scoring you

Chapter 41

Alyssa

The house feels dark without Tess's usual spirit.

The same feeling that floated around when she wasn't even here.

It's 10am and she's still lying in her dark bedroom, unusual for her since she's normally such an early waker. Sometimes I hear her making waffles at five in the morning.

I try to give her space but I can hear banging and a light humming sound coming from her direction.

Then she pops out, fully dressed with a face full of makeup and a smile spread across it.

"Morning," she says cheerfully.

"Morning?" I reply unsurely but I still follow her into the kitchen.

"What's this smell?" She sniffs.

"I cooked," I reply.

Her eyes practically bulge out of her head, "cook? You?"

"Is it really that hard to believe?" I ask.

"Yeah- really hard to believe. Your butchered my popcorn in the microwave a couple months ago, how is that even possible?"

I shrug and she puts two pancakes onto her plate.

Her cuts into it with a fork and knife.

"Are you okay?" I ask slowly, "y'know- about last night?-"

She coughs and runs over to the rubbish bin.

I stand up, alarmed.

"No-" she coughs again, "no- I'm not fucking okay!"

She then runs over to the sink and washes her mouth out with water, getting it all over her perfectly done makeup. "Your pancakes were completely uncooked in the middle!" She complains, "you just poisoned me Al, pancake batter can't be good to eat!"

"It can't be that bad," I say cutting off a tiny chunk of hers and immediately spitting it out, "I take it back- it's horrible."

"Uh- yeah. Disgusting, inedible, revolting-"

"You can stop listing how disgusting my food is now."

She falls on the sofa, "but it's sooo bad!"

I sit down next to her, "Tess-"

She groans, "stop talking in that serious voice Al, I hate it."

"But Tess, I need to ask-"

"Am I okay?" She repeats the words just about to exit my mouth, "am I okay? Right? that was your question?"

"Yeah," I mumble.

"I'm a fucking mind freak."

I give her that serious look again.

She blows a loud puff of air, "Al, honestly I'm fine."

"Your a horrible liar, worse than me."

"Okay! Okay! I'm fine considering."

I know she's lying.

"Okay," I go along with her speech, "your fine but if you need someone to talk to- I'm here."

"Thanks but I won't need it, I'm completely over her. Besides I was so drunk yesterday that I hardly remember what happened."

I nod, going along with her false statement.

Then the doorbell rings and I open it to three smiling boys.

Aiden leans against the doorframe, his shirt just clinging to his toned muscular skin. Matthew stands next to him holding a plate with assorted sweets, his blonde dishevelled hair shaggy over his forehead. Then, there is Caleb with a large bright smile spread across his face, his big brown eyes wide and his head tilted to the side