Making Her Fall

Chapter 16

     A soft thud echos in the room as I let my head fall back to the wall. Why is there never anything good on YouTube when you need it. It seems like my only life the past few days include either the gym or YouTube.  I should begin studying for finals before too long and try to stay ahead, but I just don't feel like it.

     Things finally started to settle done after the incident at the Halloween party last week. Thankfully, no one pressed charges so none of us got in trouble. Also. Maxwell was completely gone after that night. Now that really brings a smile to my face.

     The door creaks open as Alex makes his way inside. His face is still partial bruised from the hits he took from Maxwell. "I need you to come with me." I frown at his words trying to study his face.

     "Something up?" The best word to describe his face was conflicted.

     "I just need to get some things off my chest and you haven't been having the best couple of days. So...I figured we could head down to the field, toss the football around, and just bullshit like we used to." He had already grabbed the ball when I started to get up. It felt weird because in high school I was the one always asking to go throw a ball around.

     I was always too small to play on the football team and Alex would listen whenever I had issues. We would just head down to the high school stadium and just throw. There were times we would be there for a few hours until dark, but those times really helped. "Of course. It has been too long since we did that anyway."

     I jump to my feet grabbing my keys and phone before heading to the door. I throw my arm around Alex shaking him. "You know things will eventually work out don't you?" He eyes me for a moment before his fist plants itself in my side making me let go of him. "Race you there?"

     "You're on"

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     The ball springs out of my hand taking flight towards Alex who catches is easily then he returns it to me. We repeat this over and over listening to the night around us. The sun had set on the way here, but we got lucky that some of the extra lights around the practice field were still on. Throwing a football in the pitch black did not sound appealing.

     We had hardly said a word since getting here. Alex was right when he mention my feelings about the past few day, but since he was the one that wanted to come here it was only fair that he should express his problems first. He seemed lost in his own world while throwing the ball. I just had to wait until he wanted to talk about the battle going on in his head. It did help that I had a good feeling I knew what was on his mind. Or who.

     "Man, this is just driving me insane. She is driving me insane. Did you know she actually screamed at me for taking a swing at Maxwell after we left the hospital? She said I should never have done that because had it handled. She also said that doing it was reckless and I got hurt because of it. What was I going to do? I wasn't gonna let him go after her and hurt her."

     His voice was layered with anger and frustration. Even his throws were coming in faster because his emotions. I suspected something happened that night when we left. However, no one ever told me and Alex just came back to the dorm grumpy that night. The weird thing is Melanie never got mad at me for what I did so why was she so angry at Alex?

     "Yesterday she flipped in a whole new direction thanking me for standing up for her. She latched onto me and just started crying. That killed me Jay. All I could do was hold her and try to comfort her. It felt good to be with her, but I never want to see her cry like that again." The ball reached him and as he went to turn he just stopped. "When she was done she thanked me again for just being there for her. She stood up on her tiptoes, kissed me on the cheek, and just left. I want to bring it up to her, but I am afraid she will just tell me she was being nice and it didn't mean anything."