Life Can Do Terrible Things

Hours later I woke up in an empty bed. I sighed, removing the covers from my body and walking downstairs then into the kitchen. I found Alex sitting on top of the counter eating sour patch kids. He looked up from the bag and smiled “Hello, sleepy head!” I returned a small smile and grabbed a water from the fridge. I made my way into the living room and threw myself onto the couch.
“Where’s Danielle?” I asked Alex as he walked from the kitchen to the living room. “With John” He shrugged his shoulders. Alex absolutely hated John but as long as he lived here with Danielle both of them had to get along. I turned on the tv to blur out the silence as I flipped through the channels, finding nothing on.

Alex stepped in front of the tv, blocking my view. “move” I blurted out. I waited a few seconds, but he didn’t move. I looked up at him to see that he was already staring at me. His eyes were so full of sorrow I could almost feel his sadness radiating. Alex sat down on the edge of the ottoman without breaking eye contact with me. He quietly sighed and reached for my hands. Alex held my hands in his shaky ones as his eyes slowly traveled to our hands. He gave my hands a gentle tight squeeze and then looked back up at me. “Are you okay?” Alex whispered. His glassy dark brown eyes were glued to my blue ones as I felt a lump in my throat form. He rolled in his bottom lip to suck on it as he searched his mind for the right words to say next. I felt a pit in my stomach grow larger as tears began to rim my eyes, threatening to fall. “No” I managed to choke out just before the tears began to rapidly fall. It seemed like the harder I tried to stop the tears from falling, the faster they poured out. Alex quickly shot up from the ottoman and sat next to me on the couch then pulled me onto his lap. He tightly wrapped his arms around me as I buried my tear stained face in his shirt. “It’s gonna be okay, I promise” Alex repeatedly hushed me. He began to slowly rock us back and forth as he rubbed small circles on my arms with the pads of his fingers.

It wasn’t going to be okay.

I woke up feeling trapped as my eyes quickly shot open only to be blinded by the sun light beaming in through the living room window. I looked down at my body and saw a pair of arms tightly wrapped around me as the panic quickly left and was replaced with a smile. My eyes followed the arms as I moved my head up to see Alex’s sleeping face. His lips were barely parted as soft snores escaped beyond them. My mind traveled back to last night, I cried myself to sleep in my best friend’s arms… I tried not to wake him as I slowly moved his arms from my waist but he jumped up with a gasp. I laughed as he looked around in complete fright. “Right here” I teased as he turned around and saw me. Alex rolled his eyes and hopped over the couch to wrap me in a hug. “I’m hungry” I mumbled against his chest “let’s make food?” he laughed.

We walked to the kitchen as I began to scan the refrigerator for breakfast. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alex sitting on top of the kitchen counter, looking at me. I put my hand on my hip, shifting my weight to my left thigh as I narrowed my eyes at him. “If you want food, you’re going to help me make it” I declared. He dramatically sighed, jumped off of the counter top and laughed. I stuck my head back into the freezer, looking for food to fix. I held up a pack of bacon and smirked “bacon?” I questioned. He placed his hand on his hip, narrowed his eyes at me and gave me the “you have to be kidding me” look. I laughed at his failed attempt to mock me and put the bacon back into the freezer as I walked over to the cabinet to pull out Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

“Veggie head” I whispered, loud enough to hear and silently died laughing in my head. He spun around on his heels to look at me and had a devious smile plastered on his face. He started walked towards me as I backed all the way up against the counter. I looked for ways I could run away from him, but I couldn’t because he had me trapped. Alex pushed his body against mine, holding me hostage as his hands slapped the counter top. I wanted to laugh so badly because he was so horrible at pretending he’s mad. I decided to play along and quickly let fear grow in my eyes as he inched closer to my face.

“What was that?” He mumbled, looking straight into my eyes.
Don’t do this to me, Alex.
Alex glanced down at my lips, then back up to my eyes. He quickly licked his lips and began to lean in.

“Push him away!” My mind protested.
“No, you want to kiss him and you know it!” My heart shouted.
“You’re going to fuck everything up! Push him away!” My mind babbled on.

My heart won.

Alex leaned in as he slowly closed his eyes, placing his lips on mine. I tensed up for a second, but he placed his hands on my lower back, making me give in and actually kiss him back. It wasn’t long before my hands were on his chest as we deepened the kiss. I felt his hands grip the back of my thighs as Alex lifted me up and onto the counter, not even breaking the kiss. He placed himself between my legs as his hands rested on my hips. I felt his smile against my lips and couldn’t help myself but think that he wanted me as much as I wanted him right now. Alex fiddled around with the hem of my shirt, twisted it in his finger as I reached for his shirt to raise it up off of his body.

I barely got his shirt off before we heard the front door open and Danielle yell “I’m hom―oh...” I broke the kiss, and looked at Danielle whose jaw was dropped and eyes were wide. She held her hands up in defense and laughed “You guys can do back to what you were doing, I’m going to take a shower”. I managed to swallow the lump that formed in my throat as i pushed Alex off of me and walked upstairs.

What just happened?