Scarred Beauty [Completed]

Chapter Eight

Olivia Hernandez

It was silent during our walk home. We were walking because Kevin ran after Jen when she bolted down the street, leaving us in the dust. I couldn't help but remember the faint pain in her eyes when she glanced at me for a second. He hurt her before. And she doesn't want to give out a second chance. My lips thinned into a line. Yet, she looked so.. weak. As if she wanted to be with him again. It was tempting to get another chance at their story.

"He really loves her, huh?" I whispered quietly, sneaking a small glance at Alex.

He was looking at the ground as we crossed the street, ignoring me. Alex smiled, but it seemed empty. "Yeah... he really does. Pretty much will do anything just to be with her."

"Love makes people go crazy sometimes," I mumbled unconsciously. I don't know why I said it, but it was true. "Sometimes, we wonder why love is so real, yet so.. betraying..." Alex's eyes bared a short glance at me as I stared up at the sky. "I might only be a teenager, but I can love someone. I don't like what people say about that. To me, love has no bounds."

"Yeah... no bounds.." Alex whispered to himself, and I barely heard him.

Nudging with my shoulder, he looked at me. I tilted my head a little. "Why do you seem so down?"

"It's nothing," he responded quickly.

"Of course it's something," I argued, hopping over a branch on the ground. Did his brother's relationship affect his mood? "You seem way too down to be Alex." I held the strap of my backpack and said, "So, tell me. What did you do with Alex, and where is he?" Alex snorted out a short laugh, making me smile lightly. "See? All you need is a small push to smile!"

The smile on his face kept me content for a while. After a few moments of his laughing fit, he asked, "How can you be so enthusiastic after all of the things your dad did to you?"

I began to think of an answer. Alex's question was actually pretty great since I had to think about it. Why was I so enthusiastic now..? Turning to look at him, I responded, "I've never smiled before. Well, at least not until we met at the graveyard."

"Now that I think of it," he began, laughing nervously, "that's a shitty place to first meet someone."

"Well, I wouldn't say it is. It's kind of.. meaningful," I replied. "That place is full of memories. Loved ones. It's also the last place you see someone. Like my mother. I remember seeing her body being put in the coffin, and they buried her with great grief. But she was buried next to her brothers, so she must've gotten the sense of the people she loved."

Alex nodded, "True."

"Onto more important things, I wonder what being in love feels like, ya know?" I questioned. I ran toward the park, climbing up the hill. Alex followed after me. I wandered around until I found a boulder to sit on. "I bet it's magical... like jumping off a cliff and bouncing off a trampoline all while staying alive!"

Alex sat up on the boulder beside me. I felt him grab one of my hands in his own. "You have quite the imagination," he commented, grinning. I laughed a little. "But yeah, I bet being in love is probably just like that."

"I want to be in love one day," I said boldly, smiling as I looked up at the sky. "And maybe then I'll feel my heart pounding against my chest, running a marathon. Just like they say in the books..."

"Books are the unsaid words of our hearts," Alex murmured. I glanced at him, my chest feeling light at his words. "We just need to find the right book to read before we can determine our true selves."