Shadow Eyes

A New Start

Liam’s P.O.V

It’s been two hours, me and Alex have been sitting here for two hours. We’ve just talked, talked about our past, how we feel and how stuffed up our lives are. For the whole two hours Alex hasn’t moved at all, she’s just stayed sitting in my lap, her head resting against my shoulder. The wind starts blowing Alex’s hair over her face. My fingers make their way to her face to brush away her long, black locks from her face. She’s smiling and it isn’t forced. “C’mon, it’s getting late” I tell her. Alex is groaning, her arms cling to mine. “I don’t want to go home, I want to stay here” she says, her voice dropping to a whisper. “I’ll walk you home Alex” I mumble into her soft hair. “But then you have to leave, just like everyone else” she croaks. Her hand is gripping mine, so I stand up and offer Alex my hand, and I pull her up.

Alex’s gloomy face breaks into a smile “We can spear twenty minutes or so? Can’t we?” she asks. “I guess” I reply slowly. “Yay!” she squeals. Her arm links with mine and she starts dragging me down the hill. I grab Alex’s hand and pull her along, soon we are laughing and skipping down the hill.

We’ve got smiles on our faces, real, pure smiles. Something we’ve not done for a long time. We reach the bottom of the hill out of breath, Alex’s beautiful laugh rings throughout the field. We cut our way across the grass and walk back to the street entrance. “Alex, what are we doing?” I ask. “Me and Jake once wrote our initials on the road in a glow-in-the-dark pen” she says. “So?” I asked, not getting what she was saying. “We’re going to write our initials! I still have the pen” she laughs.

We sit in the gutter and Alex’s hands me her pen. Being the guy I was I wrote Liam James Payne, instead of only writing mi initials. I gave Alex her pen back and she wrote Alexandra Belle Mathews she drew a smiley face too. I put her pen in her bag and linked my arm through hers. She rested her head against my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around her waist. I walked her home, but when we reached her door she didn’t want me to go. Alex’s hand clutches my arm. “Don’t go Liam, please don’t go” she pleads. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I’ll even meet you here so we can walk to school together” I tell her. Alex’s eyes shimmer with tears “Here” I say. I give Alex my cell-phone number, her little hands fold the piece of paper and she gently slips it into her pocket. “See you in the morning Liam” she says. “Yeah” I mumble. I pull her in and hug her tightly. “Have a good sleep” I say into her hair. “You too” she whispers into my chest.

I walk down the front steps to her door and push open the gate, I shut it softly behind me and turn to face to the lonely walk home. I look behind me and see Alex staring directly at me, she waves and then goes inside her house. Her door closes shut and I turn to walk home again. I could have stayed with her, I would have stayed with her... But she needs her rest. Home for me isn’t nice or pleasant. My mum left ages ago and Dad... Well he’s either ignoring me or telling me how worthless, how stupid and how pathetic I am. I used to cry, but I’ve just gotten used to it now. No one cares anyway, no one ever did. My legs carry me home, faster than I thought. I open my front door and close it softly.

Once I’m inside, I’m careful not to bug Dad. But as usual Dad’s at the pub, no surprises there. I walk to my room and sit on my bed, I lie back and stare at the ceiling. I look to my side and see that Alex had left her jumper behind. I have no idea why, but I just grab it and hold it close to me. I smile to myself, yes I’d been beaten up again today, and yes I was in a lot of pain but today I met Alex... I’ve never been so happy in my life. Maybe, just maybe my life is turning around and maybe it is worth keeping. My phone goes off and I check my new message.

From Unknown Number:

Hey Liam, it’s me, Alex (:

To Alex:

Hey! I thought you’d be asleep by now?

From Alex:

I can’t sleep, too much on my mind I guess

To Alex:

Same here haha :b

From Alex:

I’m not bothering you, am I?

But then my dad came home, I quickly shove my phone under my pillow and try to get to sleep. Dad only ever wants me to sleep. In my mind I wanted to wake up and text Alex, but soon I fell asleep and let the darkness take me...

Alex’s P.O.V

He hasn’t replied yet, so I wait. I know he isn’t going to reply so I push my thoughts away from my mind and I fall asleep. “Alex, get up! You’ve got school or whatever it is that you do” My mum snaps. I groan and sit up, I rub my eyes and get up. I’m still half asleep but I still trudge to the bathroom, just across from my bed room. I look into the mirror and see a girl, her hair looks like a rat slept in it, but she’s smiling... She’s happy. I roll my eyes at how stupid I sound. I pull my pyjamas off and turn the shower on, I step straight into the water. The boiling hot water burns my skin so I quickly wash myself and dry myself off with a towel. I pad into my room and choose my clothes for the day. I chose black and white, high waist, stripy shorts. I got my printed Mickey-Mouse t-shirt and my red and white converse. I brushed my hair and left it down, hanging over my shoulders. I put no makeup on today, I wanted colour, not just black everywhere. Meeting Liam has made me want to give up the whole Emo Goth look/act. Just like every other day I grab my bag and skipped breakfast.

My door bell rang and I knew it was Liam. I raced out the door to greet him. “Hey Liam” I chirped. “hey, sorry that I didn’t reply to you last night... Dad came home” he mumbles. “It’s okay, I understand” I tell him, giving him a smile. He gives me a hug and we set off for school. “Are you still in pain?”  I ask Liam. “I’m healing” he says.

We reach the school gates and everybody is staring at us. “You ready?” he asks, looking at me and then the school entrance. “Yes” I whisper. His and gently squeezes mine and we walk through the gates...