Alerrie: His Son

Ten.

Alex's POV:

I found it pretty hard to sleep on Monday night. The idea that I was meeting my long lost son tomorrow seemed so surreal to me and I was up for hours trying to get my head around it. Finally, in the early hours of the morning, I fell asleep.

The ringing sound of my alarm clock woke me up a few hours later to signal that I needed to go to training. I ate, got changed and jumped in the car to drive to Melwood. Despite being there for a few hours, training passed pretty quickly and no one seemed to notice how distracted I was. I got home at about 1, showered, got dressed, had lunch and said goodbye to Perrie and the kids and was back on the road by 2. I was planning to arrive at Jordie's at about the time he got home from school. Luckily there wasn't too much traffic as it was a weekday and there were no accidents either that could slow me down. At around 2:50, I passed a small shop. I made the quick decision to buy something there - presents for Jordie and Vanessa. Hopping out of my car, I wandered inside. Immediately, I saw a box of chocolates and picked them up for Vanessa. That was easy. Jordie was a little harder to buy for. It hit me that I knew very little about him. I had a 13 year-old son and I couldn't even think of a present to get him. It made me feel a bit shit to be honest. After searching a few aisles, I decided that there was nothing I could get him that felt right, so I thought about the one thing I could give him - the truth. I bought a card, left the shop and got back into my car. After a few minutes of writing in it, I sealed it inside an envelope and drove off in the direction of his house.

A short while later, I rolled up to Jordie's street. I'd obviously been there before to see Vanessa but the previous time, I hadn't appreciated what a lovely area it was in. All the houses were tall, red-brick and tiled roof buildings with tidy gardens full of vegetation. The street itself was clean and lined with vast but currently leafless trees and the road was free from potholes. I was definitely happy to see my son growing up there. I found Jordie's house pretty quickly, having recognised it from my meeting with Vanessa. Stepping out of the car, I took a deep breath of crisp air to calm my nerves, and walked up the driveway to the door. Everything seemed so magnified, from the sound of my shoes crunching in the gravel to the door that I was about to knock on. I swallowed hard and tapped on it three times. Almost immediately, Vanessa opened the door.

"Alex, hi! Come in." She trilled. I obliged, stopping at the coat hooks to hang up my jacket. She led me into the kitchen and sat me down in a chair in front of her before I handed her the box of chocolates.

"Oh thank you! You shouldn't have."

"It was no problem."

"Even so, thanks. Anyway, let's get down to business. So, school's just finished and Jordie'll be back by 3:30, 4 at the latest. I've told Darius to pick up Amalia and Cameron and Ky's going to a friend's house."

"Ok, that sounds good. And he doesn't know I'm here?" I asked.

"No." She replied.

I nodded nervously and bit my lip.

"Hey, it'll be fine." Vanessa assured me, placing a hand on my thigh. "He'll love you."

I smiled awkwardly, a little uncomfortable with her hand placement but I decided to ignore it.

"Um Vanessa, I know you've already said that you don't want him to be in the public eye, but I'm just thinking practically - the press will find out at some point and I want him to be part of my life. I just don't think that will be possible if he's some big secret I have to keep."

Vanessa sighed, a little irritated. She even removed her hand from my thigh. "Alex, look, I know you're right - Jordie will end up in the media at some point, but why does that have to be right now? You've only just got your head around this and so has he, so I don't think it's fair for him to be getting used to this whilst also trying to get used to all the media attention. And he's 13 for Christ's sake, he's too young to be in the news."