Graffiti

Chapter Ten:

A yawn escaped my lips as I stretched out on the leather sofa. A thin blanket was spread around me, this was the second night that I had slept at Alex's place. I needed to leave, I couldn't get attached to him. Not now. Not after I'd worked so hard to escape.

Luckily for me, Alex was nowhere in sight. I debated whether or not I should leave. As in leave to somewhere new. I was thinking Athens; I'd always had a fascination with Greek mythology, and the beautiful temples built by the romans were too hard to resist. 

Leaving was the only way I'd get over him, there was no us and there never would be. We'd kissed twice, that was it. It would be easier for us both if none of us got too attached. The thing was, I was already attached to him, and the mere thought of walking out that door and never returning made me nauseous.

I put my head in my hands, scrubbed my eyes furiously, gritted my teeth and made a sort of screaming noise in my mouth. I felt trapped. Did I even like Alex? Well, that was obvious, of course I did. But did I like him enough to stay?

Yes... my heart whispered at the same time as my head said no...

For once, I was going to follow my heart, swallow my fears and stay. I'd done it before, granted I had no choice because I ran out of money, but still. I had to at least try, right?

 I made my way to the bathroom, the blinding blue tiles still made my eyes sting. I changed my outfit with the clothes from the back that Alex had kindly gotten from my hotel room for me, it held all my essentials. I kept the same black jeans on and put on a plain grey shirt, short sleeved. 

I washed my face with cold water, ran my fingers through my jet black hair and studied my face. The swelling in my eyes had gone down, but I had purple bags that looked like bruises underneath them. My face was pale and my limbs felt numb and stiff.

I dragged myself out of the bathroom and walked to the kitchen. I made myself some coffee and went to sit on the bench a few paces away from the cabin, overlooking the lake. The beauty of it took my breath away, the sun made a lighter patch, with ripples heading outwards, the pale blue reminding me of childhood memories. 

The bench, although cold and uncomfortable, pulled me out of bad thoughts, and I was able, for a while, to forget the whole Max ordeal. If I was going to stay for a while, I had to tell Alex. Maybe I could rent an apartment. That was it. I suddenly had a bulb in my head. 

I would stay for a month. If things with Alex led to nowhere, then so be it. If things got serious then I'd make a decision when my time was up. I wasn't just staying for Alex though. I had finally found somewhere where I might have belonged, and I was sick of running. I had to be brave. 

Suddenly I wasn't so alone. A girl, maybe a year younger than me, plopped down beside me. I watched her from the corner of my eye. She had mousy brown hair, pulled into a ponytail at the back of her head. She wore simple blue jeans, and a purple vest top, she had

 brown boots on. Her eyes were grey, her face was rounded and her skin colour was olive. 

"Nice day, isn't it?" She asked, her voice was smooth and silky. 

Funny how most conversations were started about the whether. 

I glanced up at the sky and shrugged halfheartedly, "I guess," I said. Then, before I could stop myself I asked: "Who are you?" Damn. I really had to control my tongue. 

"Oh. Sorry! I totally forgot to introduce myself! I'm Jace's sister, Spirit, you've met Jace right? He's sort of like Alex's new second-in-command," she informed me. I remembered Jace. The first night I was here, he'd tried to flirt with me, and I could remember feeling terrified that he was a creepy old man. 

"Oh, well I'm-"

"I know who you are, silly! Everyone knows who Alex's new girlfriend is!" I blushed. I was not his girlfriend, far from it. 

"I'm not his-"

"Yes you are! The only other time he's brought a girl home was to have s*x, presumably, then we'd never see her again... So unless you're really good in bed, there must be a reason that you're still here," she gushed. I went ever more red. We had definitely not had s*x. 

I didn't even mind that he'd had meaningless flings, I'd had plenty myself. Hell, Denis had been a fling, until he'd gotten clingy and I had gotten lonely. We'd been good for eachother, well, until he'd gotten the wrong end of the stick. Which is why people should never jump to conclusions and ask people instead of just assuming things.

I grasped for words. "He- we- I'm not-" I sighed, giving up.  

She giggled at my attempts. "Don't worry, if you're not dating now, you will be soon." Spirit said it in such a matter-of-fact kind of way, that it perked my curiosity.

I narrowed my eyes at the younger girls, "And how would you know that?" I enquired.

"I, um, may or may not have told him that if he didn't ask you out, I'd cut off his balls," she mumbled. I threw my head back and laughed. I had to hold my side, Alex couldn't really be scared of her, could he? She was just too adorable. 

I got up, shook my legs out and said, "You coming?"

Spirit furrowed her eyebrows but followed me through the dried up ground. We neared Alex's cabin, so I opened the door, placed my mug on the side and walked in. It was odd, but the place smelled and felt like home; the plain wood walls made me feel secure from the outside world. 

"I can't go in there!" Hissed Spirit. 

I turned to face her, gave her a questioning look and walked to the wall opposite her figure in the doorway. "Why ever not?" I enquired. 

"Because it's Alex's cabin!" She squealed. 

I touched the wall, proving that no harm would come to her if she entered. I then  gestured to the empty pizza boxes and playboy magazines that were spread across the coffee table in front of the sofa. "I can see that," I said. 

Spirit opened her mouth and then closed it again. "Oh," she said. "You don't know."

My curiosity spiked up ten fold. "I don't know what...?" I asked her. 

"You need Alex's permission to enter the cabin when he's here, and when he's not here, no one is supposed to be in here. But, he let you sleep here on your first night, so I guess you're exempt from the rules," she gushed. 

I was about to ask her what rules? When a figure appeared behind her. Alex. "What are you doing here?" He demanded. He sounded emotionless, completely contrasting to the way he was with me. Spirit jumped backwards, went as pale as paper and stammered an excuse before leaving in a rush. 

Alex slammed the cabin door behind him. His hair fell into his sparkling green eyes, the converse he wore were tattered, and his black jeans were ripped at the knees, his grey shirt moved with every twitch of his arm. His cheekbones looked even more prominent, if that were possible and his jaw was clenched. 

"No one is allowed in here when I'm not around," He informed me. So why the Hell did you leave when I was still asleep? I said in my head. Instead, though, I was yet again curious to know why. 

"Why not? It's not like they're going to search for a plastic d**k under your bed... are they?" I was trying to joke with him, get him to laugh and forget this whole thing, instead his cold eyes turned on me and very quietly he said, "Because I said so." 

Well, of course, me being me, I became frustrated. He wasn't hiding something, was he? Even so, it had nothing to do with me, so why was I here? Why was I sleeping in his cabin when he clearly didn't want to share anything with me. I didn't even know his f*****g last name. Suddenly, it all came crashing down on me; how stupid I'd been. 

I grabbed my packed bag that was resting on the sofa behind me. "You know," I began. "You don't have to be a d**k all of the time... Oh wait, you're you. Of course you do." Then, I pushed past him. Hard. And left. 

This time he could come to me, he could do the apologising. And then, I'd demand information from him and hopefully we could get the chance to know each other, probably before one of us killed the other.