The Quirky Tale of April Hale (Quirky Series #1)

2.25. the explosion of the mind and the body

A L E X

It started out slow.

Really slow in fact, that he never bothered to really check himself on it. Or put a stop on it.

And when he finally realized it, he already had Lovesickness in an alarming high stadium towards a certain girl he knew he shouldn't love.

Feelings weren't something that Alex liked to discuss about, or talk about, or for God's sake, feel about. He liked to keep his mind clear, thank you very much, and he didn't like his judgement clouded by trivial, inconsequential feelings.

It was hard enough to have a live like his. He had a lot of responsibilities, and he knew he would be bequeathed with a whole lot more responsibilities sooner or later. Feelings made everything harder. Feelings would slow him down.

And recently, as he had suddenly found out this terrible Cancer called April Hale, he felt that he had caught on the worst feeling ever:

Falling in love without wanting to. Slowly. Steadily. Over the years.

It was exactly the kind of feeling he wanted to avoid the most, because it was exactly the kind of feeling that would be the hardest to get rid of.

Oh, damn it.

He knew he should preserve. He shouldn't act on it, and he knew he never would act on it. But sometimes he found himself slipping away from his ironclad will. He would play a bit with this particular brand of Cancer, touching her hand or patting her head or ordering food for her.

And it felt so good. So right. So explosive. As if just doing even the simplest things for her could supply him with endless energy that he could get on and on and on.

He knew he was doomed, in the worst possible way.

It didn't help that April was finally reunited with someone who had broken her.

Ryder Black wasn't someone that Alex would consider worthy enough to think about for more than five minutes at a time. Ryder was oftentimes ungraceful, and he didn't have the kind of power or money that Alex could benefit from.

(And he would only keep the beneficial friends, not the detrimental ones)

But apparently, Alex's Cancer considered Ryder to be someone worthy of her love, time, tears, and thoughts. It often made Alex angry at how much effort April wasted on Ryder. It made him even angrier that he would care for something like that.

It wasn't how he was designed to operate. It wasn't how his family taught him to live.

Because, really, even though Alex knew that he would have gone full-stupid for April, he inherently knew that she wouldn't do the same towards him. Or at least, if somehow, someday, she considered him as an option, her efforts towards him wouldn't be in the same par in which she had done for Ryder Black.

Alex's particular brand of cancer was April, but unfortunately, April's particular brand of cancer was Ryder.

Alex only wanted to settle down with someone who would consider him a dangerous nuclear to her world. And preferably someone who wouldn't remind him of his biggest sin.

━━━━━━━━━━♡

2.25. the explosion of the mind and the body

There were a few perks of having Bella as your housemate.

First, she almost didn't take any of your food ratio. I personally think that she was designed to survive without the same amount of food most people needed. I almost never saw her eat, and when I did, it was only measly amount of yoghurt or fruits.