Noughts and Crosses

Jacks POV

I was the first one to wake up out of me and Alex.
He was sound asleep with his back to me but he made sure he was as close to me as he could go.
I rolled onto my side and started to trace patterns in his back.
He sighed deeply which made me stop as I didn't think he liked it.
"Don't stop." He said and looked for my hand and put it on his back where I carried on tracing patterns then he fell asleep again.

At some point in the afternoon Alex woke up and rolled over and looked at me.
His dad did a bloody good job on beating Alex up last night.
He had two black eyes, he had a really big bruise on his right cheek and his lip was busted. I didn't want to think about what his chest and stomach was going to be like.
I must of been staring for too long as Alex sat up and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Don't look at me." He said quietly.
My heart broke little.
I moved and sat behind him and put my arms round his waist gently.
"Why wouldn't I want to look at you?" I asked quietly.
"Because I'm disgusting." He whispered.
I moved and sat in front of him.
"No your not. You're beautiful and anyone who says different is fucking blind." I said which rewarded me with a small smile from Alex.
"You think I'm beautiful?" He whispered.
I nodded. "Yeah, the most beautiful person in the world." I said.
Alex blushed a little and smiled a shy smile.
"So are you." He whispered.
I smiled and moved and kissed him softly which he returned.
I pulled back and looked at him.
"Get dressed we have that meeting to go to." I said and went and put my clothes on.

Alex had his hood up so no one on the streets would look at him.
"When we get there I need you to do something for me." Alex said quietly and moved closer to me.
"But you must not tell anyone about what you saw last night." He said and I stayed quiet hoping he would explain but he didn't so I just left it as it was.
Alex was made to take his hood down when we got to the tunnels.
Zack was on look out duty like normal.
"Fucking hell what's happened to you?" He asked and looked at Alex.
Alex just ignored him and slowly went inside.
"Someone has mummy and daddy issues." Zack said quietly to himself.
Alex pretty much flew from where he was and pinned Zack against the wall.
"You know fucking nothing so I suggest you shut the fuck up before I blow your fucking brains out with your bloody gun." He snarled and let him go.
He turned round and looked at he was about to punch him but I stopped him.
"Alex go inside." I said.
He just huffed and went indoors.
I turned round to go indoors but before I did I punched Zack in the stomach.
"It's better if I did that than Alex otherwise you would be fucking dead." I growled in his ear and went inside.

I went inside and looked at Alex who was stood in the corner thinking about something. I looked over and saw Kyle looking at Alex. A huge wash of jealousy went over me.
I went over to Kyle.
"Eyes off he's mine." I growled in his ear.
Kyle turned round and looked at me.
"He's not my type so you don't have to worry little brother." He said and went back to what he was doing.
I looked over to Alex who was staring hard at me so I took that as a cue for me to go over to him.
I went over and stood close to him.
"One. I don't like your brother like that. Two. Are you jealous Jack? Three. I can lip read so I'm not as stupid as you think." He said.
"Is there a camera round here?" He asked.
I looked at him confused.
"Just answer the fucking question Jack." He snapped.
"Yeah but its in the office." I said.
"Get the camera and meet me by the cells." He said and walked off.
So I did.

I met him in the cells where he was stood thinking.
"Why did you want me to get the camera?" I asked confused still about it.
"Because we're gonna bring him down together. So don't go blabbering to Kyle about this." He said.
"I don't think so little man. I've waiting too long to bring that bastard down so I'm gonna be joining you." Kyle said and walked into the room.
I looked at Alex and could see he was gonna snap or something.
"A long time? You've probably only been waiting 3 fucking years to get your hands on him. You didn't have to share a fucking house with him. I've been waiting for nearly 10 years to get my fucking own back on the bastard so no you are having nothing to do with this!" Alex said loudly.
Kyle looked at me, I shrugged my shoulders.
"He needs to pay for everything he has done to me! He needs to know what it's like when someone be littles them. He needs to pay for the 15 years worth of beatings he has given me. I'm not fucking giving you the chance to kill the fucking bastard because I have more of a fucking reason to kill him. Why do you think my mother got rid of your mum? She worked out what he was doing and was going to tell on him he turned around and said who would believe a cross woman who can barely feed her kids." Alex said loudly.
"They hate me because I wasn't their perfect child like Meggie." He said quietly and turned away from us.
"Did he beat Meggie like he did to you?" Kyle asked.
I stamped on his foot and gave him a hard look.
I looked over to Alex who was shaking his head.
"No. Perfect little Meggie could do nothing wrong. If they knew the shit I knew about her then they would realise that she wasn't perfect. She could do whatever the fuck she wanted and she wouldn't get beaten for it. I only had to breath and I was beaten to near fucking death." He said but he hiccupped as well.
I went over to him and turned him around and he just crashed into my chest and cried.
"Shush. It's okay, he won't lay another hand on you okay, I've got you." I said quietly and kissed the top of his head.
Kyle walked over.
"I'll give you two some space. Don't worry I'll make sure no one comes in here and your serect is save with me Alex." He said quietly.
I smiled at him and he left the room.

I got hold of his hand and took him over to the table where he sat down on the table. He'd was still crying but his tears had slowed down a little.
I reached my hand out and cupped his faces and wiped and stray tears away.
He looked at me and smiled sadly.
"I hate it there." He said quietly.
"I know you do." I whispered and looked at him.
"Maybe if I run away again they wouldn't care enough to try and look for me." He said and looked away from me.
This was a first for me.
"How long have you been running away for?" I asked.
"Since I was 8." He sniffed and wiped his nose in the sleeve of his hoodie.
"They always brought me back. As much as I protested against it they always took me home. Everytime I ran away and was brought home they would beat me black and blue." He said and slowly started to cry again.
"You don't have to talk about it if it upsets you." I said quietly and wiped the tears away again.
"I'm gonna run away Jack. I'm gonna go as far away as I can and keep on running." He said being serious about this.
I looked down and felt heart broken about this.
I felt Alex place two fingers under my chin and made me look at him.
"Run away with me Jack. We can finally say what we want to say and be together." He said.
"I can't leave mum." I said quietly.
Alex nodded as he understood what I was trying to say.
He got up and got the camera and put it in my hands.
"Take pictures of my injuries and when the time comes we'll use them against him." Alex said quietly and took his hoodie and top off.
His chest and stomach where black and blue.
"Just take the fucking pictures Jack." He said crossly.
So I did.

Once I was done I looked at Alex who put his top and hoodie back on and walked out the room.
I followed him thinking how this could work to everyone advantage.
Then a idea came to my head.
"Kyle, Alex can I speak to you." I said.
Kyle looked at me.
"Can it wait?" He snapped.
"No." I growled.
"Frank take over." He said and walked over to me.
"This better be fucking good." He Growled and we walked to the cells.
"Right I have an idea how we can get Alex out of there and use it to our advantage." I said.
Alex looked at me confused.
"Spill the beans Jack we don't have all night." Kyle growled.
"We 'kill' Alex." I said simply.
"What?" Alex asked clearly confused about what I was on about.
"We 'kill' you. That way you can get out of there and come to the Cross side and live as a Cross since your more Cross than Nought." I said.
Alex was still confused by this but Kyle was on the same page as me.
"Jack your a fucking genius." Kyle said and patted my shoulder and walked off somewhere.
"So you 'kill' me and then I come and be a Cross." He said.
"Yep." I said feeling chuffed about this idea.
Alex thought about it.
"It's on." He said and walked off.
Now I had to actually think long and hard on how to put this plan together.

Notes

Dun dun duuuuun