Collateral Damage

9

The dorm was largely unfurnished, with the bare minimum that the room came with. Alexander stepped in, noting Audrey staring out the window, a habit she seemed fond of. Her bare feet contrasted the carpet, her arms crossed. He stood behind her, hesitantly pressing his lips against her shoulder.

Audrey didn't acknowledge him, instead watching the students walk to and from college parties she felt too old to go to. The naïveté of people her age was off-putting. They had their whole lives ahead of them. And she just...didn't.

"You should eat something," he murmured, slipping his hands under her shirt idly.

"Thought you had to pee?"

He smirked. "Just an excuse to get in your space. Now that I'm here...you should eat."

Audrey sighed, a heaviness coming over her. Her eyes lifted to his, and he found himself starstruck by the glisten in them, the way they sheened, like she was permanently on the edge of tears, those big, beautiful brown eyes, peering up at him. Gone was the spiteful wench he often encountered, and somewhat enjoyed. In her place was just a girl. A scared, lonely girl, that he couldn't bear to take advantage of.

He sighed, his hands leaving her skin. Audrey swallowed roughly, clearing her throat.

"Just go. I'll eat later, when I'm hungry."

Alexander pulled away, lingering at the door. "Everyone knows your name. When I pull up, they're all hovering around you, chattering. But you're quiet."

His hand was on the knob. Audrey's back was to him, her eyes still out the window, her lids dropping.

"And when I say my little creepy pickup line no one even stops to see if I'm kidding or if you're safe. They don't even stop to see if you're okay."

Audrey was silent, his words pointed though softly spoken.

"You don't have any friends here do you? I'm the only person you know. I'm the only person who knows you. Aren't I?"

Audrey seemed to share a little under the weight of the truth. They just weren't the same, people her age and her. They were...pure. Hopeful. Maybe not for long, but it hurt to watch. The sight of an innocence she never got to possess. The disconnect was clear to her. And the more she spoke, the more it was clear to everyone else, alienating her from anything deeper than platitudes.

"You know I hate it when you pretend to have a soul," she responded feebly, worrying the locket around her neck.

Alexander nodded. "I know. You know I hate it when you make me remember I had one."

She scoffed, turning around. "What about your sob story rich boy. Absent dad? Horrible mom?"

He shrugged. "Same old same old. Everyone has the same story from varying degrees don't they?" He mused, looking around her barren home. She scoffed and he sighed, sitting on the couch, resting his elbows on his knees.

Alexander looked over at her, wanting to offer something, something more.

"My mother was promised a lot of things. A spoiled girl, rich. She lost everything when she was young and...scratched and claws her way to my father, her savior." He chuckled ruefully. "He disappointed her of course. Left her alone. And then...there I was."

Alexander shook his head, standing and coming up to her again. Slowly, he closed the blinds.

"You're not different from them. You deserve the same things they do. You have your own brand of naïveté that hasn't been taken from you," he smiled softly, touching her shoulder. "You are still young, Audrey."

She stared at the blinds blankly. "Shut up," she whispers. "And what about you? Are you still young, Remington?"

He smiled and shook his head. "No. And that's why you shouldn't waste your time on me. I am what I always will be, too old to change, but young enough to know I should."

Audrey smiled. To see the humanity in Alexander Remington, she'd think she was dreaming of her heart didn't hurt so bad.

"I'm scared to die. If I knew I'd be like this, I would've never wanted to be born." She whispered shakily, pursing her lips and closing then tightly.

Alexander shuddered and with nothing else to say, lifted her face, and kissed her. She didn't deny him, making into her touch. There was something she was yearning for, pining for under his skin. And she didn't know what it was but she thought...she thought she'd had it once.

And that she'd like it again if she could just place it. Just taste it one more time. Then she would know. Although Alexander kept telling het there was nothing inside him to give, no nutritional content to his skin, nothing to offer, she kept digging.

It was all she had. It was that? Or the broken admittance that she would die young? Alone, having nothing seeing nothing owning nothing doing nothing loving nothing. Being—

Nothing.

Well that just hurt too much to bear.

Worse than the physical hole in her heart, it just hurt too much to consider. Alexander let her draw him in, wanting to give her something. It was all he had to offer. He took her hand, walking her to the couch, pushing her back gently.

"You don't even want me do you? You don't have to..." Audrey glanced away. "I'm okay. You don't have to offer me a pity fuck okay?"

Alexander scoffed, whipping off his shirt. "Shut up, Audrey you know it's not like that."

She rolled her eyes. "What else is like? I spill my sob story you drop your drawls? I don't need that."

"Maybe I do," he shrugged, his pants hanging low on his hips.

But she didn't believe that.

"You need me to show you how badly I want you?" He mused, leaning over her, his hand behind her head, his steel eyes sweeping over her face.

She nodded.

He sighed, standing upright. "You're gonna crucify me for this later," he murmured, getting to his knees, his gaze intense under his nodded eyes. Silently, he raised his hands, clasping them, staring at her expectantly, desperately.

Audrey's breath evacuated her lungs for a moment, before she lunged forward, smashing her lips against his. Alexander scrambled to relieve her of her clothing. Though they dug at one another's sexual prowess neither was dissatisfied with the other. In fact, if only in this, they were compatible. Audrey's body fit in his hands perfectly. His lips trailed down her skin, his hands cupping her breasts.

Once again, they'd fallen into this pit of desire together, tangling together, intertwining. Alexander sighed, sliding inside her, his eyes on her body under his writhing on the couch. Her legs wrapped around his waist, his fingers on her clit, bringing her to climax, her walls milking him for all he was worth.

Despite her cutlass for a tongue, her body was a drug. He never could get enough, stroking deeply inside her, her moans music to his ears. Her hips rolled against his desperately, as her climax took hold of her.

Alexander pulled out, lingering next to her for a moment, before dressing quickly. He sat next to her on the couch awkwardly.

She closed her eyes.

Alexander cleared his throat. "Well I should get going."

"You can stay if you want. Take the couch," she offered.

"No. It's best I don't. Don't want anything getting...messy," he stated, heading toward the door. Audrey turned over. She stared at the fabric in front of her trying to name the feeling she had in the out of her stomach.

"Yeah; you're right."

He smiled opening the door. "Sleep well, Audrey."

And then she was alone, in the dark, with the sinking suspicion she wasn't as unscathed as she'd thought.