Fall

Chapter 2

After about 20 minutes of walking along the shore, I found myself exhausted and paused to take a break and sit in the warm sand.
"It looks like I'm not the only one who wanders." I heard a deep husky voice from behind me say. I whipped around, finding Alex Santiago making his way towards me.
Great. The last thing I wanted was to be talking to him.
"Look why don't you go screw yourself, Alex. Don't even bother trying to talk to me." I shooed him away, not because I didn't really wanna talk to him, which I didn't, but because I didn't want to talk to anyone in general.
"Ouch." He makes his way in front of me and I look up at him, his hand over his heart. "You know, you'd think a girl like you would be more understanding towards people like me."
"What the hell does that even mean? 'A girl like you'?" I narrow my eyes at him as he sits down in the sand in front of me, crossing his legs and leaning forward.
"Oh, it's not a bad thing. But, let's just say, we all know you've pretty much been through hell and back. And you'd think a girl like you wouldn't be so quick to judge others. Especially, a sweet, kind hearted, misunderstood guy like me." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Please, like you're a kind hearted guy. You've been to juvie three times since freshman year." I scoffed, turning my attention away from him and focusing on the ocean, trying to calm myself down.
"Like I said, I'm misunderstood." He shrugged his shoulders again. I laughed a little bit to myself. "By the way, you smell terrible. I can't believe Bradley would do something like that."
"You saw that...?" I buried my head in my hands, bringing my knees to my chest.
"Hell yeah I did. Made me wanna punch him in the face." I looked at him questioningly.
"Oh, don't feel flattered, sweetheart. I didn't want to punch him because he did it to you, I wanted to punch him because he did it in general. He's a heartless asshole." He shook his head, looking away in the distance. I laughed at his comment.
"Yeah, he is. Always has been." I fiddled with my fingers in my lap a while before a thought popped into my head.
"Wait, did you follow me here?" I asked him. He said he saw what happened, but yet he's here and not there. His response baffled me a little bit because the next thing I noticed was him dying of laughter.
"You think I'm a stalker?" He was still laughing as he managed to choke his words out.
"I mean, you have been to juvie. Who knows what delinquent bullshit stunt you'll pull next." We stared at each other for a moment before he spoke.
"Okay, let me get something straight." He cleared his throat. "If we're gonna be friends-" I burst out laughing.
"Friends?" I choked on air, trying to catch my breath, laughing. "Who ever said I wanted to be friends with you?" He shook his head.
"Look, Brynna. I'm just trying to be nice here. And by the looks of it, you're gonna need a friend." Kimmie. Well shit.
"The last thing I need right now is a friend," I rolled my eyes. "Especially you." I pushed myself off the ground and started to walk away.
"Brynna, really?" I heard Alex call from behind me. Turning around to face him, he had his arms crossed over his chest.
"What." I responded harshly.
"Why do you do that?" He asked.
"Do what?"
"Push people away." His voice was hushed. He started making his way towards me, so I backed away.
"I don't push people away. I'm pushing YOU away." I retorted. He just shook his head and scoffed.
"Why?" He asked me.
"Because you're bad news. Who wants to be friends with a ex-con?" My attitude was going off the walls ever since I got here, and Bradley was to blame. So why was I being so rude to Alex...?
"You're so quick to judge others, Brynna."
"Why do you even care? You don't know me at all." I asked him.
"I don't care."
"Then why are we still standing here having this conversation?" I crossed my arms over my chest. The horrid stench of beer caught my nose, making me cringe.
"Because your best friend is over there having the time of her life with a boy you cant forgive over something that happened almost 4 years ago. Were still here having this conversation because you have built up these walls around yourself, blocking out everyone who could possibly care about you and you don't even see it. And the funny thing is, is that you can't even come to the realization that your best friend isn't happy anymore. She likes Bradley, Brynna. And has for a long time and everyone but you knows. She has tried to tell you but your hatred for him has blocked out her only chance at really being happy. She's been keeping it from you to spare your feelings and you're completely oblivious. Yes, Bradley is a complete and utter dick. But that doesn't mean you can let your judgement of him get in the way of your best friend being happy. So why are we still here having this conversation, Brynna? You tell me." His speech took me aback. I couldn't even gather my thoughts, let alone make any noise. "It's because while you're best friend is over there, enjoying herself, you're dying on the inside. You're still in pain. Everyone else may not see it, but I do." He stepped closer to me. "It's okay to admit you're not okay, Brynna. Everyone feels pain. Maybe in different ways, but everyone does."
I knew he was right, but how could a complete stranger know how I feel?
"You don't even know me." He giggled.
"I don't have to. Like I said, you're so quick to judge others that you don't take the time to know them. Me? Im a very observant person. But you wouldn't know that because your opinion of me was shaped by all these little rumors and stories you hear about me. Its all shaped by the shit people say about me, so therefore, you're pushing yourself away from me so that you don't stray from the habits of todays society. You wanna conform to society? Then fine with me. Who am I to stop you? Like you said, I don't even know you. But take one thing into consideration," he paused a moment before continuing. "If you really wanted to, you could have left the moment I sat down, but you didn't. You stayed right where you were and continued talking to this beloved, famous ex-con who nobody seems to like or want to talk to. Tell me why that is."
"Because I.. I..." I stuttered to find the right answer to his question but I couldn't.
"It's because deep down, you do want someone to care about you the way that Bradley once did. It's because you want someone to vent your feelings to. You want someone to talk to who will just listen to what you have to say because ever since that day, the day you broke up with Brad, you have felt like your opinion doesn't matter. Like you don't even have a voice anymore. And thats really sad." I couldn't believe the accuracy of his words. I couldn't admit it before, but now I can... I just didn't want to.
"Okay, Dr. Phil. You can act like you know me all you want, but you will never know me. No matter how hard you try, you won't get me to open up to you. Like I said, you don't even know me."
"Is that a challenge I'm hearing?" There was a giant smirk on his face and all I wanted to do in that moment was smack him across the cheek. It took everything in me to retrain myself from doing so.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked him.
"Challenge accepted." The smirk was still there.
And then it happened. I, Brynna Marie, smacked Alex Santiago across the face. I felt proud of myself, but then I heard laughing.
He was laughing.
"What the hell are you laughing? I just smacked the shit out of you." I was frustrated, to be completely honest. I thought at least a little damage had been done, but I guess not.
"You think you can hurt me?" He asked him, taking another step towards me. At this point, he was inches from me.
"I guess juvie really turned you into a man, huh?" The look on his face was full of disappointment.
"Don't act like you know me." He used my words against me.
"I don't have to." I smirked, using his words against him in retaliation. He shook his head, his expression turning from disappointed to angry.
"No, you do have to know me to use my own words against me. Unlike you, I'm not hard to read. You're life is pretty much an open book, mine isn't. Like I said, you don't know two shits about me or my life." He sighed. "I haven't even been talking to you for what, 10 minutes? And all I'be been doing is trying to help you. But I'm done, Brynna. I know that I'm the last person anyone ever wants to talk to around here, but if i can't even get through to you, then who can?"
"And like I said, who wants to be friends with and ex-con?" I was giving attitude left and right during this argument and at this point, I just stopped caring about trying to protect myself from getting hurt by his words, if I did, then theres no shame I guess. "Who even wants advice from someone like you?"
'Someone like you'. Damn. My words even hurt myself when I said them. He took one more step forward, bodies inches apart.
"Let me ask you a question, Brynna." I stayed quiet for a second before shaking my head.
"No, you-" I was silenced when his finger was placed in front of my lips.
"Ew don't fucking touch me." I tried to shove his hand away from my face, but it didn't budge.
"Then just listen to and answer this one question I have." He looked me dead in the eyes. "Okay?" I rolled my eyes.
"Okay." He hesitated a long while before asking.
"What all have you heard about me?" I stayed quiet while I thought about all the reasons Ive heard about why he's gone to juvy so many times. But, now that I think about it, there were so many different ones, but never one that you heard about consistently, which is usually the truth.
"Um, I don't really know. There's a lot actually."
"None of them are true. I can promise you that."
"What?" I asked, shocked.
"You seem surprised." He said.
"Um, well yeah." I sighed. "But if none of them are true... Then which ones are...?" I asked him slowly, almost whispering. He leaned down so close that l could feel his warm breathe on the back of my neck.
"Its better you not know. Because once you do know, who knows what you could do with this information? How do I know you're not going to go spreading rumors about me?" He whispered in my ear. He started backing away slowly, and finally he turned his back to me and started walking back in the direction of the party.
"Where the hell are you going?" I called after him. He turned around, shrugging his shoulders. He continued to walk away, not turning back to look at me.
I took a seat in the sand again, and watched ad his figure slowly got smaller and smaller.