Loveless Ages

Chapter Sixteen

There is a knock on my bedroom door at three in the morning. It is a week after we first arrived back in Schlutonia and Josh and I have been waiting patiently for Xander to escape. For a second there, I feared he never would, but I am certain this knock at the door is him. I open my bedroom door and my suspicions have proven to be right. There he stands in the hallway, his hair is tousled, there is a light bruise under his eye, and his signature smirk is displayed right on his face. I throw my arms around his neck and kiss him deeply.

“How did you get in here?” I ask.

“Josh let me in,” he says. Josh has been sleeping over at my house for the past week as we waited for Xander to arrive.

“How did you do it?” I ask him, “How did you get away?”

“I’m a lot smarter than they are,” he says with a smug grin. I roll my eyes and step back, welcoming him into the bedroom.

“Where is she?” he asks, “Luna.”

“She’s sleeping in her basinet,” I say. Luna sleeps in a basinet not far away from my bed. I don’t leave her to sleep in her own room. He closes the bedroom door quietly and walks over to where she sleeps.

“Has everything been okay?” he asks.

“It’s been fine,” I say quietly. He nods slightly and scans my room for a brief moment, his eyes settling on my painting. The one I painted of him. It is propped up against the wall in a corner of the room and he walks over to it, as though he is compelled. He gets down on the ground and touches the dried up paint.

“You did this?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“Is it… me?” he asks. I look at the painting of a boy with a guitar sitting under the moon and I smile a little bit.

“Yes.” We are both quiet and I decide to break the silence.

“My art teacher liked it. He asked me who it was and I said, ‘someone who is gone’. He said he had someone like that. A son that he lost years ago named Alex.” Xander bites down on the inside of his cheek and then draws in a shaky breath.

“Malinda?” he asks.

“Yes?”

“This man…”

“Yes?”

“Did he…this might be a strange question but…did he look anything like me?” I am filled with confusion when he asks this but as I think about it, it occurs to me that Cesar did look a lot like Xander. He always looked familiar to me and I could never exactly place what it was. Now I can. I don’t even bother to answer.

“Your name is Alexander, isn’t it?” I ask. Xander smiles a bit.

“Yes,” he nods. He turns back to look at my painting. “It’s a beautiful picture by the way.”

An hour later I bring Luna into my grandparents’ room and I gently wake my grandfather. He is half asleep at this time.

“What’s going on?” he asks, a bit disoriented.

“I’m going out,” I say, “Watch her for me?”

“Going out?” he asks, “When will you be back?”

“Later on.” Or never. I shake the negative thought out of my head. Stop it Malinda. Stop thinking that way. You will be back. You will do what you need to do and you will be back.

“Okay…” my grandfather says, “I’ll see you later then.” I put Luna into his arms and I will myself to walk out of the room. I’ll be back. I walk out of the room and Xander takes my hand.