The Odd One Out (Hailee Steinfeld)

Chapter 14

Alex woke up to a knock on the door but it quickly opened as she heard heavy footsteps enter the house. They started walking closer to the bedroom but Alex didn't have the strength to get up or even be scared. They approached the room and opened the door. Alex kept her eyes closed pretending to be asleep just in case. He walked over to her side of the bed and gently put his hand on the side of her bruised head. He lightly rubbed his finger over her eyelid then moved down to her jaw and lightly rubbed his finger over it. Alex still kept her eyes closed just in case he was angry if she woke up. He suddenly took his hand off then leaned over and pecked Alex's forehead with his lips. He stood up and walked out of the room as Alex opened her eyes and looked around for a moment as her brain settled down. She reached over and grabbed her phone off the side table as quietly as she could. She looked at the time, 9:30. Alex let out a sigh of relief because she could still make it to class. Just before she shut off her phone she looked at the date, December 20.

  December 20!

  Alex was about to shoot out of bed but then remembered all her pain and who was outside of her door. She softly sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed. Her feet lightly touched the cold floor as she headed for her bedroom door. She opened it and saw Braden sitting on the couch with a drink in his hand. Alex took a deep breath then walked into the living room and sat down on the couch next to Braden as she laid her head onto his chest. "Oh look who's up sleepyhead." Braden said as he kissed her temple. "Um Braden?" "Yes my dear." Alex cringed at hearing the word dear she hated being called that. "I have class at ten it's just on my computer do you mind if I go?" Alex asked in the fakest sincere voice ever. "No not at all you better hurry it's almost ten." Braden said never taking his eyes off the TV screen. Alex got up and walked back to her room throwing some clean clothes on and fixing her hair at least a little bit. She went and sat in front of her computer screen as she pulled her phone out waiting for the link to the zoom call. She saw a text from Hailee making her roll her eyes. She opened the text,

   Hey, can we please meet up somewhere? I need to talk to you.

   Alex looked at the text for a moment debating if she would respond or not. Alex had made it very clear that it would be better if they never spoke again but ever since that happened what Hailee said has been weighing on Alex's mind. Her thumbs hovered over her phone wanting to text back but she didn't know what to say. Suddenly her fingers started moving without another thought.

   Meet me tonight around 10:00 at my house.

    Alex left it at that as she set her phone down and looked up at her computer screen to see the link. She clicked on it as it took her to the face of her teacher.

   Alex felt her phone buzz about half way through class she wasn't going to check it because they had a no phone policy in this class and also this lesson was a little hard to understand so Alex needed to put her full attention on it or the little but she has.

   After class was over the Professor decided not to give them an assignment because the lesson took a few extra minutes. As soon as she clicked out of the call she looked at her phone to see Hailee's name

   Ok sounds good and thank you for letting me do this.

  Alex didn't respond to Hailee as she went over to her friend's group chat.

  Hey guess sorry I never texted back the other day my phone went dead and I just never wanted to get up to charge it.

Alex immediately shut off her phone as she got up and walked back into the living room sitting next to Braden. "How was class?" "It was fine I mean it was class but it went okay." "That's good" Braden said cutting off the conversation as he started intently at the TV screen. Alex looked up at the TV screen and saw cars racing across the screen. "Who are we going for?" "Green car" Braden responds shortly as Alex searches for the car on the screen. Braden stood up next to her still staring at the screen. Alex saw that the cars only had two more laps to go. "Go go go" Alex heard Braden whisper under his breath as the cars kept racing across the screen. "One more lap to go!" The announcer yelled making Braden's whole body tense up. "Griffin takes the lead right at the last second and takes the win! It's unbelievable!" The announcer's yelling into the mics as Braden was practically jumping up and down from excitement. Alex kept her eyes on the screen as Braden started chugging the beer in his hand. The camera showed the green car pull into its station as the driver stepped out. He walked up to the interviewer and took off his helmet Alex's mouth pretty much fell open when she saw Hailee's brother on her TV screen. Braden threw his trash on the ground as he ran over to Alex and picked her up kissing her. Alex kissed his alcohol lips afraid if she didn't. He pulled away throwing her onto the couch, "He did it!" He shouted then he turned back to Alex who was on the couch. "I'm gonna go out for drinks tonight you better stay here I don't want any tricks now." He said eyeing her before he grabbed his stuff quickly walking out the door as his phone rang.

   Alex looked back up at the screen as Griffin talked into the microphone about how he won his big race. Alex smiled as she stood up walking over to the beer can that Braden threw on the ground. She picked it up before placing it into the trash can. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and went onto Hailee's text messages

  You could come over now if you want.

  Alex went and got her some yogurt for her breakfast since she hadn't eaten anything yet. She ate her yogurt on the couch as the TV drowned out the silence in her ears. She finished her yogurt throwing it away too. Before she could get back to the couch to sit down there was a knock on her door. She walked over to it and opened it seeing Hailee standing on the other side. Alex walked away from the door not saying a word to Hailee as she went and sat on the couch. Hailee walked through the door as she closed it behind her then came and sat on the couch. There was heavy silence between them only broken by the small noises and talking coming from the TV. "Tell Griffin I said congratulations." Alex said twiddling her thumbs as she sat there staring at the floor. She saw Hailee head look towards her out of the corner of her eye. "How did you-" "Braden was watching it after I got done with class today." Alex said interrupting Hailee before she even got to ask her question. The silence came back as Hailee just hummed.

Hailee adjusted her body as she was now facing towards Alex. Alex would have lifted her head but she didn't have the strength to right now. "Give me your hands." Hailee said making Alex actually lift her head to look at her confused. "Just trust me." Those words bounced around in her head for a moment as she looked at Hailee. Trust. Trust. Trust. Alex shook her head putting the thought aside as she carefully leaned up not wanting to hurt her ribs. She carefully placed her hands in Hailee with her palm up. Hailee looked up at Alex with a "really" face as she turned her hands over revealing the large gash on her hand from Braden's boot the other night. Hailee gasped instantly letting go of her other hand to put both hands onto Alex's hurt hand. "Hailee I'm f-" "Don't you dare tell me you're fine when I know good and well you are not. Alex for crying out loud you have a huge gash on your hand." "I just fell the other day in the kitchen and it got hooked onto one of the cabinets and it cut my hand." Hailee let out a sigh as she gently placed her thumb on it running it along the deep cut. Alex looked up at Hailee finding her eyes staring back at her. She saw Hailee's eyes flicker down to her lips for a moment too long making Alex's heart beat start racing. Alex reached up with her free hand softly grabbing Hailee's chin slightly pulling it up making her lips venerable. Hailee's eyes flicked down once more as she slowly started to lean in. They were so close Alex could feel Hailee's hot breath on her lips. Alex was caught up in the moment but then she remembered what Niall had said she remembered what Braden had said she remembered what her mom had said. Alex pulled back just before their lips met as she took her hand off of Hailee's chin. Her eyes went straight to the ground as Hailee kept ahold of her injured hand. A small breath came out of Hailee when Alex pulled away. Alex didn't know if it was relief or anger but either way it probably wasn't good. "Come one let's go get your hand properly cleaned." Hailee said completely bypassing the moment they just had. They both got up and walked into the bathroom.