There's Always a Catch

“What the hell you doing here Alex!?” I snap, feeling a surge of anger in me.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Alexander James, the boy who broke my heart.

He was standing right here, in my hospital room, carrying a bunch of purple and orange flowers, because he knows I love purple and orange flowers.
He was standing here, in all his glory looking beautiful as ever in some baggy jeans that were falling off him with a chain decorated on his pocket, a white t-shirt that was far too big for him and his hair was slightly shorter, he had it cut. His curls were golden as ever giving him an almost innocent look, his face was tanned and athletic looking. He had been working out. Those green eyes stared at me, with an emotion I couldn’t figure.
The thing about Alex? I could never figure him out right.
I had loved this boy for two whole years of my life, completely besotted with him. I would have died for him if needs be. But where was Alex, where I needed him?

Not with me.

Alex is a musician, a passion we strongly shared, he was in a band that I sometimes played with but their music was much more rough to mine. Alex dreamed of making it big, he always told me how he wanted to be famous and he would propose to me in front of an audience and marry me with a big party that was featured in magazines.
He dreamed of it all.

Alex wasn’t always a prick, it was only when I told I hadn’t been feeling well just before I found I was pregnant and he kept snapping at me to stop whining. I understood he was stressed, the talent scouts were coming to see him and the band play and he was wrecking it. It was his once change of getting out of California and moving to LA, like he always wanted. He promised he take me with him, that we’d run away and elope. Alex always thought of things like that, it was partly why I loved him.

We had plans in the future, to travel around the world, get married, enjoy life and maybe settle down with kids later on in our late twenties or thirties. We had a plan.

Yet that one drunken mishap, of a party Alex had dragged me too and persuaded me to have more than a few drinks, it changed everything. We were smashed and we lusted for each other, we ended up naked and hung-over the following morning.
I wasn’t mad at Alex because we had sex, he had took my virginity a few months before and it hurt like a bitch but I loved him, so I didn’t care.

I was mad at Alex because although he was drunk too, he still forgot protection, even between then moment of truth where our lives would change, not one thought was for him to stop and get some protection. Then again, I could hardly speak. I’m 17, and sexually active why wasn’t I on the pill?

My silly excuse was I didn’t intend on having sex after the first time until I was ready because it wasn’t a nice experience.

So that’s what happened, two years of my life washed away as I told Alex that I was pregnant and I intended on keeping the baby. Alex shouted, he screamed and he cried.
He slapped me that night and I never looked at him the same. That night I felt his apartment, sobbing and bleeding. I vowed I would never see him again.

I kept that vow, until now where Alex was standing before me, looking right at me and my daughter.
“I needed to see you” Alex tells me, completely unemotionally.
“How did you find me?” I snap, feeling my heart increase its pace.
“I traced your calls” Alex says simply.
It had been him that was stalking me.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!” I cry, hating how I felt so heartbroken after seeing him.

“You left without a word and you expect me to be okay with it?” Alex hisses, suddenly angry, his eyes narrowed.
“You didn’t want me or the baby!” I accuse, and Alex gritted his teeth.
“You didn’t give me time!” Alex pathetically shouts back.
“You shouldn’t need time, you shouldn’t hesitate when I say I need you.” I bellow out at him.
“I wasn’t thinking straight!” Alex insists.
“Yeah I can tell by the way you fucking backhanded me!” I scream, then I choke back more tears, as I see Paul and Jacob hovering by the door.

“He what!” Paul yells furiously, and was about to lunge at Alex, who stepped back in defence.
“Why are you here?” I demand to Alex, hoping he would just leave already.
“I made a mistake Casey, I’m here to correct it. That’s my kid you’re carrying” he says confidently, his anger fading.

“I’ll die before you see my daughter, now get out.” I fume, and before Alex could take in he was having a daughter, Jake grabbed him and dragged him, a bellow of protests following. Paul was breathing deeply, calming down.

“Paul” I sob, hiccupping and he rushed to my side. He stokes my hair back, looking me right in the eye.

“He’s the ex-boyfriend?” he guesses and I nod, leaning against him.
“Don’t let him break me, please” I sob and Paul soothes me to calm down, but I couldn’t as I knew Alex and once he made up his mind, there was no going back.