Alexa. (#1)

(16)

"Why?" he says. I look at him; confused.

"Why what?" I say, chuckling.

"Why did you cancel the bet?" he says, his eyes had curiosity swimming through them and I sighed.

"I will tell you if you tell me what happened to you yesterday." Lie, I am not gonna tell him, I am gonna lie.

"Fine." He says, smiling. He rests his back to the chair and sighs.

"Well, since you ended the bet, I have returned to fighting. So, yesterday I won a fight against one of my biggest opponents, and he ordered his men to beat me up and take the money, which I managed to save the 400 dollars from. Yeah, not so interesting." He says in a monotone.

"Why did you ever start this?" I say. He sighs loudly and looks down, fiddling with his fingers. Uh oh, this is not good.

"Well, not all people are open books like you are, Sunshine." He says. I mentally laugh. Me? An open book? You sure? "But if you really wanna know, I will tell you, but you have to swear that you won't say anything to anyone." He says and I nod frantically, worry seeping through me as he sighs heavily and looks down.

"When I was young, probably 11 or 12, I had this stupid argument with mom, and I ran away for the night. I was walking in a dark alley when a man came up to me and he tried to rob me and he actually harassed me. I remember I kept crying a lot and then out of nowhere, Jackson, the boss there, came and saved me. In return I have to serve him in fighting for 6 years, which will end after a few months; 3 to be exact, when I reach 19 years old. I am not doing it for money or anything if you thought that. But if I return the 5,000$ then I will leave them." He said, not looking at me. My eyes widen as I hear this. What? Noah? All of this? He looks at me and smiles humorlessly. I gulp as I realize the situation I am then use all of my force to swing my legs over the bed and stand up slowly on my wobbly legs, walking over to him. I put my arms around him and pull him into a much needed hug as he hugs me back, sinking his face into my stomach as I wrap my arms around his head.

I pull away slowly looking at his miserable face; he looked like he was sad and angry in the same time.

"Are you okay?" I whisper slowly. He looks at me and nods, smiling lightly. "I am so sorry this happened to you, Noah." I add but he shakes his head lightly.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." He says, shrugging a bit.

It was right then when realization dawned me. I carry Noah's fate with me by offering him the money.

Shit.

"Now, do your end of the deal." He adds.

"What end?" I say, trailing off.

"Why are you doing this bet?" He says, curiosity replacing the sadness. My eyebrows lift up as I try to feign innocence.

"I told you before, I wanted to do something new." I say as I sit down on the edge of the bed. He looks at me not believing a word I said.

"Am I stupid, Lex?" He says, chuckling. "I know something's wrong, so, what is it?"

I start looking all around the room, trying to see anything that would help me make up an excuse. Then, my eyes fall on m my calendar and I see that my birthday is July 19th, the last day in the 4 weeks of the bet.

Cue light bulb.

"It's because of my birthday." I say immediately. He looks kinda surprised.

"Your birthday? What day is it?"

"July 19th." I say.

"That's after 3 weeks." He states and I nod. This is the first time I realized I might die on my birthday. I quickly shake the thought out of my mind as I smile at him. He grins but it disappears as fast as it appeared.

"But, why did you cancel it?" He asks.

Why the hell is he so nosey?

"Mom wasn't approving of it." I say quickly. He nods and I sigh as well.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" He says, with a nervous look on his face.

Oh, is the big bad wolf nervous?

"What're we gonna do in what?" I say.

"In the bet." He says.

Uh oh.

What should I do?

Should I?

I take in a deep breath.

"Well, you haven't told me what the next mission will be. So, what do you think?" I say, smirking. Noah grins as he nods.

"Well, that's for me to know and for you to find out, Sunshine." He says.

But remember, Alexa, this will end in one way where you hurt them all. My conscious hisses at me.

I smile as I pull him into a hug.

Shut up, conscious, we'll be fine.

I really hope he'll be fine.