Firefly

|Ch. 6|

I looked around at the red cups and Hawaiian clothes that people were wearing. It was like clones of Barbie dolls wearing coconut bra's and leis.

Of course, I was wearing a button up tropical themed shirt with cuffed shorts and white converse. After two years of going to parties every Saturday, you'd think I'd be accustomed to what I should wear to parties. But, dressing skimpy just wasn't my thing.

Brian's arm was around me, his other hand holding onto a beer, as he was chatting it up with Matt from his fraternity.

I stared into my red cup of water, looking around at all the drunkenly happy people. I never drank. It just wasn't my thing. Brian told me that the trick was to just stick water in my cup to make people think I was drinking, so that's what I did. I was too afraid to admit it but I didn't want to have hide who I was.

"Hey babe, Matt has a friend who has a huge boat and he says we should go out on it next week. What do you say?" Brian asked me as his grip on my arm got stronger.

"Yeah sure, that would be fun," I said.

Brian was use to this luxurious lifestyle. While I could be fine just looking on the sales rack, Brian would want to scour the newest expensive trend.

Brian's parents come from a lot of money. They are both award winning surgeons for saving countless people's lives with their new surgical procedure. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't enjoy Brian coming from money. It's just that I would way rather have a heart to heart conversation with him, rather, than Brian talking about what yacht his parents wanted to buy.

"Bro, you will never believe it, my parents bought a vacation house in Maui, so we should all totally go there on winter break," Matt said to Brian and I.

"Yeah man, that would be awesome. But why not just go chill out in the backyard with our blow up pool man? So much better than Maui," Brian said laughing to Matt.

Brian's arm let go of my shoulder as he and Matt went outside.

"Yeah guys, Maui sounds great," I whispered as Brian left without paying attention to me.

I looked around at the flocks of girls and guys cramped into the small frat house. I pushed my way through the crowd and walked out the front door into the brisk night.

I walked over to my light blue punch bug, unlocked it, and got in. Suddenly, my eyes began to well up with tears. I tried to wipe them off but it kept pouring out. I rested my head on the steering wheel and sniffled as my nose began to get stuffy.

I looked up and viewed out my passenger side window at the dancing people inside the house. I started my car and headed towards my dorm.

Suddenly, I passed my dorm and found myself to keep driving. It was if my arms were mechanically reprogrammed to a certain destination as I kept making left and right turns on command. Before I knew it, I saw the street lamp flickering and pulled my bug behind Alex's red truck.

What was I doing here? Why couldn't I just have gone back to my dorm and forgotten about Alex and Brian and just slept.

I slowly got out of the car, contemplating whether I should just drive back. I looked into the vast woods and took a deep breath.

I walked through the woods, trying to squint and find Alex's foot path he had made before. Suddenly, I crept out of the woods and saw Alex sitting on his blanket looking at glowing firefly lights.

I quietly walked over to him and sat down beside him as he looked over at me with a startled look in his eyes.

"Let me guess. Party to hard?" He questioned laughing.

"Something like that," I said giggling.

I turned my gaze towards the yellow glowing fireflies and instantly felt at peace.

"You know, you never answered my question. Why do you let Brian run all over you?" Alex asked looking at me.

Well, my peace was shortly lived as I turned towards him and I could feel my hands beginning to get sweaty. I never really opened up to anyone about how Brian treated me. In front of everyone else, I pretended we were happy together.

"Because, how do I stand up to a guy like that?" I said breathing outwards with frustration.

"It's simple. You just tell him you feel Maddie, how hard is that?" Alex said looking at me with genuine concern.

"You don't know Brian. He gets whatever he wants. Money, girls, vacations, parties, anything," I said.

"You just need practice. Just pretend I'm Brian and tell me off."

I looked at Alex like he was crazy. There was no way I was telling him off. I gazed into his green eyes as they looked at me reading my every move, as always.

"Fine, but I don't think your ready for this?" I said laughing.

"Try me," he replied smirking.

I took a deep breath in to compose myself as Alex and I stood up.

"Alright, I'm tired of you saying you love me when you don't mean it. I'm tired of you always getting your way. Do you even know anything about me? Have you ever even tried to get to know who I am as a person? Because I know a heck of a lot more about you than you know about me. I've loved you for the longest time Brian and it's about time you start showing that you love me too," I said getting angry and pushing Alex over.

I quickly helped him back up and said, "I am so sorry, Alex."

"Don't apologize to me. I'm not Alex. Who is this Alex you speak of?"

We both laughed as we sat back down on the blanket. I breathed heavily as I still tried to catch my breath from getting worked up. Alex seemed to always say the right things to make me feel better.

"Hey, don't worry about. It'll all work out," Alex said.

"I sure hope so."

Why was Alex trying so hard to help me out? It's not that I wasn't enjoying it, it's just that why would he want Brian and I to be okay?

"Why don't you tell me next time you come over here, so that way you don't have to walk through these woods alone?" He said.

"Oh please, I did fine in the woods by myself," I stated.

"I could hear you from a mile away," He said laughing.

I laughed with him as I studied his face. His smile was bright and huge as he looked right into my eyes and we stared at each other for an eternity. His long wavy blonde hair was to his shoulders and his green eyes were glowing as much as the fireflies.

"What are you doing next Saturday?" he asked me.

I quickly snapped back into reality and looked at him speechless. Did Alex just ask to hang out with me?

"Nothing that I know of," I said.

"Well get prepared because we are going to have a Brian free day. Be ready by 2?" he asked.

I nodded as I still was trying to wrap my head around Alex asking me out. Was this date? No, it couldn't be. Alex was still searching for his soulmate and I already had mine which was Brian. I mean, we couldn't possibly go on one. It was just a friend outing. Yeah, just two people getting to know each other better nothing more.

He still stared at me and smiled as he looked away awestruck by the beauty of the fireflies. Was I beginning to like Alex? No, I couldn't like him.

I glanced over at him as he tried to reach out and catch a firefly. I gushed. Was I slowly falling for Alex Porter? This couldn't be happening, but somehow, I was perfectly okay with it.

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hey guys! If anyone is amazing at editing chapters please private message me because I would love for people to help me with my wording or grammatical errors. Sadly, I am currently behind in writing my chapters for you guys. So, there will not be a surprise extra chapter this week. But be prepared for chapter 7 next friday :) So, what do you guys think of Alex and Maddie's relationship so far?