Fragile: Must Handle With Care

Chapter 25: Ouch!

"Excuse me??" Alex pretends to be offended.

"Yeah you heard me".

"Care to repeat what you just said?"

"Why are you such an asshole?" I repeat.

"That's a stupid question" He shrugs his shoulders.

"Alex this is a serious question!"

"Okay okay"

"So tell me".

"Well"

"Well..." I say.

"Two years ago, my mum passed away. She was murdered".

My jaw drops.

"Alex I'm so sorry" I give Alex my condolences.

"Yeah thanks. So she was murdered and her killer still hasn't been found. But I know who it was".

"W-who?"

"Her ex boyfriend. He was married whilst he was with my mum, my mum found out and I'm sure you can guess  the rest of the story".

"Alex I'm so sorry" I say honestly. I put my hands on top of his. He seems taken aback by my action.

"It's cool. Life goes on. Events from your past shape you into the person you become today. It wasn't easy losing her. After that, me and my little sister were left alone until my aunt and uncle let us stay with them. I can't fucking stand two timers and abusive people. They make me fucking sick. I can't tolerate abusers at all", I gulp loudly. "If I saw someone abusing someone, I would beat the bitch till he's black and blue" I stare in awe at Alex.

"Why have your eyes suddenly lit up?" He chuckles.

"I just — I don't, I can't explain" I'm at a loss for words. I squeeze Alex's hands so tight that they could potentially break.

"Ouch!" Alex yells. I look down at his hands and I remembered he hurt himself earlier on and I didn't help by squeezing his hand.

"Oh My gosh Alex I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to, I can't believe" I ramble on.

"It's fine!!!. Gosh what do you think is going to happen?? Someone is going to end your precious Alex Sharpe?" He smirks.

"You're being ridi— WHAT did you just say???" Not realising what Alex just said, I soon come to my senses.

"When he gets hurt, don't blame me" Alex imitates the messages I received this morning word for word.

"THAT WAS YOU???? YOU SON OF A —" I stop talking because what I was going to say wasn't appropriate. I look down, feeling bad.

"I got you good, you gotta admit" Alex breaks the silence.

"No you didn't" I lie.

"I did too".

"You really didn't"

"Is that why you expressed so much affection and worry this morning when I 'hurt myself'?" He air quotes 'hurt myself'.

"You know what- you just- like" I can't think of a way to defend myself. He's actually right for the first time in his life.

"That's what I thought" He smirks.

"What's even the time?" I try changing the subject.

Alex pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket. He presses his home button and looks at the time. "It is 11:36pm".

"You don't say Sherlock".

"What do you mean by that!?"

"If it was 11 thirty in the morning, it would clearly be light"

"You know what? I'm leaving you all alone, I'm going back to the guys"
Alex gets up from the rock, I'm still sitting. I grab his hand to prevent him from leaving.

"You can't just leave me, Mason will beat you up" I tell him.

"Oh yeah because he fancies you so much that he would beat the shit out of his best friend".

"Oh yes. That reminds me. Whilst myself and Mason were talking, he confessed he actually likes Hannah and that he put on the bitch act so she'd like him. We can't tell Hannah; it's top secret" I whisper.

"Why are you whispering as if anyone is gonna hear you?".

"Just shut your mouth"

"So that explains why he was being such an ass to me".

"Takes one to know one" I say cheekily.

"You what????" Alex gets closer to me.

"Alex we should get going, it's really late" I tell him.

"Come on then" Alex instructs me. I get
up and we leave the rock area.

We walk for about five minutes, "Alex how are we going to get back exactly?"

"Maybe if you didn't pretend I was so dumb, you would know that I have a very good memory" He says proudly. "Just follow me".

"I'm not sure I trust you when you say something like that" I say worriedly.

"Just listen to me you idiotic girl" I reluctantly listen to Alex and follow him.

I hate nature. I just hate it. It's so creepy and scary and simply ew. I cannot stand insects and the woods is just crawling with insects.

"Babes you might wanna be careful there's a lot of spiders crawling around"

"SPIDERS!?! WHAT THE FUCK!!!" I am absolutely terrified of spiders. They're the one thing I cannot stand. Out of fear, I jump on Alex's back, almost like a piggyback.

"Don't do that again. I'm pretty sure my spine just broke" Alex exaggerates.

"Oh please stop lying, you actually lie SOO much"

"I know you love it"

"I really don't"

"But you really do".

Alex carries me on his back the entire way until we finally see the resort in the distance. I've got to give it to him, he's got a really good memory.

We enter the resort lobby.
"Bye princess"

"Bye Sharpe"
We say bye to each other and we go to our respective rooms.
Hannah is knockout. I go to the bathroom and wash my face and change into my pyjamas. I get into bed and I just lay there for a while.

I saw a totally different side to Alex, it's opened my eyes. And maybe my heart...