UNEDITED: Our Forbidden Love

21: Alexander

When I wake up, Starley is already awake. She's out of bed, getting dressed into a pair of denim shorts and a midriff top. She comes over to me once she's dressed and plants a kiss on my forehead. Her stomach is still patched up but she seems a lot more energetic than she was last night.
I throw the covers off me and go to leave the room.
"Where you going?" Starley asks, sounding kind of hurt.
"I'm getting my clothes and then I'll come straight back."
"But I got them for you," she says, pointing to the second clothes hook on the wall, next to the mirror. Hanging there is my outfit that I picked out Friday morning before school to wear today. I go over to Starley and hug her. She rests her head on my bare chest. After a moment she looks up at me.
"You're alive," she says. "Your heart's beating."
"I'm glad that I'm alive," I say, looking down at her. I lean down to kiss her before moving off to get dressed.

After both of us are dressed, I take Starley down to the kitchen. I throw an apron over her head and tie it around her waist. While I'm there I wrap my arms around her from behind and kiss her neck, she giggles and I let her go. Together, we measure and weigh all the ingredients and I stand behind her my hand over hers on top of the whisk, to help stir it all together. We spoon the ingredients onto the trays and we put them into the oven. Starley stands in-front of the oven leaning down to look inside. Once they're cooked we containerise them and Starley looks happy as she holds it on the way out to the car. We get in the car.
"Where are we going, Alex?"
"Somewhere," I reply, smiling at her. "It's a surprise."
"I mean, if we're taking your cookies-"
"Nuh, uh. It's our cookies. We made them together." She smiles at this and sits back contently.

I pull into the car park at Kurrawa Surf Club. It's the closest place to park in relation to Kurrawa Park. I get out and on my way to Starley's door, I get the picnic mat out of the boot. I open her door and she steps out holding the cookies. Here I figured we'd be away from Madison and Peter and Starley could find a way to reduce her traumatic thoughts. She chooses a shady spot underneath a tree and I lie out the mat. She sits on it with her back leaning against the tree, legs crossed and opens the cookies straight away. I sit down in front of her, facing away and then lie back and put my head in her lap. She's surprised at first but seems to get used to it. She gets a cookie and puts it in my mouth.
"Alex?" she asks, getting my attention.
"Yes baby?"
"How did you get to me? Like I didn't hear your car like I heard Madison's."
"The traffic on the Gold Coast Highway was horrendous. So horrendous that I could reach you quicker if I ran than if I stayed in my car."
"You ran to me?"
"Yes. I did. I ran to you, abandoning my car. Once you were safely at home I went and retrieved my car. I only got a 133 dollar fine which I'm kind of surprised about."
She leans down and kisses me, in an upside-down-spider-man-kiss. But it's only quick, because I can tell she's nervous about being in public.
"Starley, babygirl, can you please tell me more about where you live? Because you know all about where I live and how crazy some people can be."
"Well, maybe it doesn't have to be this way. Where I visit your world and I can only tell you about mine. What if you come to visit me?"
"Really?" I say, sitting up and turning to face her. "I hadn't even thought of that as an option. I just assumed we would continue on our way with our own worlds and only see each other when I go surfing."
"Well, it can be like that if you wanted, but I'd love to show you my home."
"No!" I grab her hands and hold them in mine. They're so tiny and dainty that I'm worried I'll break them. "I want to see where you live not just hear about it."
"Okay then. Once my two months here is up, I'll organise two months for you to come to my home."

We sit underneath that large tree all day, but occasionally we have to move the mat to chase the shade. I left my phone in the car, so I ignore any calls or texts I get. This is just time with my girl.
"I can't wait for you to meet Daddy!" she exclaims. She's so excited to have me join her at home. "You guys will get on well I think, but, Alex, can you please pretend that you are a merfolk because if he finds out you're a human, he's probably going to kill me. He's the rule keeper of our city, and one of the rules is 'do not pay any attention to humans and their world'. It's his job to make sure the rules are followed, so if he finds out, I'm definitely going to be either dead or in a jail cell... maybe both."
"Okay," I laugh. "When I am in you home city, I am a merman." She laughs with me.

When, Starley and I decide we've had enough we take the empty cookie container and fold the mat up, which we throw into the boot of my car. I drive us home my hand on Starley's thigh the whole way home. Once we get home I go around to her door, as always and open it.
"I love you Alex," she says giving me a quick hug.
"I love you too, Princess."
"I like that one."
"What?"
"That name. Can you please call me that more often? Princess and babygirl. They're my favourites."
"I can do that for you, Princess," I say and she laughs at my instant use of the name she loves. I open the door to the house. We both instinctively go to my bedroom and kick off our shoes at the door. I close the door behind us.