Taboo (Verboten sequel) (Jalex)

Chapter 4

I have been listening to Edith Piaff's Non je regrette rien non-stop for about five hours now, it's getting worrying

~*~

Alex was feeling more than a little worn out by the time he had trudged to Amy's house, and his shoulder was sore from the weight of his bag. He walked down her ridiculously long driveway with it in his hand instead, rubbing and rolling his shoulder as he went. Her parents weren't home if the lack of cars were anything to go by, and the only light he could see in her house was from her bedroom. Her curtains were drawn shut, which was a rare occurrence for Amy. She kept them open all of the time, even at night and when it was freezing.

Alex opened her front door, unsurprised to see it was unlocked, and dumped his bag, blazer and shoes in the entrance to her living room. "Amy?" he called out, bringing his phone out of his pocket to check if she had texted him. She hadn't, but Jack had.

He felt a pang in his chest as he clicked on the message quickly. It was one word: 'Sorry.' Bullshit.

He tossed it onto the table in the kitchen as he went through, ignoring it for the time being. He had been hurt before, but now he was pissed off. Amy called to him from upstairs, inviting him up to her room. He bounded up the stairs quickly, feeling his anger rising up inside him like a physical illness.

He entered her room scowling, even when she appeared from her en suite bathroom and revealed that she was naked. She took in his expression with mild surprise, fiddling with her hair. "You can't let yourself be treated like this forever," she said softly, seemingly reading his mind. "You're more than how he treats you. You're not made of shit, if he doesn't show you that he loves you then he doesn't deserve you."

"He does love me," Alex managed to choke out. "He just...can't show it."

Amy stared at him for a few seconds, and somehow her eyes seemed to understand what he was saying. When she spoke again, her voice was full of emotion. "Maybe...you should just wait until he's able to show it again?"

Alex nodded. "He's just treating me like shit in the meantime," he said, clearing his throat as a lump rose up.

Amy, still naked, embraced him and stroked his hair. "It will get better," she said gently. She pulled back, and Alex was slightly confused at the tears shimmering in her eyes. "Anyway, I have a plan," she continued, blinking away the tears so quickly that Alex wasn't sure if he'd imagined it or not. "We're going to make him jealous."

Alex quirked an eyebrow. "How are we going to do that?" He trusted Amy but occasionally she came up with some...dodgy plans, and that was being kind about it. It wasn't that her heart wasn't in the right place, it was more that she just didn't always think things through.

"Where does he live?"

"Amy, having sex in front of his house would be incredibly trashy. And illegal."

"Well, duh." Amy rolled her eyes. She wandered over to her wardrobe and began rifling through her

clothes. "We're not going to have sex in front of his house, just somewhere near where he might see us and be like 'woah, Alex is moving on and I must get him back!'"

Alex sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not good, Amy."

"It's the best plan!" she argued, pulling out a deep red pleated skirt and a matching brassiere-style top. "So, where does he live?"

Alex gave in. "Greenside Avenue."

Amy's eyes lit up. "You mean, the avenue that has that park that nobody ever uses?"