Finding Heaven

“You slept with him?” Joshua exclaimed in an overreacting way as soon as went out of Alex and Max’s room. “Oh my God, your parents are going to kill me!”

He had been waiting for me.

“No—I mean, yes—but not in that way!” I answered quickly. Joshua looked like he was about to pass out. “I mean, Alex and Max needed some help, and we ended up falling asleep. I swear nothing happened between us, Josh.”

He narrowed his eyes into doubting slits, “How are you so sure?”

I rolled my eyes, “Trust me; I would know if something did.”

Joshua just sighed and shrugged. “Don’t you have school?”

I decided to skip, duh, I wanted to tell him. “I needed time to study for the exams.”

“Fine, whatever,” he said. “Just make sure you won’t be alone with that… leech.”

I chuckled slightly, “Alex’s not a leech, Joshua. He’s a really good guy. He always saves me when I’m in trouble, like a prince.”

“Prince,” he scoffed. “Does that make me the evil queen now then?”

This time I laughed, “You’re the fairy godmother— father, I mean,” I amended when he raised an eyebrow at me.

“Okay, sweetheart, let’s go back,” his lips curled into a smile.

We did.

~

“You guys slept together?” Max gave him an incredulous look mixed with a flash of amusement. “On the same bed?”

Alex was leaning on a desk, with his schoolbooks forming towers and notebooks scattered everywhere.

“I didn’t do anything!” Alex shook his head when he looked at Max. I just hugged her, I think.

Max grinned playfully, “Yeah, but did she do anything to you?”

Dakota did wrap his arm around her a while ago… and that made him chuckle uncontrollably under his comforter. It made his heart throb, not achingly, but like electricity ran through his veins—

Too corny, Alex mused. Blood rushed to his cheeks—the way it usually did whenever Dakota crossed his mind.

“Why don’t you ask her out, bro?” Max suddenly cut through his thoughts.

Ask her out?

He couldn’t do that. He was too afraid… too afraid to lose the relationship they had. Of course, Max couldn’t understand that yet—he was only twelve!

“Ha…ha…what are you talking about?” Alex laughed. Crap, why do I sound so nervous? “Why would I ask her out? She’s just a f-friend?”

Max smirked, “The last part sounded more of a question than a statement.”

Alex stiffly turned and forced his attention back to his books.

~

Later that afternoon, Emily dropped by to my room. I was facing formulas and lessons the whole day.

“Hello,” she greeted Joshua as she stepped in. “You skipped class to study, huh?”

I beamed, “Well, one free day of studying isn’t enough for me.” Emily sat on the edge my bed next to Joshua. “So, what happened while I was gone?”

“Nothing much, really. You know, the usual boringness,” she looked up at Joshua, “How long will you stay here?”

Joshua smiled at her sweetly, “I’ll be bothering you guys until Christmas, as ordered by Mrs. Roth.”

“Mom did?” I couldn’t help smiling, too.

“Yep.”

“You have a really sweet mom, Dakota,” Emily commented. “My mom always scolds me for trivial reasons,”

Joshua chuckled, “Your mom should meet my mom then. My mom has an unstoppable motormouth.”

Emily grinned, “Really? My mom repeats everything!”

Huh.

I glanced from Emily then to Joshua, and saw how much they got along. I mean, they did look good together.

“Anyway, I gotta go.” Emily said shortly and stood up. “It was nice talking to you, Joshua.” Emily turned to me, “Thanks for the company, Dakota.”

“Um, sure.” I smiled. “You should accompany her, Josh.”

“It’s okay; I’m just staying somewhere upstairs,”

“Nah, it’s cool.” Joshua insisted with a smile, and stood up too. “It’s dark anyway, and you never know when trouble makes its appearance, right? You might need a bodyguard.”

Emily tittered lightly, “Okay, Mr. Chivalry.”

I opened the door for them, and they walked out of my room.

Ah, they’re so cute.

~

Someone knocked on the glass balcony door. It was Alex, beaming like an idiot and holding a notebook up.

I smiled and slid the door open.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Problems with equations,” he answered. I stepped aside to let him in. “Where’s Joshy?”

“Joshy?” I laughed. “He’s out with Emily.”

Alex snorted, “Don’t tell me he kissed Emily as a greeting too?”

I hit him on the head jokingly, “No, you idiot!”

“Right,” he gestured for us to position ourselves near the desk.

I scanned his notebook and asked what he found hard to understand.

“This entire page,” he answered, his hand on the back of his neck.

The proximity between us was hard to ignore, but I managed and focused. “So you do this,” I explained, scribbling some equations on the side of the page. “And then you substitute this to that… Do you understand?”

I turned to face him and saw his right cheek resting on one hand while he was staring straight at me.

His eyes widened.

“Oh, right. Yeah,” he chuckled somewhat nervously.

“Yeah.”

My gaze fell back to the notebook, “Try doing this,”

I pushed the notebook towards him. He started solving. Alex looked at the numbers intently. Math was obviously not his thing.

He looks like a puppy, I thought amusingly. A puppy eagerly waiting for his owner’s command for him to eat the bone in front of him.

Alex looked up and asked, “How do you do this again?”

He leaned sideways towards me and pointed at the problem. I kept explaining again and again until he got the answer correct.

“Thanks,” Alex smiled and melted my heart.

I love him.

Should I tell him?

Don’t, I told myself. Not until you settle what you came to Fortsworth for.

I averted my eyes. “No problem.”

I haven’t done anything yet since I came here—my reason for coming here was slowly slipping through my fingers.

“I’d better be going now,” Alex said and started for the balcony. “Thanks again.”

“Alex!” I called after him just before he jumped off to their side.

He looked over his shoulder wonderingly, “Yeah?”

“Thank you for trusting me—for finally opening up to me.”

He grinned widely, “I should be the one thanking you. Always remember that, you idiot.”