21 Days

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

DAY 18

A week had gone by and Alex made no contact with her friends; she couldn’t believe anything they had to say, she didn’t know who she could trust anymore. Her phone was off, her laptop was off and she spent all her time at her aunts’ house babysitting her cousins.

When she finally returned to school, Alex gave everyone the cold shoulder. She only went to her classes and to her hiding spot; full on coase. On Friday Melissa approached Alex, trying to make her friend understand why they did what they did (without actually telling her what it is). Alex was persistent on not hearing what Melissa had to say, so she ignored Melissa and walked away. Whole day the girls tried talking to their friend but were all shut down.

Alex got fed up, tired of the entire dispute between her and her friends. No guy should ever come between a girl and her friends. Besides, she knows that they probably had a good reason for doing what they did; a really good reason for doing what they did.

Saturday after class, while walking to her secret hiding place, Alex felt herself being pulled into one of the empty class rooms. SLAM! The door was shut then locked. The lights flickered on, revealing some chairs and two tables standing against the wall. The room was quite bare except for Stefan leaning against the door. ‘Stefan? What is he doing here?’ she looked around,‘What am I doing here?’

“Stef…”

“Take ah seat” he demanded, interrupting her unspoken question. Alex grabbed a chair and sat down.

“What are we…” she stopped, and then restarted, “What am I doing here?”

“We need to talk”

“Why?”

“Because yuh acting like ah complete bitch to de girls them” Alex was shocked by what she was hearing; so shocked that it made her mouth fall open.

“Don’t talk.” He interrupted her again before she could say anything. “Dem is your friends and you ha tuh be gehing on like ah total ass with them fuh something they do to protect you?”

“Protect me?” Alex rose from her seat. “Protect me how? In what way is keeping something from me protecting me?” she demanded to know.

“Yuh wouldn’t understand.”

“No, you don’t understand. They’re my best friends, I’ve known them since I was six, and they’ve never, ever kept anything from me and because of you they finally do. I forgave them that same night, but I couldn’t let go of what they did.”

“If there’s anyone to be angry with, it should be me.”

“If? I am angry with you Mason! I know there’s something going on and right now I don’t care to know…actually, I’m lying, I want to know, because somehow I know it involves me.”

“Not everything is about you, you self centered bitch!” Alex walked up to Stefan and slapped him is his face. She walked past him and went to the door, but was stunned by what he told her.

“What? What did you say?”

“I have Leukemia. I found out a week after you left and I’ve been trying to find some way to tell you, I just didn’t know how to.” Alex remained speechless, taken by his statement trying to process what he’d just told her. The room was so quiet that the only sounds you heard belonged to their own bodies and the wind, dancing through the grass outside.

“So your only solution, was too have my friends keep this from me and to have me mad at you?”

“I didn’t know what else to do; I thought having you hate me would be easier than having you worry all the time.”

“Really Mace? Yuh know what thought make ah man do? Shit he self.”

“Oh, and it’s also the reason we…umm…”

“Oh my God, yuh do it fuh spite”

“I’m sorry but I had to. I couldn’t have you stressing and worrying about me.”

“So you’d rather have me hate you than care for you? And if God forbid you died, you’d leave me feeling bad about myself?”

“You’d move on”

“You know me better than that. We were friends before we get together and I will admit, I didn’t make a full attempt, but I did try to be your friend after. Why didn’t you talk to me?” He said nothing, just shrugged his shoulders and looked down.

“Well let’s talk now.” demanded Alex as she once again took a seat.