It Has To Be You

Chapter 8

“Dude, you suck with girls”, Michael clicked his tongue.

     “What?”, Alex demanded.

     “He’s trying to say that you should go talk to her”, Chelsea butted in.

     “Oh, right”, Alex got up awkwardly and went to Danielle’s bedroom.

     “Knock knock”, Alex said as he entered Danielle’s room. “Hey, you alright?” he asked when he saw Danielle’s forlorn face,

     “About time you noticed”, Danielle shifted her gaze to the window.

     “Look, I’m not sure what I done, okay?”, Alex sat on her bed, in front of her line of vision. “I just helped a person in need; you don’t have to be angry.”

    “Who said I was angry?” 

     Alex was stunned when it hit him. “Oh…you were jealous weren’t you?”

     He stroked her face with his hand and said, “Danielle, I seriously prefer brunettes over blondes.”

     Danielle smiled and leaned over to kiss Alex. He smiled as he kissed her back and wrapped his arms around her but something caught his eye. 

     He broke off and Danielle looked at him questingly.

     “Who are those people?” Alex asked and pointed behind her.

     Danielle turned and saw the picture of Olivia, Linn and her that she had kept on her table.

     “Oh, those were my first step-parents.” Danielle took the photo frame and handed it to Alex. “They were the nicest people on the planet.”

     Alex gulped with difficulty as he took a good long look at the picture. “Wha…what happened to them?”

     “I have no idea. They are MIA”, Danielle replied.

     Alex dropped the photo frame on her bed and stood up with unease.

     “Alex? What’s wrong?”,

     “I…I’m fine”, Alex faltered.

     “No you’re not”, Danielle got up. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

     “Nothing, what do you mean what’s wrong?”

     “Now”, Danielle demanded.

     Alex bit his lip “Did Charles told you about me being a patrol guard for a couple but I failed?”

     “Yeah, what about it?”

     “Well, I don’t think so he told you the whole thing”, Alex said. “See, I was your age when it happened. I was on night patrol and I saw someone slip into the house. I got my gun ready and rushed into the house. When I got there, the assassin got there first and I aimed at his head. I wasn’t very good with guns at that time and he was faster. The woman who we were supposed to look after got hit by a stray bullet, it could have been anyone but I swear I wasn’t aiming at them. The man died shortly after because of a heart failure. The other guys believed me but the next day when the police did an investigation, they found my fingerprints on the bullets and we had to flee so…here we are.”

     Danielle was dumbstruck. She didn’t hear anything besides ‘the woman got hit…the man dies shortly after…my fingerprints on the bullets’.

     “Danielle?” Alex asked when he saw her expression. “Are you okay?”

     She didn’t understand, as if her brain short-circuited and needed to be rebooted. Around her, everything was a blur while she was motionless in the middle of it all. How could this happen? Alex touched her arm and jarred her thoughts.