Waking Up

Recovory

The next morning Alaska found herself in her bed aching all over. She looked out her window. It was raining, the best kind of rain, the rain that you would curl up by a fire and read a good book to. Alaska stayed in bed watching the rain. Feeling the coldness reaching her. Alaska tries to get up. She winces. The wound in her leg shoots up her leg. She limps over to her bathroom and takes an aspirin.
Alaska looks at her reflection. There are bags under her eyes. She looks pale and her hair is greasy.
She grabs the Jack Daniels bottle that she stashed there last school year from its hiding stop and takes a swig. It burns all the way down into her stomach. Alaska caps the bottle and puts it back.
I have 2 days go recover before practice. Alaska thinks.
At that moment Alaska's aunt come into her room with breakfast in bed. Her aunt and has the biggest smile on her face, so does Alaska. "What's all this for?" Alaska asks. Her uncle comes in.
"For making the soccer team." He says.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Her aunt asks. Setting down the tray filled with food.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't think I was going to take the offer."
Her aunt and uncle look at each other.
"No matter. We are glad you made it and I made you some breakfast in bed. So get into bed because this won't happen very often." Alaska's aunt gleams.
Alaska gets back into bed trying as hard as she can not to limp. She doesn't want her guardians to know what happened, surely someone would end up in jail, and it's not like Alaska is completely innocent.
Alaska takes a bite of bacon and eggs. She puts the syrup away on her night stand. Alaska has hated syrup ever since she was little because she got put on a diet one time and anything too sugary she hates.
She takes her phone from her nightstand, afraid to turn it on. But she does.
20 missed calls. 129 text messages. And 5 voicemails.
Alaska reads some of the texts.
From: Sam
Ur dead u hear me?
From:Nydia
Hope you got home okay
From: Meg
Fuck off bitch I never want to see you again.
From: Darwin
Sorry
From: Sam
U better watch ur back. I'm coming 4 u
From: Unknown
It's Morpheus I'll be checking on you sometime today so be prepared and stay strong.
All these messages and way more death threats from Meg and Sam.
Alaska deletes all the voicemails knowing they'll be that bad and worse. She saves Morpheus's number into her phone and starts deleting more messages.
She puts her phone down and continues eating her breakfast. Savoring each bite.
~~~
Catching up on her reading for school and all the homework that her teachers didn't give her, Alaska stays in her room for the rest of the day and awaits the moment she hears the doorbells ringing. Only it is just her luck that Morpheus decides the not take the stairs. A little knock at her window take her out of a really good chapter in her history book about Abraham Lincoln. She puts her book down and glares at him. Why couldn't he have taken the front door? She gets up and limps over to the window and opens it with the usual struggle it takes to open her rusted window. "You couldn't have taken the front door?"
Morpheus sort of dives through the window and rolls onto the floor beside her. He looks up and smiles. His hair pushed back by a bandanna.
"Didn't want them thinking anything bad was going on." He says quickly.
"We do have a project together and they know this you could have just said that." She continues to glare at him.
"Oh, right. I could do that right now. Just climb back out the window and take the front door."
"Noo, its fine joe I just didn't want to get out of bed and walk on my leg while I'm still resting with practice Monday and all."
"Oh forgot about that" he says quickly again. He looks around the room again like it's the first time he's seen it. "Did you get my text?"
"Yeah got it this morning."
Morpheus looks at Alaska for a moment. Only a glance though.
"What's got you so wired up?" Asks Alaska.
"Just had a lot of coffee last night. Didn't really sleep." He says fidgeting with his fingers. Now clearly not trying to hide it. "I was watching over you while you slept making sure they didn't come back and get you."
Alaska smiles a bit. "Thank you." She looks away. "Although I did get a lot of threatening messages on my phone."
He turns to see her.
"Could I see them?" He asks. Getting closer to Alaska.
"Sorry I deleted them. Do you want something to stop you from doing that?" She points at his hands and legs, they were shaking. His leg starts to tap the ground. "There going to hear." She says and she limps to her record player and starts to play an old AC/DC song.
"You-you have a great taste in music." He says as he looks around the room again. He taps the middle point in his glasses to make them sit on his nose right.
"Thank you, my parents got me into all the good bands. Later I got them into some great ones as well." Her eyes no longer have the twinkle in them as they did a minute ago.
Morpheus's voice gets soft. "You never told me what happened to them."
The room gets quiet. Alaska looks away. Morpheus stops fidgeting and steps even closer to Alaska.
"They um- they got loaded one night, on ever drug they could get their hands on." Alaska takes a breath. "Their alcohol leves were a 1.2, they should have been dead on that alone. But they left to go see me play a soccer game that was the next morning, they were a whole nights drive away from the games location. So they took off and the rounded the corner and lost control of the car or something. The went head first into an on coming semi-truck. It's said that they were killed instantly. But the eye witness says he saw my mom struggling to get out of the car, so loaded she couldn't even unbuckle her seat belt. Then the car caught fire."
Morpheus stayed quiet for a while longer. He got closer and Alaska turned around tears covering her face. She fell into his arms and wept a little more.
"I'm so sorry girly. I know it's hard losing someone. I know the pain I feel in nothing compared to yours but I understand." He stood there stroking her hair.
"Al want come down and watch Top Gun?" Her aunt shouts from the bitten of the stairs.
"No thank you aunty." Alaska shouts back. Stepping away from Morpheus, and sitting on her bed.
Morpheus sits next to her and puts his arm around her, seeing her shiver in the cold.
"Hell im probably making you cold huh? I'm all wet. I'm sorry girly." He says, he takes off his jackets and puts it over her chair to dry off. Morpheus also closes the window and shuts her door.
Alaska lays down on her bed, leaving room for Morpheus to lay next to her. He lays next to her and they look into each other's eyes while he strokes her hair. She smiles at him and snuggles closer to his chest.
Morpheus takes the spare blanket at the bottom of the bed. It has a picture of a horse on it. Then he covers Alaska with it.
~~~
When Alaska wakes up again Morpheus is gone and the window is closed again. She sits up and smiles to herself.
It's nearly dark. Alaska's stomach growls though. Down in the kitchen her uncle is up and is making some top ramen. "Want some Al?" He asks, looking out the window.
"No thanks I think I'll have some real food." She jokes.
"I'll make you something if you want."
Alaska's smile gets wider.
"No thank you uncle I'll make myself something, I've been a little selfish for far too long, it's time I start to take care of myself a little more."
Alaska's uncle turns around, facing Alaska. He takes her into a hug.
"My brother did some stupid things in his life. But bringing you into this world was the best thing he ever did." Alaska felt a tear drop into her shoulder. Her uncle was crying. He hadn't cried since the funeral. Alaska hugged him back even tighter, which made her uncle hug back a little tighter too.
"Thank you uncle Jay."
She went up to her room again. Hands filled with food and heart filled with love. That night Alaska wept herself to sleep, but for all the right reasons.