CAPACITY FOR WONDER. | alex albon

x. changes overnight

                 The moment had replayed over and over in his mind. It wasn't that he had expected some kind of movie scene, that wasn't her to any degree. He should've expected the question she posed, but if questions were the thing she was interested in that night, he had a neverending list categorised by importance in different shades of pink.

"Let me guess, you have so many questions." She opened with, likely under the impression that his trance meant that she'd left him in some sort of mute state.

"And you can only give me so many answers?"

"I'm beginning to think that you know me too well."

"Or not at all?"

"We'll see." Just like that, he was pathetically hooked again on her words. All 20 of them.

It was as if she knew what he was going to say, like her understanding of him was so much deeper than either of them actually realised.

"I am going to tell you everything, just not here." She bargained, gesturing around to the amount of people in their surroundings, where she couldn't help but notice how Alex's eyes settled on the looks coming from two she had only seen pictures of; Lando and George.

He knew she was right because as encapsulated by her as he was, she didn't remove his ability to reason. So he allowed her to take him by the wrist down to the coast line, feeling like her first attempt to fill his capacity for wonder had been introverted whereby the depth of the shore mirrored the height of the hill.

As with many of the stories Juniper had told him, especially those on their first meeting in Monaco, she started with a quote.

"Michael J. Fox famously said 'Family is not an important thing. It's everything.' and I think he'd be pretty heartbroken if I told him half of my family earn the status of meaning nothing to me."

Naturally, it hurt to tell. But it hurt to hear too. Alex couldn't imagine the kinds of things Juniper had been through with her parents, her mother especially and whilst she explained what happened, her short lived journey through University remained primarily in his mind. He knew now why it rarely got mentioned - her mother had applied so much pressure from so many directions where Juniper wasn't a diamond, she didn't thrive under the force. She cracked.

It seemed to be something her mother did repeatedly, but it was less of a crack from her and more of a snap. Like a elastic band pulled away and returned to the skin of a wrist in a painful motion, that was what Junipers every reunion with her mother was like.

"If I didn't need to see Kamri and Lilia so much, I wouldn't have gone." She told him, her story coming to an end where she'd covered every moment as if lending him a chapter of her life. "But until they both move out, and even still then, they're a package deal with my parents, Alex."

She leaned into him now, and if she hadn't put so much of everything into the things she had done the days prior, she might have cried. She'd used up all her effort and her energy though, she had no power to cry. Alex was almost thankful for this, whilst his arm wrapped around her shoulder and he hugged her so tight it reminded her of her sisters, for her to have cried in front of him would've inevitably shifted things between them.

"I have an idea." He broke the silence, unsure of how long they had been sitting in it.

Her head lifted, her chin finding it's place on his shoulder as she looked up at him. "About what?"

"It's my turn." He told her simply, and was met with the kind of confusion he had wanted from her. "I want to try and fill your capacity for wonder."

Her shuffles gave no answer, as if it was taking her a moment longer than he'd like for her to respond. Her movement, pulling away to look at his face properly, caused his hand to fall to her lower back as she finally spoke. "Really?"