The Alpha Next Door ✓

Chapter 24- "I don't want to sound cheesy"

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Snow was falling hard and it looked like it wasn't going to stop. Rooftops of houses and buildings were coated in thick layers of it and the tall evergreen trees were swaying gently in the frigid wind. As Alex drove through the quiet streets back to the packhouse quietly humming to himself, I sighed. This afternoon reminded me of that night Alex and I had first kissed, that night when everything felt right, when I felt as if nothing could go wrong.

Boy, was I wrong. 

But just being enveloped in that feeling made me speak up out of the blue.

"Alex, can we uh-- Not go home yet?" I asked, my voice rasping.

He shifted lanes and then flitted his green eyes toward me. 

"Sure. But what's bothering you, Dest?" He replied softly. I could tell he was genuinely concerned and that was the moment I knew that I had to tell him everything before I lost him too. This whole phone call wasn't only filling me with anxiety, but it was affecting him too, and that was one thing that I didn't want. This was my fight and I didn't want to drag him into it.

"I want to just talk about something," I said. I reached over and squeezed his right hand to assure him that it wasn't about our relationship. To my surprise he laced his lean fingers through mine and held onto them tight. 

He continued to drive and we sat there hand in hand, in a comfortable silence. These were the small moments I didn't want to let go of-- Just us in this truck with snow drifting all around us. 

As I stared out the window, I realized that we were driving through a forest; It wasn't the one that led to our packhouse though. The trees were much older and the ground felt more inclined. We eventually stopped at a clearing with the trees behind us, and as I looked beyond the window, I realized we were on a cliff overlooking the town beneath us. The truck was a safe distance from the edge, but we were close enough to see the lights in houses beginning to flicker on and streetlights glimmering through the snow.

"Alex, woah, this. . This is beautiful," I marveled, holding his hand tighter.

"I think we both needed to just get away," he responded. He let go of my hand and undid his seat belt to turn away and grab something from the back seats. He revealed a lovely dark teal quilt and urged me to come closer to him. I shifted over next to him and he wrapped the warm quilt around our shoulders and then slipped an arm around my waist.  I rested my head against the crook of his neck and closed my eyes for a few seconds before opening them again.

"I kinda want to stay here forever, but there are also some things I need to get off my chest," I said. 

"Go ahead, no one's stopping you," Alex remarked.

"It's been four days since he called, and honestly I'm as confused as you are as to why. I haven't said a lot about him ever since you brought me to this pack two years ago. I don't think I ever told you that I. . I got rejected by my best friend."

I let out a breath and shivered. It felt weird to finally tell someone just straight out like that.

"Dest, I don't know what he was thinking and even though I want to rip his insides out for putting you through so much pain, just know that I will never abandon you," Alex murmured. I leaned into him and then stopped.

"Wait-- How do you know that I went through 'so much pain'? Am I that easy to read?" I inquired, meeting his eyes in confusion. I had wanted to become a stronger person, not someone filled with pain. 

"Actually, you're surprisingly really good at hiding it. You're always helping others and damn it, you have this brilliant smile on your face and it gets me every time. But you know, no one else probably notices this that sometimes you stare off into space and your eyes cloud over and you're just so lost in thought. And even though it's only momentarily, those few seconds of you just getting lost in your mind is so full of emotion and I can tell something scarring had happened to you. Those days when you had to stay in my room before you had your own, during early morning shifts when I would come to pick up the lists, sometimes you'd murmur this one name or some sad strange things in your sleep. It's amazing though how you've kept it inside of you this whole time," Alex explained. I just sat there in complete surprise though. I couldn't believe he actually cared that much to even remember those things. What had I done to deserve someone like him?