But You Love Her (Alexheed)

Chapter 6

Alex wasn't sure what woke him up. Whether it was Samheed's kicking or the pinky shadows beaming at him from the window. What he did know was that he should not have fallen asleep. He glanced at the clock.
  
6:02 AM
   
He jumped off the bed as fast as lightning, grabbed his shoes and tucked them back on. He heard the slight rattle of kitchen utensils clanking and that's when his heart began to race. It was still dark outside to an extent, the sun peeking out the horizon in warm yolky colors of pink and yellows. It would have been a beautiful thing to watch if he wasn't panicking.
   
Samheed was snoring lightly, his hands hugging the pillow tight. Alex should've felt sad, twinges of despair should have hit him that moment. However, Alex still couldn't wrap his head around what was going on today. It felt like he was leaving Samheed's home like any other night. Not, the last one.
   
Alex hopped out the window, using the shadows of the fences to sneak out of sight and then run all the way back home. Climbing to the tip of his own fence and gripping the platform of his window that held his potted plants, Alex was able to prop himself back up and through to his room. It took him a few tries, but finally he climbed into the empty room that he had grown so familiar with.
   
He was too exhausted  to think about the events to come. Sleeping would keep him from thinking, to avoid accepting the truth. Curling into his wooly blankets, Alex fell asleep fast.

|||

   You never truly miss someone, until they're gone.

Samheed's home was empty when Alex walked past it for school. A red bolded sign saying "For Sale!" now struck into the front lawn. The place looked desolate, empty. No lights on, no loud chatter. Samheed wasn't here anymore.
   
Alex was in an array of emotions, feeling numb to the fact that he was gone. Will be gone, forever. But, unlike with Aaron, he felt content in the way things ended. He felt he made sure to grasp himself and pull together one last good memory before.
   
It was weird though. Walking alone to school with no one, and coming back the same way. Meghan and him didn't really have any classes together besides when they spoke during lunch. Even then, Meghan was constantly busy, being in student council. It had been then Alex really realized how much of a no-one he was. A shadow.
   
"You heard about Sam, right?" Meghan said, pulling up to their regular seat at the lunch table. There was absolutely no way to avoid this conversation, and Alex wouldn't have wanted to anyways. He nodded, stirring his pasta together with a fork. He felt depleted, in a way. When sticking with someone every day and waking hour only to one day suddenly have them gone, it feels as if a chunk of you has been stripped apart. Or atleast, Alex felt so. Meghan sighed, sitting down. "Of course he'd tell you, what was I thinking asking that. I tried to go visit one last time. Y'know, visit outside their house right when they would leave but it seems they already left a bit before."
   
Alex sat there, thinking back again to Samheed. What he had asked of him. He had too much alone and spare time on his hands now, time that even after doing every piece of homework and reading every page of his textbook did he go back to thinking of the clearing at central park. At night, there was nothing he could do either, but think about what could've been. He needed to stop thinking, he needed to start doing. People need to see you, they need to see what I see.

"Meghan," Alex said. His pasta flailed as it continued to spin in a whirlpool. "Are there any openings in the student council?"    

"Oh! Um-" The question completely took her out of surprise. "I think applications were at the beginning of the year but I can definitely consider asking for adding another member. We are running a little short on staff. Why?"

"May I sign up?"

Alex could never forget the look on Meghan's face that day. Bubbling with excitement, she nodded and passed along applications. Along with her recommendation, Alex soon found himself boarding his first council meeting and organizing events. Meghan introduced him to all the members, who seemed more like a group of friends than any formal gathering. When Alex got through a couple meetings, joined in some fundraisers, and stuck up pasty fliers-- his mind was too busy to think about the lack of something in his chest that had grown. It formed when Aaron left, and doubled in size after Samheed.