Who She Is

~42~

Alyx's POV

"You don't?" I ask her.

She shrugs her shoulders. Her eyes flicker around the room, and a shaky sigh leaves her lips. "I don't."

"Did she just... leave?" How could anyone leave Amaya? I feel like she could do anything to me, and I would stay. Unless she just wanted me gone, that would be the only reason I'd go.

"Yeah," she quietly says, staring down at her lap. The way she's acting seems like there's more to it. Or her mother just left recently, and the wound is still fresh.

"That's kind of hard to believe," I admit.

"What?" She snaps her head up.

"Sorry. I just don't see how... anyone could leave you." I feel heat coming to my cheeks. Since she likes me, maybe this will cheer her up, and I can change the conversation.

She doesn't smile like I hoped. Instead, her nostrils flare, and her eyes turn into narrow slits, staring down at my blanket. "Well, people do."

"Do you not know why she left?"

"No. Do you know why your dad left?" she snaps.

"No, but I don't care that he left. Your reaction shows that you still do."

Her eyes turn to slits again, and she lets a huff of breath out. "Fine. I do, but can we talk about something else? I don't like talking about this."

"Yeah." I don't want her to be mad and fight with me. "Can I ask about when you were younger?"

She looks at me with a skeptical expression. "Depends."

"On?"

"How young you're talking about." She's slowly losing the red color in her face from when she was angry just a second ago. "Just ask it."

"Where did you grow up?" I ask.

"A couple different places." I didn't know she's traveled a lot.

"Like where?" I ask, curiously.

Her eyes look up in concentration. "Uhh, Delaware and Vermont. Oh, and Georgia. I only lived in Atlanta for half a year, though; I don't really count it."

"Which one were you born in?"

"Delaware." She has a calm expression on her face. Maybe these types of questions aren't so bad. "I lived in Vermont before I moved here to North Carolina," she tells me on her own. So, she's a northern girl. Cool. "Vermont's the longest place I lived in. Nine years of my life."

"Really? That's cool. I never knew that you lived up there. I kind of always thought maybe you were from Cali or Florida. Somewhere like that."

She playfully glares her eyes. "Why? What made you think that?"

"I don't know. People from there always seem confident and can speak their minds. You would fit in." Her eyes search my face, making me drop eye contact. "Plus, you've always been kind of tan."

I look back up to see her smiling. "That's because Lexi has a tanning bed. I was kind of pale when I first came here."

"Yeah, I remember. You got tan fast, though."

"Do you like my tan skin? I don't think I'm really that dark anymore. It's just a light tan, but do you like it?"

"Y-yeah, I like it. It looks good."

"I'm starting to lose it now thanks to that bitch."

"Are you done being friends with her?"

She shrugs. "She was fake as hell anyway. All she ever did was talk shit about everyone, criticize me and Elaine, and pop Lortabs. Then she'd go fuck Aaron yet cry when Dylan would even talk to another girl."