Lover Boy

chapter six

I sat down next to him on the bench. It was almost like I wasn't there to him. I gently tapped his shoulder to get his attention. He looked up at me and his eyes were filled with watery tears. I felt my heart break a little.

"Are you okay, Alexander?" I had a worried look on my face.

"You can call me Alex.. if you want.." He wiped his tears away from his eyes with the sleeve of his cotton crewneck.

"You have a nice name." The corners of my mouth curved up into a small smile, to help lighten the mood.

Alex's cheeks are suddenly kissed pink like a spring rose, the blooming color so cute against his non-usual pale skin. He looked away from me.

"I'm sorry about what happened." Alex cut me off.

"I really appreciate you helping me.. but I'm fine."

I could tell he wasn't. He wasn't at all. I didn't know if I should leave him alone, or if I should continue speaking to him. It was silent for moments after until words flowed out of my mouth.

"Alex listen. I know I shouldn't have got involved."

The small boy stood up from the bench. "I have to go, I'll see you around."

I nodded, letting him walk away. I felt my heartbeat accelerate as I look down and sigh. What I did was pointless.

***

It was two days since Alex and I last spoke. It was currently lunch hour, I saw him sitting alone at his usual table. I furrowed my eyebrows and took my eyes off of him, angry at myself for giving Alex my attention once again.

Next thing I knew, my eyes were unintentionally on him again.

He looked paranoid twiddling with the sleeve of his shirt, worried something will happen to him. His little freckled face constantly checking around himself.

I rarely thought about Emma since the breakup. She tries to talk to me occasionally, but I pretend she's invisible. Emma hangs out with her old middle school friends again. I was glad because I didn't want anything to do with her.

I got to my locker before the lunch bell to grab my textbook for math class. I kept my textbook in my locker because it was too clunky to keep in my bag all the time.

"Hey! Excuse me, could you pose for a picture for the year book?" A girl asked me to which I turned around and looked down in her direction, just with my resting face that looked very intimidating.

"No." I replied, no emotion evident on my face, but my eyes told her I was annoyed. She looked away nervously and nodded walking away right after my response. I looked back inside my locker after she left.

I felt a light tap on my shoulder as I put my textbook into my bag and zipped it up. "What do you want?" I callously spoke, assuming it was the same girl again.

When I turned around I saw Alex, my eyebrows lower in disappointment to see him. He looked up at me, my diamond eyes staring down into his amber eyes that were gently glimmering.

"Hey... are you mad at me?" He asked, his voice sounding honeyed along with his body slightly tensing up from my tone.

I closed my locker door and began to walk down the hall, putting my backpack over my shoulders. "No. I thought you were someone else."

He followed and walked along side me. "Oh.. okay. But from the other day too..? I'm sorry I reacted the way I did.. I just w-"

I stopped in front of him and interrupted him through half of his sentence. "It's fine. Connor just pisses me off." I told him.

He looked down to the floor, fidgeting with his fingers. I realized he didn't want to speak about Connor.

"You didn't eat lunch." I told him.

Alex nodded his head, continuing to look down.

"I'll buy you lunch, there's ten minutes before the bell."

"I really couldn't do that. That's your money." His eyes trailed up to me.

"You need to eat something." I took money out of the pocket in my black leather jacket and held it down towards him.

"But, I can't." Alex refused again, rosiness appeared upon his cheeks once more.

I gave him a look, which caused him to take it from my hand. "Can you come with me then..?" He shyly spoke.

With hesitation, I closed my eyes in imperceptible frustration. The point of this was to get him away from me.

"Sure." I settled.