Change of Heart

Chapter 28

"W-what are you doing here?" Stuttering, I stepped back. Why is he here?

Nikolas gave a barbaric smile. "I came to see you." Is he some kind of stalker now? I backed up again, but he only got closer.

"Stay away from me.." Holding out my hands in front of me, he took a hold of them and pulled me closer to him. "Let me go! I already told you-"

"I don't care what you told me." Nikolas cut me off and pushed my arms behind my back still holding them in place. I was blocked between his arms. "There's no way I can leave you in the hands of someone else." This guy is crazy...I can't understand him. Putting us chest to chest, he placed his lips against mine again. I tried pushing away, but he held the back of my head pushing it up against his.

Before I could bring my arm up, he was quickly pulled away from me followed by an immediate punch in the face. Nikolas fell down to the ground, groaning. Looking back up, Alex had his fists clenched his eyes filled with rage. "Who the hell are you, and why are you harassing my girlfriend?" The inside of my stomach fluttered and I ran behind Alex.

Standing to his feet, Nikolas let out a small laugh. "I wasn't harassing her, I just kissed her."

"If you think this is some kind of joke," Alex grabbed him by his shirt collar holding him up to his face. "you are sorely mistaken!" He threw him back to the ground and took a hold of my hand. "Let's go."

Following Alex, I nodded. Taking one last look back, Nikolas stood to his feet brushing the dirt off his clothes. I faced forward again. I'd rather not take the chance of our eyes meeting. As nice as that guy seemed, he's turning out to be a real creep.

**

After we were off school grounds, Alex stopped turning around. "Who was that?" His eyes still read anger, but this time they were looking straight at me.

"He's the one from yesterday...I don't know him other than the fact his name is Nikolas." I stopped for a second, reverting my eyes. "I don't know why, but I have a feeling that he may be stalking me."

Alex's silence gave me discomfort. As always, I could never tell what he was thinking. I don't know why he's blaming me for even making contact, or blaming him for just coming after me in the first place. I looked back up, and his eyes narrowed. "What is it?"

He shook his head. "It's nothing...I'm just pissed." Oh. "Come on, we should get back before that creep tries to follow us." I guess it wouldn't matter seeing as how he knows where we live. Though I should tell him, I think it's best if I didn't tell him...at least, not right now.

**

I followed Alex up the walkway to the front door. As we walked inside, I could just see Alex's rage grow immensely. The inside was trashed, pictures knocked down, dirt all over the floor. The cushions on the couch were torn to shreds, and the wall was burned in several places. Even the TV was busted. Right now, I didn't even want to be here to see him blow up.

Alek's voice sounded from the other room. Since when did he get here? Don't tell me... "Man, that didn't turn out how-" He stopped when he walked out and faced us. His face instantly went pale. "Uhh...hey, bro..."

"What the hell did you do to my place?!" And Alex exploded. Standing behind him, I couldn't even imagine what his face looked like right now, but Alek seems pretty worried.

Alek held up his hands in surrender. "Look, it's a long story, but I just want you to know-"

"Don't bother, I don't want to hear it, just clean this damn mess up!" Alex stormed past him even angrier then before. His door was slammed shut, and everything went dead silent.

I pushed my lips together when Alek looked at me. "What's up with him?" Scratching the back of his neck, he moved forward. "He seems to be more on edge than usual."

"It's nothing big...just some trouble at school happened. I'm sure it'll blow over soon." I set my bag down by the door. I figured I shouldn't tell Alek about this, it really wasn't that big of a deal anyways, was it? "Anyways, what brings you here? Not saying it's bad that you're here, but..."

He laughed waving his hand back and forth. "It's fine, I understand. It was pretty random of me to just drop by. Anyways, Jura was the one who came here."

"Jura?" That's the name of his dragon. "Why did he come here?"

"Beats me." Alek shrugged. "I followed him here, though since I arrived after him, the place was already in shambles. Well, in any case, I should start cleaning this mess up."

"I'll help." I offered. "But first, I'm going to talk to Alex."

He nodded as he smile. Walking up to Alex's door, I hesitated to knock, but my knuckles made contact making a small clanking noise. "Alex?" My voice was soft, but a little louder than a whisper. He had no reply, and I called his name again. "Alex, are you-"

The door swung open with Alex standing in the doorway. "What is it?" His voice was deep and stern. I've never seen him so irritated.

"I wanted to see if you were alright, I mean you didn't say a word the whole way here, so-"

"I'm fine. Just leave me alone for now, I'm going to take a nap." Alex shut the door on my face leaving me standing there like an idiot. Well, looks like he won't be coming around anytime soon. I let out an upsetting sigh and walked back into the living room.

The floor had been swept and cleaned up. Alek was working on fixing the TV, but the screen was shattered so I'm not sure how effective that would be. But still, he cleaned up the floor so fast, I wasn't even gone longer than three minutes.

Looking up, Alek slanted his lips. "No luck, huh?" I shook my head and walked over to help. "Don't worry, he'll eventually get over whatever it is. He used to be the same way when we were kids."

"I see." Mumbling to myself, I tried imaging Alex as a kid the same way now, strong on the outside yet weak on the inside, not allowing anyone else to see. But Alek, being so close to him, I bet it was easy for him to see the truth, what Alex really felt all those times.

My head was lifted up. My eyes met Alek's. They weren't anything like a demon's eyes, so filled with happiness and hope. It may just be for the sake of his own brother. "Don't let it get to you. Come on, let's get this place cleaned up for him, I'm sure he'll be back to his old self in no time." He grinned turning away. Sometimes it's hard to believe he's even a demon, even more than Alex. Then again, from what I've heard Alek was the more high spirited and positive of the two.

Shaking my head, I couldn't think about this right now. It would only get me even more distracted. Putting on a smile, I asked. "So, where should I start?"