This World's An Ugly Place

"If we keep this up I have a feeling Ms. Wendy is literally going to kill us," Alex concluded as he walked into his room with me right on his heels. Again, we managed to get back to the home right before curfew, but this was to be expected nowadays.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Trust me, I did it all the time before you showed up. She'll be fine, she just worries a lot."

Alex smirked. "You're quite the rebellious teen, aren't you?"

"You're just now figuring that out?" I asked him, leaning against one of his dressars as he took his coat off and roughly sat it on his desk's chair.

He chuckled at that. "I guess not," he said, letting his eyes meet mine.

I wanted to squirm under his gaze, his eyes always made my head fuzzy, but I stood my ground. "So...did you guys seriously hear what me and Lexus were talking about?" I asked shyly now, biting down on my bottom lip.

He frowned. "Not really," he admitted, walking over towards me.

"Seriously?" I asked, relief flooding over me.

"I mean, I guess we would make cute babies," he said quietly, a growing smile on his face and I let out a shriek.

"Oh my God, you liar!" I said through a giggle, my cheeks flushing from embarrassment. "That was all Lexus! She's such a hopeless romantic and, oh my God I can't believe..." I spoke quickly shaking my head.

Alex continued to laugh, grabbing my hand and pulling me into a hug. One thing about Alex was he was very affectionate. "I'm just teasing," he said as I hid my face into his chest. "I mean, I did hear what you guys were saying and all, but I get it."

"No, now I have to go die from embarrassment," I mumbled into his chest. "Lexus always does this to me!"

"Aw, relax, everyone knows it," he teased with a wink, walking back over to his bed and sitting down on it.

Since I knew it would only make my blush grow more, I chose to ignore that comment and follow after him towards his bed. "How do you like Jack?" I asked.

Alex was a bit taken back by the random question but he got over it quickly. "Uh, he's cool, I mean, at first I wasn't sure about him but I like him."

I nodded my head. "Yeah, he's a doofus," I admitted. "But, he's one of a kind. As much as he drives me insane, he's a good kid," I said, talking about Jack like he was younger than me when really we were about the same age.

Alex smiled at that. "Yeah, you guys have a brother-sister thing going on," he said. "That's kind of nice that you guys have each other."

"The thing about Jack is that he likes to act like there's no problems and that life is a breeze, but when things come to it, he'll be a loyal guy. So, what I'm trying to say is, thanks for being nice to him. Not everyone understands his sense of humor," I said with a shrug.

Alex shook his head. "It's no problem, I actually consider him my friend."

A smile broke out on my face, thankful to hear that. "Good."

"Can I, uh, ask you something?" Alex asked, looking down at the floor and rubbing his neck awkwardly.

"Yeah, anything," I told him, my voice coming out more serious now.

"Are his...parents still around?" His eyes slowly wandered up to mine.

I bit down on my lip and shook my head. "No...they passed away."

He nodded slowly and silence began to linger in the air. Alex never really knew how to handle these situations since he couldn't even really handle his own with his parents. "C-Can I ask how?"

A small smile formed on my lips. "Of course," I practically whispered. "Our parents we're very close. His mom was the sibling of my dad, and they all got a long great together. And, because of that, Sebastian, Jack, Lexus, and I all grew up really close. But one day, they went out to eat. Sebastian and I were at Lexus and Jack's house watching movies. After the movie was over, our parents still weren't home yet. I started to worry, but Sebastian told me they were probably caught in traffic. But, it was already well passed midnight, what traffic could there possibly be, right?" My voice began cracking and Alex scooted closer, holding onto my hands. "We got a call not too long after that, and apparently our parent's got into a car crash." I looked down now, my vision becoming blurry.

Alex wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. "You don't have to finish," he whispered, but I was already set on telling him the whole story.

I sniffed. "They were driving home from the restaurant when a semi truck rammed into their little Toyota. The driver was drunk and that little drunk mistake took four people's lives. After that, e-everything changed." At this point I couldn't control my tears. It was easy to ignore your problems on a day to day basis but when you had to actually talk about them was when I cracked.

"I'm so sorry, Angel," Alex spoke, rubbing his hands against my back. "It's not fair, I know it's not fair. I didn't even realize that..." he trailed off, not finishing his sentence but I hardly paid attention to it at the moment.

"Alex," I said, pulling away to look at him. I was sure my make up was running and I probably looked horrible, but I didn't care at this point. "It's okay, it's not your fault."

He rubbed my arm. "I just...what am I supposed to say?" he asked quietly.

"Nothing," I whispered, reaching forward and burying my face into his chest again as I rewrapped my arms around him.

"Alex," I repeated again. "I-I want you to know that it's hard. It still is for me, but it'll get easier. And, I swear, if your thoughts are as crazy as mine are, sometimes death seems better than the migraine in my head," I admitted.

Alex's arms tightened around me. "Don't say that," he murmured above me.

I sniffed. "It's okay, I'm n-not going to do anything like that," I promised. "Whenever things get too hard," I said as I wiped at my eyes, "just remember all the reasons to stay alive, okay?"

He nodded his head silently. His arms flexed around me, pulling me back against his chest as he breathed slowly. Now the roles had changed; he was the strong one and I was the weak one.

"I hate seeing you like this," he whispered into my hair. How strange we had gotten so close in such a small period of time.

A small smile formed at the corners of my mouth. "I'm sorry," I said.

"N-No," he said quickly, "that's not what I meant. I mean, I wish you didn't feel this way."

I let out a small sigh. "Same goes for you," I admitted and then suddenly pulled out of his grasp. "But, hey, I have something that'll change our attention." I hopped up from the bed and stopped mid stride towards his door. "Oh, and by the way," I said turning to face him. He gave me a questioning glance and I leaned towards him, pressing my lips to his cheek. "Thank you for listening," I said, quickly racing out of the room before I could see his reaction.

Notes