw it, he would just tell me not to worry. And I wasn't just gonna sit back and do nothing."

"Shit, Eva," Lev quietly uttered. Alex felt the rigid shift of the ice pack he was still holding in place for him.

"You've been doing this for a month?" Carsyn's arms came undone and fell limply to her sides, as defeated as the expression written across her face. "Why not just apply for an actual job? Something part-time, in town? Hell, you could've applied at Halcyon, you know?"

"No...I couldn't," Evan sniffled, lifting her head away Ziro's shoulder. "I was asking Silas a day after I seen the notice. Halcyon doesn't have any room for new employees. And I've asked all over the place in Riviam — no one is hiring. And then when we went to that party at Devin Covington's house...that's where I first met Colton-" Evan grimaced at the name leaving her lips.

"Your supplier," Ziro deduced.

Evan nodded. "First time I talked to him I was just buying, but throughout the night I saw how much people kept coming up to him, paying so much cash for dust...I went back to him later and asked how I could get in on it. I persuaded him," she let out a bitter chuckle, low enough that it seemed only for her ears, "told him it would take me less than a week to sell out his supply."

"And how the hell were you going to explain that influx of drug money to your dad?" Carsyn questioned.

"I would've just told him that I got a part-time job downtown with afternoon hours," Evan shrugged wearily. "He'd be working then, so much less chance of him running into me there." She backpedaled absentmindedly a few paces from Ziro. "Now that's like the least of my worries..."

"All those times you said you had errands to run." Ziro trailed towards her, closing the gap she'd created.

Evan held up a hand midair to halt him, her lips drawing a thin line. "I already know what you're going to say." And so did Alex. This secret, a truth omitted and unraveled every which way just now, was borderline to what Ziro judged as a lie. "So please just don't say it this time," Evan pleaded. "You can exile me from the group or whatever — what I did actually caused someone to be in the hospital — I deserve it."

Her sobs returned, thrumming through the dead silence of the room. No one had really noticed Ziro taking another step towards Evan, his voice low yet simultaneously loud enough to break through the sobs and reach everyone's ears.

"Why did you do it?" he asked her again.

Evan sniffed and looked up at him, flinching a bit when she realized how much closer he'd gotten, then confusion overtaking her countenance. "What? I just told you why."

"No, I mean...Why didn't you tell us about any of this?" With his eyebrows furrowing and his lips contorting, it the first time Alex truly saw a saddened Ziro.

"Are you kidding?" Evan said, voice more fatigued than aggrieved. "You've been anti-secret since the longest time, and I didn't want to make things worse after what happened with Lev..."

She glanced awkwardly then, right at Lev, and that setup a chain of awkward glances around the room between everyone...except from Ziro, who instead crossed forward one more step to latch his arms around Evan again.

"미안해 (mi-an-hae) i'm sorry," he said against her hair-shielded ear.

"What? W-why...?" Evan asked, "you didn't-"

"I made you feel like you could never come to me about anything. All of you." Ziro let up from Evan, and his gaze panned across the room, passing Carsyn, then Lev, and then settling for a moment longer on Alex. "You kept secrets because of me. I made things worse."

Something in Evan's face ruptured, her lips downturned into a frown and her eyelids shuddering as she took hold of Ziro's shirt sleeve and tugged him back to her. "...I'm sorry I didn't tell you...I should have told you. You didn't make anything worse...울지마 (ul-ji-ma) don't cry," Evan whispered it to Ziro, but again, they all heard her.

Carsyn was the first to react. Alex couldn't see her face, but he saw how her body visibly rattled a second after hearing the foreign word uttered by Evan. She was on the move then, straight towards Evan and Ziro, her arms raising again to envelop the two.

Then, Alex could feel now from Lev what he'd just witnessed from Carsyn; a trembling body despite the abutting ice pack keeping them from physically touching each other.

Alex looked up at him, moved a little so he would look back. "Go, it's okay."

And Lev didn't need anymore encouragement. He parted ways with Alex and the ice pack, and piled himself onto the three huddled together. A piece of Alex was glad that he was bedridden at the moment; a good excuse for keeping himself from invading their group hug. It was a moment for them, the four of them, the 'them' they were before several truths became several secrets.

A 'them' that Alex couldn't wait to be a part of.