Strange ..so strange

 

The night Alfie brought Zoey home was the first night Gage slept with Nora.

"Oh, it won't be that big of a deal?" Alfie just squinted about the matter. Of course, he also had a black eye and a busted lip.

"Why didn't you take her back to her place?" Gage just didn't understand. He was practically already in bed.

"It was just easier, coming here."Alfie looked as if he'd been through something already with drunk Zoey. He told Gage there was a flight of stairs or two to worry about at the complex. "I just didn't want to get stuck with her on the elevator, either." He was out of breath and looked like hell.

Gage only watched. He wasn't going to mess around with Alfie and a drunk girl. Later, as he lay in bed fully clothed in sweats and his tank with Nora, in her flannels, who turned away from him as if he didn't even have to look at her, he was worried. What was Alfie doing to Zoey?

He heard the shower. He gasped. 

"You don't think-"

"He's not the one drunk, she is," Nora said before he could even go there. "He needed something like this to happen."

"What?" Gage looked at her as if he needed to know what Nora was getting at. She finally turned back and yawned.

"I think of all the times I've had to clean up the vomit and stir him in the right direction. He remembers none of it." She told Gage.

Gage nodded. Maybe she was right. Maybe he could sleep comfortably here. After all, it was just sleep.

"What do you think happened?" It wasn't even St. Patrick's day then.

"She's drunk."

"But he's," Gage hated to say it. "He's an alcoholic."

"And?" She fluffed her pillow. "They will either figure it out, or they won't."

Suddenly, he thought of his own parents. Had it been that way? Of course, they didn't stay together. His mom was happy with somebody who was probably a good ten years younger than her. 

Gage thought he might cry himself to sleep, but then the shower stopped. It was quiet. It was as if the bad thoughts faded away. He could hear Nora softly snoring. 

Gage almost smiled. Still what if Alfie was having his way with Zoey? He couldn't help but get a glass of water and take a peak from the basement stairs. The lights were still on. And Zoey was in bed listless, but Alfie was sitting in the floor watching her as if he'd make sure she survived the night.