A Broken Road

A Broken Road- 24

Monday morning, I was a little nervous as to what people would think of me. For the first, and hopefully, the last time of my life, I was afraid of what people would think of me. Would they think I’m a whore because I was with Alex? Would they hate me because they see me as Jesse’s competition?

I usually don’t care about these things, I usually just go with whatever happens.

But today was different than any other day of school that I’d ever experienced. I’d never had to “announce” a relationship. At my school in Indiana, nobody cared about things like who people were dating unless they were in their ring of friends. So this was new to me. It was different and weird.

“You look hot.” Alex smirked once I got downstairs. I was wearing a short black dress that had a huge see-through skull on the back with black heals that had silver spikes covering the heal. My hair was lazily braided over one shoulder.

“Please, I always look hot.” I scoffed sarcastically.

His smirk widened and he nodded. “That you do.”

I rolled my eyes at him and grabbed a banana for my breakfast. “Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked him softly.

“Of course I do.” He reassured me, placing a soft kiss on my lips. Casual kisses were something I’d have to get used to with Alex. They were so soft and frequent, yet had such an indescribable effect on me that I couldn’t explain.

“I just don’t want to get my hopes up for nothing.” I mumbled, throwing my black school back over my shoulder.

“It’s not nothing, I promise.” He told me, taking my hand in his and leading me towards the front door where his car awaited us. Holding hands was something else that would take some getting used to. We’d never really held hands before unless we were cuddling or something of that nature. But now, we were just walking to the car, hand in hand. It felt different, but a good different. It felt… safe and warm. And just really good.

“I think your eye is healing okay.” I chirped, analyzing his eye. The bruise was hardly noticeable now, with only a few days of healing and I doubt anybody would be able to tell that it was there.

“You think?” He asked, taking a peak through the rearview mirror. “It still hurts like a bitch.”

I giggled softly at his complaint. “I would be more sympathetic, but I still think you deserved it.”

He gave me a small smile. “Yeah, I know.”

We talk all the way to the school and Alex parks in the senior parking lot. I notice multiple girls look in our direction when they see his car pull up and some even start making their way towards it in anticipation to gravel for his attention. His windows are tinted so I know that they can’t see me yet.

“Ready?” Alex asked me as I released his hand from the center console.

I took one last deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He looked at me for a long moment before leaning over, closer to me and placing a soft, yet lingering, kiss on my lips. “I love you.” He whispers softly, his lips brushing against my own as my breath became short at our close proximity. The effect he had on me was so not fair.

“It’s not fair, what you do to me.” I whispered an echo of my thoughts. “But I love you too.”

He nods with a boyish grin and we both open our doors simultaneously. I watch as the girls stop in their tracks and glower at me with jealousy and shock. A whole lot of shock.

“Hi, Alex!” One gutsy girl chirped, stopping in front of him as he crossed the front of the car to get to me.

“Hey.” He mumbled, sidestepping the pathetic girl and intertwining his fingers with mine. This was it, no turning back. We’re holding hands, in front of people. We were public. We were officially official.