My Heart and Other Black Holes (My Heart #1)

Chapter 37

A few days later, Alfie was excited to be on the way home. He had missed Zoe and wanted to see her again. He opened the front door. "Little one?" he called. "Zo?" he repeated when she didn't answer. Maybe she was upstairs and hadn't heard him? "Zoe, I'm home," he said loudly.

The guinea pigs squeaked but there was no reply from Zoe. Alfie called her phone. Joe answered. "Hey Alfie," "Joe, where's Zoe?" "She's round mine and Caspar's" "But didn't she know I was coming home today?" "Yeah she did..." "So why did she go over to yours? Why did you answer her phone?" "She's filming a video with Caspar," "Couldn't she have done that a different day?" "Look Alfie, I'm gonna have to go..." "No! Have I done something to upset her?" No answer. "Joe..." "Rowan remembered everything and left again," "She what?" "She left. Jack Howard went with her," "What's he got to do with anything?" "He's Rowan's boyfriend..." "Are you kidding? But I still don't get why Zoe's not here," "Because she blames you Alfie!" Joe said and then he hung up. Alfie stared at his phone in disbelief.

Zoe blamed him for Rowan leaving again. He had to fix this. Alfie called a taxi and got to Rowan's road in a couple of hours. He was going to talk to her. Alfie didn't remember which number she lived at. It was either 21 or 23. He went with 21 and knocked on the door.

Jack Howard answered it. Great. "What?" Jack said angrily.

"Can I talk to Rowan?" Alfie asked.

"Okay, fine. She'll be home soon. You can come in," Jack lied. It was his house, and Rowan was next door in her own. Alfie walked in and awkwardly sat on the sofa; looking at his surroundings. He decided he may as well apologise to Jack while he was here...

"I wanted to say that I was sorry," Alfie started.

Jack frowned. "Are you fucking joking?" he scoffed. Alfie looked shocked. "What gives you the right to – you know what, forget it," Jack decided.

"No... tell me," Alfie insisted. "What is your problem with me? You're dating my girlfriend's sister so we'll have to start getting used to each other," Alfie stood up and so did Jack. Being only 5'9, Jack was a lot shorter than Alfie but that didn't intimidate him.

"You killed my baby," he spat angrily. And then Jack punched him between the eyes. Alfie groaned and stepped backwards; putting his hand to his face.

"What the fuck?" Alfie yelled.

"You killed my fucking baby and you have the audacity to come to my house and fucking apologise?!" Jack yelled back. He punched Alfie again; this time in the mouth and then kept punching him. Alfie stumbled to the floor and Jack stood over him and kept hitting him.

"Get the fuck off me!" Alfie shouted. Jack stopped and ran his hand through his hair. Then he punched the wall in anger.

"Get out," Jack muttered through gritted teeth. Alfie stood up slowly and left the house. Then Jack rushed next door to Rowan's house. As soon as she opened the door, she smiled.

"Jack," she greeted happily. Jack smiled and kissed her passionately. He didn't feel bad for freaking out and punching Alfie – he deserved it – he killed their baby. The two of them sat on the sofa and watched movies for the rest of the afternoon.