《red light》不渡万山

6、第 6 章

　　The next morning, Alex woke up at 7:00 AM sharp, as usual, and climbed out of bed, heading straight for the bathroom.
　　After taking a shower, brushing her teeth and fixing her hair, she emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of jeans and a t shirt, which she put on over her tank top. She grabbed her keys off of the dresser and headed down the stairs.
　　"Hey, where are you going?" Dean called as she left the house. Alex smiled and waved goodbye as she walked outside and started walking to work. She entered the building through the back entrance and greeted Lisa, who was waiting for her at her locker.
　　"Good morning!" Lisa greeted.
　　"Morning," Alex replied, throwing her backpack onto her locker.
　　"You haven't slept much lately," Lisa observed, noticing how exhausted Alex appeared to be. "Is everything okay?"
　　"Yeah," Alex replied, forcing a smile. "It's just a lot of work. I think that's why I haven't been sleeping much."
　　Lisa nodded knowingly.
　　"That sucks, but it sounds like you're starting to enjoy yourself more now."
　　Alex smiled again.
　　"Maybe a little bit."
　　"See! That's good progress!"
　　As the girls continued chatting in their locker rooms, a voice suddenly interrupted them.
　　"Well, well, well."
　　Alex and Lisa exchanged a quick glance before they both turned around. Castiel stood right before them, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his trenchcoat. Alex sighed deeply.
　　"Hello, Castiel."
　　Castiel raised his eyebrows.
　　"Hello," he said quietly. "Am I interrupting anything?"
　　Alex shrugged, putting her books inside her locker.
　　"Not really, no," she said. "We're just catching up on our daily lives. How about you?"
　　Castiel shifted uncomfortably on his feet for a second, looking slightly unsure of what to do. Finally, he settled on placing his hands in his pocket again and nodding.
　　"Yes, I suppose I am. You?"
　　Alex shook her head.
　　"Nope. Just getting ready to go to work."
　　Castiel nodded again, looking around the locker room.
　　"Well then, I will see you around then," he announced. "Enjoy your work."
　　He turned and began making his way out of the locker room, leaving Lisa and Alex staring after him. When Castiel was finally gone, Lisa let out a quiet sigh and turned to Alex.
　　"He hasn't talked to you in days. Hasn't visited the library at all. Not even once," she explained. "Something clearly has upset him, I can see that from his face. I'm sure that he's just having trouble finding words to express himself sometimes. He doesn't seem able to talk about what happened before, does he?"
　　Alex shrugged.
　　"No, not really," she admitted. "But I don't know what I can do about that."
　　"Well maybe it's better if you wait until he feels like telling you," said Lisa. "I mean, what would we do if he told us and then we realized later that he hadn'a said anything when he actually did tell us?"
　　Alex laughed humorlessly.
　　"Yeah, probably," she agreed. "But I can't help worrying about it every day."
　　Lisa nodded sympathetically.
　　"I know you can't, Alex. You're a great friend to him, trust me. And he loves you like a sister, but it can't be easy knowing that you might not ever know what happened between him and Anna. Especially since he won'a tell you. Not yet, anyway."
　　Alex looked down at her shoes and nodded slowly, biting her lower lip nervously.
　　"I know…" she mumbled. "It's hard, I get it."
　　"Of course it is," Lisa agreed. "It's gonna take some time before anyone's really ready to talk about that day. Especially since he obviously doesn't wanna talk about it."
　　Alex sighed and opened her locker door. She pulled out her books and shoved them inside before slamming the locker shut.
　　"How long do you think I have left before he breaks down and tells me the whole story?" she whispered, sounding defeated.
　　"At least a week," said Lisa calmly. "Give or take a few days. He'll come around eventually. □□ needs some time."
　　Alex closed her locker and leaned against it, letting her head drop into her hands.
　　"Yeah… maybe," she muttered. "It's just… hard to wait."
　　Lisa placed her hand gently on Alex's shoulder.
　　"Trust me," she assured her. "I wish I could fix all of that, but there isn't much I can do. We'll just have to wait for him to be ready."
　　Castiel had barely gotten home, even though his apartment was only half an hour away by car, when the phone rang again. This time it was Dean's ringtone, meaning that Sam was calling him again. Castiel hesitated for a moment before picking up the call.
　　"Hello, Sam," he greeted.
　　"Cas!" Sam exclaimed excitedly. "Where are you? Are you okay? We tried calling you earlier and you never picked up."
　　Castiel sighed.
　　"I'm sorry, Sam," he apologized, "I didn't hear my cell phone ringing because-"