Alex plunged onto his bed, stomach first, causing a pillow to fall off his unmade bed. His legs, bent upward, swung back and forth in the air as he stared at his phone cradled in his hands. The lower part of his shirt had gotten soggy from the dishwashing so he wriggled uncomfortably as he unlocked his phone and went to the contacts.

His thumb hovered over the call button beneath Carsyn's name, and then his mind back-flipped to the desk drawer occupied with purple envelopes securing pages and pages of handwritten conversations.

Should he tell Carsyn everything about Ziro's visit earlier? Should he tell her anything at all? Carsyn and Ziro did tend to get into pretty tense bickering sometimes, but he was still her friend. He was still her friend first. Long before she'd known Alex. But even so, Carsyn was Alex's friend too. His penpal. He knew he had to trust her; he knew he could.

He tapped the call button, and after four rings she answered.

"Hello? Lexy?" Carsyn's voice sounded flat and hoarse through the phone.

"Hey, Syn. Yeah, it's me. What's up with you? You sound like crap."

Her laugh was dense. "Nice to see you're starting to ditch all that purity and taking in the Riviam edge. And it's a hectic breakfast going at Halcyon, by the way. Usually is on Mondays since it's the start of the work-week for most. When school starts back up again it'll be even worse." A gravelly noise was uttered on the other end, and Alex realized Carsyn was clearing her throat. "'Scuse me, Lexy. So, what's up then? I'm on break now so we've got some time to chat."

"Uhm, I wanted to tell you something...well, talk to you about something," Alex stuttered, the insides of his stomach feeling rickety, making him queasy.

"What about?" Carsyn asked, caution drilling through. When the overwrought silence on Alex's end had gone on too long for Carsyn to take, she told him, "hey, listen, Lexy. You can tell me or talk to me about anything. Promise."

Alex swallowed his queasiness, and his legs stopped swinging, still bent as the pair of them halted in the air. "...Ziro came to my house a while ago..."

"Okay..."

"Uhh, well...he actually kinda barged in, I guess-"

"He what?" Carsyn seemed to shout over the line.

"I mean," Alex stammered, grasping for a better explanation, "I didn't exactly invite him in, but, like, I could've tried harder to keep him out, I guess-"

"Did he touch you?" There was something dangerous in her tone, and Alex could hear it clear through the phone, even past her hoarseness.

"W-what...? Oh, uhm..." Now that Alex thought about, Ziro hadn't actually made any kind of contact with him at all when he was here earlier. "No, he didn't."

She didn't sound completely convinced as she said, "good. So then what the hell was he doing? Why did he come there?"

"I...uhh...he saw..." Alex paused, waiting for his heart to stop doing jumping jacks in his chest. When it didn't show signs of stopping, he pushed aside the nauseating sensation and tried again, "...he found out that Lev and I had another sleepover. At my house. Yesterday."

The silence on Carsyn's side, though heavy, barely lasted. "What? He found out about what? And with who?" Alex couldn't respond, couldn't repeat the words. "Lexy...you're joking. Be serious. I said you could tell me anything. Come on, it's okay. Just say it."

Tears puddled in Alex's eyes yet again, promising another drizzle. "Sorry, Syn...I didn't tell you guys, Lev and me made a deal to have another sleepover. We made the deal a week ago, the same night we had the first one. I'm sorry I didn't tell you...I knew you'd hate me for going behind your back or something, and I'm sorry I didn't just tell you at least-"

"Woah, slow it down a minute, Lexy," Carsyn said. "You're not joking? You...and Lev, had a sleepover, again? At your house? Yesterday?"

"Y-yeah..."

Another throaty cough over the line. "Woah, Lexy," Carsyn said again. "I know it seemed like you enjoyed the last sleepover thing you had at Novas' place, but I didn't think you were into it so much that you that'd you do it again with him. How does that even happen?"

"It was my idea," Alex admitted. "I wanted to have another sleepover with him."

Carsyn emitted a sound that Alex couldn't quite interpret. "Lexy, I know Lev isn't the crummiest person to ever step foot in Riviam — at least not to me that is — but still, this is beyond me. What the hell made you wanna spend another day and night with him?"

"...I...I like him." The words had come on their own volition, unremorseful though quiet.

"Yeah," Carsyn replied. "I figured that by now. But what exactly makes you wanna hang around Novas? Don't tell me he's a more exciting friend than me."

A friend? No. Alex did recall telling Lev to associate him as just that, a friend. But that was then, way before he had made any sense of his true feelings.

"Syn, I...I like like Lev. More than a friend." Alex breathed quietly, in and out; this time the words had come consciously.

"W-what...? Lexy, you...what? You're not joking? Like, seriously right now. "

"I'm not joking," Alex softly assured. "I'm serious, Syn. I like Lev like that."

There was a bit of silence of the other end. "...umm, okay, wow. Okay," she faltered. Alex had never heard Carsyn falter before. "How did that happen then? I mean like, how — and when did you start liking him?"

Though she couldn't see him, Alex shrugged and displayed a boyish smile. "I don't know. I've been feeling things since the first day I met him at the lookout. We talk a lot — about a lot. He's made me breakfast, like twice now. We played some basketball together...oh, and he made me this amazing hot pie twice too-"

"He made you hot pie? Seriously?" Carsyn asked.

"Y-yeah."

"Wow. Unless you're his mom, Lev doesn't really make hot pie for anyone. Not even Ziro. He always gets annoyed about having to cook. Yet from what you're telling me, it sounds like he was actually eager to make it for you."

"Wow..." Alex said this time. Fondness welled in his chest over the thought of Lev doing something for him that he had never even done for Ziro.

"Anything else you like about Novas?"

"...Ummm...Well..." Alex felt heat rising to his cheeks, and he was glad his conversation with Carsyn was happening over the phone. "...it's the way he looks. Like, in general. It's hard to explain."

"Please don't try. I understand. You're attracted to him. You like him, like that. I believe you."

"...you mad?" There was a bit of noise coming in on Carsyn's side, voices hollering and and chattering away in the background, so Alex couldn't hear so much of Carsyn's tone, couldn't interpret how she was feeling about his confession.

"Why would I be mad, Lexy? Cuz you caught feelings for someone? What's there to be mad at? I'm just a little shook is all. I've known Novas for years, and I've never even seen him give someone a compliment. Now you're telling me he's been cooking you whole meals and agreeing to sleepovers. Not the Lev Novas I'm familiar with. But hey, as long as he's sweet on you too, which it's sounding like he is, then I'm happy for you."

Alex's heart swelled with gratitude. His shirt had dried by now, but still he rolled over onto his back, and switched his phone to other his hand, his previous hand damp with all the anxiety he had about opening up to Carsyn.

"Wait," Carsyn continued. "Does Ziro know you like Lev like that?"

And just like that, Alex's heart deflated, remembering the initial reason he'd called Carsyn. "No, I don't think so. I think it's just the sleepover he knows about...And that's something else I wanted to talk to you about in the first place. Ziro...He said he couldn't trust someone that hangs around someone he doesn't trust. So, he said I have to choose, either you guys or Lev-"

"What the hell? He told you to choose? Oh my god, Lexy, I'm sorry — that's fucked up even for Ziro."

"I don't know, Syn. I think it makes a little sense. I'm spending time with someone that he doesn't trust. I'd be upset too if someone close to me was doing the same thing with someone else I don't trust."

"No Lexy, it's not the same thing. You don't even know what happened between Lev and Ziro, so it's not like you're hanging with Lev to hurt him. You don't even have a reason to hurt Ziro anyway. You've been in Riviam a week! Who the hell does he think he is trying to traumatize you with ultimatums and telling you who you can't hang out with? You do not have to choose between anything or anyone, Lexy."

Alex moved to sit up in bed, a sluggish but seamless pull up with his phone still joined to the side of his face. His own heart felt like it was being reincarnated right in that moment. He had had no clue what Carsyn was going to say after telling her everything, but he knew he could trust her to be his friend.

"Okay, listen to me, Lexy. Are you listening?"

"I'm listening," Alex said, staring down at his wrinkled shirt, a hopeful smile tugging at his lips.

"Good. Just let me finish my shift first. It's still a bit busy over here, but it should die down in a couple hours. Afterwards I'll come over and we'll work out a game plan."

"Game plan?"

"Yeah, you know — talk to Ziro, beat the crap out of Ziro, have an intervention or whatever — we have to deal with this somehow."

"O-oh, but I don't want you to mess up your friendship with Ziro cuz of me."

"Lexy, I promise you, the only one messing things up is Ziro. We've been pen-palling for a year, you and me. You're my friend too and I love you. I'm not gonna let my friend get hurt like this, especially not by another one of my friends. We'll fix this, okay?"

Alex's heart was swollen again, inflated with life, invigorated with warmth. "Okay," he whispered into the phone. "Love you too, by the way."

A quick, raspy cough. "Getting all sentimental are we? Shelf that for now. We're gonna need that Riviam edge instead for later." Then Alex heard a muffled voice in the rowdy background, informing Carsyn that new walk-in customers had come in. "O-k. Break's cut short today. Gotta go, Lexy, but remember I'm coming to your place later."

"Okay, yeah, see you," Alex nodded, even though he was still alone in his room.

Carsyn hung up and Alex was soon left with silence filling his ears, and his heart brimming with all sorts of emotions. He wondered how he and Carsyn were going to 'deal' with the situation. He wondered if they could, if Ziro would actually change his mind and abandon the threat of making Alex choose. He wondered if he should involve Lev in the 'game plan' that he and Carsyn had yet to construct.

Blrrriiinnng!

It wasn't the sudden ringing of his phone that had shocked Alex so much he was on the off the bed and on his feet in milliseconds, but the number that appeared on the phone screen instead. The contact hadn't been saved in his phone yet, so the ten digits displayed were the only way he could recognize the caller. Alex hadn't even realized he had memorized the number until now...