John Pov
I followed Alex into his apartment complex and it smelled like a cheap hotel. You know the smell.
Right?
The ones that have faint traces of vodka type smells and air freshener.

We went into the elevator and I said, "This music is fuckin dope."

Alex snickered.
"Damn this is the fuckin' shit." He said.

Oh, just to let you know, the music was like Mozart or some shit.

We walked to his apartment and he practically swung open the door.

"Oi! Alexandre?" A boy said, who was on the couch.

"Ed, are you sick?" Alex asked.

Huh.
Whoever this Ed kid is, he looks a lot like Alex.

I mean, minus the trench coat and depressing vibes.

"Yeah. Pop left for work. Why are you home? Skipping again?" Ed asked.

Alex nodded, dropping his bag and sliding the keys onto the coffee table. He clicked his tongue and motioned for me to follow him. I dropped my bag near his and followed.

We walked into his room and he collapsed on his bed.
Hey.
I do that.

I looked around his room. It's much more plain in person. Honestly, it's just bare necessities. Bed, desk, dresser.
No pictures or anything.
Much more different from my room.

"Who is Ed?" I asked.
"My adopted brother." He replied, sitting up.

"Your brother is adopted?" I asked, sitting in his desk chair.

He snickered.
"No. I'm adopted dumbass. I still go by Hamilton though. Feels like some sort of respect to my biological family I guess." He said, shrugging.

"Makes sense."
I muttered.

I looked at his desk, taking note of all the journals cleanly stacked. The only thing messy about it all was the papers stuffed into the notebook and spilling out.

I looked back to Alex, who was taking off his trench coat.

"You have arms?"
I asked.

He scoffed.
"Of course I have arms." He replied.

"How the hell are you so skinny?" I asked.

"Fuck off," He muttered, taking out his phone.

"Hey, can I draw on this?" I asked, taking a paper from his notebook.

He glanced up and shrugged.
"Do what you want," He told me.

"Alrighty then," I muttered, taking a pencil in my hand and starting to draw.

It looked sort of like a guy holding a wand, or a torch thing. The hand looked good. I started to add detail to it and that's when the pencil broke.

I grabbed a sharpener and it took me a minute to realize it wasn't sharpening.

"The fuck..?" I trailed off.
"Why the fuck are the razors missing in your sharpener?" I asked Alex.

He looked up from his phone.
"Must've taken em out." He said.
"Now why would you do that?" I asked, not expecting an answer.

"Take a guess Johnny," Alex hummed.

This guy and making me fucking guess.

"..To cut things?" I guessed.
"What things?" He urged.
"..I don't know." I said.

"Damn Johnny. Thought you'd be smarter than that." He muttered.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

He smirked.
"Nothin'."

"Why won't you just tell me?" I asked.

"Gotta hold myself up to that 'mysterious' standard." He replied.

I looked back at him.
He has fucking arms.
I mean, I knew he had arms but like..It's strange seeing him without the coat.

"Stop staring at my arms." Alex said without looking at me.

"Sorry," I said, looking back to my drawing.

"Do you have any other sharpeners?"
I asked.

He pointed to one on his dresser. I got up and tried to sharpen the pencil.

"Why did you take out all the fucking razors?" I hissed.

"Really John? You have no idea why the razors are missing?" Alex asked.

"No! I don't, because why would anyone want the razors to be taken out..of..a sharpener.." I said, trailing off.

"And now you get it,"
Alex muttered.

"You self harm?"
I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

He clicked his tongue.
"Key words. Used to."
He said.

"Oh. How long have you've been clean?" I asked.

"Eh..two and a half years. Maybe a little longer. Lost track to be honest with you." He said.

"..right." I muttered, plopping back down in the chair.

Why is he so okay with talking about that kind of thing?

"Stop staring." He said.
"Sorry." I said quickly, looking back to the paper.

I put the pencil down, sighing.

"Hey could you hand me the Juul?" Alex asked, holding his hand out.

I looked around his desk and quickly found the e-cig and tossed it to him. "Thank you," He hummed.

"Where do people even get those things?" I asked.

"I honestly forgot where I got it from, all I know is I have it now." He replied.

"Is it better than regular cigs?" I asked.

"You wanna try for yourself?"
He asked.

"Sure," I said, sitting down next to him. He handed me the Juul.

"How much do you change the pod?"
I asked, looking the thing over.

"Eh..Twice a month if the craving for it's pretty big but most the time I'd say once every two months." He said.

I hummed in response, still looking at the thing. Why not give it a go?

I took a hit of it.
Holy fuck that isn't too bad.

I let out a puff of smoke.
Fuck this is ten times better than regular cigs.

"What'd you think?"
Alex asked.

I coughed a bit, giving a thumbs up.
He smirked.

So that's how I spent my Monday.
Vaping in Alex's room with a Juul.