For Better Or Worse.

Chapter 19.

Erin's P.O.V

"Alex!!" I yelled as I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him as hard as I could at the moment.

Feeling immediately dizzy I slowly laid back down, rubbing my forehead.

"You gotta take it easy babygirl, you can't move so fast." He said rubbing my hand with his thumb.

Memories of what I had just witnessed came flooding back to me and I started to cry.

"Babygirl what's wrong? Come on please tell me." Alex asked softly.

"Alex I know about your parents and Clayton and what happened, I know everything now." I said lowly to him, almost a whisper.

His face went blank, but his eyes held so much sadness and hurt. I didn't want him to just manage this time. I sat up slowly and held both his hands in my own.

"Look at me Alex. I don't know how but I had some sort of out of body experience and my mom showed up talking all that wise non sense and said were more alike than I know and that were connected. I was showed your memories and what happened to your parents, I even got a compliment from your mom, as weird as that sounds." I said softly, the mention of his mom made his face soften just a bit as he was looking into my eyes.

"I know about Clayton as well. Alex you've had to do the same thing I had to do most of my life. I'd built this wall around myself, around my emotions and hid them. Putting on a mask and pretending that everything was alright, we've both been managing." I said looking down, tears slowly making there way down my face and onto his hand, to which he wiped away and cupped my face making me look at him.

"Look Erin I ju.." I stopped him by covering his mouth with both my hands.

"No. Shush. Your going to hear me out. Alex moving here has forced me to show my emotions and make friends, to allow people to see me. You've made me open up around you and with you, as hard as it was I did it. I don't regret it, believe it or not you've shown more emotions and mood swings to me than my crazy and bipolar cousin when she's PMSing and trust me, that chick is crazy. Anyway, I just want you to know that I'm ready. I want to show you how I feel, to tell you everyday when I'm upset or happy or sad, to just show you that I have a heart and that I can feel yours beating at the same rate." I said still covering his mouth.

You know what this fool decides to do, he licks my freaking hand. Really.

"Ewwww! That's gross! Seriously though!" I squealed, wiping my hand off and he starts to laugh.

"Babygirl look at me." I looked up and we just stayed that way for a while.

"I already knew you had walls up just as I did. I saw it in your eyes the first day we met, I'm surprised you even allowed me to sleep in the same bed with you that night. I'm glad you did because I saw a different side of you that both warmed my heart and frightened me. When I woke up to your screams you have no idea how broken I felt because you wouldn't wake up and I couldn't do anything. I've cared about you since that first night, I knew I would do anything for you, be whatever it is you needed. I also knew that by doing so, you would be breaking down the guard I so perfectly had in place over my heart." He said holding my gaze.

I closed my eyes and said the one thing that I knew I was ready for.

"I love you." I almost whispered.

I earned a laugh from him so I punched him in the arm.

"You insensitive jackass, your supposed to say it back, like you ruined a perfectly good moment." I said to him with my arms crossed.

"Babygirl I love you to, but come on who wouldn't love this face, huh? I mean look at me." He said cockily.

"You better be lucky that I care about you enough to not literally build a permanent wall to keep me from catching your arrogance." I said almost laughing.