Fallen grace

One

The sun was shining through the cracks in the wooden blinds that hung high on the windows, Alyssa groaned rolling onto her front and buried her head into her pillows to block out any sunlight. She knew it was still to early to get up because of the lack of beeping coming from her alarm clock, she closed her eyes they began to feel heavy as she drifted back into sleep when her bedroom door had burst open causing her to sit up in a panic frantically grabbing the covers as if they could protect her.

" happy 18th birthday Alyssa!" Her mum exclaimed walking into her room with a huge grin on her face and a pink gift bag in hand, she sat on the end of Alyssa bed as Alyssas dad slowly came in behind her, his eyes were red a puffy and he was rubbing the corner of one eye as if he was only woken up seconds ago "happy birthday sweetie" he yawned as he lent over the bed to give her a hug, his finger tips lightly brushed against the top of a scar that was poking out of the top of Alyssa's night dress causing her to flinch under his touch.

"Is it bothering you again?" Alyssa's mum asked her grin quickly changing to an expression of concern. "It's been hurting a little lately, must be because I'm growing" Alyssa replied half smiling to reassure her mother that everything was alright. Alyssa moved the way she was sitting on her bed so that her dad could sit next to her also. "Here!, it's not much but I thought you'd like it" her mum said handing over the pink gift bag which was decorated with little flowers and had a darker pink tissue paper sticking slightly out of the top of the bag.

Alyssa smiled and reached into the bag pulling out a simple pair of black jeans and a fluffy white jumper. "Thank you guys! That's my outfit for school sorted" Alyssa beamed giving her mum and dad a gentle kiss on the cheek and going to place the gift bag onto the floor next to the bed " hold on there's one more thing in there" her dad said pushing the bottom of the bag back up to her before it reached the floor. Alyssa brought the bag back onto the bed and reached I'm feeling a small box in the bottom of the bag, she pulled out the small box and opened it revealing a necklace with a small round pendant, coloured blood red with a scribble on the outside of it I'm a language Alyssa didn't recognise.

"Oh wow.." Alyssa paused almost speechless taking in every detail of the necklace as she moved it around in her hands trying to read the writing " it's beautiful you shouldn't have, what does it say" she asked looking up at her mum and dad, they paused for a moment and shared a strange look between them "um.." her dad cleared his throat " it says I love you Alyssa in Latin" he said as he smiled at her, her mum almost seemed to sigh with relief as she nodded towards Alyssa, she moved to help Alyssa put the necklace on "now don't go taking this off will you" she chuckled pulling Alyssas hair out of the way "I won't" Alyssa smiled turning to look towards her mum and dad.

"Okay well you better get dressed and we'll all go for breakfast" Alyssa's dad said getting up to leave, her mum nodded and followed him out of the room. Alyssa got up stretching and then made her way towards her speaker, grabbing her phone from the side, she paired it and put her playlist on shuffle as she headed for her bathroom. Looking in her mirror seeing for the 3rd time this week she had forgotten to take her makeup off before she went to bed as black mascara stained under her eyes and parts of her cheek "shit" she mumbled turning the shower on to start getting ready.

As Alyssa sat on her bed wrapped in her towel, she began to dry her hair, it was always so strange to anyone who had just met Alyssa to find out that her hair was naturally white and had always been long in length, she never had the urge to cut it. Once her hair was dry she quickly put on the outfit her parents had got her, threw on some mascara and headed downstairs. As Alyssa was walking down the stairs she could hear her parents talking in quiet voices she could hear a hint of anger in her mums voice "everything okay?" Alyssa asked as she neared the bottom of the stairs.

It looked as if Alyssa's mum almost jumped at her question but she quickly composed herself "no everything's fine just bickering about where to go for breakfast but it should be your choice, where do you wanna go?" Alyssa's mum smiled at her but Alyssa could see something wasn't entirely true about that statement "let's just go to the cafe by the school so I don't have to rush" Alyssa said as she said on the bottom step doing her army style boots up. "Good idea" Alyssa's dad said grabbing his keys from the counter "I'll start the car up" with that he headed out the door towards the car.

The cafe wasn't far about 20 minutes from there house the longest part with finding somewhere to park, Alyssa chuckled as her parents frustration grew but eventually they found a place and headed towards the cafe, Alyssa's parents slightly in-front with Alyssa trailing at bit behind as she messaged her friends back thanking them for the birthday wishes. All of a sudden Alyssa was knocked back slightly, looking up from her phone she realised she had walked straight into someone "I'm so sorr-" Alyssa began to apologise but stopped looking up at the boy in front of her.

He was tall, his hair was a wash of dark and light brown and he was wearing all black, he stared down at her slightly wide eyed as if he knew her, Alyssa stared into the boys eyes intrigued by the colour of them. They were almost black like hers, the boy quickly snapped out of it and pushed past her continuing to walk away as Alyssa stared at him. "Alyssa? You okay honey" Alyssa mum called from in front, Alyssa quickly spun to look towards her mum, "did you se-" she began to explain about the boy she had bumped into only to turn and see he had almost vanished from sight.

"Never mind" Alyssa finished quickly walking to catch up with her parents at the door to the cafe, they walked in and sat down in a mood looking at the menu "you can get whatever you want" Alyssa dad said smiling, Alyssa poked her head over the top of the menu to look at him "strawberry milkshake?" Alyssa said almost as a question with an eyebrow raised, her dad chuckled "yes you can get a strawberry milkshake" Alyssa eyes lit up looking through the menu and eventually picking bacon pancakes for breakfast.

After breakfast Alyssa quickly said her goodbyes to her parents, rushing out of the cafe to make sure she wasn't going to be late for school. Running up to the gates she checked her phone to see she has made it just in time, Alyssa walked into her tutor a couple of people smiled and wished her a happy birthday, the group of girls that always sit at the back gave her a dirty look as she went to her seat and Not long after Alyssa had sat down her form tutor Mr willow had strolled in "good morning students, everyone get seated quickly, we have a new student id like to introduce you too" Mr willow said as he Dropped his bag down the side of his desk. A few footsteps followed as Alyssa looked up and let out a noticeable gasp, the boy she had walked into earlier was now standing at the front of her class and directed his attention to her. Lingering for a few seconds and then averting his gaze towards the rest of the room.

"Hi, my names Cole"