The Brown Eyed British Boy

Chapter Thirteen - New Friends

  About an hour had passed since she had seen Dan again, now she sat in Starbucks sat at a small table in the corner, Joe was sitting across from her sipping at his coffee. Joe seemed to always have a smile on his face when he was around her. Joe set his coffee cup down and looked over at her.

"How is your..." he said stopping while pointing at his forehead to motion about hers, "Forehead."

  She smiled at his kindness while brushing away some hair in front of her face, reveling the scratch and bruise. "It's feeling better, thank you for asking." she said staring into his blue eyes while letting go of her hair, letting it cover it up. Dan had never asked about them. "Joe..." she said looking at him. She needed to tell him that she saw Dan.

  Joe raised an eyebrow and she went on, "Today before you came, I went to go see Dan. We are friends again." she said smiling.

Joe's smile disappeared, "Listen Lex, I believe we are friends right?" Joe asked and Alex nodded, "Then believe me when I say that you should be careful around him please, I love that you guys are friends again, but I want you to promise me that you will be extra careful around him." Joe said a small smile on his face as he stared straight into her dull light blue/gray eyes.

  She nodded again, "I promise." she said smiling, taking a small sip from her coffee.

***

  Two more hours had past since Joe had taken her out to Starbucks, and they were now walking back to her apartment. Alex could see it just around the corner when Joe started up another conversation. "Have you ever gotten bullied in school Alex?" he suddenly asked her, they kept on walking.

  Alex hesitantly looked over at Joe. Shit he figured it out. "Y-Yeah why?" she asked him after they stopped in front of her apartment face to face with each other.

  "I have too, and if you ever get hurt again," he said stopping looking at her forehead, "I will kill whoever did it to you." he finished, anger flashed in his eyes.

  "O-Okay," she whispered. Then wrapped him into a big hug. Once they pulled away, Joe had a big smile on his face.

  "I will see you later Lex." he said and walked away putting his hands in his pockets.

  Alex walked up to Melissa smiling, Lisa looked up from behind the desk. "Is he gone?" she asked like a six year old girl hiding from her parents because she stole cookies from the cookie jar.

  Alex smiled and nodded, "Yay! Tell me all about him." Lisa said sitting up straight and patting a chair next to her.

"Like I said, Joe is a-" Melissa stopped her.

"Not him! Dan!" she exclaimed, "What did he say?"

  Alex sat down next to her, "We are friends again." she said and Melissa squealed in delight. "Great!"

  Lisa wrapped her into a hug, then someone walked in the apartment complex, "Oh crap get down!" she whispered to her. Alex was then shoved down under her desk.

  She chuckled to herself and kneeled on the floor below them. She could barely hear their voices, but she couldn't understand them anyway.

When he left Alex crawled out from under the desk and peeked over the top of the desk, "Is it clear?" she asked. Lisa nodded.

  "Okay I'll see you tomorrow Lisa." she said walking over to the lift and stepping inside before she was dragged into another conversation.

"Okay bye! Be safe, have fun, text Dan, h-" the lifts doors shut before Lisa could finish.

  Only after a few minutes, Alex was inside her bedroom putting on her pajamas. She stopped as she saw herself in the mirror. There was bruises all over her body. Her wrist still looked bent in. Black and blue bruises were up her legs, arms, head, hip, and ribs. Her ankle was bent in badly.

  "Wow." Alex said out loud, "It's like London is trying to get rid of me."

  There was a knock at the door, and Alex quickly pulled her shorts and shirt on before walking to the door and opening it, her dad stood there in his normal police outfit, her had a black eye and he looked really tired.

  "Papa!" she exclaimed as he quickly led him over to the couch an sitting him down quickly. He still had his gun in his holster, handcuffs, and walkie talkie. Her father had worked as a cop since his accident and she feared for his life every single day.

  "What happened?" her father shook his head, "I'm fine." he said and stopped her hands before she could touch his eye.

  "Ice!!" she exclaimed, ignoring he father's comment. She ran into the kitchen, quickly grabbing a ZipLock bag and filled it with ice before kneeling in front of him handing him the ice.

  "Alex-" he started but she cut him off, "Hold it on your eye and then... and only then I'll listen to you." she said staring him hard in the eyes.

  Her father sighed and pressed the ice bag on his black eye looking at her with his other eye, "Do you want me to explain?" he asked. She nodded quickly.

  Her father leaned back and patted the seat next to him, she quickly sat next to him and stared at him waiting for him to talk.

  "Me and Mark were on patrol for 91st and 35th street and out of no where this man came out and attacked us from behind. First he attempted to grab our guns, then when that didn't happen well he just attacked." he explained taking a big breath before going on, "Mark finally shot him while he was attempting to run away, we chased him about a mile when we finally lost him."

  Alex gasped, "Thats horrible!" she exclaimed. Thinking fast she grabbed the remote and turned on the t.v. sure enough, the news was blabbing on about it. After a few minutes of watching she saw her dads new good friend, Mark talking about what happened.

  She pulled her gaze from the t.v. and looked over at her father, "Are you hurt anywhere else?" she asked.

  Before he could answer there was a knock at the door.

  She sighed as she got up and answered the door. There stood Mark, he had a small scrape on his scruffy beard and a small bruise on his check bone. Beside him stood a small girl about twelve, she had a curly brown haired pixie cut , and her bright blue eyes stared up at her.

  "Hello Mark, come in." she said and let Mark in with the girl clinging onto his hand. Mark gave her a warm smile and walked in the little girl trailing behind him.

***

  Mark and her father had been talking in the kitchen for about fifteen minutes while Alex and the little girl (which she learned her name was Skylar) sat in the living room chatting. She learned that Skylar was eleven years old and that she went to the same school she did. Of course she knew already that her school's grades goes down really low but she didn't know all the way to 6th grade! 6th grade to 12th grade were a lot of people in one building complex!

  After a while the shy little Skylar started to warm up to her and got more comfortable. Finally after a few more short minutes, her father and Mark stopped talking and they were staring at them.

"Sky, you are going to be spending the next few days here with Alex and her father, Jordan." Mark told the little girl.

  What?