I woke up the next morning with Alena sprawled out on top of me, her mouth slightly open and my t-shirt wet from her tears. Her hair was in a messy bun, the pieces that didn't fit flying in every which way. I wanted to smile, seeing her in front of me and being here with her, but I still couldn't begin to fathom everything that she had told me last night.
I knew that I wasn't her first boyfriend or her first sexual encounter. I knew that she had a lot more experience than I did in every way. But to think that she had been through all of this?
I would love to say that if I ever saw Blake after last night, I would kill him, but I don't think I could ever bring myself to do that. Even for her.
I just couldn't believe that someone could take advantage of beautiful, innocent Alena. Good thing she stopped hanging out with Lilli after that; she doesn't need anymore trouble. In fact, Alena's lucky that he was leaving her anyway. I can't even imagine how much worse things would have gotten if she actually had to leave him and confront him about what was happening.
But maybe that's why she's still having problems? She's never truly confronted her demon. Yes, he left her alone, but on his own terms. Alena never truly had the chance to stand up for herself and defeat him, even only in her mind. Perhaps it's too late now, but I would be here through every step of the way, even if he's trapped inside her brain.
"Good morning Ty." Alena croaked out after waking up, moaning while rubbing her eyes.
"Good morning darling." I smiled to her, kissing her on the forehead. "How did you sleep?"
"Alright, considering it was only an hour and a half. What time is it?" Alena lifted herself off of me and dragged herself out of bed, beginning to walk towards her closet.
"7:00... we got a little extra sleep but we don't have much time to get ready." I said, following her in.
"That's alright, I just need to get dressed and quickly fix my hair. We can grab Dunkin really quick on the way. Do you need clothes?" Alena asked looking over at me. She had just pulled some pale blue dress from her closet, setting it down on the bench behind her. She pulled her sweatshirt over her head and shook off her shorts, walking out of the closet and while doing so tossing her clothes into the hamper. Alena went into the bathroom, put deodorant on, and came back to slip the dress on. It was casual, plain and simple, but looked beautiful on her.
I then looked down at what I was wearing, a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. The t-shirt was fine, my scars were faded a lot more and wouldn't be as noticeable, and it was nicer out now that it was end of April. However, I wasn't too keen on school in sweatpants. "You wouldn't have pants, huh?" I looked back up to find that she was back in the bathroom, brushing through her hair and effortlessly running her straightener over it. She had put on some kind of simple gold locket and slipped on nude/beige flats or something of the sorts. She looked amazing, and if I hadn't had witnessed her getting ready, I would've certainly assumed that she put a lot more effort into her appearance than she actually did.
"My dad may have some casual jeans that would fit you. He's a bit taller than you, so they might be baggy on the ends, and he isn't into skinny jeans but they're nothing that will look strange on you. You don't need a shirt?" She made her way out of the bathroom and started walking down the hall to her parents' room.
"No, I can stay in this." I called back. She came back momentarily with a pair of dark wash jeans folded in her hands.
"Try them on, if they don't fit right then we can go to your house instead of Dunkin, We don't have to be in school right on time." I slid my sweatpants off and the pants on, buttoning them and zipping the fly once they reached my waist. I walked over to her closet and found Alena's mirror then checked to see what they looked like. They certainly weren't my traditional black skinny jeans, but they weren't that bad and they weren't too big. They would certainly do for one day.
Alena had found a tooth brush that was still in the box and in her bathroom drawer, and let me use that as my tooth brush for her house. We both brushed our teeth and she grabbed her stuff. "Oh shit, I wasn't even thinking, you don't have your backpack." Alena noticed. But I also hadn't thought of it either, so I couldn't poke fun at her for just now thinking of it.
"Do you have a notebook and a pen I can borrow? I should be able to make it through the day with that."
"Yeah I have it in my bag, I'll give it to you once we get to the school." She walked over to her nightstand and grabbed her phone, finding a note again underneath it." It's probably from my mother" She sighed and rolled her eyes a little, "... are you ready?"
I nodded my head and lead us out the door, heading down to her garage and jumping into the passenger seat with her shortly behind me starting the car. I looked at the time, and if we drove fast enough we certainly would've made it into school on time. But quite honestly, I was in no rush, I would have much preferred to lay in bed with her all day. Stupid school.
-
As I sat in my final class of the day, Poetry Through Performance, I came to the terrible realization that I didn't bring my book to school today. Fortunately, Mrs. Marchand had an abundance of extra copies on the side of the room. So I slid out of my seat, grabbed a book and scurried back to my desk, opening up to the page that we had started on.
Alena and I did manage to get to school on time today, and still stop to get breakfast. We didn't have our study hall period today, so I hadn't seen her since this morning, I couldn't help but mute out the world around me and pray to god that she wasn't having any bad thoughts right now. I didn't want her having to deal with all of that junk here at school, too.
My eyes followed along with what was being read, but my thoughts drifted off to other places. Out of nowhere, I suddenly had remembered that our senior prom was in a month, and I should probably be doing something to ask Alena. I started brainstorming ideas, thinking of something that would impress her but wouldn't be so out of this world that it wasn't personal or sentimental. Just when I had the perfect plan, the bell rang and I was brought back to reality. Chairs being dragged for students to get up squeaked against the floor, the sound of students rampaging down the halls already echoing through the building. I grabbed the notebook and pen I had borrowed from Alena along with the book I had taken from the side of the room, returned the book, and walked out of the classroom to find Alena leaning to the side of the door, talking to one of the other teachers of the english department about the AP exam next month. I stood off to the side and waited for their conversation to be over, then snuck up and hugged Alena from behind.
"Oh my god Ty," she breathed out after jumping in surprise. "You scared the crap out of me." Her startled demeanor quickly dissolved to her laughing.
"You all set to go?" She grabbed my hand and turned to face me. I nodded my head, answering her question, and we walked out to her car to leave. "How was your day? Are you feeling better?" I asked as we slipped into her car, buckling our seat belts.
"Yes, a lot better. School helped take my mind off things, for sure. I'm just really sleep deprived, is all." Alena spoke as she started the car. "How was your day?"
"It was okay. I'm a little tired too, I must say. But it wasn't a bad day."
"Do you wanna go shopping today? I don't have any homework to do, so if you don't have any homework either and you want to, we can go get the shopping done today."
"Sounds good to me." I didn't really care, I'm not keen on shopping nor do I really even know what to look for, especially for this sort of event. I certainly wouldn't be able to do it without Alena's guidance.
Within ten or so minutes we were at the mall. Alena parked in the back lot and we headed into the mall hand in hand. I honestly had no idea what I was doing or where I was supposed to go, so Alena led me to Men's Warehouse or something like that.
Alena let go of my hand and wandered through the store, grabbing things and comparing colors, whereas I couldn't have been more lost. I started walking around and just pretending to look at belts and socks.
"Tyler! Come here!" I heard Alena call to me from across the store. I looked up to find she was standing by the dressing room with clothes piled high in her arms. I walked over to her and she lead me into the rooms, kicking open a door and dropping everything onto a bench. From there, she proceeded to hang everything up in sections, like she was pairing outfits together or something. She looked up at me once everything was in its place, "Okay, start from here" she gestured to the left corner of the dressing room "and work your way over. You have to show me everything that you try on. If you need help I'll be right out here." She looked into my eyes, "Got it?"
I nodded, switching places with her so I was in the tiny room, and closed the door. I kicked my shoes off and got undressed, tossing my own clothes into the corner and starting with the first outfit Alena had laid out for me. Once I had everything on it what I think was the right way, I turned the doorknob and walked out to see Alena scrolling on her phone. I quietly cleared my throat, drawing her attention up to me, and watched as her eyes lit up and her mouth dropped.
I wasn't sure what the hype was about; after all, I wasn't even sure if I had tied my tie correctly.
"Ty, you look... incredible."
"Did I tie this right?' I lifted up the tie that was around my neck and she laughed, nodding lightly afterwards.
"My parents are going to eat you up in this. Don't be surprised if they won't leave you alone all night, they already love you. But after seeing you dressed like this? They'll be convinced that you fit into "our lifestyle"" She put air quotes around the last part, and I laughed a little. "Alright, next one." I turned back to the dressing room, shut the door and changed into the next outfit Alena had lined up for me. This one was much more casual, with jeans instead of dress pants. Once I was all changed again, I walked back out. This time, Alena was looking right up waiting for me, not on her phone.
"Well? What do you think?" I asked, subtly flourishing the new outfit selection.
"You look great, but perhaps a bit too casual for this weekend. Try the next one." I nodded and obliged. Once in the third and final outfit choice, I walked back out to Alena.
"What about this one?" She was quiet at first, her eyes wide and her bottom lip was between her teeth. I grinned a little at her reaction and slid my hands slightly into the pant pockets.
"This is it." She said, walking over to me and resting her hands on my shoulders, then running them down my torso to feel the material of the grey vest she had selected for me. She stopped at my abdomen, then looked up at me and planted a delicate kiss on my lips. "I hope to god that my parents don't change their mind about you." She sighed against me.
"Listen, I'm going to do whatever it takes to stay on their good side if that's what it takes for us to be together. You have nothing to worry about at all." I kissed her forehead and she smiled.
"Go get changed." Alena directed. I turned back into the dressing room and changed back into my regular clothes. I gathered the outfit that Alena selected, doing my best to keep it neat and together, and walked out. Alena and I made our way over to the register. When we were up to check out, I dropped the articles onto the counter and Alena pulled out her wallet. I opened my mouth to protest, but as soon as I was about to speak Alena spoke over me, "Tyler, you wouldn't even need this if it weren't for my family and me; I'm paying." I remembered then that even if i did want to pay, there was no way I would have enough to cover all of it. So I kept my mouth shut after that.
"Hi, how are you?" The guy behind the counter asked Alena. He was definitely older than us, my bet on 24, his hair was dark and effortlessly slicked back and his teeth were bright white and perfectly straight when he smiled at her. And he looked at her like he was hers.
"I'm good, how are you?" Alena smiled back to him, pulling money out of her wallet and then sliding it back into her "tote" as she called it. She was so naive and wouldn't notice the way he looked at her, but I could see it, and it was killing me.
"I'm alright, is there a special occasion?" He asked as he bagged the clothes.
"Ty here is meeting the parents this weekend at a dinner party." Alena twisted herself around and intertwined her hand with mine, smiling up at me. I smiled back at her, glad she was drawing attention towards the fact that she wasn't on the market.
"Best of luck man, meeting the parents is one of the biggest hurdles you'll have to jump in a relationship." He laughed a little and looked up at me, I laughed to, trying to be polite. He started punching in numbers then looked back up at us. "Would you like to subscribe to our sale updates and receive coupons through your email?"
"No thank you." Alena and I said in sync with each other, her giggling a little after.
"That will be $261.03 please." Alena handed him the money and he counted her change, punching in more numbers and printing the receipt, then tearing it off and handing the change and receipt to Alena and the bag to me. "Have a nice day!"
"You too!" Alena chimed back, starting to walk off.
"And hey, good luck this weekend!" He called out to me as I followed Alena. I turned my head and waved, giving a reasonably volumed thank you, and walking out of the store.
Okay, maybe he wasn't that bad.
AUTHOR'S NOTE; sorry if I get slow with updating guys. I've just been starting to get a little more insecure and self conscious about my work, so trying to write turned into a drag for a bit. I'm trying to look past that right now and work on the next chapter, so hopefully I will have that for you soon.
But in the mean time, thank you to everyone who's reading and motivating me to keep working on this story. (and special shout out to @tyler_dun for being the first user to actually vote all of my updates and everything! I literally got a little over-excited to see that someone was actually reading my work, so thank you for making my day; you rock.
I love all of you, stay street & stay alive |-/