Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!



Megan's playful jab towards Alexa that prompted that reaction told me that she was probably a second-hand victim of the complicated relationship JP and Seb have with each other, and even though Megan didn't mean for this to happen, feelings were hurt and it was extremely important to mend the wound and not let it fester.

In any case, I quickly jumped in between the two to try and help clear out the misunderstanding but we suddenly had visitors—Ben and company—who would either make the situation better or worse, depending on how it plays out.

'This is worse than trying to walk on eggshells…'

Ben was the first one to get to where the three of us were standing and he greeted us with a huge smile on his face, "Yoo~ Some dudes told us you were around these parts—dude, you did not just swim in the lake! Wai— Ahh~ I get it, I get it… All of you are crazy and it's not my business though but…"

He trailed when he saw that Alexa's eyes were a little red but he then glanced at me before looking over at Quinn and Tatiana who luckily have covered their most important bits—though I doubt they'd care one bit. And as he turned his head in my direction, I assumed he partly knew that something was up so he quickly turned around to keep the rest of the boys from descending down the campsite.

"Nothin' to see here, boys~ We're turning back—"

Ruben exclaimed, "Woah! Is that a lake?! It looks cool!"

#1 ran ahead of everyone, "I'm jumping innn~!"

#2 followed, "Why's no one taking off their clothes?! It's gonna be fun at the moment but imagine walking back with wet— Don't say I didn't warn all of ya!"

Seb, JP, and Lucas were the ones who didn't jump in the lake though Seb was looking at Alexa, trying to figure out why she was in tears while JP looked like he didn't want to look that outgoing, and in Lucas' case, he looked like he wanted to jump in but he had to stay close to the Balrog's— I mean, the Baron's side.

In any case, it was an awkward scene for a few moments but I glanced at Ben to take Lucas away before I called over Kaley and Chloe.

JP was the first one to say something, "What's going on?"

I replied, "A total misunderstanding. That's what's going on—"

"Then why am I here?"

"You'll know soon enough," I replied as I turned to Chloe, "Hey, the place you're staying at… Can we use it for a bit? Do you have other people living with you?"

Chloe was a little confused but she answered, "Only a few people stay around these parts because of the trouble of ascending every single time so I have the cabin to myself— Ah. Right, you can use the cabin over there with the flowers and the ribbons on the door. H-Here's the keys…"

After a short bit, Kaley and I were sitting right next to each other while the other four: Alexa, Seb, Megan, and JP were opposite us, sitting on a single couch in that same order and they were just looking at us, either confused about the whole situation or had a feeling that we were trying to get them to forgive each other with a little bit of unsolicited nudges.

Seb raised his hand, "Umm… W-What's going on here, exactly?"

JP followed while looking directly at me, "Yeah, and what's the misunderstanding you were talking about earlier?"

I glanced at Kaley momentarily before sighing and looking them in the eye, "You see, I hate to see this kind of stuff happening, and even though we've just started on our journey and we've only vibed for a short bit… we gotta address some deep and complicated stuff you should probably tell to a counselor or something similar. In any case, Kaley here is the closest one we have and before we start anything else, I'm gonna assure all of you that whatever that's said here will only stay here and never spoken anywhere else…"

Kaley nodded as she followed after me, "We'll make sure we hold our end on that but you'd also have to do your part as well—"

JP cut her off with a guarded stance, "I don't understand. What has this got to do with—"

Kaley shut him down with a glare, "It has got to do with what's happening over there right now. But what we need to understand here is that we're not here to lay blame on anyone but instead, we should know that sometimes, our actions and decisions can somehow affect other people indirectly. And for the sake of everyone else in this room, I think I should preface that what we say right now should be in complete honesty because as much as I hate to say this personally, I have my own ways of knowing if someone's trying to curve around the answer…"

'She admitted it! Fuck, now's not the time…'

She continued after giving me a side glance, "However, this is also not an interrogation—even though it sounds that way as I said it—our goal here is to bring it all out from everyone's perspective and then the actual truth, so we can understand the how's and the why's for everything that happened at this point. I know it feels forced and kinda cringe for some of you but trust me when I say that it's much, much worse—and you'd rather have the cringe than whatever you'd about to feel if—no, WHEN it all crashes down."

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Things were quiet for a few moments but Seb raised his hand again to ask the same question, "U-Umm… B-But what happened here exactly?"

Kaley and I looked at each other before I answered, "You see…"

I started to relay EVERYTHING that happened the moment we reached the campsite all they to when some of us swam in the lake and had some fun by the shore—completely baring everything—right until what we thought was supposed to be an edgy back and forth turned into instant drama no one didn't expect.

It wasn't that hard explaining this part of our therapy session but the moment I started to skirt around JP and Seb's complicated relationship that involved a gross power dynamic, the person to get most uncomfortable was the alleged aggressor.

JP couldn't sit still in his seat as I tried to explain to their "girlfriends" what the actual fuck was going on between the two, but even though Megan had already said she kinda knew about what was going on between these two people, she looked as conflicted as Alexa who only discovered the reason for the words that triggered her earlier.

Kaley and I had to intervene a few times because their side of the couch got so fucking heated, and even though JP got chastised the most by the two women, Seb also caught strays for being a little too passive in his own right.

It was already a heck of a thing to let a supposed abuser do their shit, but it was also another thing for both of them to involve two other people—one romantically inclined and one there just for the hell of it—to act as smoke and mirrors to continue whatever they were doing with each other.

Any other person would've involved Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, or that guy on Youtube— Dr. K to somehow unravel this pube-like tangled mess that shouldn't have existed in the first place if they were just honest with each other, but to be completely fair, a ton of outside influence affected them to act this way.

For example: let's just say that being attracted to a person that had the same shit between your legs and being in a partnership with a religious school and a military-like school that had almost the same "values" that were completely against their whole being, wouldn't mix well and was more than a tricky situation.

And yeah, this line of thought doesn't even completely— I mean, it kinda goes to that PC or woke-ish territory, but at the end of the day, as long as everyone's happy and no one else was affected by whatever the fuck they were doing, I support them fully.

But in our case, this thing with Seb and JP hurt someone—though indirectly—who shouldn't be hurt in the first place so that's where I draw the line.

With that said, Kaley and I spent close to four hours simply talking to the four, and even though it was severely taxing and exhausting while I wasn't the one in the hot seat, I tried my best to keep myself out of the conversation and instead focus in helping Kaley work around the issues all of them had.

However, it became difficult when I was asked what I should do in that situation because as the two reminded me, I was supposed to teach them shit that I know. It should be about them and not about me but to be completely fair to them and to myself, I was only approaching my late-20s and I was still figuring shit out as well.

I scratched the side of my cheek as I faced them, "You see… I'm not equipped to talk about this in the first place and the only reason I'm here is that I know about the real situation between you two and I did promise to teach you my ways or something but… The way you guys were doing 'it' is not it at all…"

"We… W-We know that—"

"That's why we're asking you…"

"L-Let me finish, at least… I'd really hate to say this but… The first thing all of you should do is break it up with each other—whether it's official or not—because that's fucking ridiculous. You're with us now so whoever you bend down, dick down, lick up, suck up, up-up, down-down, left-right, left-right, B, A, Start, or whatever, news flash: we don't fucking care! No one does! Sure, we're deep in the mouth of the group that involves themselves in things that don't apply to them, so what? We'll be driving away from this place anyway, what can they do? Worst comes to worst I'll take all of you in my fold, no cap—is that what you guys say nowadays?"

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"Tough crowd. But anyway~ It all boils down to whether what's more important to you: your own happiness or the happiness of the ones who shouldn't even give a flying fuck about. Megan!"

"Y-Yes?"

"Bro advice here: Break it off with JP and just do what you're doing but learn to read the room if we're throwing out jabs, alright?"

"That's it? I mean— Y-Yes, sir! I understand!"

"JP!"

"W-What?"

"Here's another bro advice: Break it off with Megan and figure out what you actually want to happen with Seb. It's technically not an alpha move if he lets you dip in his shit hole but that's a different problem in its entirety! Be honest with yourself first and try to see things from his perspective and you might surprise yourself. If it doesn't work, we'll try a different way! We got lots of fucking time! Don't care about what your dad or anyone thinks for now, and focus on what you should be doing to not turn like Lopez! That's the most important part!"

"Y-Yes, bro… sir… bro-sir?"

"Good enough! Seb!"

"S-Sir?"

"You know what's coming, right? Give Alexa some fucking respect and break it off with her if you're into being the one on the receiving end! Ah— Something I don't wanna talk about right now is also possible but unless you're planning to do both of them which is something I highly advise against because it would work from the looks of it, talk with— no, don't— like for real, don't even try. It could happen in the future but not for now. All of you need time away from each other but not in the literal sense since we're on a road trip of sorts."

"I-I see…"

Then I finally turned to the last one on the chair, "Alexa…"

"Sir…"

"I'm really sorry this happened to you but my advice to you is also to break it off with the one you really like because right now, it's a hot mess that needs to be cooled down before you attempt to even touch it again."

"Yes, sir..."

I continued as she looked down, "It's gonna be hard and it's gonna be weird because you'll still see them the next day and the day after that but it's better than trying hard for something you're not even sure that could reciprocate back genuinely. It should still hurt and WILL hurt for some time because I'm sure your feelings for Seb are genuine. But do know that Kaley and I can still sit down and talk to you if you want, and that also applies to the three of you. But as of this moment, I'll advise the four of you to just be friends for the time being and only try to resume whatever it is you started if you're actually sure of what to go for."

Kaley was just about to add to what I said but I touched her arm and had to say one last thing:

"This is not an order, I repeat, this is not an order—But my fucking order to all of you is don't be fucking assholes to each other, it's pretty simple. Right? Is that hard?," I scoffed as I chuckled, "I should've started with that in the first place because I'm really tired now… Kaley?"

Kaley lightly shook her head as she smiled at me, "I was just about to say something along those lines but why don't we leave it at that for now? What do you guys think? Everyone's probably bored out of their minds or had already gone back from how long we're talking…"

At that moment, each of them let out the faintest of smiles, and even though their body language told me that what we tackled and tried to do today went well, I could only imagine what was happening inside their heads right now. But yeah, everyone genuinely apologized to each other with the matching five-Mississippi hug and we received the same hug with a genuine thank you for what we tried.