Nefarious

C1 - He's back

(A great deal of this story was written years ago, and I haven't been able to edit it yet. Please pardon the grammar mistakes, lack of variety and possible bad formulations as for now. I will likely rewrite it sometime in the future.)

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My lover Alex was going to stay the night at my house, so I spent hours cleaning. I was well aware of him being a remarkably tidy person. Nevertheless, I didn't clean to impress him. I mainly cleaned so that he wouldn't inhale all the dust in my house.

The last time he came over was about a month ago, if I remember it correctly, that is. However, I will have to cope with my curiosity as to why he's been gone for so long. Whenever I've asked him why he hasn't come over, he has always answered the same; I'm having some family issues. I've never been to his place, but it couldn't possibly be that bad, could it? Of course, I tried calling him several times at the start of the month, but he didn't pick up once. As he wasn't a fan of answering, I left my phone unused the whole month.

Truthfully, when excluding Alex, there's not much to brag about regarding my social life. At this age I had no friends left, neither would I dare to get any as I've always been somewhat socially awkward. For five years all I'd done was to be around Alex, and I'd grown used to it, which I was okay with, to be frank. Friends haven't been an issue in the past, but after all of his recent behaviour and absence, I started feeling the loneliness creeping in on me. With time to think, I couldn't do much other than to hope this sudden absence of his wasn't because of me.

The doorbell to my house rang some minutes after I had finished cleaning the living room. I brushed the dirt off of my hands to my jeans before I opened the door, completely ignoring the fact that I'd just cleaned those damn jeans.

"Alex!" I greeted him, a smile appearing on my face. He remained quiet but returned the smile. I hugged him like I regularly do whenever he decides to come over, though it was brief. "Are you okay?" I asked, frowning slightly. "Can we go inside?" he asked, ignoring my question. His face looked somewhat tense, but it frequently was once he'd been gone for a while.

After giving him an approving nod, he entered my newly cleaned house. "I see you've been cleaning," he said as he eyed the living room. "Today actually," I answered, still smiling. "Right, anyhow," he said softly. He cleared his throat, turning around so that he faced me. "Huh?" I responded swiftly. "I know I've always been the one to come to your place and all that-" he started. I brought my hands together, curious of what would come next, hoping it would be something positive this time around. "So, I was thinking I should invite you over to my house this month," he said, finally making eye contact. "Are you being for real?" I questioned, feeling a small gasp escaping my mouth. He nodded twice, this time smiling warmly. "I would love to," I grinned.

Alex's dark blonde hair lightly brushed against my face. His hair was getting longer, though, not too long. He typically styled his hair neatly, however, I'd developed a preference for his messy hair. Once he distanced himself a bit, I could see the hint of green peeking through his deep brown eyes. My blue eyes were nothing exceptional, but Alex seemed to admire them nevertheless. In my opinion, he was just as handsome now as he was five years ago, though moderately more mature. Unfortunately, his maturity had gotten in my way several times though as he's also considerably cautious. Also, he has a tendency to get rather moody at times. Admittedly though, we have that tendency in common.

"You don't need to meet my family if you don't want to," he mumbled. For some reason, he avoided the eye contact I was desperately trying to achieve. "What are you talking about? Of course, I would want to meet your family, Alex," I answered confusedly, frowning at him. He fiddled with his fingers before letting out a weak sigh. "You don't know them, it's easy for you to say such." "Right, yeah, but they created you and raised you, they can't possibly be that bad?" I argued. He suddenly sat up and returned the eye contact. Although I couldn't quite read his facial expression, I knew for sure that he wasn't happy. "You have no clue, Valerie." I glanced back at him, but it didn't last for long. "You should know after five years, but you don't," he continued, moving closer to me, really close. "Alex, what are you doing?" I asked hesitatingly. "Just forget what I said, will you?" he half-whispered. "Okay, yeah, sure," I stuttered.

Something had changed about Alex, he was most definitely different now. Last night turned out as expected for the most part, but Alex's behaviour came as a surprise. The things he said were so absurd, and confusing, to say the least. I'd never heard him speak of his family before, especially not directly like he did last night. His voice had a change of tone, and he nearly sounded angered whenever I answered him as though he didn't actually want an answer.

"Valerie?" Alex called loudly. "Yeah?" I groaned. I hadn't done anything remotely productive, and it had been an awfully quiet morning. It sure seemed like it would be a peaceful day, but as I ran down the stairs, I quickly figured I was wrong.

I entered the kitchen only to find Alex facing me with a book in his hand. "How did you get this?" he asked quickly. "I've never seen that book before," I stammered. "Don't play stupid," he scoffed, placing the book on the kitchen counter. "What are you on about?" I asked confusedly. "Do you expect me to believe that the book got here by itself?" he asked sceptically. "This is ridiculous!" I sighed in frustration. He raised his eyebrows before shaking his head in disappointment. "Yeah, lying is quite ridiculous." "I'm not lying," I argued, crossing my arms. He rolled his eyes at me as he exhaled sharply. "Why won't you believe me, Alex?" I asked him. "Because this book could get you into the greatest trouble you've ever been in. It is exceedingly serious, Valerie."