To Us

19

Alex's POV

After tearing up her mom's letter Kris was tired and after sitting with her in bed for an hour and her failing to sleep she decided to take sleeping pills. It was already early in the morning when she finally went to bed.

"So how long do you plan on staying?"

I am on the phone with Nick.

"As long as she needs me to be here," I tell him.

"I thought you said she didn't want you there?"
I roll my eyes, knowing he is hoping that I will 'come to my senses' and leave Kris here, even if she needs me.

"Apparently things change," I tell him putting toothpaste on my toothbrush so I can brush my teeth.

"Where is she right now?" He asks.

"In her room. I'm going back there now after I have showered and changed."

"Are you sure you want to involve yourself in whatever is going on. I know right now you won't tell me but is it worth it?"

"Yeah, it is. I have to go, I'll talk to you later."

Thirty minutes later I am showered and freshly dressed. I am about to unlock Kris' door when the elevator doors open and a guy in surfer shorts walks out headed towards me.

"Hey dude, can you help me out?"

"Sure," I say turning around to fully face him.

"Is this Kris' suite?" He asks me gesturing to the door behind me.

"Depends who is asking," I tell him eyeing him suspiciously.

"I'm Dave," he says offering me his hand. I take it and we shake hands for a brief second.

"You must be Alexander," he says.

"How did you...?"

"Rose kinda described you to me," he laughs.

"Oh...you must be her step-brother," I eventually say. He gives me a huge grin that almost borders on creepy.

"Can I talk to her, it's really urgent."

"I doubt she wants to see you, and besides she is sleeping and won't be waking up anytime soon."
"Well then can you pass on a message to her, I don't have the time to keep on chasing her around the country."

"If she doesn't want to hear it from you I'm sure she still won't want to hear it, even if it's  me who tells her," I tell him.

"Well, it's either that or I keep on coming back. Better to get it over and done with and she will only have to see me one more time," he says with a shrug.

A huge part of me wants to say no but against my better judgement I end up agreeing.

"Okay, let's go get some coffee downstairs then," I say to him.

"Great," he grins and walks towards the elevators with me behind.

Ten minutes later I am picking at the blueberry muffin I ordered along with my coffee even though I am not a fan of muffins.

"I know she won't want to see me so I am going on to schedule the meeting with her grandpa's lawyer, her grandmother and my mom. Tell her she has to be there day after tomorrow, the shares' are reducing in value; every week due to the country's economy getting weaker. The longer she waits, the more money she deprives those orphans." Dave finishes as he sips on his tea. Apparently he doesn't like coffee.

"The more she deprives the orphans and you." I say.

"Well yes, I'm not denying that. I'd rather get my money now before it is reduced to peanuts. The conditions say I have to meet up with her and talk to her but she won't do that so I'm moving things along. She clearly has no interest in what I have to say," he shrugs.

"Okay, I'll let her know," I say standing up.

"You've got this, right?" He asks gesturing to our muffins and the tea and coffee.

"Sure," I say inwardly rolling my eyes. I understand why he is pushing so much for the money, he is a greedy one. He gives me his creepy grin before he stuffs the muffin into his mouth and then downing the rest of his tea.

"See you around," I tell him before I walk away to the nearest elevator.

I watch a bit of TV and complete two crosswords before Kris eventually wakes up. She walks in just as I finish writing in the last word to my second crossword.

"Hey you," she walks over to sit beside me on the couch.

"Hey," I smile as I lay my paper to the side and give her a hug.

"I've been out for a while right?" She asks, resting her head on my chest.

"Yeah, about nine hours. Did you sleep well?"

"I think I did, considering I slept through nine hours. What have you been up to?" She asks me.

I am not too sure that now is the right time for me to tell her that Dave came by but I decide to tell her because she doesn't really have time on her side, after all we have to be at school in a few days' time.

"Actually, Dave came by," I say cautiously.

She slowly raises her head from my chest and gives me a confused, questioning look.

"Dave? How did you, how did he...Ruby," she stutters. "What did he want?"

"He wanted to talk to you but since you were sleeping...,"

"I hope you told him that's never going to happen," she interrupts me.

"Uhm yeah. I had coffee with him downstairs and..."

"YOU WHAT???" She shouts getting up from the couch. "You went and what?" she asks accusingly.

"Kris, calm down. He just wanted to ask me to tell you to show up for the meeting with your grandpa's lawyer on Thursday, day after tomorrow. That's all."

"What? He's setting up the meeting? He can't do that. You can't do that. You can't meet up with him for coffee and agree to pass on messages for him. What makes you think I want to hear what he has to say? How could you do that?" She asks angrily.

"I...I just thought I was helping Kris. He said something about shares losing value the longer you wait. He just made a good point...I don't know what to say."

"So he's using you to make me feel guilty? What an asshole, and so are you for even giving him the time of day. Get out Alex, get out of my suite, out of this hotel, out of this city and go back to your place. You don't know anything, you understand nothing. Just leave," she shouts before storming away into her bedroom.

I sit for a second, stunned at her reaction. I didn't expect hugs and kisses but this is way beyond what I expected. As much as I want to make her feel better, I also acknowledge that I don't know anything that's going on, not what counts anyway and that renders me completely useless at helping her. I pick up my phone and walk out of her suite headed to mine. I'm not leaving the city but I will give her space to figure out if she trusts me enough to let me know what is really wrong.