In A New Life [Lams]

Chapter 14: Burr is Dead

A/N: TRIGGER WARNING FOR ABUSE FIGHTING AND ASSAULT

Since Halloween, Eliza's been giving me weird vibes, and I don't know what it is, but I guess she and Jefferson discussed it, because he seemed to know more about it than he probably should. The two of them have been talking a lot more lately, so I kinda had to open my heart up to her again. That was absolutely going to be more difficult than ever.

I definitely still wasn't ready for her to be part of my life again. I wasn't ready to forgive her. Eliza's still a bit of a bitch chasing after a taken man. She could be there once and tried to talk to me, but that didn't mean I was comfortable around her. But if pretending to be fine with her meant there was no fighting and my teachers stayed out of this, then I was fine with it all. And it stayed that way, at least until George called me into his office.

Hands shaking, heart beating, mind racing, jelly legs, I made my way down to the office. I don't recall ever being there, but I had to have been if George actually called me into his office.

The secretary told me to just sit in his office while we waited for him to return from the copy machine. The room was nice. Small, quaint. He didn't have many pictures in his room, though. As far as I know, I was his only kid, and he and Martha left things on shitty terms, so there were no pictures of kids and definitely no pictures of a wife or spouse. He had a few pictures of the dogs on the walls and on his desk. In one of the photographs, probably from Christmas last year, Sweet Lips, TrueLove, and Vulcan were on one side, then it was George, and Drunkard, Taster, and Madame Moose on the other side with all of them wearing little Santa hats. George had his arms around Vulcan and Drunkard's necks. All of them seemed to be pretty happy. Seeing him so happy made my heart swell. He was usually unhappy with me, and super pissed, so seeing him smile was a rarity.

Upon entering his office and entering super creepy stalker status, I sat in the plush maroon seat with wooden stability across from his big black swivel chair. If he were to sit across from me, I would be staring him straight in the eyes of the man who was about to punish me for lord knows what.

Shortly after placing myself in the chair, the door behind me opened and closed. I didn't bother checking to see who it was. I knew who it was, and what I knew was confirmed by the voice of the mysterious guest.

"Alex," his voice bellowed, welcomingly. It made me want to turn my head and get slapped in the face with gingerbread men and Mrs. Claus coming at me with a hot tray of cookies

Immediately, I knew it was a trap. He was making me think this was some innocent visit, but I knew the truth. If I looked him in the eyes, I would be a six year old finding out that the fat man that brought me presents every year wasn't actually real.

My grip on the chair tightened so hard I could feel the splinters sinking into my skin, with my knuckles themselves becoming ghosts. My entire body froze up. I could feel the muscles being laced with a thin layer of ice that they weren't quite strong enough to break out of.

Not knowing why I was here freaked me out the most. He placed a large hand on my shoulder, and I could feel the chill of his lack of body heat transfer to my skin. I refused to look up, kept my gaze firm ahead.

Washington dropped his manilla folder on the desk of already growing paper stacks, somehow not shifting a thing. As he sat down, I lowered my focus to the dusty ground that hadn't been vacuumed in years.

"Alexander," Washington spoke softly. Probably able to detect my not so good job of hiding the fear I was currently facing. But at the name, I glared holes into the unkempt carpet.