Incomplete

Chapter 34, Lacey

"Who? Georgi just left."

"Yeah it's a, um, friend from school!" I shout and exit the café. Alex is already standing outside waiting for me. I just hope my dad doesn't see him...

"Hi," I greet him with a smile. He's wearing some jeans and a black t-shirt. His hair is messy and now that I look closer I notice that he has black rings under his eyes. He actually looks pretty messed up.

"Are you ok?" I ask concerned. He sighs and drags a hand through his hair.

"Actually I wanted to apologize" he says.

"For what?" I furrow my eyebrows. His words surprise me.

"Kissing you, on the golf field," he explains. I widen my eyes, my cheeks burning.

"Oh." I begin. How do you answer that? "It's okay. You don't really have to apologize for it," I say mumbling the end of my sentence. Why did he want to apologize?

"So we're okay?" he asks. He looks pretty tired.

"Yeah we're okay," I assure him.

"Good." He seems relieved.

"Are you sure that you're ok?"

He gulps and looks down at the ground.

"I'm fine."

I nod, not really convinced. "Okay if you say so."

We stand there not saying anything to each other for a minute. I except him to leave but he doesn't.

"Do you wanna go somewhere?" I ask trying to ease the tension between us.

"How about we go and eat that sushi?"

I feel a smile growing on my face. "Yeah sure. But be prepared, you're gonna love it," I say and begin walking to my car. Alex follows me and we enter it.

"And I know the perfect place," I add before driving off.

~

After a few minutes we arrive at my favourite sushi restaurant. It's a buffet and a pretty small place. We go inside and pay for the food. I show him some of my favorite sushi types and we end up filling our plates.

"Okay do you know how to eat with chopsticks?" I ask him as we settle down at our table. Alex just looks confused and shakes his head.

"Okay, I'll teach you then," I say. I try to show him how to do it but it seems to be harder than I thought it would be.

"Just hold them like this," I say and show him with mine. He struggles with his own and I laugh at his poor attempt.

"Let me show you," I say. I take his hand and try to position his fingers the right way. I glance up at him and see that he has a concentrated expression on his face. My cheeks heat up as soon as I realise what I'm doing and I lean back in my seat.

"Try it now," I suggest when it looks like he's holding them the right way. He does what I say and finally succeeds in picking up a sushi roll.

"Good! Now you know how to do it," I smile at him. He gives me a small smile in return and eats his piece of sushi. He grabs a few more and I taste some of mine. They're delicious.

Suddenly his eyes begin to water.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I ask concerned again. He seems to have lost his appetite and drops the chopsticks on the table.

"I'm a mess," he answers uncomfortably. He wipes his eyes with his sleeve and takes a deep breath.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask carefully. Alex is usually like a closed book. I don't want to pressure him but he seems so upset.

"My life's a disaster and my father is considering sending me to boarding school," he responds.

I furrow my eyebrows,"Why would he do that?"

"Because I drink too much and did some drugs last night."

"You did drugs? Why?" I ask with a shocked tone. I know it's not actually uncommon, but somehow him doing it seems weird.

"I just wanted to forget about everything my crappy life includes," he explains with a sigh.

I nod my head in response since I don't really know what to answer. I feel really bad for him but I also don't want to say the wrong thing. We keep eating in silence. I try to come up with something to talk about but considering what we just discussed I can't think of anything that seems fitting.

"2016, a night in december our house started burning," he says, looking down at the table. I put my hand over my mouth in shock. His blue eyes look like they're in so much pain. "I was in the house with Max, babysitting my little sister. Jonathan and my parents were at the movies."

His sister?

"She was eleven so we didn't feel the need to be by her side all the time. We told her to go up to her room and then we started drinking. We were kind of new to alcohol so we couldn't handle it at all." he explains. His face looks so guilty and sad. It's as if telling me this is physically hurting him.

"I can't even remember how the fire started, I was that wasted. The only thing I remember clearly is Amy screaming and me trying to get to her." Alex is full on crying right now. I feel tears welling up in my eyes as well.

"The staircase was completely in flames. It was impossible to reach her from inside so I got outside as fast as I could and threw a stone on her bedroom window. That's when I got the scar on my right cheek, from a piece of glass. But I couldn't get to her from there either. The window was too high up and I was drunk."

He tries to calm himself down by controlling his breathing. He sighs deeply before continuing. "If only I wouldn't have drunk that day. Amy would still maybe... be alive.

My mother couldn't handle it and left us as you know. I became a closed book and a huge idiot. I haven't said Amy's name since until this day." He drags his hands through his hair and over his face to wipe away his tears. He looks completely devastated.

I'm shocked by his past, and that he's telling me about it. I could've never imagined that he's been through something this horrible.

"I'm so sorry," I say. His broken eyes meet mine again.

The rest of the people in the restaurant are watching us as if trying to figure out what's going on. I glare at them until they finally look away.

"Come on let's go somewhere else," I suggest. I take his hand and we walk out of the restaurant. We still get many glances but I try to ignore them.

The park is pretty close by. I lead him there so that we can be alone without anyone disturbing us. When I know that nobody is nearby I turn around to face him. His eyes are red from all the tears which makes his blue irises more visible. I don't think I've ever seen someone so hurt.

I put my arms around him and rest my head on his shoulder in an attempt of comforting him. At first he seems taken aback and his body tenses, but I don't let go. After a few seconds he hugs me back. He sobs against my hair and he's practically shaking by now. I try to be calm myself as I hug him even tighter.

~

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