The Story of us

Chapter 12: You're cuter when you smile

Henderson, North Carolina - 662 miles

When Nyla finally woke up three hours later (or maybe it was four, I wasn't too sure-I had stopped keeping track of the time after it has started to get dark outside), her face instantly twisted into a scowl as she snapped,'' What the hell are you looking at?''

At first, I was confused as to why she was so cranky and tired, but then I remembered that she was most likely a stripper, and they really only came out at night. Kind of like wolves.

"Nothing," I shrugged from my spot at the foot of her bed. On the other side of the room, Harry was fast asleep under the covers of the other bed, and Travis was still passed out on the armchair. No matter how hard I tried, I just hadn't managed to fall asleep on the floor–there was no way that I was going to share a bed with Harry again, and Nyla just looked like the kind of person who would shove me onto the floor in her sleep–so I had stayed up all by myself as I watched my three 'friends' sleep (in the least creepy way possible).

"So you were basically just watching us sleep?" Nyla asked, pretty much repeating what I had just said in my head. "That's fucking scary, Lexi."

"And you're a fucking bitch when you wake up," I snapped at her. I didn't think that I was being mean at all; I just had to remind her who was on top here. (Me, if you weren't wondering. I was the one who was dragging every person in this room's sorry ass to their preferred destinations, so I figured that I deserved at least a little bit of respect.)

She opened her mouth to say something, thought about it for a moment, and then shut it, settling on flipping me off instead. I would have responded straight away if it hadn't been for my phone ringing beside me.

I grabbed it and clicked the accept button before I even looked to see who was calling me. "Hello?"

"Lex?"

I froze at the sound of the familiar voice. Even though I hadn't heard it in months, I was still able to recognize it after all this time. I don't think that I would ever be able to forget it. The sound of his heavy breathing and him repeating my name on the other line caused my heart to go into overdrive, and as my chest tightened and a lump grew in my throat, I was afraid that I might have a panic attack. Yet I still didn't hang up the phone.

"Lexi," Alec said my name again. "Can you hear me?"

I didn't answer. Nyla was staring at me like I was crazy, which I guess I was, and I quickly stepped out of the motel room, not bothering to make up an excuse for my departure. I didn't owe her anything, and it wasn't as if she even cared where I was going.

"I know you're there, Lex. I can hear you breathing." 

I covered my mouth with my free hand. Why wasn't I just hanging up on him? Why was it that after all this time, he still had the same effect on me? I hated feeling out of control, but when I was around him, I always would be.

"Talk to me, Lexus," he murmured, trying to create a sense of amusement in our conversation. I hated that stupid nickname; I never wanted to hear anybody, especially him, call me that again. "I promise that I won't hurt you."

Too late for that now, isn't it?

And what did he mean by that last statement anyways? How would he be able to hurt me if he was in Florida and I was in North Carolina? Unless he wasn't in Florida, though he had no reason not to be. Oh my God, he wasn't following me, was he?

Of course, he's not, the voice in the back of my head scolded me. It was a stupid thing to even think, but it just showed how crazy he could make me. Before, I had thought that maybe being crazy in love was a good thing, but now I knew for a fact that that wasn't true. I had come to learn that there were so many aspects of relationships that were glorified, and that was one of them.