The phone rings, startling both Orion and myself. We look at it, the red lighting flashing. It's loud and annoying.

"Answer that?" Orion asks, because it's closer to me, situated on the table between our beds.

"Oh, right." I lean over and pick it up. "Hello?"

"Tristan? Oh thank God, thank the Lord Almighty!"

It's Arlene, and she's crying.

"I heard about the crash, it's all over the news, and I was so scared because I knew you were going with them, so I knew you were on the bus. I thought you were dead, because they first were reporting two people had died on the bus, and it was all just so confusing--"

I want to interrupt her and tell her to breathe, but I know she'd probably just get angry at me for the interruption.

"Finding out what hospital y'all were at was harder than trying to gain clearance into NORAD, I swear to God--"

That makes me laugh.

She pauses and I can hear she smile over the phone. "It's good to hear you laugh, Tristan."

"It's good to be able to laugh."

She sniffs. "I wanna come visit you but I can't. Work. I'm really sorry hun."

"Oh stop," I chide, "I wasn't expecting you to, anyway. It's sweet you even called."

"Of course I called!" she snaps at me. "You're my brother from another mother." She starts crying again. "I had to make sure you were alright."

"Hey, don't cry. I'm fine."

"Are you really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm a bit banged up but I'll live."

"How's everyone else?" I can hear her grin through her tears. "How's your loooooooooover boy?"

I chuckle. "He's fine."

"Lemme say hi to him."

"Alright." I move the receiver from my ear and toss it up and down a few times, looking at Orion. "Here, catch."

It lands in his lap and he puts it to his ear. "Hello? Oh, hey Arlene!"

I smile as he smiles. I'm so thankful they get along.

"What? Oh, yeah, hahahaha. Already taken care of. Of course. Arlene, I promise. I promise. Yes!" He laughs. "It's good to hear from you, too. Thanks. Here, I'll toss the phone back to Tris."

He nearly cracks me in the face with it. I glare and he laughs.

"Sorry love."

I put the phone to my ear, still glaring.

"What was that?" Arlene asks.

"Orion nearly gave me a bloody nose by tossing the phone at me..."

"Hey!" Orion says loudly so Arlene will hear. "There's a reason I'm a rockstar and not a baseball player!"

That makes us both laugh.

"I hate to do this, but I gotta go," Arlene tells me. "Work."

"Of course, no problem." I smile faintly, looking at my lap. "I love you, Arlene."

"Aw shut up, you big teddy bear. I love you too. It's really good to hear your voice."

I close my eyes. "Yours too."

"I'll call when I can."

"Sounds like a plan."

She makes an obnoxious kissing sound which makes me laugh. We hang up then. I look over at Orion.

"What's already taken care of?"

Orion smiles coolily. "Nothing."

"Orion..."

"Uh..." Orion scratches the back of his head. "I may or may not have mentioned to Arlene once over text that I thought I wanted to marry you?"

I'm caught off guard. "Wait, what? Text? You guys text?"

"Yeah! I love Arlene. After that karaoke night we exchanged numbers before she left."

A smile is slowly spreading on my lips.

"And...I may or may not have reached out to her because I was worried that thinking those thoughts were too soon in our relationship, and I thought I was crazy..."

I'm grinning now.

"Plus she's your best friend, so I had to get a feel for her thoughts on the subject."

"Since when do you care about what anyone thinks?"

Orion smiles fondly. "Since I started thinking I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, and I realized there's more than just myself to take into consideration now."

"I love you."

"I love you too, Tris. More than anything."

~

"Could we talk?"

I look up from my phone. Amy is kneeling on the seat in front of me, looking at me. I peer around the seat. Gloria is working, Ben appears to be asleep, and Jake is...MIA. Orion is, I assume, holed up in his room still.

I can't help but sigh a little. "If we must."

Amy comes and sits next to me. She puts her hand on my knee, viewing me seriously. When she speaks its quietly.

"You do know why he's mad at you, right?"

"No?"

She growls. "Ugh! Why are men so infuriatingly dense?"

I cross my arms and pucker my lips, unamused.

She rolls her eyes. "Whatever, neither here nor there. Did you ever think that maybe there's someone outside of your little self-absorbed bubble?"

The harshness shocks me, and honestly makes me a little angry. I pause before I reply. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Tristan," she says, giving me a patronizing look. "He's crazy about you. You know that, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, when you're crazy about someone, you want to eat drink breathe them."

"Correct..."

She moans and rolls her eyes again. "You having a brother is huge Tristan. It's not like you just told him you preferred tamales over hotdogs or something."

I cock my head to the side. She shakes her head. "Okay, bad analogy. The point is, having a sibling is a big deal. It's part of what makes you Tristan."

"But he's dead," I reply flatly.

"Which makes it even more important. It's your heritage and your history. It's your past." She puts her hand back on my knee. "Tristan--he's bared his soul to you, and you can't do the same for him?"

"I have," I protest.

She crosses her arms and frowns.

"I have!"

"Oh really? Does Arlene know you have a brother?"

"Of course she does. We met in High School, he was alive back then."

"I can't help but wonder what else we don't know about you," Amy says, narrowing her eyes a little. "And if I wonder that, I can only imagine what's going through Orion's head."

Amy gets up and starts to walk towards the amusement room. I cock my head to the side, thinking.

"Hey!"

She stops and looks at me.

"Are you a therapist now?"

Amy smiles and makes a heart with her hands, then disappears into the entertainment room. Once the door shuts I moan softly, putting my head on the back of the seat. 

She was right. Of course she was right.

I screwed up.