Lean On Me.

When I arrived at Alex’s house, I hesitantly knocked on the door. I wasn’t even sure if he was going to be there, but it was a start. Then if he was there, would his Dad know that we’d had a row. What would he say to me? I didn’t have time to form any answers to these questions though because the door opened and Daniel stood there smiling at me.

“Finally,” he grinned at me. “I’ve been waiting for you to come. He’s in a terrible mood. He’s been cooped up in his room and won’t talk to me. Maybe you’ll have better luck with him.”

Daniel looked a little worse for wear and the effects of his treatment were evident. He looked frail and his face was pale.

“Hopefully,” I replied. “Do you mind if I try?”

“By all means, be my guest,” he replied. “I’m about to go to bed so I’ll leave you alone with him.”

I took this as my cue to leave as I climbed the stairs and walked to Alex’s door, knocking gently.

“Go away, Dad,” was the muffled reply I received. “I told you, I don’t want to talk.”

I peeked my head around the door and looked into his dark room. In the dim light, I could see Alex curled up on his bed, buried beneath the covers.

“It’s me,” I replied softly as I made my way across the room to his bed, kicking off my shoes as I lay down beside him, burying my face in my chest and pulling him close.

Alex pulled out of my grasp and moved to the other side of the bed, refusing to look at me. I went to reach for his hand but he pulled it away again.

“What do you want?” He asked, his voice indicating that he was upset.

“I came to apologise,” I replied quietly. “I’m sorry for what I said.”

Alex didn’t reply to me and kept pulling away from me.

“Please Lex, just listen to me,” I pleaded. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean it. I even brought chocolate and ice cream to make it up to you.”

Alex was silent as he joined our fingers together, curling close to me.

“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have done what I did. It was a bad idea. You just looked so sad and out of form earlier in class and you weren’t answering my texts. It was stupid idea that I thought would make you smile. I never thought about what would happen if someone saw it. They didn’t see it, did they? I didn’t get you in trouble?”

Now that I was in a calmer mood, I could see where Alex was coming from and how he just wanted to cheer me up. While we both knew it was silly, it was also stupid that we were arguing over it.

“No, we didn’t get caught. It’s okay, Lex. I picked it up right on time. I’m sorry for calling you a child, I never meant to. It just slipped out. I’ve been so stressed with Bella lately. She’s been keeping me up the whole time and I haven’t been getting sleep and I was worried about her. I’d never see you as a child. I want you to know that. I love you.”

“Love you too,” Alex replied, reaching up and placing a soft kiss on my lips. “I’m sorry for over reacting and storming out.”

I could only smile, happy that everything was okay between us. I didn’t like arguing with him, even if it was over something so silly.

“So, did you say that you had chocolate and ice cream?” Alex asked and I nodded in response. “Well, pay up then Barakat. Let’s watch a movie.”

Notes