Show My Cards, Gave You My Heart

Alex and I rushed back to Kay's house. He pushed the front door open with anticipation, but was taken by surprise. The others were back. Jack and Kay sat in the living room, looking at the floor. Her eyes traveled up to me, giving me a apologetic smile.

"Haley, I am so, so sorry!" she told me, jumping from her seat and waddled over to hug me.

"It's okay Kay, I understand." I giggled, squeezing her gently.

"I feel so terrible."

"Don't worry about it. I'm over it."

"Okay." she nodded. "Would you and Alex come to the shops with Jack and I to the shops for soup and hot chocolate?"

"Okay." I nodded, looking up at Alex. He narrowed his eyes at me and quickly changed expression.

"Okay." she said, grabbing onto Jack's hand, leading him through the front door.

"Cockblock." Alex mumbled in my ear. I elbowed him in the side and walked out, waiting for him to catch up and put his arm around me like usually.

We walked back into the town, getting closer to the store where we were going. All was good until a strange man started talking to Kay. "Kaylyn darling, how's the family?" he stopped us, patting her shoulder.

"Um, good?" she gave him a strange look.

"How's dad and brother?"

"My brother is fine and you know exactly how my father is you fucking bastard!" she screamed at him, raising her fist. Jack grabbed it and pinned it to her side, pushing her behind him.

I grew confused. Alex pulled me to his chest protectively. "Look, walk away man." Jack said sternly, still standing in front of a crying Kaylyn.

I decided to play the good friend and get her away from this. After struggling out of Alex's grasp, I carefully walked over to Kay. I gripped the sleeve of her jacket and pulled her along with me. "Be careful." I mouthed to Alex.

He nodded and moved closer to Jack. I brought her around the building we were close to, hugging her consolingly. "Fucking bastard!" she screamed into my shoulder.

"Who is it, Kay-Kay?" I asked her, patting her back.

"That's the fucker that cut Dylan and killed my father, Haley!" she shook her head, gripping tightly into my arm. I felt her fingernails dig deep into my skin, making me bite my lip in pain. "They used to be friends! Then he betrayed my dad and killed him! Just for his fucking job!"

"Oh.." I quietly said, seeing Alex and Jack walk around the corner. Both of them were bleeding. "Alex!" I shrieked, running to him. He had a bloody lip that was dripping and Jack had a bloody nose and a black eye.

"I'm fine baby." he smiled.

"You are not fine, you're bleeding." I shook my head, flipping his bottom lip down to see a cut on the backside of his lip.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" Kay asked, crying more and more. Jack pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.

"I, I tried to hit the dude but instead of him getting hit, I got hit.. and in process of Alex trying to get us apart, he got hit." Jack stuttered, scrunching his face up.

"Oh God, this is my fault!"

"No it's not Kay." Alex shook his head. "Who was that guy?"

"That was the bastard who murdered my father." she mumbled, covering her face with her hands.

"What?!" Jack nearly shouted. "I'm going to kill that fucker."

"Jack, stop." Alex let out a frustrated sigh, grabbing a hold of Jack's jacket.

"Jack, drop it. Lets go home." she sobbed, grabbing onto him. They took off walking leaving Alex and I there for a moment.

"That was scary." he said, pulling me into a hug.

"I know." I sighed. "I feel bad for her."

"I do too, baby. That bastard had no right."

"I'm terrified now. When are we supposed to go home?" I asked, laughing lightly trying to foreshadow that I was joking.

"We're going home on the twenty-third." he smiled, pulling me along to catch up with Jack and Kay.
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Christmas Day:

We flew back home and spent the two last days preparing for Christmas. I got my shopping done, Alex and I made gingerbread cookies and a gingerbread house and put up a Christmas tree.

Christmas day rolled in quickly. Alex wasn't joking when he said he got me the greatest present ever. He got me a trampoline, which made me the happiest eighteen year old on the planet. Luckily the gift I got him was in equality to his. I got him a Xbox, which he spent all morning playing. He had the bright idea of inviting the guys over for a while for a small little get together.

I finished dolling up and made my way to the kitchen. I stood there, nibbling on crackers when the doorbell rang. "I got it, babe!" Alex called from the living room. I took another bite of my cracker, choking on the tiny bits.

I coughed uncontrollably as I reached for a cup, getting cold tap water from the sink. I took a drink of it and set it on the counter, just to knock it off of the counter. "God dammit." I cursed, grabbing a dish towel to clean up the water in the floor.

"Whoa, love." Alex laughed from behind me.

"What?"

"You look.. wow."

"You're staring at my butt, aren't you?" I rolled my eyes, standing back up from the floor.

"Yes ma'am." he smugly grinned, walking over to me. He sat whatever he had in his hands on the counter and picked me up and sat me on the counter. "My mom brought me our mail. You had something." he said, handing me a white envelope.

I looked at the mailing address. This would make the third letter I've gotten from my grandparents, begging to see Alex and I. I never replied to any of them because I was specifically not ready to face seeing my mom.

I bit my lip and opened the letter, pulling open the folded sheet of notebook paper to read it. I looked at it, seeing it was two pages long. "I don't wanna read this! It's too much." I sighed.

"Let me read it then." he said, pushing himself up to the kitchen counter next to me. I handed him the letter so he could read it to me. "Dear Haley," he started, slurring his words until he got to important parts. "I'd enjoy it if you and Alex came down the twenty seventh to have dinner with your grandpa, mother, and I. I understand it's tough knowing your mother hasn't been there, but you need to know it wasn't her fault. It was your father's. There hasn't been a day she doesn't think about you or Bella. We'd really enjoy it."

"Blah, blah, blah." I rolled my eyes. "Would you like to drive to Philly an extra day early to see them and shut them up?"

"It doesn't bother me. If you're ready to go through with this, then we will. I'm here with you every step of the way." he said, setting the letter down. He grabbed my hand and leaned over to kiss me. He ran his available hand up my thigh, making me squirm.

"Stop it, pervert." I giggled, kissing him again.

"You look so beautiful today. I can't help myself."

"Oh please." I shook my head, hearing the door bell ring. "Go get the door."

"I am, dammit." he pushed himself off the counter, leaving the room.

I slid off the counter, trying not to fall and break my neck in the heels I was wearing. I suddenly felt sick as I watched Rian, Zack, Brooke, Jack, and Kay all file into the kitchen, setting down food items they brought.

Zack and Brooke made sugar cookies and Jack and Kay brought eggnog. Kay walked up to me and cupped her hands around my ears, "Don't tell the guys, but I spiked that one jar of eggnog. I thought it'd be funny."

"Oh lovely, Kay." I shook my head. "It'll be funny until they're messes. And you know what that's like."

"Yeah, that's true.. Fuck. I messed up."

"No saving it now." I said, looking over at the guys chugging it. I placed my arms around my stomach, covering it to hid the flopping noises it was making. I walked over to the crackers, grabbing a few from the package in hope to settle my gurgling stomach.

Alex walked up behind me and put his arms around me. "Eggnog, love?"

"I'm fine." I shortly said, shoving a cracker into my mouth.

"What's wrong with you?"

"I'm hungry."

"We can make pizza if you'd like." he kissed my cheek, letting go of me, and walked to the freezer and pulled out a cheese oven-bake pizza. He preheated the oven and put the pizza on a pan, then returned back to my side.

"This wasn't necessary." I bit my lip, wrapping my arms around him.

"I have to take care of my girl." he smiled and kissed my forehead.

The night flew by. The guys sat in the living room and played Xbox, leaving us girls sitting by their sides, pretending to care when one made a higher score. I grew tired and fell asleep multiple times and the guys downed the spiked eggnog, leaving them all drunk messes.

Kay and Brooke got Zack, Rian, and Jack to their cars successfully to take them home. Now I had the task of getting Alex's drunk ass up the stairs. He could barely stand and was stubborn. I held onto him by his waist, leading him to the first step. "N-no, I can do it myself." he told me, trying to walk.

I giggled when he fell into the stairs. "Still think you can do it?"

He grumbled and tried to stand again, failing, and sat back down. "No."

"Come on." I grabbed a hold of him, using all my strength to pull him back to his feet. "Alex, move or I'm going to leave you down here."

"No! Don't leave me!" he hugged onto me.

"Then move your ass!"

He nodded and took it walked step by step with me. I successfully got him up the stairs and now I led him to the bedroom. We walked in, still moving step by step. "I love you." he mumbled, hugging on to me again as he lost his balance. I caught him, but he almost pulled me down with him.

Then things got bad. A rush of warm liquid traveled from my stomach to my mouth. I let go of Alex and let him fall into the floor to rush to the bathroom to get violently sick. I threw up the pizza and the 7 Up I had drank with it. I was really starting to hope I didn't have the stomach virus that was going around..

I puked until I felt a little better. I cleaned myself up and tiredly walked back into the bedroom where Alex still laid on the floor, now asleep. "Alex?" I knelt down, shaking his arm. His eyes fluttered up and gave me a death glare. "Sleep in the bed, please."

He sat up and worked with me to get him back onto his feet. I helped him the last few steps to the bed. He crawled in, and without a sound, went back to sleep. I sighed with relief and kicked off my heels and took off my skirt, putting on a pair of sweats in it's place. I walked to the window and opened it, letting the freezing cold December air in the room. I was hot and I didn't care at the moment.

I walked to the bed and got in, laying on top of the blankets for a moment until I got cold chills. I felt lonely so I cuddled closer to Alex. In response, he wrapped both arms around me held me close to him. He may have smelled terribly of alcoholic eggnog, but I found it easier to fall asleep with his arms around me.
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"Why the fuck is the window open?" I heard his voice loudly ask from the corner of the room. I shivered and sat up, looking innocently up at him.

"I got hot last night so I opened it."

"Oh, okay." he nodded, shutting the window. "Speaking of last night, what the hell happened to me? I am in so much pain right now. I have bruises on my knees, side, and arms."

"Kay spiked the eggnog. Then while trying to get your drunk ass up the stairs, you fell. Then whenever we got to the room, I dropped you." I answered honestly.

"Why the hell did you do such a thing?" he laughed, putting on a clean pair of jeans.

"I had to pee really badly." I lied, laying back down. "I don't feel well today."

"What's wrong?"

"My stomach is bothering me."

"I hope you don't have the stomach virus that's going around." he frowned, crawling back into bed with me. "I guess we can sleep all day since we've got a interesting day ahead tomorrow."

"That sounds perfect to me." I murmured, curling up into a ball at his side.