Broken (Prequel to Beauty and the High-Functioning Sociopath)

Lies

It had been a few weeks after Alex's surgery and she was back at school. In the car, they were arguing about Alex's friends. She wasn't in with a very good crowd. John just wanted to protect her. One night, Alex was pretending to be asleep while John was getting ready for bed. She waited until he was asleep to get up and start moving around. She put on some makeup and day clothes. There was a party tonight and there was no way she was going to miss it. She took the mobile phone John had given her to call him with in case of an emergancy and put it in her purse. She snuck out and went to the bus stop. She got on a bus and went to the party. She went into the house and saw some of her friends. She grinned and walked over to them.

"Hey, guys." She said.

"Hey, you made it!" One of her friends said. "Did your brother let you out of the house?"

"I snuck out." Alex said proudly.

"This calls for a drink." One of Alex's guyfriends said. He pulled out a bottle of beer. Alex's eyes widened. She didn't like that idea one bit. "Go on, Lex."

What should I do? I don't want it...but I don't want to be pressured either. I want to be cool, though. These thoughts were racing through Alex's mind. What would John do? John wouldn't do this.

"No thanks." Alex said.

"Come on! Just one sip!" Her guyfriend said.

"No thank you. I don't want to drink." Alex said.

"You are boring." Her friend groaned. He lit a ciggerette. "I'm assuming you don't want to smoke either."

"No, not really." Alex said.

Alex scuttled away from her group of friends and went outside. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Maybe she should just go back home...no, John would kill her if he knew she was here. She had a plan to sneak back in to their flat. She sat at a table by herself and grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper. The person who owned the house's dog came up to her and put it's head on her knee. It was a Border Collie. Alex stroked it's head, glad to stay like this. Someone tripped over him. The person was drunk. They turned around and kicked the dog in the side.

"Move it, you stupid mutt!" He said. The dog let out a cry of pain and scuttled behind Alex's chair. Alex stood up.

"HEY!" She shouted. The boy turned around.

"What?" He said.

"That was a horrible thing to do!" Alex said, gesturing to the dog.

"It's a stupid animal. It doesn't have feelings." The boy said.

"What's your name?" Alex asked.

"Philip. Philip Anderson." The boy said.

"Well, Philip Anderson, why don't I see if you have any feelings?" Alex said. She slapped him, hard.

"Why don't I do the same thing I did to that mutt to you?" Anderson said.

He kicked out to harm Alex, but she kicked out and their feet collided. Alex pushed him back so he fell down. When he got up, he threw a punch at Alex, which she deflected. The Border Collie ran out from his hiding place and snarled, standing in front of Alex protectively. Anderson obviously didn't want to mess with an angry dog. He backed off, but didn't apologize. Alex knelt down in front of the dog and he licked her face. She checked him over. It seemed like he was fine. Alex knew she couldn't stay here any longer. She went out to the front yard and took out her mobile phone to call John. He was going to kill her. Alex shakily typed his phone number in. She waited a couple rings until he picked up.

"Hello?" He said groggily.

"John?" Alex said, her voice more shakey than she had intended it to be.