Living with a Heartache

Alex’s POV

“Alex, what’s wrong with your leg?”

“I sprained it,”

“Against what?”

“What? The floor, I guess,”

Jessica clucked her tongue as she glowered at me. She wants to know who, what, when, where and why. I was back in school already, refusing to stay at home to prevent those negative vibes from seeping into my skin. Patrick was hospital-ridden, the last time I heard from mum was that Mrs. Lindy was planning on adopting. I was glad for him; at least Mrs. Lindy wasn’t a psychopath who would murder him with a pair of chopsticks.

“Anyway, I heard from Johnny that Steven was planning to ask me to the school prom,” Jessica bubbled on, oblivious with me struggling to keep all my books and my back-pack in place.

“And when haven’t you gone to prom together?” I muttered as I struggled some more. Jessica looked dreamy as her eyes grazed the clear blue sky, which was evidentially a sign that she was rethinking into the past.

“Enough about my crap, who are you going with?” Jessica turned around so fast I almost fell flat on my face. I’ve never been to prom for as long as I had lived, although the idea of being a fancy dress was sometimes appealing. I never got the guts to go, also because no one asked me before.

“Erm. No one? You know me better than to catch me at the prom,” I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Well, I would say that a certain someone has the hots for you. Considering that you made your way home with him that time…” Jessica stalled. I froze in my steps, Brian? Brian has the hots for me? For a moment a shiver travelled through my body. Jessica looked incredulously at me.

“You mean you don’t know? It’s like, your dream come true!” I continued staring at her.

“Okay, so last week a few of Steven’s friends saw you going home with Brian and Sam. And Steve told me and I told him about your cute little crush on him, and Steve told Sam. And Sam told him that he didn’t have a date for the prom, so he might consider!” Jessica squealed. She was so excited her brown curls seemed to have a life of their own.

“YOU TOLD STEVEN WHO I LIKED?” I screamed. Jessica looked taken aback, blinking her green eyes tepidly.

“I just told you that I got your crush to consider taking you to the prom and that’s your thank you speech? Well, I appreciate it thank you,” she mumbled, casting her eyes downwards on the floor. I groaned and threw up my hands, forgetting about the books lying in them. I didn’t need to know when they landed on the floor, I heard them.

“OW! Dammit! What the hell,” I heard a yell as I turned around. I hastily tried to pick up the books on the floor, but I couldn’t because my ankle prevented me too. I turned to Jessica, who just shook her stupid curly head and smiled slyly at me.

I turned back to the poor person whom my book hit squarely on the head- a head of half-spiky black hair.

“Oh god, I’m so so sorry,” I told him as I struggled to grab the books scattered on the floor.

“Hey, just,” he busied himself as he scooped up my books from the floor, before he looked up at me.

“Take it easy yeah?” He muttered once he caught a hold of who I was. I gulped, because those blue eyes which I was staring into belonged to Sam. I stared at his green shirt, not willing myself to make eye contact with him. He gave the books which were neatly stacked up back to me.

“Hey Alex,” he greeted as he bent down and stuffed his hands into his jeans pocket and leveled himself to my eye level.

“Hey… Hey Sam,” I stammered. I believed I wasn’t doing a very good job at hiding my inner shock. I straightened myself up, just in case. It was so very awkward, because I had no idea why I was talking to him. He smiled at me, and glanced at me with his blue eyes. His eyes, unlike Brian’s were a striking turquoise which made it seem like he was shooting a laser beam through anyone he looked at. Brian’s was a deep green, which made every glance or stare he gave away a gentle one. It made me feel like I was looking a patch of well-watered grass.

Why was I thinking of Brian now? Here was Sam, the guy you’ve been crushing on for who knows how long. I brushed Brian out of my mind, and managed a smile. I assumed I must have looked like a smiling weirdo- I couldn’t help feel out of place, not many ever saw this side of me before.

“So, I was thinking, since prom’s coming up and I don’t have a date…” he trailed off and I sucked in my breath. My heard was palpitating like a bullet train.

“SHE’D LOVE TOO!” shrieked Jessica, who was a really bad actor of concealing out her excitement for me. I blinked and faked a chuckle, giving Jessica a harsh look.

Sam looked expectantly at me, it was then I realized that I hadn’t answered him yet.

“Why not,” I managed to breathe out from the jumbled state my tongue was. I heard Jessica give out a large ‘WHOO!’ Sam smiled at me, and ran his hands through his lovely, black hair.

“Well then, it’ll be an honor,” he smirked and told me. I bit my lips to avoid smiling like an idiot; I nodded and turned around back to Jessica.

“I hate you Jessica,” I breathed in deeply. I was close to hyperventilating now, I had forgotten to breath when I was talking to Sam. But Jessica only squealed even more and hugged me like a crazy bird.

Brian’s POV

“Hey,” I turned around, half expecting Mark to be there to tell me what random hook-up he had during the weekend. Instead of Mark, in front of me stood a girl who was a little shorter than me and had a mass full of golden locks hanging down from her head.

“Kelsey?” I shook my head in disbelief. She smiled as sweetly as she could, considering that her smile was the usual evil scorn she shoots other girls.

“Hey Brian.” She said.

“Yes…?”

“I was wondering if you’d take me to the prom?” she asked. I blinked twice. Now, why in the world would I want to take the possible spawn of Satan to the prom? She blinked at me twice, I could tell she was trying hard not to lash out at me like she used to.

I had already made up my mind on who I would ask out to the prom. If she said no, then maybe I’d stay at her house and mop around. She didn’t look like the kind who liked to go to proms, so if she didn’t go with me, maybe we could hang around in the house.

I ran my hand through my hair, and tried to think of a reason to put Kelsey down.

“Uh. Sorry Kelsey, you’re really nice and all but I already have a date in mind,” I told her. And probably because you torture every single female soul to steps foot into this school. Kelsey let out a sharp breath, and sucked in a breath between her clenched teeth.

“It’s okay, I already have a cool date, I was just asking you in case he fell sick or something,” she murmured finally before shaking her head and walking away. I smirked as I watched her friend’s crowd around her, with unusual faces of happiness and envy. Some put their hands on her shoulder but she just shrugged them off and walked towards another guy.

Bitches, they never do give it up.

A few moments a later, Kelsey came slinking up past me with Mark clinging onto her hands. His eyes were fixated to her chest and he was practically salivating over her. She blinked her huge eyes at me and gave me a small smile.

“Can you believe it?” mouthed Mark as he was dragged away by Kelsey.

I shook my head, and pushed a hand against my mouth. You could smell the sarcasm even as he looked back at me.

Patrick’s POV

It was two thirty and Kyle was next to me talking animatedly, I was still stuck on the hospital bed. Mrs. Lindy- Alex’s neighbor had spent her entire day coming down and talking to me while filling up the huge stack of adoption forms. She clucked her tongue at the stupid questions a lot, and blamed my parents for being “damnations that walked the earth”.

She’s a nice lady that Mrs. Lindy. She’s actually 62 instead of like 70. Which means I’ll probably make her days a little better since she said her heart went out for ‘that little guitar boy who sang to the children with Alexandra every week’. She’s always been better than both my parents added up. Which means I won’t die early living under my dad. Unless of course he escapes from jail and butches me up in my sleep.

“And and, all of a sudden Sandra from class walks up to me and asks me. Hey Kyle, I really like your music, would you wanna go to the prom together?” Kyle rattles on.

“And pray what did you say to scare the poor girl away?”

“Are you joking? Have you seen that girl, red hair, big boobs, nice legs. I think I’ll marry her one day man,” Kyle looks off into the distance as he relishes his moment. I took the time to think, prom was a good two weeks away. Which means when I get back to school almost every girl would be taken up already by sex-craving boys. But I didn’t care because during prom night, me and Alex would be at her house making music or watching a movie. It was even better than prom because I get to go out with Alex.

Alex, her name made my heart burn slightly. I wasn’t sure if I wanted her as a best friend or as a girlfriend. It would be nice to be friends forever, but a girlfriend? I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I keep thinking that one day when I see a girl, and my heart just skips a beat and I stop breathing for a while- that would be my true love. The One. But it was taking too long, maybe me liking Alex was just a replacement- like vegetable burgers instead of real beef burgers. So I could feel what it was like to fall for someone.

“Oh yes, guess who asked little Alex out to the prom?” Kyle said. I jumped at the mention of Alex, how these coincidences happen was astounding.

“She got asked?” was all I could say. The thought of Alex being asked by some random guy to the prom was oddly disturbing.

“Duh, by the jackpot even,”

“What? You mean the dude who gambles every day asked her?”

“No you idiot. Sam, SAM! Lucky girl,” Kyle said thoughtfully. While looking at me like I was the biggest idiot on earth.

“And you’re supposed to be her best friend,” Kyle muttered as he started tapping his fingers on the side of the hospital table. We both fell into silence, just then, the door flew wide open.

Alex’s POV

“PATRICK!” I squealed as I shoved Kyle off his chair and gave Patrick a big hug. My heart soared when I saw Patrick out of harm’s way. He still had bandages all over him; after all it had just been a day. I could hear Kyle muttering to himself as he got off the floor after I shoved him.

“Shit you Alex. How bad did you sprain your ankle?” Patrick asked me after we finished hugging.

“Oh it was bad, but today made up for it,” I smiled at him. I still hadn’t got over the fact that Sam had asked me to the prom. I shouldn’t be this excited, but ridiculously, I was.

Patrick nodded slowly, he looked disappointed. Just a little.

“So our anti-prom cult is over?” he asked, pouting his lips. I laughed a little.

“We’ll see,” I replied. This earned a large ‘oooo’ from Kyle.

“So, what’s wrong with you,” I asked. Even though it pained me to hear Patrick talk about what happened to him partly because of me.

“Well, I had a few deep gashes due to the watering can. No stitches though. Also, I had to get glass removed surgically from my hand. They used the thing which numbs your hand totally. Other than that, I guess they want me to stay here until I can convince them that I’m okay,” He finished. I sighed, it sounded expensive. Since Patrick doesn’t have any money except for his college-savings, I was seeing this as a difficulty. As if he could read my mind, Patrick suddenly informed me that Brian’s parents called the night before and offered to pay his hospital bills.

“Wow,” I croaked.

“Yeah wow,” Patrick replied me.

“You know Brian’s a nice guy once you get to know him,” said Kyle as he made himself comfortable on the floor. Weirdo.

“I know,” both me and Patrick said at the same time. He laughed, but I saw his lips move but I didn’t hear anything. I was thinking about the times Brian was there for me. The time when I passed out in the toilet, how his arms felt against my skin. Or that time when he looked at me with such sincerity as he held up my cup of medicine for me to drink. But my mind was brimming to the top of the funny sensations I had when he held me close that night in the hospital. It felt so comforting, like his chest was made just to fit my head, and a little more space for his comfort. How we lay there until he whispered to me ‘hey, we gotta go’ and helping me up and practically carried me to Mum’s car.

Thoroughly confused at the sudden rush of emotions that surged through me, I forced myself to stop thinking about Brian.

“Hey guys, you know there’s this girl in our school,” started Kyle before we all looked at him.

“She’s a year below us, so I don’t think you know her. But she plays the guitar too and um, she asked for you today Pat,” Kyle looked at Patrick as Patrick glanced at him quizzically.

“If there’s a girl that plays guitar in our school, I think I’d know her,” said Patrick.

“Well, that’s the point. She just moved into town and enrolled here 2 months ago, so I doubt you do,”

“Oh, so?” I answered for Patrick. I could practically feel Patrick’s eyes start to roll. Kyle was pretty famous for his girl friend hook-ups for Patrick.

“She’s pretty cute,” Kyle shrugged and looked at us.