My Beautiful Boy ✔️

22

I'm waiting outside Alayna's house. I'd picked up a daisy from the pitch of grass in her front garden and I plucked at the small petals when I heard the front door open. I look up, ready to smile at Alayna, except it's not her. My eyebrows furrow when a middle-aged man stares at me, his head tilted in confusion.

"Who are you?" He asked, and I cleared my throat.

"I'm- I'm Dawson. I'm Alayna's friend." I smile at the man, who I'm assuming is her father, based on the distinctive features they both share. Alayna has his eyebrows and his cheekbones. "It's nice to meet you." I add, letting the daisy drop from my fingers.

"Ah. She's mentioned something about you." He says, in broken English. "It's lovely to meet you, Dawson. Maybe, one day, you should come over for dinner instead of leeching outside of my house and waiting for my daughter." He says, sternly, and a lump forms in my throat.

"I would love to." I gulp, and he nods his head before unlocking his car and getting in. His window rolls down. I gulp again.

"Alayna says you're just friends, but if you hurt her, or break her heart, I'll break every bone in your body." He grins at me. "I'll see you, Dawson." He says, driving away. I let out a sigh of relief. My heart was almost on the verge of collapsing.

After a few minutes, the front door opens again, and Alayna walks out. Her eyes flicker to me and they widen in surprise. She freezes in place, her eyes flickering all over my body. "Hi." She says, and I send her a small smile.

"Hi." I say in reply. Alayna takes a small step towards me, her hands clasped in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, squinting up at me as the bright sun blinds her.

"I'm walking with you to college." I tell her, shrugging my shoulders. "I told you I'm going to protect you, and I won't break my promises." I tell her, and she chuckles before beginning to walk beside me.

Alayna sighs, looking up at the clear sky as we walk out of her driveway and down her road. "I only left the house once in the past few days." She confesses, and I frown. This must be really affecting her.

"Are you... you're okay, right?" I asked her, and she turned her head towards me, a small smile on her face. I watch as she nods her head and presses her lips together.

"I'm fine. Maybe... it was an empty threat, or something." She says, but I shake my head.

"Nothing is ever empty with Stawarski." I mumble.

"Stawarski?" Alayna asks, and I could swear I felt her finger skim my hand for a milli-second. My breath hitches.

"The- the man who's behind all this." I try to speak. Alayna shivers from beside me.

"Let's talk about something else." She says, wrapping her arms around her stomach. "When's your birthday?" She asks me. I glance at her. Part of me wanted to entertain her questions, but part of me wanted to step away from her. The more she knew about me, the more I feared that she'd like me more.

"Eighth of January." I told her. "What about you?" I don't even know why I was asking. I already knew when her birthday was. I remember her friends wishing her a happy birthday and gifting her gifts on this day. Twentieth of-

"Twentieth of March." She interrupts my thoughts, and a small smile is on my face. Then, we continue to ask each other questions all the way to college, and we go our separate ways at the gates. I watch as Alayna runs up to her friends and leaps into their arms, clearly missing them over the past few days.

***

After taking Alayna back home at the end of the day, I quickly do my shift at work. Gracie is smiling at me as I lift my apron over my head, hanging it up. "I haven't seen you in a while." She says, and it's almost like I'm taking extra steps to avoid her. Something about her rubs me the wrong way. She was very adamant on going to the gym with me and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to break it to her that I don't like her in that way.

"Yeah, I've been busy." I mumble, turning away from her. Gracie leans on the counter, staring up at me. I clear my throat, running my hands through my hair, uncomfortable by how close she is. "What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Nothing." She smiles up at me, leaning closer. I take a small step back. "Just... My friends told me that the best thing for me to do was to give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is that you reject me, right?"

"...Reject you?" I squeak, taking another step back. I wasn't aware that this was Gracie's way of asking me on a date, then it wasn't a successful one. I'm not even sure if that is what's going on here.

Slowly, Gracie reaches her hand out and slowly strokes her pinky finger down my forearm and over my hand. I freeze. She bites her bottom lip and stares up at me with seductive eyes. The hoodie I wore stuck to my body with the sweat pouring down me.

"What are you doing?" I ask Gracie, stepping away from her. She rolls her eyes. "Look, Gracie, I'm not sure what you think is happening, but, I'm not- I'm not looking for a relationship." Well, not with her. "I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression-"

"Dawson." Gracie says, and my eyes slowly lift to hers. "It's okay if you don't like me." She shrugs her shoulders, and I sigh a breath of relief. "Do you think I'm hot?" She asks, and I choke on air.

"What?"

"Do you think I'm hot?" She repeats.

"I mean..." I'm not attracted to Gracie, but there's no denying that she's an attractive girl. "You're- you're good looking, but I'm not, like, I don't like you like that." I say, quietly, pressing my lips together. Gracie stares at me, her mouth parted slightly.

"But, I thought-" She turns away from me, wiping under her eyes. "I thought you liked me." She whispers, looking back at me again. "Is this why you didn't want to workout with me at the gym?" She asked, and I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know what you want me to say." I mumble, stepping away from the counter and grabbing my coat, slipping it over my shoulders. I shove the grey beanie over my hair. "I'm sorry, Gracie." I add, and she averts her gaze back to the ground, slumping onto the barstool. I send her a small smile before pushing the doors of the restaurant and walking out.

Part of me was glad that Gracie knows that I'm not into her like that. However, the other part of me is upset that I had to break her heart in such a cruel manner.