Pretty Girls Make Graves

I woke up to the sound of my bedroom door opening, and rolled over onto my side to see Allegra frozen in the threshold.

"Hey," I pushed myself up into a sitting position and pulled my glasses off of the nightstand,
"Where are you going?"

She quietly closed the door and moved back over to the bed, lightly perching herself on the edge. She was fully dressed, her now wavy hair pulled up in a messy bun, her make-up from the night before gone. I rubbed my eyes in attempt to get rid of the bleariness, wanting to see her properly. She was fucking beautiful without a single lick of make-up, and all I wanted to do was make her get back into bed with me.

"It's almost half five," she whispered, leaning in close to me and making my heart-rate double,
"My parents get up for work at six. I'm not supposed to be out."

"I'll walk you," I replied as I scanned the floor for my boxers.

"It's fine," she jumped up from the bed and scurried towards the door.

"Allegra," I growled her name, making her stop in her tracks.

I didn't mean for it to come out as aggressive as it did, but I was growing sick of her always disappearing on me. I knew that I didn't love her, but I also knew that I didn't just merely like her. It was like an infatuation, but in a deeper way. I wanted to know every little thing about her, to know what made her laugh or what made her sad, where she was going to college and what she wanted to do. I wanted to get all of the jigsaw pieces and put her story together.
She was frustrating, in the sense that she could be so fun and sweet one moment and then disappear the next. But I loved the challenge. I was accepting it whole-heartily, especially when I saw how she reacted to me. I was always the guy who would do whatever his girlfriend told him to do, and it always ended up with me getting dumped. I loved how Allegra listened to me, how I could just say her name and she would stop what she was doing. I liked having this control, and it made me bolder with her.
She stood by the door, not being shy in watching me as I dressed. I quickly shimmied into my briefs, feeling my cheeks warming slightly as I stood completely naked in front of her for a few seconds. I could hear her sigh lightly, and I couldn't tell if she was laughing or genuinely sighing in impatience. When I looked over at her, her expression was completely blank. I shook my head and finished getting dressed. Once I had my shoes on, she opened up the door and waited for me to walk down the stairs with her.

"What's going on here?"

Both Allegra and I jumped and looked about the room, trying to see where the voice had come from. Gerard was sitting on the couch, his girlfriend, Adrianne, beside him and a large smirk on his face. The two of them were still drinking and were in the process of rolling up joints.

"We lost track of time," I grumbled before I opened up the front door and walked out.

Of course I was going to tell Gerard that I had sex with Allegra, but I wasn't going to humiliate her by admitting it right in front of her and my brother's girlfriend.
We walked in silence, me following her, interested to see where she lived, to finally get some information about her. After about ten minutes of silence, I figured fuck it, and took her hand in mine. She looked over at me, her expression still blank. I threw her a small smile, and to my relief, she smiled back weakly before she intertwined her fingers with mine. We continued to walk in silence, hand in hand, and finally we stopped outside of a large house.

"You live here?" I whispered, unable to prevent my eyes from widening.

Her house was at least three times the size of mine.

"Yeah..." she trailed off.

I snapped my head towards her. Her tone sounded exhausted and she had her face tilted up towards one of the windows on the second floor, her mouth a tight line. I couldn't help but notice the goosebumps that were puckering her skin all of a sudden, the fair hair on her arms standing up.

"Are you okay?" I asked softly.

She threw me a brilliant smile as she nodded her head.

"Thank you for everything last night, Mikey. I had a really good night. You're very sweet."

I could feel myself reddening slightly as I smiled back at her. I took a step towards her and gently placed my lips on hers. It was an innocent kiss, no tongue or groping, just a peck on the lips, but my body still tightened with arousal. I couldn't help but grin when I pulled away, her eyes staying closed for a few seconds before they fluttered open.

"Can I see you again?"

"This town isn't huge, Mikes."

"I mean intentionally. Could I phone you some time?"

She bit down on her lip and looked away, and my stomach dropped slightly. But then she turned around and smiled gently.

"Seven-Nine-Two-Five-Eight-Eight."

I blinked rapidly as she quickly walked over to the large apple tree in the front garden and pulled herself up onto one of the branches. I repeated the numbers over and over again in my head once I realized that it was a phone number. I watched her as she swiftly climbed the tree, moving all the way up until she was level with a window. My breath hitched slightly as she lightly bounced forward, and I instinctively took a step towards her, terrified that she would fall and I would have to catch her. She made her way onto the window ledge and quickly slipped in through the open window.
I stared up at the window for a few seconds, waiting to see if she would come back and say goodbye, but she didn't. I ran back home, saying those six numbers to myself over and over again, making them sound like a benediction rather than just a phone number.
I couldn't get home fast enough, wanting to write down those precious digits before I forgot them. I ignored the pain in my head from my hangover and took every short cut I knew. When I got in through the door I didn't even bother explaining myself to Gerard, I just ran straight into the kitchen and grabbed a pen from the drawer. I couldn't find any paper, so I wrote the number down on some kitchen roll.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Gerard yelled at me from the sitting room.

My breathing was erratic as I entered the room and sat down on the armchair. Both Gerard and Adrianne were looking at me as if I had just sprouted horns and a tail.

"Nothing," I shook my head slowly.

Gerard rolled his eyes at me and opened his mouth to say something but Addie beat him to it.

"Who was that, Mikey?" she asked softly.

Both Gerard and I turned to face her in confusion. Addie was the complete opposite to Allegra. She was pretty short, she just about came up to Gerard's shoulder, and, although she wasn't fat, you couldn't say she was skinny either. She had pale grey eyes and naturally blonde hair and a wide smile.
And she was fucking loud.
You could always hear her coming a mile away, but not in an irritating way. She had a good sense of humour and a bubbly personality and both my mom and I liked having her around.
That's why her soft tone took both Gerard and I by surprise.

"A friend," I said slowly, putting some walls up to guard myself.

Addie stared back at me, lightly biting on her bottom lip.

"What's her name?"

"Why?"

"Just tell us her name," Gerard sighed.

"Why do you want to know?"

"It's an unusual name," she turned to Gerard, talking as if I wasn't sitting right beside her,
"Alexandria or something..."

"Allegra," I corrected her, before I squeezed my eyes shut when I saw her smirking.

I fell right into that one.

"Adams?"

"Yeah?"

Gerard's head was turning from left to right, watching mine and Addie's exchange with a look of confusion on his face. I could feel my palms growing sweaty when she gave me a sad smile, sitting back into the couch as she brought her cigarette to her lips.

"Please don't repeat this."

Gerard and I nodded after we threw each other confused looks.

"You know the way my mom's a social worker? Well, she's Allegra's case worker. The girl has been in and out of foster care since she was four."

I swallowed convulsively, not liking Addie's tone. I had friends who were in foster care and they loved their foster parents for the most part, but I also knew that there were some pretty God awful shitholes out there. The thoughts of Allegra being treated like shit made my heart start beating all the faster, especially when I remembered the look on her face the night before when she came to the party.

"Is that why she always disappears?"

Addie nodded as she inhaled deeply, exhaling quickly so she could speak again.

"Yeah, I think she's originally from Dallas or something. Mom said it's worse for Allegra because her mother is a genuinely good person, she just suffers really badly from depression. That's where she goes when she disappears, back to Dallas, but it only lasts for a few months and then her mom has another turn and Allegra gets sent back here. I don’t know how she ended up in this area’s system but…" she trailed off with a shrug.

I nervously chewed on my bottom lip as I looked away. Addie was looking at me sadly and I could see Gerard growing protective. No matter how hard I tried to hide it from him, he still could tell that Allegra meant more than just a fuck to me.
I had wanted to get her story, to know every detail of her, but now I wasn't so sure.