The Darling Boys (Rose Award Winner) (#Wattys2017)

Through The Glass

"Nah. I'd much rather go in a sweatshirt and pants." He laughed, taking my free hand.

"Okay, kids. Mom wanted me to get pictures." After about a half hour of Samson taking multiple photos of us, he allowed us to leave with a dark look at Robbie as he whispered something to him.

It wasn't until we were in the car that I felt the silence starting to get to me.

"Are your brothers going to be there?" I asked.

"Yeah. I think Alex will be too." I nodded, forcing myself to smile a little.

"Cool." I mumbled.

"What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy tonight." He sent me a worried glance, his hand clenching the wheel a little too tightly.

"It's nothing, Robbie. I've just got a lot on my mind. College, my birthday, my mom, Alan. Everything just likes to stick around in here." I knocked on my head jokingly, cracking a smile.

"You know I'm always here if you need to talk, right?" He reached over and squeezed my hand. I stared at our hands interlocked for a second, then looked back up at him.

"Yeah, Robbie, I know."

*

After dancing for a while, Robbie decided to talk to a few of his friends. I headed back toward a table, feeling the need to take these heels off and throw them against the wall. My feet were killing me.

"Are you mad?" I jumped at Alex's sudden question, my legs slamming into the table and nearly knocking over my punch.

"Hmm?"

"Are you mad that Robert is with his mates instead of you?" Alex questioned again, kicking his feet up on to another chair.

It was odd seeing him all cleaned up, and he actually looked pretty good. His dirty blonde hair had been slicked back, causing his striking green eyes to pop against his ashen skin.

He looked like someone out of a James Bond movie.

"Not at all." I responded, shrugging, "I like that he's with them. Gives me time to rest my feet." I swear that a hint of a smile was starting to sneak onto Alex's face.

"Not a dancer, I take it?"

"Actually, I took ballroom dance and ballet for almost five years when I was younger." I replied, "I just hated it."

"I love it." He stood up and outstretched his hand, causing me to stare at his hand as if it were poisonous.

"Show me how well you can dance, Sienna Hall." I grasped his hand and let him lead me back toward the floor. I could see Robbie and Eliott turning to look at us out of the corner of my eyes.

"You're not too bad." I commented, letting him spin me around with a small laugh.

"Why are you being nice to me?" I asked after a second, stepping a little closer, "I thought you wanted to keep me away from Robbie."

"It's obviously no use." He answered, spinning me around again, "My boys like you, and the more I push you away, the more they'll want to go running to you. It's only a matter of time before I'm gone, I thought that I might as well just let everything be until then." He said it so nonchalantly, so softly, that it was hard to believe the reality of the words.

"W. . . what about Neverland?" I whispered, "I mean, if you're really Peter Pan and not some psychopath, then why can't you go back there. Then you'll never have to age-"

"Little girl, there's so much you don't know." Alex reached up and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear, his hand brushing against my cheek, "There is no Neverland. That is nothing but a tale made up from those I've met on my travels around the world." I blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean? How-"

"Neverland is all around us, in the air we breath. What makes me immortal, what made my boys immortal, was the thought of never having to grow up. There's magic in this world, far beyond anything we see. We just have to be willing to be able to see it." He shut his eyes.

"The pact was the only thing keeping them, the boys, from growing up. I've been around for years, Sienna. I've see it all. But never have I met someone that reminded me so much of Wendy." He laughed quietly.

"She was like you, you know. She had the same problems at home, with her brothers. And when she married him, that monster, I knew that I had to watch out for her boys. The only way to do that was to pretend. After all, isn't that what humans are good at?" I pulled back, staring at him blankly.

"What happened to her? If the boys-"

"The War happened, Sienna. The wars didn't protect anyone. She knew that her boys would be better off with me here, in America. All I could do was promise her that I'd protect them, that I wouldn't ever let them get hurt." He sighed "But I suppose keeping Robert from you was hurting him."

I opened my mouth to say something else, but Alex had turned on his heels and walked out. It wasn't until I felt Robbie's hand on my shoulder that I realized why.

"Are you okay? What did he say?" Robbie touched my cheek, as if he were afraid Alex had hurt me somehow.

I only stared at the open door he had walked out of, my heart clenching a little.

I had believed my life was terrible, that it couldn't get any worse. But it had to be pure torture to live for over a hundred years regretting, wishing, imagining what could have been.

***AN***

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~ChasingMadness24