Entity

Chapter 6: Burned

  When we finish the food that Alex had brought he asks me,

   "What do you want for dessert? How about some chocolate?"

  "Okay, so what if for some odd reason I didn't know what this delicacy called chocolate was, would you still give me some?" I question nervously, feeling like a complete idiot for not knowing what it was

  "Uh well, if you didn't know what it was then I try to explain it to you but it's kinda hard to explain but it tastes amazing so I would give you some to try," he states while scratching the nape of his neck in concentration.

  "Well, okay, I'm going to trust you, but if I die from you poisoning me then I will come back from the dead and kill you then go back to being dead!" I exclaim, raising my fist up in triumph for my genius plan.

  "Okay, okay. Just..let..me..get..it," he says in frustration while trying to reach for the gold cardboard box in the back of his cabinets.

  He grunts from the effort. As he struggles, I see that his shirt has risen and what I notice shocks me to the core.

   I see scars, and they weren't regular I-fell-down-the-stairs-when-I-was-a-kid scars. No, these were huge, with skin straining to keep the old wound together and healed. The skin a dark shade of pink from how deep the wound once was. 

I asked him about them, nervous about putting him out of his comfort zone by stepping out of my boundaries, while he was concentrated on getting the supposed chocolate,

  "Um, Alex? Where'd you get those large scars?"

  His whole body went ridged and tense. He turned around slowly and explained painfully,

  "I was in a fire once and the shrapnel from an explosion had sliced through my back leaving me with these beautiful scars."

  I grimaced with the images that had popped up into my mind.

   Had he suffered so horribly? I tried miserably to reassure him by telling him about my strange birthmark thought I knew it wasn't much,

  "Well, I know it isn't the same thing or even close but I have a birthmark that looks like a bullet hole on the left side of my collarbone if it helps to know that I kinda understand."

  All he did was stare at me in what seemed to me to be recognition. Hurt flashed across his eyes as fast as it came along with the sense of recognition.

   I didn't know why though because I had never spoken to him about it or any other time before today.

  "Here's the chocolate," Alex says after pulling out a brown chunk from the gold box.

  He places it in my hand and I could smell the sweet aroma making my taste buds water. I popped it into my mouth before the brown pice melted anymore onto my hand and felt the sweet candy melt on my tongue. The chocolate tasted bittersweet and felt like heaven in my mouth. It was sensational. Before I could open my mouth to express my experience I blanked out and was dragged into what seemed to be a memory.

  "Try it," he said, holding out a brown lump in his palm.

  "What is it?"

  "They call it chocolate."

  "Did you try it yet?"

  "No, I wanted to try it with you."

  "Okay."

  I grabbed the piece out of his hand and he held another in the other hand that wasn't previously holding my chunk. We counted to three before we nibbled on it. My mouth began to water and I looked up to his green eyes to find him looking into my gray ones. We said simultaneously,

  "Wow."

  I come out of my haze to find Alex staring at me, waiting for my response to the chocolate.  I recovered quickly to hide the fact that I hadn't really been "there" with him.

  "Oh my gosh! This is so good! How come I've never tried this before?" I ask Alex with my brows furrowed.

  "It's hard to get around The Commonwealth area," is his explanation.

  "Oh well, then they should make it more often!"

  "Yeah," he responds fondly, looking at the box full of the sweet candies.

"How come I've never seen you til today? I know you moved in a while before but you never came out. And where are your parents?" I ask, with a sudden burst of curiosity.

  "Well first, I had to unpack the whole summer and I had work. My parents are traveling the places that were affected by The Nuclear War so I don't see them much either," he states calmly.

  "Oh, that's cool. Where do you work?"

  "The Commons storage facility."

  "Rad."

  He gives me an incredulous look after my response. I really didn't understand what was so weird with my special choice of words. I guess I'm into older things,

  "What?"

  "Don't ever say "rad" again," he says with a scowl.

  "Well, I like it so, nah," I reply, putting a finger to my chin, making me look like I was deep in thought, "I don't think so."

  "Okay, then, be that way but I have to head to work now so I'll see you around. You can see yourself out," he states, waving his hand.

  "Alright, see you around."

A/N

QOTC (Question Of The Chapter):

What happened to Alma? Why did she have that strange flashback?

Sorry for the shorter chapter😣.

Besos, Cass