UNEDITED: Our Forbidden Love

23: Alexander

The next month and a bit went quite quickly which was both good and bad at the same time. I didn't want Starley to leave but I also really wanted to visit where she was from and I could tell she was excited for that as well. If she'd spent two months away from her family then I could do the same. It wouldn't be easy for me to leave Paisley, Mum and Dad, but if Starley could, I could. She was stronger than anyone I knew having suffered a broken arm, a massive wound in the side of her stomach, almost getting raped, being thrown in the back of a van all in the time space of two months. She did have healing magic running in her blood stream but she was still strong. At least, she was stronger than me. At school, I was always seen as the strong, not-scared-of-anything guy, who was also super attractive, but the past two months made it very clear that there were people stronger than me, some a lot closer than expected.
After the event with Madison and Peter, Starley quickly gained enough energy to heal the gash in her stomach, but at school, when she saw them or any of the other crazy exes that Madison had manipulated to 'help' her, she always got closer to me and I knew her head was racing with anxious and worried thoughts; traumatised by the pain.

Once, Madison had pushed her luck way too far and decided that she would try and talk to Starley who was waiting for me at my locker at the time; asking about the history report we were writing for our assessment.
"Hey Starley, so what did you write for paragraph four? I'm really confused."
Luckily, Starley had been around me for quite a while by then and had learnt how to respond with my feisty tongue.
"I should hardly be telling you," she'd shot back, and Madison feigned offence.
"I'm offended," she said and clasped her hand over heart. Her acting skills were second to none and Starley saw right through it.
"Madison, just admit it. You're a b*tch and a slut. Like who the actual hell has twenty-eight exes that they're able to use at their beck and call?" Then Starley followed along with Madison's acting skills and faked thinking. "Of course! It's Madison Pillows! Who else could it possibly be? I'm done with you." Starley stormed off to meet me whom she only just spotted and I hugged and kissed her. She was so amazing in that situation and I can't imagine how scared she would've been but she still managed to mirror me and say what needed to be said. And most importantly, she was proud and happy with herself, something she'd dismissed for quite a while.

Right now, Starley's hair is in my face, but it smells like coconuts, so I'm okay with it. She snuck into my room last night, disobeying the rules my mum had originally set for us, but on the last night of us together, here, I figured it was a good excuse to break the rules. Her small body is breathing heavily for how small it is, slowly rising up and down coordinated with her breathing.
This is what I wanted every single day. To wake up next to Starley, her coconut scented conditioner-filled hair in my face where it doesn't annoy me, even though for most people it would; to listen to her breathing and feel at peace when I hear it, knowing that she's alive; to know that when she wakes up, we'll be together for the whole day and for days after that. I roll over onto my back, abandoning Starley's hair and letting it fall back into position. I look up at the ceiling. Nothing much has changed up there in the past seventeen years since I've lived here and called this my bedroom but I've changed so much. Suddenly, now I'm calling waking up in the morning, half naked and in the same bed as my girlfriend normal. Before I met her, that wouldn't have been a possibility at all. I just assumed that I would be alone forever, and then I saw her. I get up out of the bed, careful not to wake Starley up as a do so and keep the covers on her. I put on some clothes and go out to the kitchen, cautious of waking everyone else up as well.
I get out the large containers of flour, sugar, salt and bi-carb soda out of the pantry and two eggs, butter, the milk carton and yoghurt out of the fridge. I mix the ingredients together and I'm frying the pancakes in the fry pan, when Starley wanders out.
"Hey," she says, quietly as she walks over to me and puts an arm around my waist.
"You okay?" I ask and she shrugs in response.
"I have to go home."
"But then I'll be joining you there later tonight, and it'll be fine."
"Tonight?" she asks. "Am I coming back to get you? I thought I was going to take you down with me this morning."
"Oh," I say. I hadn't heard that part of the plan, but if that was what Starley wanted, I'd go along with it too.
As if almost reading my thoughts, she says, "you don't have to do what I want. I can come back for you later."
"It's okay, I'll do it this morning." I smile at her. "In the meantime, you can eat these and then I'll take the two of us to the beach." She goes up on her toes and kisses me.
"I love you," she says before getting the plate off the bench, next to the stove. Yes Starley, I love you too. So much. That's why I'm leaving my whole family here alone for two months to be with you.