I Have Friends In Both Places
Twelve

“I’m gonna kill them,” Galen screeched, slamming his hands on the table in front of him. “I’m going to literally murder them. What the hell?”

“Okay, maybe just calm down a bit,” Atlas mumbled as he watched the lights above them flicker as a surge of power left Galen, magic sitting in the air, making it heavy. “We don’t need this place destroyed.”

“I thought they were supposed to be the good guys, and yet, they’re doing this? You didn’t deserve that. No one deserves that. What the fuck.” Galen’s voice was loud, and it seemed to only get higher and higher in pitch as he freaked out. Atlas had just told him about everything that had happened after he said his goodbyes to Galen, and, well, Galen wasn’t taking it so well.

Galen gripped the edges of the table and took a deep breath, and everyone in the room felt the magic die down a bit, but Galen’s anger wasn’t in the least bit controlled.

“I looked up to them all of my life. I tried so hard to be good so I could get into heaven, and you’re telling me that they threw you down to Hell for becoming friends with me? They ruined your wings and your life, and they tore us apart because you broke a simple rule. Are you kidding me?” Galen’s eyes were closed, and his voice was eerily quiet. He took a deep breath again before standing tall. “What do you need me to do?”

Alijah smiled a bit at the question and began explaining, his tone easy. “We need you to do a spell to make us look like angels, give us the ability to fly and stuff like that so we can get into Heaven without being spotted. You’re one of the highest-powered druids down there, and we figured you might be able to perform the spell if we gave you the resources.”

Galen nodded and lifted his head. “I’ll do it.”

Alijah grinned. “Great. Lele will take you to the books so you can look through them. Some of them are in different languages, but I’m sure he’ll be able to help you.”

Galen nodded again and grabbed Lele’s hand, lacing their fingers together easily. “Then let’s go, babe.”

Atlas watched as they ascended the stairs before turning to Alijah who was talking to Nolan about something. He didn’t care to listen. Instead, he made his way to a couch where he sat down and pulled out one of his favorite books. It was an old and torn copy of Hans Christian Anderson’s works, one of his favorite writers.

Atlas made himself comfortable on one of the plush sofas and read, tuning out the world around him, but after time, Atlas found himself drifting off into thought instead of reading. His eyes were trained on the page, but he didn’t take in any information. Instead, he was thinking about the plan, about Alijah, about Galen and how he was back, and how he was completely terrified of everything that had been presented to him. Everything around him seemed like a badly written plot to a book that he felt as if he simply couldn’t be real, like it couldn’t be happened, but it was, and he had to deal with it.

Mostly though, Atlas missed music. Atlas loved listening to music to calm himself when he got angry, to make him happier or sadder than he already was, to dance to when no one was looking. Atlas loved listening to music with Galen when the boy couldn’t sleep. Atlas loved listening to music when he was trying to find the words to something he couldn’t put his finger on. Atlas just missed music.

So, Atlas placed down his book and stood up, making his way the stairs to the third floor where Galen was sprawled out with Lele’s head in his lap. Books were laid all around them, most closed, but a few seemed to be open, and the two were both reading separate ones. Atlas cleared his throat, and Galen looked up while Lele ignored him. “Yeah, man?”

“Hey, I was wondering if you brought your phone down here, by chance,” Atlas responded, pushing his hands in his back pockets.

Galen grinned and nodded. “You’re just in luck,” he stated and grabbed his phone from behind him where Atlas assumed it had been sitting on the ground. “I don’t have much more battery percentage, but you can try it out.”

Atlas grinned and thanked him before running back down the stairs and falling onto the couch, placing the headphones attached to the phone in his ears. He unlocked it with ease and navigated through it quickly to the music library where Galen had a mix of the two’s favorite music. As Atlas clicked on his favorite band and guilty pleasure, 5 Seconds of Summer, he felt himself grow happier. The familiar melody of their album Youngblood filled his ears, and Atlas completely relaxed into the sofa, a soft smile on his face.

He turned his head a bit as he felt someone staring at him and met eyes with Alijah. Alijah had an eyebrow lifted with a slight smile on his face, barely there. “What’re you doing,” he questioned

“Listening to music,” Atlas replied, a lazy smile on his face as he grew tired even after having slept for almost ten hours. A yawn slipped past his lips before he could stop it, and he closed his eyes.

Alijah chuckled a bit and leaned back a bit in his chair. “Why don’t you make me a playlist so I can hear what you like?”

Atlas thought about it for a second before shrugging and turning to lay on his back on the sofa. “Maybe.” Though, that maybe meant ‘yes’, and even if he never told Alijah how long it took, he sat around for the rest of the day and night making the playlist. He listened through all of Galen’s library and then more in an attempt to find the perfect songs to describe how he felt for Alijah. It was cliché, there was no denying it, but Atlas liked to indulge himself in the activity and completely forget about everything around him just for those few moments, and when he laid in bed that night thinking about the dumb, black-haired, hazel-eyed boy, he couldn’t help but smile a bit because even in those few short moments he had known him, he had completely captivated Atlas and owned a small little section of his heart where bright red carnations bloomed.

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