Walls

Alex stood his ground, keeping Skylar slightly behind him, out of the guy's reach. The bell rang and most of the kids went back inside, only one or two sticking around for a bit longer to see what would happen. Alex seemed different to Skylar. He was acting tough, and protective of her. She wondered if he had heard any of their conversation.

"I don't owe you shit Tony. Now get the fuck out of here." Skylar stayed behind Alex, afraid that if she moved, the other guys would chase her.

"Like hell you don't, you and Cody trashed my car. You owe me." Skylar looked back and forth between Alex and Vince, trying to read their expressions. She could easily tell that as much as Alex was putting on a tough act, he was scared shitless inside. She knew him too well.

"Is that what this is about? Your CAR? You were going to ht a GIRL over a CAR? That's fucked up dude. What the fuck." Skylar giggled, she missed his sense of humour.

"I wouldn't laugh bitch. Until I see my money, both of you are on my list." Skylar had enough of this guy, and felt like if she pushed his buttons hard enough, maybe she could find the answers she was looking for.

"Are you gonna check it twice? Find out who's naughty and nice?" Alex looked back at her, and mouthed 'don't' but she paid him no attention. Despite him saving her, she was still pissed at him. Before Vince could make a snide remark back, Alex spoke.

"Look Vince, don't ever call her a bitch again alright? Now, here's whats gonna happen. Skylar's gonna go back to class and you and me? We can talk. Just let her go." Vince looked at Skylar who was giving him a dirty look, still remaining behind Alex.

"Alright fine. She can go. For now anyways."

Skylar wanted to stay, but she knew Alex would never let her. She slowly started stepping sideways towards the doors and when she was sure the others weren't coming after her, she jogged inside and went straight to class where she received a detention for being late and curious looks from Kara.
Underneath her desk, she checked her messages, all from Kara and Rian wondering where she was, and there was one from Lacey asking if she wanted to have a sleepover. Skylar replied 'yes', and decided to invite Kara.

When class was over, Kara and Rian asked her where she had been the entire time. Skylar didn't feel like giving them the whole story so she just said something happened outside and she got held up. They knew something was up, but they didn't push it.

The rest of the day passed by slowly and there was no sign of Alex in class. All Skylar could think about was what happened after she left. When the final bell rang, she saw Alex coming out of the guidance counsellor's office with sunglasses on and a beanie on his head. He was staring at his feet when he walked. When he saw her, he stopped and waited to see if she would approach him. Slowly, she walked over to him and stopped a foot away.

"So who was that?" Alex shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. They moved to the side of the hallway so as not to get in everyone's way. He leaned against a locker.

"His name is Vince. He's not a good guy Skylar. Why did you punch him?" She bit her lip and leaned against the locker next to him.

"He basically said it was good Cody died, as though he had it coming. Why is he such a jerk? How do you know him?" Alex put his hands on his head and slumped down onto the floor, Skylar joining him.

"He used to go to Towson with Zack but they were never friends. Zack hates the guy, we all do. He's bad news Skye." As much as she was mad at Alex right now, she knew she had to take those words into consideration. She nodded and stood up. He stood up with her.

"Just stay away from him, please. I know you can handle yourself but this guy is dangerous. Me and Cody figured that out the hard way." Before she could say anything, he turned around and walked away. She watched him leave and then went to go find Kara, so they pick up Lacey.

--

That night, they were in Lacey's bedroom, gossiping and drinking margaritas. Lacey and Kara were getting along perfectly fine and it made Skylar happy. She had told both of them what happened earlier that day, wanting to get everything off of her chest. Lacey stated that she remembered Vince from school and that Alex was right about him being dangerous. They decided to go sit on the front porch and drunkenly look at the stars to get fresh air.

They were only out there for a few minutes when Kara noticed someone standing by a tree not too far away. She pointed it out and the girls squinted their eyes to see.

"Shit it's Vince. Go inside and call Rian or someone." He started walking towards the house, smirking. She was about to go inside and lock the door, until she saw the other guys from earlier get out of a car across the street. Her eyes went wide and she ran inside and locked the door, only to find Lacey on the phone and Kara holding a baseball bat.

"Uhh..there's more of them. Give me the phone." Lacey handed her the phone and stood next to Kara. Rian was on the other end of the line, and kept asking what was going on. There was loud banging on the door and drunken laughter outside.

"Rian? Put Alex on, I can hear him, I know he's with you." There was shuffling and then Alex came on, breathless.

"Skylar? What's up?" Lacey started banging back on the door. "What's all that banging?"

"It's Vince and his friends. He's here at Lacey's. I don't know how he found us here." She heard Alex swear under breath and more shuffling before he said to lock everything and that he was on his way.

They kept banging and it was driving Skylar nuts to the point where she couldn't take it anymore. She yelled out for them to go away even though she knew they wouldn't.

"A car for a car!" Lacey and Kara looked confused but it clicked in Skylar's mind what he meant. She grabbed the bat from Kara, unlocked the door and stepped outside to find the guys at the bottom of the porch stairs, Vince with a can of spray paint.

"That's not even my car asshole, get out of here now. How did you find me here?" He took notice of the bat in her hands and laughed.

"What are you gonna do? Hit me with that thing? and I followed you." She was silently praying Alex would get there soon. "You punch pretty hard, Ill give you that, but now I know your strength."

She held her firm grip on the bat, and Lacey was behind her, holding a golf club. She was fuming and Skylar knew how violent she could get if she was pissed off enough. Kara was standing meekly behind them, unsure of what to do; she had never been in a situation like this before.

"Get off my lawn." Vince stared long and hard at her before realization hit him at who she was.

"You go to Towson. With Zack. Right?" She nodded and asked him why he cared. "Just curious. Tell him hi for me will ya?" He said it with a smirk, and they stepped closer. Just then, three cars pulled up alongside the road.

"You can tell him yourself. He's right behind you." Now it was Skylar's turn to smirk at him when she saw Alex, Rian, Jack and Zack walking towards them with some other unfamiliar and familiar faces. Vince turned around to come face to face with Alex and Zack. Jack and Rian went inside to see if the girls were alright. Lacey went back inside to talk to her cousin, but Skylar stayed on the porch to watch them.

"Merrick, how've ya been? Long time buddy" Zack tensed up and clenched his fists into balls. "Oh look, you brought the other losers with you. Vic and Mike right?" Skylar recognized them as some of Cody's old friends. She didn't know that they were friends with Alex too. Two other guys stood not far behind.

"Get the fuck out of here man, leave the girls alone. I told you before, you're not to go near Skylar. Or her friends for that matter." Vince laughed and stepped closer so he was right in front of Alex. Alex could smell the alcohol on his breath when he spoke.

"And I told you that both your life and hers will be a living hell until I get my money. Two grand. Pay up. And I still have to get that bitch back for earlier." He glanced at Skylar, who finally braved up enough to go up to him.

"Go ahead, I'm right here." In a split second, Vince whirled around and punched her in the face. She didn't expect him to actually do anything and it only took half of a second for chaos to break out once he did. Alex lunged at Vince, knocking him to the ground and started wailing on him, not caring about the consequences. Zack and the other guys had started taking on Vince's friends who had tried to get Alex off of him. Skylar was on the ground, holding her jaw, which she assumed was broken now. Lacey ran outside with Rian to help her.

A few minutes later, Vince's friends were scrambling to their feet and had retreated to the car. Alex was still fighting with Vince, Zack was trying to pull Alex off of him and the rest of the guys were sitting on the lawn, bruised and bleeding. When Zack finally managed to pull Alex off of him, Vince staggered up and towards his friends and they drove off. Lacey invited everyone inside to get cleaned up and relax.

Skylar was on the couch, icepack on her jaw, her lip was bleeding and she was watching a movie. Rian was telling Lacey that him and the guys weren't leaving and with much reluctance, she agreed to let them crash in the living room and the three guest rooms. The two guys Skylar didn't know walked into the living room and introduced themselves so it wouldn't be awkward.

"Hey there, I'm Kellin, this is Gabe. I cannot believe that you punched Vince today. Alex told me everything. Good job though, he deserves it." Skylar looked up and gave a small smile.

"Thanks." They walked away, and Skylar looked around for Alex who was nowhere in sight. She got up and went outside for a smoke, and thats where she found Alex, sitting on the porch steps, head in his hands.

"Hey." His head snapped up, and when he saw her, he slid over so she could sit down, which she did.

"Hey, how's the jaw?" She took off the ice pack and set it down. "Doesn't look too bad. Just a little bruised."

Skylar lit up her cigarette and and shivered at the cold air. Alex noticed, took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. She looked up at him and smiled, slipping her arms into the jacket sleeves.

"Thanks. Listen, can we talk?" Alex nodded and turned to face her, but she looked down. "I want us to be okay, I want us to be friends again. But you're keeping something from me Alex, and I hate it. You build up walls sometimes, just let me in."

He took a deep breath and exhaled, knowing she was right. He hated them not being friends, not talking.

"I know, me too. I'm sorry. I guess if Vince is sticking around, I should tell you everything." She looked up at him, urging him to go on. "So I told you he went to school with Zack, but he's older, the same age as Cody. He used to date Zack's cousin and he was a jerk to her. He hit her one night and Zack got pissed. He called me and Cody and we went to his house and trashed his car with spraypraint, we keyed it and broke the windshield."

Skylar stared at him, disappointed in him and her brother for doing something so stupid. She knew there was more to the story so she didn't say anything, she let him continue.

"He saw us and he chased us, telling us we owed him a new car and that he was going to kill us.The next few weeks, Vince kept pestering us to pay him for the car and then he started beating up Cody since he's the one who broke the windshield."

Skylar remembered seeing bruises and his lip busted up a few weeks before his death.

"Anyways, Vince left school and went to Chicago, but he kept calling Cody, telling him he would be back to collect his money. Cody eventually had enough of it and you know what happened."

His voice trailed off and he looked at the sky. It was cloudy, there were no stars and the moon was shining bright. They could hear laughter from inside the house.

"What was in the letter Alex?" He sighed.

"He said to leave town. That since he was gone, Vince would come after me. I knew he was right so I left. I didn't keep in touch because it was too hard. It also said something else, that he was really sick. He had gone to see a doctor when Vince beat the shit out of him one day and the doctor found out he had cancer. He was dying anyways Skye."

Skylar was on the verge of crying, but she couldn't, especially not in front of Alex. He saw her glassy eyes, brimmed with tears and he wrapped his arms around her, engulfing her in a hug. She breathed in his scent, and let a tear fall. They stayed like that for a long time; Skylar crying silently and softly in Alex's arms. He would stroke her hair and rub her back. Eventually she stopped crying and just relaxed in his arms. She closed her eyes and sniffled, wiping her eyes.

"Why did you come back?" She felt him stiffen in their embrace and he let go.

"I knew he was coming back. He called me to say he was going to be in town to collect his debt from us. Thats when i realized he didn't know about Cody and that he might try something with you. I came back to protect you."

She embraced him again, and whispered a "Thank you" in his ear. She kissed his cheek and stood up. It was way past midnight, and it was freezing outside. Alex stood up with her, and they went back inside, where everyone was passed out from exhaustion and drinking. Skylar went into the bedroom she usually stayed in when she slept at Lacey's. Alex followed her, and sat in the chair next to the bed, while Lacey climbed under the covers. He kissed her on the forehead, and whispered a goodnight. She grabbed his wrist and told him to stay. He climbed in next to her, facing her, and smiled. He shut off the bedside lamp and darkness washed over them. there was an exchange of words before they both drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

"I missed you Alex, I missed my best friend. Don't ever leave me again." He chuckled.

"I missed you too Skye. I won't leave you again. I'll be right here." She smiled even though he couldn't see it.

"Always?"

"Always."