Forbidden Fruit

Thinking and Findings

Alex's POV

     "What about this one?" I ask Cora as we lay across the floor of the empty nursery. We're looking online for ways to decorate and plan out the twins room and I figured who's advice would be better than Cora and Jonah's? The kid is currently is school sadly, so it's just me and the little as we try to have everything perfect for when Chloe comes home.

     "That's ugly." She says clearly and without hesitation. "Dark blue is not pretty. Yellow and green, Alex." And I sigh again as she shoots down yet another of my brilliant ideas. We continue to scroll through everything online, but half of my mind is elsewhere. I'm feeling antsy today as I think about the fight that Cody and I had last night.

✨✨✨

      Cody has tears streaming down his face as he rips his arm away from James who tries to hold him back. The usually quiet and shy bean no where to be found as he points a finger in my face and continues to yell at me.

     "Don't you see how broken everything is without him? Why aren't you out there looking for him? You shouldn't be sleeping until he's back here at home where he belongs and you're in here painting a fucking bedroom?" He screams at me, tears sliding down his face in pain as he pokes my chest harder and harder.

      "You're being selfish Cody. He needs time. He needs to heal himself and he can't do that if he's smothered by us and insulted by people constantly." I tell him calmly. Everyone who is upset at Chloe and is trying to force him back are being selfish and blinded by their own hurt.

    They haven't been through what my princess has been through over and over again. They don't have the nightmares and the flashbacks and the panic attacks. As much as all of us have had our shit, they haven't had a lifetime of pain like Chloe has. He's about to bring life into this world and he has to be at his best to do that. So I don't care if our friends yell at me and say I don't love him like I say I do.

    What I'm doing isn't for them, but for my Mate. And as long as he's okay in the end, I'll take whatever heat I have to.

      I barely have time to brace myself before Cody's hands comes up to slap me across the face loudly and as much as my DNA is begging for me to react, I don't. I let Cody use me as an emotional punching bag as he goes through the motions of losing his closest friend and his rock in this world.

     "Don't you ever say something like that to me again." He growls at me and he immediately storms off. James walks up to me with a sleeping Jonah in his arms.

    "I'm sorry, Alex. If I knew he would be like this, I wouldn't have brought him over." He apologizes but I shake my head softly and give him a warm smile.

   "Just make sure he's okay." Is all I say in response and he nods before he's following Cody down the hallway and out the door. As soon as I hear it shut, I feel a wave of exhaustion hit me along with the throbbing sting of my cheek where Cody slapped me.

      'You can't keep taking in everyone's emotions and pain.' Tobias tells me and I snort at him before sighing, throwing myself on the couch, laying Chloe's favorite blanket over my face as I breathe in the scent of him, the smell of him fading after five days of being gone.

      'I will because someone has to have themselves together when Chloe comes and it's looking like it has to be me.'

✨✨✨

"Alex you're not even listening any more!" Cora accuses me as my mind falls away from yesterday and I turn my attention back to the pouting little beside me. I scoff and ruffle her snow white curls making her giggle.