Tales From Another Broken Home

Eventually, I got bored of just waiting around up against a wall. With some effort, I managed to backhandedly climb myself up and slowly walk into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Jimmy said to me, hardly even glancing my way.

“Hey,” I mumbled back, staring down at my bottle. So much for starting to feel more assertive.

I slumped up against a wall and sipped the beer, not even bothering to try and join in the conversation. I was starting to think – why do I even bother sometimes? It’s not like I could be out at these things alone without Jimmy. Honestly, Jimmy was the only reason why I could manage to be here in the first place. It was really kind of a depressing thought. People didn’t really like me; they liked who I was with.

“So, I guess this is me seeing you later?” I heard a voice say to my left. I turned around and saw the boy from before grinning and leaning coolly against the edge of the counter. I had to say, I was a bit startled.

“Oh, well hi,” I stammered, feeling my face heat up more than it was before.

“You know, I never did catch your name,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. I couldn’t help but notice that they were a bit more toned than the usual guy – he must have worked out.

“I’m Abbey,” I said, biting my lip. Geez, I was still so horribly awkward at talking to people.

“I like it,” he said, with a softness in his eyes. Seriously, I had no idea how to handle this, it was nerve wracking. “I’m Alex, by the way.”

“Oh. Well, Alex,” I added in, “thanks for helping me with that beer earlier.”

He laughed. “No problem! Man’s work after all,” he said with a wink.

I giggled nervously and took another sip of my beer.

“So who are you here with?” he asked, scooting over to me on the wall.

“Oh, Jimmy brought me here,” I answered, gesturing at the boy who was now across the room.

Alex paused, and with a slight hardness in his voice, he managed to get out a simple “oh.”

I cocked my head to the side in questioning, but decided against pressing further when I saw his eyes darkening.

“Uh, so, where do you go to school anyway?” I asked Alex trying to break the tension. I saw the fire die behind the black and he turned to me again.

“Funny story,” he chuckled, and launched into an elaborate story about how he had just gotten kicked out of his school for fighting with a teacher. Somewhere along the way we got into an actual conversation, I ended up with a fresh beer in my hand, and I had started to feel quite tingly. I started really laughing – I think I really liked this Alex kid. He was really nice to me, not weird like a lot of the people that I met at these things. We ended up moving to the living room, sitting on the edge of the couch, squished in with a couple other people.

“So maybe I can get your number or something?” he asked during a break in the conversation. I blushed red; I could feel it in my face even though I felt like I was already burning up for some reason.

“Sure,” I stuttered, and he handed me his phone. It took me holding onto an object that I had to look at while steady to realize that my fingers were starting to shake and my vision took a little longer to focus.

“I’m not used to a phone like this,” I laughed absentmindedly. “Okay..is that all I have to do?”

He smiled at me, and in one smooth motion snaked his arm across my shoulders, grabbed the phone, and, arm still around me, pressed the “done” button at the top of the screen.

“That’s it,” he smirked. I could feel him get press closer to me as he had put his arm around me, and it felt like I had receded into a different little portion of reality; I felt like through the one simple motion, the other people around me faded into the background and it was just me and him.

He was good.

We talked a bit more, about honestly I don’t even know what, I know that at a point a guy came up to us and handed us a couple more beers, and Alex would tease me, and I would almost embarrassed but I kind of liked it because he would always follow it up with “You know I’m just kidding.” I saw his face get closer to me as we laughed, and I could see the flecks of gold in his brown eyes. His darker skin complimented it nicely.

“Seriously though,” he said, breaking from the light tone he had earlier. His voice rumbled low as he spoke quietly. “You are a pretty cool chick.” The small smile never broke from his face. I saw him lean down and gently set his beer down on the floor in front of the couch.

“Well I guess you’re pretty cool yourself,” I said, throwing a bit of my own teasing in there. My heart skipped a beat from the adrenaline of just gathering up the courage to say those words. It continued to beat firm against my chest, like a butterfly, as he chuckled. I felt his hand trace along my back as it made its way up around my neck until his thumb rested just along my jawbone, his fingers laced around the back and into my hair.

“And for the past hour, all I’ve been thinking about is how badly I wanna try kissing you,” he said. I could smell his cologne; it had a slight sharp appeal to it, and it only made me want to move closer to him. I couldn’t even speak, I just felt myself inch forward ever so slightly, and he bent his head down and pressed his lips to mine.

He did it slowly, but it felt so fast in my head. It’s like my head sped up and took in every detail at once – how soft his lips were, how he tasted like wintergreen – when had he popped gum in his mouth? How gentle his touch was, how he stroked my cheek with thumb that rested on my face, and how tentatively he guided my head up to meet his lips; unlike Jimmy who had been so firm and almost controlling –

Jimmy.

Before I knew it, Alex yanked, or rather, was yanked away from me and I saw him fall into an endtable right next to the couch. I sprang up and was greeted with a familiar face.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?”