✯Incumbent /ɪnˈkʌmb(ə)nt/: Something that is morally binding✯

»»———-ALERO———-««

❝When reality is hidden and abused

A lie could become the truth

And the truth twisted into a lie.❞

»»-————-✯ •✯ •✯—————-««

✯••✯
»»...?????!!!!...««

20th July 2025.

There were so many stars out tonight.

"Alero,"

They spread across the silky black sky with the elegance of precious diamonds, each distance representing so many encrypted words that spanned out to form sentences and more sentences until the constellations and calming dark waves were telling a story.

I stretched my hands to it, stood on my tippy roes, and wriggled my fingers, I knew I could reach them, I knew I could feel them, I just needed to move an inch higher maybe if I were on the rooftop or on the moon and not on the mere grassy grounds then I would've undoubtedly caught them in my hand and stored them in my pockets.

"Alero,"

But I had no pockets on tonight. The plan had failed before it began. I cracked up like an explosion.

I laughed so hard I slouched over and gripped my stomach, so hard the world spun around me while I stood in place, in blurry dizzy circles, blending the earthy scent of the English ivy sprouted around with the sharp smell of alcohol.

Or was it Irish ivy leaves?

"Alero,"

Or tulips?

Or petunias?

"Alero,"

I collapsed on the ground facing the sky completely quavering, cackling, kicking my legs and crushing the stars, and allowing them all on my face.

It's weed. It's weed.

I laughed again.

The ground was vibrating and the air was heavy with music, so loud, so unashamed, so not like us. It was like we had thrown all civility we had been brought up with and transformed into nightmares of our founding fathers that would have our mothers clutching their pearls in absolute horror.

People were screaming, people were dancing, people were buried face down in their own vomit and some in each other and the music drowned everything.

It was not us. But I loved it. I wanted to put this memory of magnitude of Riverview students in my pocket.

But I had no pockets. I howled with untamable laughter.

"Alero!"

I was lifted from the ground and suddenly I was back on my feet, struggling to find the strength to balance my weight and hold me in place.

"How much have you been drinking?"

I stared at his eyes, so dark, so deep, so distracting and so absolutely magnificent. I wanted to steal them and put them in my pockets.

But I had no pockets. I started laughing again, blabbering incoherent words that seemed perfect to me and cracking fits of coughs from the bottom of my throat.

"God, I swear I'm going to kill Oore." He muttered under his breath, I looked down at his lips and back into his eyes, and down at his hands on my shoulder. I wanted him to pull me to him, I wanted to melt into his pores and sleep with his soul.

"Let's get you home, your sister's been trying to reach you. I thought you told her you were coming out tonight?"

I smiled, rolled my head back, and inhaled the English Ivy, or was it Irish or was it tulips or was it petunias? It was weed. Weed.

"I lied," I hiccupped and looked back at his worried face, my chest tightened. "I'm sorry."

He sighed nodding gently, encouragingly because he understood in ways only he could. "It's fine, it's okay but do you know where Oore went? Or Ander?"

The last time I saw them both one of them was in the kitchen with a few people littered around, he had his head ducked over and eyes shut inhaling misty white smoke with a grin and the other was in one of the bathrooms or was it the moon? But I knew he was with Angelina Jolie.

"He's with-Angelina,"

His brows furrowed. "Angelina?"

"Jolie."

I didn't hear what he said next maybe it was because he hadn't said anything at all or maybe it was because a sudden uproar ripped through the ground murderously and a sudden stench of chaos corrupted the air.

I could feel his hand on my shoulder freeze, I blinked into his widened eyes unable to look at the people flooding through the back door and stumbling into the garden we were in.

"THE FUCKING POLICE ARE HERE."

I was going to find pockets and I was going to steal the stars and his beautiful eyes.

There was so much screaming, so much noise, I could hear the stomping, glass breaking, puking, and the sirens.

I had forgotten whose house we were at but I pitied the little delinquent. By the time the sun rises today and the morning news airs they would've dragged their family's name across the bitter lips of a good portion of adults in Whitepocket. Disgrace and shame, a case worse than death.

"Alero," he stepped forward and made sure he had my attention. "I need you to run."

"But why," I hiccupped groaning at the way my legs hurt from merely standing. "I want to find-find pockets and steal-the-your eyes."

"Alero, please, there's weed and coke and so much shit in there if we get caught we're going to be in big trouble. Your sister will kill you."

"But I want-need your eyes."

He looked behind me frantically and slipped his hands to my waist burning me and then I was suddenly floating and slicing through the air, pushing passed the wind and the English Ivy and the tulips and the petunias.

He carried me effortlessly on his shoulders and I struggled to look up at the sky and reach out to the pretty golden lights blinking from the back of the house as we pushed back the little gate and onto the street.

I could see Angelina Jolie dancing with a police officer.

I would put that picture in my pocket too.

Even as we were out of the house he didn't stop running and didn't lose speed, and the big gracious trees that sat behind the white short wooden fences of the houses on the streets began to swallow the sight.

But yet I could still feel the music. I could feel the rhythm in my chest. Extraordinary.

He kept on running and running and running...and talking and talking and talking and pressing his phone to his face and pressing and pressing.

"I swear to God Oore if you don't pull up by the corner by the time we get there I would shred you apart."

I laughed because I knew he could. He could do anything and everything and so many things. He did so much for us, so much. We love him.

I love him.

I laughed so hard I blanked out.

By the time I blinked my eyes open, I could still feel myself zooming through the air but it wasn't as smooth, the car didn't skip over the little bumps like he did to make sure I wasn't getting hurt. The car didn't move with such athleticism, it neither bothered nor cared.

I groaned feeling a sharp pain travel through my head and settle on my forehead. It felt like it was getting split in half with a giant axe.

"Finally Miss lightweight is awake," That bugging voice was not want I needed. "Look over here joor."

I turned to the back seat and almost kissed a camera, I reconciled back in both confusion and irritation and let out a murmur. "What the hell?"

"Oore leave her alone, you're the one who got her messed up like this." He said he was driving, concentration etched on his brows.

"Oh fuck me," Oore groaned and plopped back in his seat his hand draped over Faye's shoulders. "This is the last time you guys leave me in charge of her at a party, I can't babysit and get stoned at the same time or can I?"

In charge. In charge. I needed to be taken care of like I was helpless. I needed to be taken care of because I was volatile. I needed to be taken care of because I had chaos in my head and soul.

The atmosphere shifted, it wasn't Oore's fault, he had a big heart but a lousy mouth that always spoke the truth, everyone already knew I had to be watched, it was a silent knowledge he just materialized into words.

Ander who had been quiet nudged him so hard he slammed against the car door. "Shut up, you're the one who sneaked her out the least you could do was to make sure she was okay."

Ander had always been protective of me, they all were. Ander, Oore, Faye, and of course Alexander. They were like high concrete walls that surrounded me wherever I went. Like multiple bulletproof vests bundled on me. It got heavy and suffocating but safe.

Oore sat up, his tall willowy figure used to the manhandling. He still had the camera in one hand and massaged his shoulder blade that had suffered the impact with the other.

"Jesus, can you guys stop pitting this on me, I didn't think she would incinerate if I left her for just a moment, she isn't a fucking child."

Alex didn't talk, he kept his eyes on the road, and clenched and unclenched. We all knew Oore and we all loved him despite knowing him for who he was.

If Faye, his girlfriend, was here she would've punched him in the face already. I didn't like them fighting over me and that's why Alex stayed silent.

"What the hell dude?" Ander asked disappointment coating his voice and then he leaned on his side of the car. "What the actual hell?"

I folded myself on my seat and prayed I could liquefy into a pathetic puddle and evaporate from this car, I hated when they spoke about me like I wasn't there, I hated when they spoke about me when I wasn't there, I hated when they spoke up for me like I couldn't do it myself. I hated that I allowed them to because I couldn't.

Oore sighed and I watched him from the rearview mirror look out his window and back at me. It always took him a few minutes to realize that he had let out words in an order he had no intention of and with a tone he wished he could take back.

He leaned forward to my seat and held my shoulders, it wasn't as warm as Alex's, they were long and bony. "You know I love you, Al."

I looked over to him and smiled squeezing his hand gently. "I love you too."

"You know I'm an idiot."

"I know."

He grinned and kissed the top of my head with an unnecessary loud smack that almost had me wincing from the headache and then he pulled back to his seat.

And that was that. There were no sorrys or please or thank yous there were only I love yous because they were words shaped from the heart mind and soul. They were words molded with genuineness. They were words you meant.

Alex looked over to my seat his eyes gentle, he wanted to know if I was actually okay, I nodded and smiled, I wasn't but they didn't need to know that. That thawing hole in my mind didn't need to be known. It was insignificant. Just like everything about me.

He looked back at the road and Oore went back to his camera, where he was keeping everything documented for Faye.

"Wait," Oore drawled in realization and poked the air. "Who the fuck had us raided like that?"

"We were being too loud, Riverview always finds it hard not to go extreme."

"No," the ebony-skinned boy wasn't satisfied, he leaned to Alex. "Tell me, who hates us the most in the whole of Abuja?"

"Us?"

"Riverview, you know us."

Ander furrowed his bushy brows in understanding where he was going freeing his afro from his cap. "Everest-."

"YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCK THOSE EVEREST KIDS!"

I flinched at his sudden scream and then a chuckle rippled out of all of us.

I didn't find it funny or amusing.

"How are you so sure they were the ones who called the cops?" Alex asked, took a turn, and pressed down on the gas.

Ander scoffed. "Who else? The one time we decide to let loose and have fun and then they have everyone and their mothers on our case."

"Bastards," Oore tsked, projecting his camera out of the window. "But then we allow them to mess around, heck we turn a blind eye to all the parties they have thrown despite the noise. You could literally smell fornication down my street last week."

"But then they call the police on us the one fucking night we decide to do the same."

Faye kissed her teeth. "Bloody hypocrites."

And then Oore stuck his head out the window, he was so lanky that I was afraid he would be carried away by the wind and flung out, I reached towards the back and held onto his knee as though that would be enough to anchor him down.

"FUCK YOU EVEREST KIDS! YOU ALL SHOULD GO ROT IN HELL!"

We burst out laughing maybe it was the lingering daze I was in but everything felt like it was on nothing, like I could slip my fingers through the road and clutch the world in my hand.

I didn't find it funny or amusing.

They should all rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell.

I looked over to Alex, watching the moonbeams streaming on his face greedily fighting for a spot and showering him with grandeur and grace and pure magic.

Ander was struggling to get Oore back in afraid he might be getting unwanted attention by yelling through the quiet street. Despite the nonchalant front he always kept he didn't want to get caught just like everyone. His mother would rip him apart as my sister would to me.

Alex blinked over to me and this was the very few time I was able to hold his gaze squarely, it must've been the English Ivy or tulips or petunias. It was the weed.

"Don't worry your sister won't get mad, I'll find a way."

I knew he would, he always came through for me, for us and maybe it was bad that we all relied so heavily on him but it was out of habit. Alex loved to go around and collect as much responsibility as he could and gathered them on his shoulders.

I reached for his head on the wheel and stroke his roughened knuckles. "Thank you."

He knew my sister only had me and we only had each other and that's why he also took the responsibility of keeping our bond as strong as it should. He would have tea with her and talk to her about how I was improving when they thought I was out of hearing, he would tell her to be patient, he would tell her I really loved her and sometimes she would cry and beg him to bring me out of my head sometimes she would thank him and then I would be back and the topic would be brushed away until the next time.

I love him. I love him so much. I love him so much it weighed heavily in my heart. I love him so much that I wanted to melt into him. I love him so much that I didn't care that he didn't love me the way I did. I love him so much that I didn't have enough love for me anymore. I poured it all on him. I love him so much that I didn't feel jealous that he could have enough love to go around for everyone while mine was solely for him and him alone.

"Did you drink?"

He grinned, so alluringly laced with moonbeams. "Just did a little stuff, I might need Ander's help for my next drug test."

Alex was a boxer, he was fast, he was merciless. He was like a coin but one that decided which side it flipped to. In the ring he wasn't soft or gentle as he was with me, his eyes weren't beautiful, and his smile wasn't dazzling. He was hell in the form of a beast with claws and an unquenchable thirst. I had only come to one of his matches and I cried myself to sleep that night. I only wanted to see him the way I wanted.

The way I wanted him to be kept in my pocket.

He was going to have his first professional match at a big local tournament and his parents were even stricter on his time, exercise, and diet. He got tested randomly to make sure he was off the bad things. But sometimes he snuck in a glass or two, never anything hard.

"I don't think you should be driving then." I teased. I was bold tonight but the alcohol-infused confidence would wear off soon and I will crawl back into my miserable shell.

"So you want Oore over there to take the wheels? Believe me, I would love to see him crash his face useless but unfortunately, you're in this car."

My heart was getting heavy. I was struggling to find more space for it. "And so what if I'm in it?"

I didn't realize he had been looking at me all this while until I felt the heat of his gaze burn me like wildfire. "I never want you to get hurt."

"ALEX!"

But it was too late by the time we both looked at the road a log of a body was crashing into the car, slamming against the windshield, rolling off the roof, and plummeting to the road with a loud thud, it happened so fast it seemed like we were in a game, like it was an illusion.

It couldn't be real.

The car screeched to a stop, we held our breaths, and my head was filled with bees they were busy, buzzing, crying, and stinging. I could hear Oore muttering something like a prayer but I couldn't at the same time, the frantic beat of my heart was drowning me in a sea of unknown emotions.

I could see everything playing in slow motion, the car light shining on his body, tall clad fully, his face a blur, his cry a nightmare. I closed my eyes wanting to escape, wanting to leave, travel, disappear, and dissolve into the earth for someone to squeeze.

"Jesus Christ," Ander muttered and I was pulled back to my body. "Was-was that...Jesus."

"What did we just hit?" Faye staggered over her words.

I looked over to Alex, he was frozen in his seat, unblinking, unmoving, like a sculpture marked with horror had been left in his place.

I had caused this. If I hadn't pulled his attention away if I...I had caused this. I deserved to die.

"We need to check if he or whatever it was is okay." Ander reached for his door but Ore pulled him back with a strength I never knew his thin arms could ever possess and shut the door back with so much force it almost resembled the sound of my heartbeat.

"Alex drive." He said, voice cold, monotone.

I looked at him through the review mirror, he was shaking but his face was stern, bleak.

"What do you mean drive?!" Ander shrugged him off, and his breathing hardened. "You want us to leave him there, what if...what if he is alive?"

"Fuck it! He isn't, whatever or whoever it was is dead," He turned to Alex again. "Alex drive, now."

He isn't, he isn't, he isn't, she isn't, he isn't, he isn't, he isn't, he isn't, she isn't, he isn't, he isn't, he isn't, he isn't, he isn't. He's dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.

He isn't alive.

I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I deserved to die.

"ALEX!"

Ander reached for his door again and this time Oore shoved him against it pinning him down and locking their eyes, heavy drags of breaths echoed.

"I swear to God if you step out of this car I'll fuck you up!"

"You're sick! You hear me Oore? You're fucking sick in the head. Let me go, free me abeg!"

"To do what?" There was so much yelling. I closed my eyes and prayed to leave. I wanted to leave. I wanted to disassemble. "To bring a dead body in here?-."

"HE MIGHT BE ALIVE!"

"THEN WHAT?" He was holding Ander's collar so tight if I was in my head I would've been afraid that he would choke him to death. "Then we take him to the hospital, right? Then they call the cops and then we will be thrown in prison, you know we'll fucked if you go out!"

If anyone strolled or drove passed us this instance with the driver frozen, me swirling around the space of the car, the boys at the back at each other's throat, and a bundle of bones sprawled behind, that would be it. Game over.

"I don't fucking care! Let me go!"

"But your mother will!" Oore was shaking, tears streaming from his bulging eyes. "Your mother fucking will. Can you handle that bud? Use your head for once!"

And suddenly the fight in Ander writhed, his shoulders slumped and he looked away eyes darting. Oore moved back freeing him from his choke hold and letting his words take his place.

We could be teenagers, we could wear uniforms and head to school, we could sit at lunch and scroll through social media, we could make out in the boys' locker room, and we could drown in schoolwork.

We could be teenagers but we couldn't be disappointments. We couldn't bring dirt to our family or disgrace.

We were the future of Whitepocket.

Ander punched the window, I heard his fingers crack but I refused to look, I wasn't even present. I was dripping into the leather seats.

"Alex get the fuck down," Oore commanded. "I'm driving."

Alex didn't move. He was frozen.

'Alex!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET ME THINK!"

It was like the world heard his snap, everywhere impossibly quieted down even more, the wind recoiled, the English ivy, tulip, and petunias plunged back into the soil, gone. The earth stopped rotating and the galaxy stopped existing.

We stared at him, waiting, waiting, no one could stop him if he wanted to do anything. It was all his choice, it was a responsibility he had quickly stolen and stacked.

I held my breath and I must have for a long because I began to see double and blurry, I was killing myself.

I deserved to die.

The car zoomed off like it was crazed, I peeped through the side mirror and saw a deer get up, wiggle its body and ran down the road.

I sighed heavily.

"It was a deer. It was a deer." Faye beat me to announce it.

No one said another thing.

I stared out the window, silence and Oore's crying consuming us at the same time. I rolled down my window and stretched my hand to the sky I could reach the stars, I could feel them, I just needed to tip higher.

"Can you stop crying? It was just a deer." Ander said taking a sharp corner, navigating through the road smoothly.

But I could understand the guilt he must've been feeling knowing that if it had actually been a person real with a heart like him that he had enough demons to leave them to save himself.

He had seen the ugliness planted in us and it had scarred him.

Mine had already done that a long time ago. There was nothing more to scar.

My fingers first melted and then my hand and then my whole body was mingling in the essence of the stars and moonbeams and when I looked down I could see the English Ivies, the tulips, and the petunias.

I could see weed. I could see Angelina Jolie and the policeman dancing. I could see Alex's eyes.

I wanted to steal them all and put them in my pockets.

But I had no pockets.

I burst out laughing as we slid into 52nd Street.

ROSE'S LITTLE RANT;

Who is this narrator? Is she important? If she was why wasn't her aesthetic shown?

These questions will remain unknown I fear🤭

What is this beef between Everest and Riverview?

So far we keep seeing random narrators and random scenes at random time stamps. Do you think they are relevant?

Well, I don't!

There was so much going on here, so many little things. But I am sure they are not important.

Alero and Alex??? Are we seeing our first ship? Are we not?? Maybe? Maybe not?😗

Anwayyyyy, thank you for reading!!!

See you next week.

Love, Rose❤️