The Alex Effect // Alex Walter

𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒙 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔

WHEN HEATHER WOKE UP her head was no longer leaned against the window, it was leaned against Alex's shoulder and her arms was wrapped around his holding onto the soft fabric as her crossed legs leaned and touched his.

Her eyes blinked open pushing away from the boy quickly her head spinning as she tried to wake herself up. She soon followed the boy out of the van and into the house immediately bumping into Kathryn.

"Heather!" The woman shouted excitedly rushing over to her, "it's been ages, how are you."

"I'm good, how about you?"

"As good as I can be with all these boys running around. What's brought you back?"

"Alex is my school appointed tutor. I'm not doing so well in a few classes." She didn't want her to know how badly she really was doing. Kathryn had always been like a second mother and she hated to disappoint her.

"So you'll be around more?"

"Seems like it."

"That's great! And don't be shy, you've always treated this place like a second home don't stop now. Why don't you stay for dinner? George or
One of the boys can drive you home later."

"Sounds great, thanks Kathryn."

"Of course."

Heather stepped out of the kitchen grabbing her bag and heading to Alex's room. The stairs creaked and toys were strewn everywhere. It was all the same. The people, the house, the energy. The only thing that was different was her.

When she walked into Alex's room he was seated in his desk chair, notebook and pen already out.

"Can I see your tests so I know what needs to be worked on?"

Heather hesitated but grabbed the crumbled sheets out and handed them to him, stepping back and biting her nails as she watched him look it over.

"I know you know this stuff. You're so smart, you're just not keeping up with the material."

How do you tell someone that you can't do your homework because at night you're taking care of your drugged up mother, her boyfriend and making sure your siblings have their homework done, are fed dinner, and ready for bed? How do you tell someone that homework is the last thing on your list of things to do?

"I'm not as smart as I used to be."

Another reason Heather stopped caring about school was her boyfriend. Ben always seemed to make her feel bad about herself, like she really was dumb and that the questions she asked or words she said was wrong and that she should just stay quiet—so, that's what she did.

"I don't think that's true." Alex looked up at her and she quickly looked away not wanting to meet his eyes. "I say we do English and History on Mondays, Science and Math on Wednesdays, and Spanish on Fridays. Sound okay?"

"Yeah. Works out perfectly."

"Okay, I heard you said your staying for dinner tonight, what did you plan on doing until then?"

"Not sure. Probably go on my phone and call out my boyfriend and little miss whore." Heather said flopping backwards onto Alex's bed.

The boy was soon to follow laying next to her but making sure there was a space between. "Why do you stay with him?" Alex questioned.

"What?"

"I just mean every time I see the two of you together you look sad — or mad, and you never really look happy with him."

"He's good to me."

"He cheats on you."

"It's complicated Alex, you wouldn't understand."

"Why because I haven't been in a relationship for longer than a week? Just because I lack experience doesn't mean I don't understand the difference between healthy and toxic."

"It's not that. You just don't know who I am anymore but Ben does and even though he does shitty things he does some pretty great things for me too. Things that I need. Okay?"

"I don't understand."

"Like I said it's complicated." Heather stood up, "I'm going to change real quick."

She ran out of the room and into the bathroom, changing out of her cheer uniform into the day clothes she had in her bag consisting of black leggings, a grey tight fit cropped top and a blue zip up sweater. She then made her way back out and into Alex's room finding him still laying on his bed staring at the roof.

"Why not we just do homework until dinner?" Heather asked and Alex stayed silent only nodding as he made his way to his desk and she sat on his bed both teenagers grabbing out books and pens hoping that the work they both had would last until dinner was called.