Nothing Personal

Two days after Alex arrived in Duluth was the funeral. Alex had opted out of going since there would be too many questions and Penny would recognize him and it would become a total nightmare. She had left the night before the funeral to go back home so that she could be with her family.

After Alex had gotten there, Zo had spent the majority of that day crying and staying close to Alex. He was really the only thing that meant anything anymore. Do was gone and she felt like a lifeless shell. She didn’t know what to do anymore. It sounded stupid that she was saying that but everything reminded her of Do, and she was really hating that. Everyone said that time heals pain, but she was starting to wonder if that was really true.

Alex had been amazing to her. He had stayed with her holding her the entire night when he had first got there. He didn’t even seem to mind the fact that she had spent the entire day crying and hardly saying anything. He had been the one to start all the conversations and see if she was hungry or needed anything. Her response had always been no but he had managed to get some food in her that night, not much but at least it had been something.

The day after was a little better. She hadn’t cried as much and actually was able to make small conversations with Alex. Her mom and Penny had called her nearly ten times each that day to make sure she was ok. She had explained to them that she needed some time alone and that she was in another city so they didn’t freak out that much. The probably thought she might do something bad to herself but they were just overreacting as usual.

Her mom had finally gotten a hold of Colter later the day that everything had happened so Zo didn’t feel too bad about leaving. Her mom had Colter to be with her and be the one to help her get through it. He probably didn’t have much of a reaction. Guys hardly ever did. They always liked to hold their emotions in and try and act all strong and brave.

Zo was just thankful for Alex. He had up and left everything to be with her and help her and she couldn’t help but fall for him more. He was amazing. She was so glad that Do had gotten the chance to meet him when he did before he had died. She had a feeling that Alex was feeling the same way even though he didn’t say anything about it.

During the time they spent together those first two days, they had used the fact that they couldn’t hear each other in their heads when they were close as a distraction. They had come to the conclusion that whenever they were within so much distance of each other that for some reason they ended up losing the connection. They weren’t even going to try and determine how since they couldn’t even come up with an idea of why they could even communicate in their heads.

But when Zo had left the day before the head back home, they had tested their theory and found that it was true. The connection came back as soon as Zo was a half mile away from the hotel while she was driving home. So at least they had some answers.

“Hey Zo, time to wake up,” A voice called as Zooey groaned and rolled over. At first she thought she was still in the hotel with Alex but then realized that the voice was too high to belong to Alex. And then it hit her. She was at home and it was the day of the funeral.

“Go away Penny,” Zo grumbled back as she buried her head under the covers and willed herself to go back to sleep.

But Penny was persistent and grabbed her blankets and threw them off of her. “C’mon Zo, we’re going to be late.”

“Who cares, it’s not like Do’s coming back.”

With that Penny just sighed and walked away leaving her. All she wanted to do was to get the funeral over with so she could get back to Alex. But it was already looking like it was going to be a long day.

*Zo c’mon, you know you’re going to regret not going.* Alex tried lightly. She sighed and rolled over to open her eyes and check the time. It was almost eight and the funeral started at ten. They be there thirty minutes early so she only had about a hour at the most to get ready.

*Ugh, why aren’t you here with me again?* She asked as she forced herself out of bed and down the hall to the bathroom. She passed Colter as she did and noticed he looked just as miserable as she did at that point.

Alex sighed, *I’m sorry Zo; I really wish I could be there with you.*

*I know, just wish this will be all over with.*

*It will be soon, I promise.*

She got ready taking extra care of her hair since she wanted to waste time and get her mind off of things. Once her hair was straightened, she went back to her room to change into what she was wearing for the funeral. She ended up wearing grey dress pants with a black shirt and a pair of her favorite flats since she hated heels.

Once she was ready, she went down to the kitchen to find her mom, Penny, and Colter sitting in silence. When they saw her walk in, they got up silently and all headed out to the car. The drive didn’t take that long and they found a parking spot and walked into the funeral home and was met at the door and started to chatter about what was going to happen.

Zo let herself stay behind the group as the man continued to talk about everything. She really didn’t want to listen, all she wanted to do was see her baby brother one last time and then get back to the hotel.

People started to show up soon after and Zo had to nod and smile and thank everyone for their condolences. She could barley take it anymore. She felt like she was being suffocated and wasn’t going to handle it all much more.

The music for the service finally started and Zo walked down the aisle with her mom and brother and found their seats at the front of the church. Penny sat between Zo and Colter and gave Zo’s hand a tight squeeze as the pastor started to speak. She barely registered the words he was saying as they echoed through the room.

When he finally finished, she gave a silent sigh of relief as everyone started to file out. Now all she had to do was get through the closing of the casket and then his casket would be taken out to be lowered into the ground. It was when she stepped up and looked down to her little brother for the last time that she started to really cry. This was it. Reality was finally settling in. Do was gone. Her baby brother was gone.

*Zo, I’m so sorry,* Alex whispered as she closed her eyes and turned away. She felt arms wrap around her but didn’t even care. She wanted this day over with.

Once they were done, she walked outside with the rest of the people who had stayed and walked down through the cemetery towards Do’s plot. When they got there, she watched as they lowered his casket in the ground while music played softly and the pastor said a few last words. Zo took the flower that she was holding and stepped forward letting it go and watched it as it fell into the grave and landed lightly at the top of the casket.

Then she couldn’t take it anymore. It was done Do was gone and she had gotten through his funeral. She turned and started to head toward her car. Thankfully she had brought her own just so she could leave right after the funeral. She could hear people calling her but she didn’t listen and continued to get to her car as fast as she could.

When she got there, she jammed her key in the lock and then opened her car door and started the car. She pulled out and pulled out onto the road heading toward the highway and turned her music up until it hurt her ears.

She got off the highway; she turned left and headed down the main road toward the hotel. She pulled into a parking space and turned the car off and headed toward the front doors. Her phone beeped alerting her she had missed calls but didn’t bother to check it and just turned it off as she headed up to the floor that their room was on.

Opening the door, she walked in and closed her eyes trying to fight the tears away. But when she felt comforting arms wrap around her, she lost it. She broke down even worse that she had before. There was no way she could hold it in anymore. Alex lead her to the bed and without letting her go, they both lay down and he kept her close to his chest as he ran his fingers through her hair and whispered to her.

She didn’t even listen to what he was saying but found comfort in his voice. Her eyes started to get heavy and didn’t bother fighting it as she let her eyes close and fall asleep. Thankfully, she didn’t really dream of anything and when she woke up, she realized that she was still in Alex’s arms. She felt him shift slightly and leaned back to find him glancing at her.

“Good morning sleepy head,” Alex smiled slightly as she tried to give the best smile back. She snuggled back into him and lazily let her eyes close again even though she wasn’t tired. She just liked the moment of peace.

“What time is it?” She asked not really wanting to glance over to check the time. That’s what Alex was for.

“A little after two,” he replied as she realized that she had been asleep for nearly two hours. “Did you sleep good?”

“As good as I could, I actually slept better than I had last night.”

“So what do you want to do?” Alex asked as she gave a small I don’t know in reply. “Well if you’re hungry, we can order some room service and put in a bad movie. What do you think?”

“Hmm, sounds good.” She mumbled as Alex pressed a kiss to her head and gently let go of her to get up. She sat up also as Alex made his way over to the tv where the menu was and stood. She told Alex to order whatever he wanted since she really didn’t care before grabbing a change of clothes, wanting to get out of the funeral clothes as soon as possible.

When she came out of the bathroom, she noticed the smirk on Alex’s face and gave him a questionable look and he just pointed to her shirt. She looked down and realized that she was wearing one of Alex’s shirts and felt a blush grow on her cheeks. He just gave another smile as she sat on the bed resting her back on the headboard and pulling her feet up to her chest.

“The food should be here in about a half hour,” Alex said as he came over and pulled her close to him. She nodded as she rest her head on his shoulder and watched the tv as Alex began to flick through the channels.

When the food came, Alex got up to get it and then set a few things down on the bed and Zo went through the trays curiously. Alex had gotten a variety of things and smiled at him at how cute he was being. She grabbed a plate and a fork and started to cut into the chicken and offered some to Alex as he settled back down on the bed next to her.

They ended up splitting everything and giggling as they started to steal more of their favorite stuff off each others plates. By then the movie that was playing was forgotten as they kept up a light conversation and continuing to eat.

“Ugh, I wonder how many messages my mom left me,” Zo said as she set her plate down on the floor and grabbed her phone.

“Who cares, you don’t need to be worrying about that right now.” Alex replied as she just smiled to him and turned her phone on.

When it was started up, she found that she had two missed calls and five texts. The calls were both from her mom and four of the texts were from Penny. And when she got to the last text, she couldn’t help but smile.

“Jackary texted me!” She said happily as Alex laughed. “You knew he would?

“Yeah, I was talking to him earlier and he said he was concerned about you. He asked if it would be ok text you.”

“Aw, he’s so cute.”

Hey girlie, just making sure you’re still alive and that Alex hasn’t cut you up into a billion pieces and stuffed you in the closet. If you don’t text back by 5pm I’ll know you’re dead.

She rolled her eyes as she read the text again and then checked the time. It was ten to five and she hit reply and started typing.

No Jackary, I’m not dead. Alex is looking at me a little strange though and keeps playing with the knife we got with dinner.

She hit send and smiled to herself as she looked at Alex who was watching tv oblivious to the world. Her phone buzzed a few minutes later after she replied back to Penny telling her that she was ok.

Do you need me to be your night and shining armor? I think I still have my plastic sword from my Halloween costume back when I was a kid.

I’ll get back to you on that. Alex is still acting like himself but if anything happens you’ll be the first to know.

Ok, I’ll keep my phone close by just in case ;)

I’ll keep you to that my night and shining armor. She wrote back with a smile on her face. Alex started laughing next to her and she glanced over to the tv to find out whatever it was that was so funny to Alex.

She set her phone down and snuggled into Alex again as they continued to watch tv. Alex was lying on his back and she was snuggled into his chest and she couldn’t help but look up at him every now and then. He was so cute. With his pretty brown eyes and perfect hair. Not to mention how amazing he had been to her the last few days with everything that had happened. Hell he had up and left his home just to fly out to be with her. He was beyond amazing.

He glanced down and gave a teasing smile to her as she blushed at the fact that he caught her watching him. She quickly looked back to the tv and tried to pay attention to the show but felt eyes watching her. Looking up, she felt another blush grow as Alex looked at her with intense eyes and couldn’t help but glance at his lips.

What would it be like to kiss him? Where they actually as soft as they looked? She started to freak out as she realized what she had just thought. Did she just really wonder what it was like to kiss Alex? Oh God, this was too much.

Alex must have realized something was up because the next things she knew was that he was touching her cheek lightly and she opened her eyes to look up at him.

“What’s on your mind?” He asked quietly.

She bit her lip as she debated whether or not to just admit her feelings for him. She had kept them from him for a while now, especially when she finally came to terms with them after they first met. But was now the time? Would he just take pity on her because she just lost her brother? Or did he actually have feelings for her too?

“What’s going to happen after this?” She asked deciding to avoid what was really on her mind. He cocked his head to the side and gave her a look and she continued. “What’s going to happen after you leave? If I go back to my place it’ll just remind me of him. I don’t think I can handle that. I don’t think I’ll be able to deal with the fact that his room is just down the hall from mine and that he’ll never use it again. All his things are still in there. All his favorite books and things that he loves. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it.”

By then the tears were rolling down her cheeks again. It had been on her mind before but now she was saying it out loud and realized just how hard it was going to be. What was going to happen when Alex left? Would she ever be the same? She could move out, she didn’t have enough money saved up yet to get her own place. She was stuck there. Maybe even forever.

“Shh, hey Zo, it’s ok. Things will be better I promise.” Alex whispered as he wiped some tears away from her cheeks.

“How do you know?”

“I don’t but I can tell you that I’ll never leave you. I’ll always be here for you.” She couldn’t help but look at his lips again and closed her eyes tight.

“How do I know that’s true?” She asked again. She felt horrible for doubting him but she couldn’t help it. She needed to know that he wasn’t going to leave her like Do did. Not that he had a choice to leave her, but she couldn’t deal with someone else in her life leaving her.

That time, he didn’t answer but instead leaned in and gently pressed his lips against hers. She froze for a moment before remembering that she had just been wondering what it would be like and was finally finding out. Snapping out of her shock, she pressed her lips against his and kissed him back finding that it was everything that she had ever hoped it would be.

When they parted, they lay looking at each other for a few moments before Alex gave a small smile and brushed some hair away from her face.

“Move to Baltimore with me,”