Never Too Late

Chapter 7.0: Demise

The next few weeks didn't go too long. Nothing happened much between me and Alex since we visited Sharon's grave. I actually think he was avoiding me ever since I told him about out meaningless sex, but somehow, I was sort of avoiding him too and all. He stayed at his house at Neptune, and for whatever reason he told my mom, she never asked an at his house at Neptune, and for whatever reason he told my mom, she never asked anything about us despite me not seeing much of my pretend boyfriend through the holidays.

Back on track, around the first week of January, a new semester at UCLA was about to start in a few days. We all decided to hit the road and spend the rest of the remaining days before the semester starts back at the dorm. To be honest, I needed to start getting to work again or I would've been broke. It was a Tuesday morning, and we were all enjoying breakfast when a very weird conversation started. Laura had just finished cooking some eggs and bacon for us. Honestly, her belly was really starting to look preggers to me. I guess it was stupid to hide it any longer.

"So Laura..." I started while everyone was a little busy eating. Alex was sitting right across me, but he barely gave any eye contact to me. "How's the pregnancy thing with your parents?"

"They were cool about the whole thing." She brought over another plate of eggs on the table as she sat down. "Honestly, they were forcing me to stay in Neptune until I get to deliver the baby, but I insisted on staying here."

"Actually, staying in Neptune might actually help. Since you're not going back to school yet, it would probably be best if you could get some rest at your parents' house." Alex added.

"I know! That's what they keep telling me!" she exclaimed. "But I want to stay and look after you guys and all. My parents are still helping with the bills, so it's very sweet. Normally, parents would disown their teenage pregnant daughter if they found out."

"You've got some great parents." Alex smiled as he continued to chew on the food. I somehow found myself staring at Alex. I was wishing I could read his mind somehow.

"Thanks." Laura replied. After that, Laura and Harvey started to have their own conversations. I was pretty much preoccupied by Alex's behavior to give a shit about what Laura and Harvey are talking about. I was trying to gaze at him so he'd start to ask why, but he never even looked at me the whole meal. A few moments later, Alex's phone started to ring, and he brought it out from his pocket.

"Excuse me." Alex went up from his seat and walked away to answer his phone. I was a little alarmed, not that Alex getting calls was unusual, but because I didn't want Alex leaving the table without even saying a syllable to me. I took a deep breath and started to regret everything I said. I wished I wasn't so filled with pride that got me to turn him away once again.

These thoughts kept bugging me for minutes, and every time I do, I kept thinking of how things could've gone if I hadn't done what I did. Laura and Harvey didn't seem to have noticed that I was having a bit of an emotional turmoil as I have always said that I was fine whenever they asked. Back to the point, Alex had returned to the table after a few minutes of call time that I planned to overhear but failed. He seemed to be a bit agitated after that call, and he took a huge breath before he spoke.

"Alex, what's wrong?" I asked out of concern.

"Hey, uhm." He looked at me for a second but turned to Laura and Harvey right away. He seemed to have had a hard time continuing. Harvey and Laura stopped talking and listened to Alex. "My mom died."

The smiles on Laura and Harvey's faces sort of dropped. I was shocked to hear it too. Alex seemed to be downed more downed than I've ever seen him before. It was a little painful to see. The noise stopped, and we were all silenced. I couldn't help it. My heart came out to him. Suddenly, I felt the wall of pride crumble down as my heart melted.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" I quickly stood up and walked to him.

"Oh, Alex. I'm sorry to hear that." Laura and Harvey also stood and approached him.

"I'm sorry too, Alex." Harvey added as we all went and hugged Alex. He wrapped his arm around us and hugged. It was a sad day for Alex.

"We're here for you, okay?" I didn't even notice I was grabbing Alex's body as I hugged because it really wasn't sexual, but I knew it wasn't the time for that.

"Thanks, Liyah. Thanks, guys." He forced a smile as he rubbed his hand on my shoulder. "I'm okay. It's gonna be okay."

"It's all right even if you're not okay, Alex." Laura said as we let go of him. "But, like Liyah said, we'll be here for you."

"Thanks guys." He continued to smile as his eyes started to tear. "I'm okay. I'm just a little surprised. That's all. My dad said she had problems with medications, some painkillers and all. When I was back home at Seattle, my mom was very sick."

"I'm really sorry, Alex." I said with all sincerity. I slid both my hands to hold his one hand, and I could feel his sorrow by the tightness of his grip.

So, as it turned out, our week before the semester started turned out to be more filled than I thought. I thought it was going to be some boring and repeating days at work and at the loft or even at the hospital for Laura's checkups, and I wish it was like that because I hated seeing Alex all hurt. So we all flew to Seattle with our luggage because we were to stay at their house for two nights.