Hallelujah

chapter twenty-one

                  

Alexandria's POV

Brendon pulled the car into an empty lot on a side street and we both got out. He grabbed his backpack from the back seat and grabbed my hand again. Something about him grabbing my hand and dragging me through the city of Las Vegas gave me a feeling of thrill.

We were running now, I wasn't sure why but we were and I wasn't going to complain, we were running through a small bunch of trees until we reached a water tower. Brendon stopped and let go of my hand.

"Watch this," he said. He started climbing up the ladder on the side and I watched him intently. He was about ¼ of the way up when he looked down at me. "Are you coming?" he said grinning, his teeth sparkling against the moonlight. I nodded and grabbed on to the first bar of the ladder and climbed. I was never a fan of heights but I knew that this was different. I wasn't going to be scared of this. This is a new kind of height, a kind I wasn't going to be afraid of.

We reached the top which had a railing around it causing it to look almost like a balcony. I looked at him amazed at how we just climbed that and the view of the trees we had.

"No, Alex look that way," he said point to his left. I turned my head and realized that we were overlooking the entire city of Las Vegas.

"Oh my god," I sighed.

"Isn't it something," he said coming next to me and leaning against the railing.

"It's so," I said, "I don't even know."

"Funny, that's the same thing I said when I met you," he said smiling. He sat his back pack down and started pulling stuff out.

He had two blankets, a couple cans of diet coke, a radio and a camera.

We sat there just overlooking the city for a really long time. It was so much to take in. It was like I didn't know what I was missing; I didn't know that there was this whole other world outside of Summerville. I had never even thought about leaving town, I just assumed I would be there my whole life. I was missing so much, and I don't know if I could believe that Brendon was the reason I was actually starting to feel alive for once.

"You know, it's really magical to watch you take this all in," he said quietly.

"What?" I asked.

"Your eyes, they really light up, it's so amazing to watch you just sitting there realizing that you were missing so much that you didn't even know you were missing. I mean it's sad you have been missing this all these years but boy am I glad that I'm the one sharing this moment with you," he said. I looked at him and I smiled.

"Thank you," I said pulling him into a hug.

"For what?" he asked laughing. I pulled out of our hug and looked up at him.

"For making me feel alive," I sighed. He just smiled and planted a light kiss on my lips.

"So Alexandria, tell me about yourself," he said sitting down. I sat down next to him and laughed.

"You already know me."

"No, tell me about you," he said. "Who are you?"

"Um, I'm Alexandria White," I started but he cut me off.

"Hold on can we start there?" he asked.

"Where?"

"Alexandria. Why Alexandria?" he said. I was dreading this conversation but I knew it was coming.

"Um, well. Okay, so about three years ago my mom and dad started to fight a lot, stupid marriage things you know. My dad and I had a really good relationship before that, and during that I guess. My dad always called me Alex, he would tell me Alexandria was too proper and it was going to get me nowhere. He said that Alex was a name that was full of mystery, full of adventure, and thrills. I agreed so I made him call me Alex but my mom hated it. She stuck with Alexandria because she didn't want me to become like my dad. That's when everything went downhill I guess, they fought every night, I tried to block it out but I couldn't. Eventually my dad started to not be home as often, he would be gone for three or four days at a time, we didn't know where he was. One day my mom came and told me that he had decided he was going to marry someone else and have kids with them. I was so angry at him, I felt like it wasn't fair that I wasn't enough for him, I was a really good kid but apparently not good enough for him. He got up and left one day and never came back. Up until last year I would wait by the phone on my birthday and hope to god that he would call, but he never did. That's when I realized that Alex just didn't fit me, I wasn't an Alex. I was an Alexandria, I didn't want to be but I was."

"Wow," he said, "I know it means nothing coming from me but I think you are one of the greatest things ever to be created. No matter what your name is and no matter what you do. One thing I will say though is that when I first met you, Alexandria fit you so well, but as we became closer I've realized something about you," he said trailing off.

"What?" I asked curious as to what he was getting at.

"When I saw you after I appeared in the window, or when you jumped out of the tree, when we were running to my car, when I held your hand, while you were hanging your head out the window, when you saw the lights, the city, when you climbed up here, when you kiss me, those times, those are real Alex moments. Those aren't Alexandria moments, those are the moments where I look at you and go "holy shit, look at Alex she is literally the most amazing piece of artwork ever to exists, and she's living." Your Alex comes out in the moments where you actually are living," he said.

"You bring out my inner Alex. That's what I'm scared of most. The only other person to do that was my dad," I said, "you're just like him." I looked down as I played with my hands and Brendon pulled me close to him.

"I'm not your dad. I'm Brendon Urie, I'm not here to fuck up your life, and I'm just here to give you some excitement. I'm here to live and I'm here to live with you," he said.

The moment that I sat up on that water tower in the middle of Las Vegas with Brendon Urie was the safest thing I had felt.

We were alone while also being surrounded by everyone else. We were in the dark on one side and in the city of lights on the other. This was the thing you see in movies, this was the stuff I've read in books, this happens in dreams and fantasies but somehow I managed to meet the one person who would upstage any book I've read, any movie I've seen and any dreams I had.

"Stand up," Brendon said shaking me out of his grip. I looked at him confused and he just laughed. I stood up and looked at him, he pulled out the camera he had brought and snapped a picture of me as I looked over the city. The Polaroid camera printed out the photo and he shook it a bit as the photo came into view I was seeing what Brendon was seeing all night, a girl who was really enjoying life for the first time.

I snatched the camera from his hands and kissed him but made sure I snapped a picture of it too. It printed and I waited for it to focus. I smiled so hard when I saw the difference between me and Brendon.

Brendon a boy who wore snap backs and the same stupid grey hoodie, he wore black skinny jeans everyday although sometimes he would wear his leather pants, I hate those too. I was convinced he had one pair of shoes because he always wore these beat up all black vans and they actually looked like they were dying.

Me a girl who wore a flowy white shirt that hung a small amount off my shoulder, the gold cross necklace hanging around my neck, the grey joggers, my blonde hair in a bun, my all white converse.

We were just two extreme opposites who were falling in love in front of the city of Las Vegas.