Chain Link

Chapter 18

 Alessa's closed eyes and slow breathing were a great sight to behold.

She was finally sleeping.

Her head was resting on his shoulder. He had been watching a movie but he had turned it off when her head had moved to his shoulder unconsciously. Instead he chose to stroke her hair a couple of times until she had drifted into sleep.

It was a sleep that she was desperately needed.

The last couple of nights in the Orellana household had been stressful for Alessa so that she didn't sleep through one night.

He had his suspicions as to why she hadn't been able to sleep, but she hadn't talked about it. There hadn't been much time to talk.

The only way he had been able to support her was through physical gestures.

Alessa was happy that she had met her parents and her little brother. He was absolutely sure of that, but he was also sure that she had felt immensely uncomfortable there.

He wasn't sure why but he had his suspicions. Although her parents had been lovely to both of them, there was this constant awkwardness hanging in the air like two strangers trying to start a conversation.

Because that was what they were.

They were strangers.

Of course they knew them better now and they seemed like great people. They were the best parents that somebody could have. It was shown through the way that they treated Paolo. Paolo was one hell of lucky guy.

But they were still strangers.

And perhaps although Alessa had not admitted it to him in the few moments of alone time that they had, she was jealous.

Could anyone blame her for that?

She had grown up with fucking asses as parents while she could have raised among these amazing people. They were amazing and nice. Alessa certainly had gotten some of their characteristics.

But that was beside the point.

She didn't have a youth as nice as Paolo and it must have sucked to have seen that. At least he assumed that it would have sucked because he was already jealous of black curly haired cutie.

Paolo was immensely cute.

It was a good trip but a slightly weird one too.

So he was happy that Alessa was getting some sleep now. It was just unfortunate that they would be arriving in Houston in less than two hours.

Logan fell asleep a half hour later.

They both woken up by the announcements a couple of moments later.

The rest of the journey neither got any more sleep but they did spend it most of the time curled up next to each other while they tried to get some sleep. They never succeeded. The way back was filled with turbulence.

Logan decided that he hated turbulence.

Alessa looked like she didn't mind, but the tight grip that she had on his arm told him that she was acting cooler than she looked.

When they arrived in Austin, they managed to get out of the airport in twenty minutes. Logan drove the way back.

"I'm so excited to see Nic again," Alessa said once they were only two minutes away from Alessa's apartment complex which was where both Nic and Dan were staying.

"And not Dan?"

Alessa turned to give him a glare that was ruined by the smile on her face. "You know what I mean. Didn't you miss your brother?"