A Broken Road

A Broken Road- 23

Heavy breathing, sweaty face, clenched fists.

That’s how I woke up seven times in the night as a result of nightmares of the night my mother died. And every time, I’d reach out to my left- Alex always slept on the left of the bed and even with him not there, I stayed to the right- but all I got was empty air. After the seventh time I’d woken up in a mad hysteria, it was only four in the morning and I was ready to announce my defeat.

I needed Alex.

And as much as he’d fucked up yesterday, I had no choice but to slightly consider forgiving him because there was no other way that I’d get through the night without being put into a mental institute. Even if I wasn’t ready to forgive him, I was in no mental state to care. I was tired and on the edge of sobbing my eyes out with the flashbacks I was having that night.

I threw my blankets off and stumbled down the hall into Alex’s room and made my way to the bed in the pitch black. I had his room memorized, but it was still a relief that I didn’t stub my toe or something.

“Alex!” I whispered into the darkness as I aimlessly threw my arms around, trying to find his sleeping body. I finally found his strong shoulder and violently shook.

“Hmm?” He grumbled, barely even awake.

“Alex, I need you.” I whimpered pathetically as I laid down beside him.

I felt his body jolt at my words, suddenly more awake than he was a moment ago. “I’m right here.” He whispered, finding me in the darkness and pulling me close to him. “I’ll always be here.”

“If you ever do that again, I’ll punch you in the dick.” I mumbled into his chest.

Somehow, he managed to place his lips on my temple. “I’ll never hurt you again, I swear.”

Even after all that happened at school, after all I’d been through in the past few months, I needed him and I needed to believe him. So I grabbed onto him like my life depended on it before drifting off into a serene sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I woke up alone in the bed, and when I looked at the alarm clock sitting by the bed, I knew why. It was ten a.m., meaning my second day of school started two hours ago and I was just waking up.

As I hopped out of Alex’s warm bed, I kept a reminder in the back of my head to kill him mercilessly for not waking me up this morning. However, when I got to the closed door of his bedroom, I was stopped by a small Post-It sticking to the back of the door.

I tore it off and sped through the small, sloppily written note:

Morning, gorgeous ;) Charlie called us out of school so that we can work things out. I don’t know how you’re feeling towards me right now, but I’ll be downstairs if you ever wanna talk. –Alex  P.S. You have company.

My brow furrowed at the last part- I had company?

I curiously wandered down the hallway and then downstairs in my shorts and skimpy t-shirt that rode up my waist high enough to display my guitar piercing and Chinese symbol tattoo.

“Alex?” I called through the empty living room.

“I’m in the kitchen.” He called to me from the kitchen.

I walked through the doorway into the kitchen where Alex was sitting at the small round table with a blue ice pack held up to his left eye. “What happened?” I asked curiously.

He reluctantly pulled the ice pack away to reveal a thick bruise encasing his eye, it was swollen and nasty and looked really painful. I couldn’t hold back the smirk creeping onto my lips. “And I repeat, what the hell happened?”