Destined to Explode

By the time I’ve finished work the next day - Marky having worked me doubly hard for taking time off the day before - I was beyond shattered.
I managed to drag myself to the hair appointment I’d made weeks before, and then followed my instructions to go see Rick, before I went back home, which I didn’t arrive at until gone 7pm; 2 hours after I told Alex I’d be back.

“So much for home at 5, Pop.” He shouts as he obviously hears me clatter the door shut and shuffle my feet across the carpet and into the dimly lit lounge, not even bothering to take my shoes off before I collapse on the couch, “Hard day?”

“Tiring.” I nod, eyes closed as I lean my head back against the arm, not making even the slightest fuss when Alex lifts my legs to sit down before placing them back over his lap.

“You look tired, love.” I can tell, even with my eyes tight shut, that he’s giving me one of his sympathetic smiles, “Dark circles an all.”

My eyes shoot open at the statement, and I struggle to sit up in my panic, especially with my legs across Alex like they are.
Dark circles.
They aren’t just ‘dark circles’, they’re black eyes, or well, at least one is, particularly pared with the graze I know is on my cheek, thanks to the stinging sensation the wind caused me to experience.
How did I even forget about them in the 2 minutes from the car to the apartment?

“Yeah, l-like I said, tiring day.” I stutter as I stumble up and head towards my room and it’s en-suite, hoping make-up will somewhat cover the marks on my face and if that fails, I‘ll just have to hide in bed.

“Poppy?” Alex chuckles questioningly and I can hear the couch creak as he gets up, “What was that about?”

“I wanna go take a bath and then sleep, yeah?” I stop dead in my tracks as Alex grabs my wrist and I flick my eyes towards the ceiling, silently praying he doesn’t turn me around.

Well, my luck is clearly against me today, because just as I’m finishing my thought, Alex squeezes my wrist gently and tugs it to the right, essentially asking me to face him.
With a sigh and a drop of my head, I turn to look at him.

“Jesus, what the mat-.” He stops himself and his eyes narrow, “Poppy, did you like, hit your face or something?”

“Yeah, I‘ve told you before, clumsy shit.”

He shakes his head slowly, eyes narrowing, “Unless you walked into a wall with a ring on it, then-.”

“I fell over, Ok?” I attempt to grin and pull on the wrist that he’s still gripping, managing to take a few large steps backwards.

“Tell me the truth, Poppy Jamila Zicarelli, what happened to you?”

“Alex, I said-.”

“I don’t believe the bullshit you’re trying to sell me, Poppy, so the truth, now!”

“Rick hits me alright?!” I screech at him, not being able to stop the tears that spring from my eyes, the sudden atmosphere breaking me quicker than I ever thought it could, “Are you happy now?”

His posture immediately softens as he strides across the space quickly, stopping me from crumbling to the floor, “Fuck.”

He just stands and holds me as I mutter on and on about why Rick doesn’t mean it, and that it doesn’t happen often and etcetera, etcetera. The usual lies.
There’s no comforting words, no gentle encouragements that I’m going to be OK, no soft strokes to my back to settle my breathing from Alex, he’s still, to the point where I can barely feel him breathing, even though I’m pressed tightly to his chest.

“Why the fuck didn’t you do something, Poppy? Leave, tell Jack, tell me, fuck, even your neighbour would have been a step forward. I knew something was wrong when I saw all those fucking marks.” He sighs, letting me take the tiniest step away from him before he grabs my hands in his own, leaning forward to press a kiss to my forehead.

I shake my head, “It’s fine, and he’s gone now anyway-.”

“You said that at Thanksgiving. That you weren’t going to take him back, that he’s always been, and always will be an asshole, and now look at you.” He finally slips into the caring mode, smudging the tears from my cheek away with the sleeve of his jacket, careful not to touch the graze on my cheek. “I’m not leaving you here, OK? I don’t care if you’ve told him to leave, he’s going to come back, guys like him always do, especially when they think they can get away with this sort of thing. We’re going back to Baltimore, together.”

“My job-.”

“I’ll talk to Mark, see if we can employ you for tour, I don’t know, just selling GK stuff. Anything, to get you away from here.” He pushes my bangs away from my face, like I’m the small child for once, “Hell, if all he can offer is you packing shit into boxes, as long as you can do it from home, I’ll be down with helping you.”

“This is all unnecessary. “

“No, this is completely necessary.” He smiles softly, leading us both through to my bedroom, “You do realize Jack’s going to blow his top when he finds out. He hates Rick enough already, this is just going to put the icing on the cake.”

“I didn’t plan on telling him.” I sigh, looking up at Alex as I sit down on the edge of my bed.

“Poppy, he’s not dense, he’s going to notice the fact you were beaten to a bloody pulp. Your eye’s going to be black and blue for at least another week, and shit, who knows about the cuts and grazes. We’re going home tomorrow, no arguments.”

I’ve never been one to disagree with Alex much. He’s identical to Jack most of the time, but when the situation occurs that he needs to be sensible, his character immediately flips and you can rely on him to make any problems disappear.

“Lex, I can’t just up and leave. Think about this logically, yeah? I have a job here, which I only have because of Jack. If I suddenly start demanding things, they aren’t going to think twice about firing me. I have bills, a landlord; everything is stopping me just leaving.”

“I’ll sort things.” He combs his hand through my hair soothingly, stroking my cheek a few times when his hand slides down to my face, “Don’t I always, huh?”

-----

It’s going on 3am when I hear the front door to my apartment slide shut, the over-fluffy carpet stopping it from making much noise, the latch seeming to click loudly in the silence of the place, but I hear no movement from Alex, who’s seemingly soundly asleep on the couch.
There are a few muffled footsteps and a coat being shrugged off before my bedroom door opens and Rick stalks in, his eyes boring into mine as I sit up in my bed, raising my eyebrows at the sheer cheek of him.

“Didn’t you hear me when I told you I didn‘t want to see you again? That you weren‘t welcome in my apartment, my life, anymore?”

“You didn’t state how long for.” He smirks, stepping further into the room and shutting the door, “I’ve told you many times before that you’ll never get rid of me, Poppy.”

“Rick, seriously, I’m done with you, can you just go home?”

“I seem to remember telling you that Alex had to leave.” Rick ignores my request, eyes following me as I get out of the bed Alex had tucked me into a few hours before, “What is he doing still on the couch, huh? Do you want some more scars to explain?”

I gulped; Rick had never paid any attention to the fact that he hit me. I’d always thought it was something he did out of anger or annoyance, but clearly, he thought about it for more than the instant when it happened.

“Rick, you don’t scare me, OK? So don’t try that bullshit with me.” I try to bluff my way out of the situation, and the only thing that jumps to my head other than that, is to scream for Alex.