Chapter 6: Friendly Plans

She stared at the officer.

The police man had arrived just a few minutes ago, carrying grave news. Alex refused to believe him, refused to hear him. It just couldn't be true. It was impossible! This kind of thing only happened to people in books or movies, not to real teenaged girls! How could this happen to her? She must look harsh and cruel. She must seem like some Goth who hated her parents because she refused to cry. She wouldn't cry about something that hadn't happened.

"I really am very sorry to have to have been to one to tell you, Miss Rose. I wish I could tell you that it was just a joke, but I can't." The police officer said quietly. His chocolate-colored skin wrinkled in concern, dark eyes filled with pain.

"What happened? Are they in the hospital?" Lilly's mother asked her voice breathy.

He sighed and recounted the incident again: "They were coming back from a movie. They were pulling through an intersection, they had a green light. A drunk driver was coming up fast, though, and broadsided their car. The drunk didn't die on impact, but we think he will be dead in a matter of days with a major concussion and only two ribs unbroken. Both people on the driver side, Mr. Rose and his middle child, died instantly, feeling no pain at all. Mrs. Rose was left conscious; the infant was knocked out and will probably not--"

"STOP IT!" Alex screamed. "My family is NOT dead! They won't die! They can't! I won't let this be true!" Tears finally demanded presence and Alex lost all sense of sanity. This couldn't be true, wouldn't be true. This was just a dream, a nightmare. She would open her eyes and it would all be gone. But she couldn't help that sense of overwhelming helplessness, that sense that what this man said was true. She realized she was standing, still screaming anything she could think of at him, and her friend, Lilly, at anyone, everyone, at… She collapsed to the floor, grief taking control of her body. Great sobs escaped her and she simply didn't have the strength to brush her friend away from her.

They were dead. The only people who had loved her unconditionally were gone. She would never brag about how cool her Mom was again. She would never be able to ask her Dad for help with a tough decision. She would never be able to chide her little sister into a fit of rage and then make it up to her with a surprise. She would never see those cherubic features of her baby brother, or hear him squeal in delight as he tortured the cat. She would never be whole on the inside again.

No one could ever fill this gap. She would never love this close again. She would never let people become such an integral part of her life again. She would never… Wait. How could she do that? To become a rock was to destroy that part of her that her family had cherished most. To cut herself off from those she loved would be to destroy who she truly was on the inside.

Her sobs didn't lessen, but now she wept for the people who had been hurt, not for herself. She wept for memories that would never be, and for lives that were lost. She wept until she could weep no more, then she simply shook. No tears, but sobs all the same. She cried herself to sleep and felt the warmth of her friend's tears on her back and in her hair. They wept, and then they moved on. Her family was gone, but never forgotten, and Alex grew more in those minutes than she had her whole life. She would never forget, but she would not dwell on what she could not change.

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"Alex? Are you alright? You seem… different?"

"What do you mean? I'm great! I've never been better, I…"

"I didn't say you looked bad, you do look better than ever. I said that you seemed different. What's been going on?"

Alex shrugged and shook her head, then started to nibble on a cookie.

"Alex?"

"I don't know, I'm just… good."

Lilly watched her friend very carefully. She had known Alex for a long time, they were the best of friends. They had been friends before Alex's parents had died and Lilly had helped her through some tough times. But now… there was something strange about her friend, some… vitality in her that had died with her parents. Lilly got a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"What is it, Lilly?"

"Who is he?"

"Who is who?" Alex asked, seeming genuinely confused.

"You've got a crush on someone!" teased Lilly.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

Lilly laughed, mist-blue eyes twinkling, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Alex glared.

"Oh, come on, Alex! When can I meet him?"

"Never."

"So I'm right?"

Alex slumped and sat down on the bed in the guest room of Sarah's house, where she spent the night, on occasion. "Maybe I do have a crush on someone, but I can assure you: he'll never think of me that same way."

"Popular guy?"

"Not exactly," Alex chuckled quietly.

"Then, wh--"

"Alex! Someone's here to see you!" Sarah yelled from somewhere else in the house.

Alex smiled as an eighteen-year-old, sandy haired boy walked in the room, ice blue eyes scanning the room in seconds. He smiled shyly at the girls and almost jumped when he noticed that Lilly was watching him. This was not the Jareth Alex remembered from just a few days ago, maybe he was acting…

"Hi, Alex," he said quietly.

"Who are you?" Lilly asked.

Jareth's eyes grew icy for a second as his timid façade fell, but he quickly restored it. "My name's Matt."

"Lilly," replied Lilly.

"A pleasure to meet you."

"What's up, Matt?" Alex asked before Jareth could be drawn in to Lilly's interrogation.

He frowned, the character of the goblin king showing through, "Nothing much, really, just checking on you. I wondered if anything had been happening around here. Oh! Mom wants the recipe for those devilish cookies."

"Follow me and I'll get the recipe for you." Alex said, motioning Lilly to stay put.

Upon arrival at the kitchen Jareth stopped her, "You are sure that nothing has happened here?"

Alex was a little off-guard by his sudden shift of accent, "Of… course. I mean, Lilly won't leave me alone: she seems to think I have a crush on someone. If you're not careful, she'll drag you into it, naming you my sweetheart."

Jareth was glad Alex wasn't looking at him because he must have had an odd mixture of emotions playing across his face at that moment. He shook his head and asked, "Why would she do that?"

Alex chuckled as she finally found the elusive piece of paper and began copying down the recipe, "She believes, rather strongly, that I'm too pretty to never have had a boyfriend and has taken it upon herself to remedy the situation. She's probably going to try to set me up on a date for that ball thingy coming up soon, but I'm not going. It's too late to get a dress."

"Ask," he whispered, "ask me anything."

She turned around to look incredulously at him, and saw only truth in his eyes, "I'm not going."

"Ask," came the whispered reply.

She handed him the recipe and turned to go back to the room where Lilly sat waiting, but Jareth caught her hand. "Ask."

"I'm not sure I understand you, Jareth."

"You know what I can do. Ask me. Ask me for anything you want and it will be yours." He still whispered, but his voice was forceful now, as if he were afraid of losing this moment. He pulled her closer to him and she could smell him: an amazing mix of leather, roses, and an old hardwood forest during the winter. "Ask me." She could barely hear him as his icy stared into her emerald ones.

His hands felt like fire on her shoulders and she wanted to scream, to run as far away from him as she could, but all she could do was stare at his eyes. She was so close to him, she could feel his fear, his worry that he was overstepping his bounds. She started to tremble slightly as his grip lessened on her, pain evident in those blue orbs. "If…" she started. His hands tightened on her shoulders again, and she almost screamed. "If Lilly asks me to go to this ball… will…" she shuddered. "Will you take me to the ball and give me a dress?"

"It would be an honor, my lady." Jareth replied with a dramatic bow. It was only then the Alex noticed that it was Jareth, not Matt, that had been asking, begging her to accept him. His wild hair blowing gently in a nonexistent wind, his smell intoxicating her. She smiled as he reverted to his teenaged disguise and followed him back to the room where Lilly waited to get to know Matt.

This was by far the weirdest predicament that she had ever found herself in, and yet… she enjoyed seeing Lilly grill the Goblin King on his likes and dislikes, his failures and aspirations. She enjoyed watching him try to tell the truth in such an obscure manner so as to fit his supposed eighteen year life. She enjoyed watching him slip in and out of the character he was trying to portray. It seemed right to her, to have him here. It seemed like a part of herself had woken up and she was able to truly appreciate the things going on around her. But she did not have a crush on him. She wouldn't let herself get that hurt. She wasn't an idiot.

"How much do you know about Alex?" Lilly asked him.

Jareth/Matt looked puzzled, "I know her fierce loyalty, unwavering devotion, her stubbornness, her charm, her wit, her art. What exactly do you want to know that I know?"

Lilly's eyes darted toward Alex for a split-second before she looked him in the eye. "Do you know that she's an orphan?"

"Yes," he answered quietly.

Alex looked pained, and Lilly hesitated again.

"Alex, why don't you see if Sarah needs any help with Andrew?" Jareth suggested. He wanted to know what Lilly had to say, but knew that it would hurt Alex.

Lilly waited until Alex was gone before saying, "Her whole family is dead. They died in a car crash a year ago. She was over at my house for her birthday party: just me and her. We had the whole night and morning to ourselves, and it was gonna be great. Sometime near midnight the police came over to my house and told us that their car had been t-boned by a drunk guy. Her Dad and little sister died instantly, her Mom and baby brother died a few days later, without waking up from the comas that they'd been in.

"She took it real hard. She screamed and cried for a long time before she collapsed. She's been at the orphanage and several foster homes since then. In one year she's lived with five different families, and I've met them all. She's going to say she's happy with this one so that she can stay with Sarah. Matt, she hurts so bad. She's been hurting for a year! Her sixteenth birthday is just a few days away, and I want to do something special for her to help her live with the fact that this is the first birthday that her family won't attend.

"There's this ball coming up that she really doesn't want to go to. It's on her birthday, so I think that's why. She also doesn't have a date, and the guy that she's had her sights set on is taking one of her other friends, not her. I think she needs to go, but it's just a few days away now, and she doesn't have a dress or a date."

He nodded, "She must have forgotten to tell me that her birthday was coming up. Do you want to have a celebration before the ball, then take her to the ball as a grand finale, or stick with the ball?"

"I'm planning a surprise party. See, I'm one of the only people who know when her birthday really is. She won't be expecting this."

"Let's see if I've got this straight: Friday is Alex's birthday. We're going to throw her a surprise party then take her to a ball where I can sweep her off her feet and ask her to be mine. She therefore forgets about the tragic loss of her family and lives happily ever after with Prince Charming. That about right?"

Lilly giggled, "Yup, I think that sums it up. So, what time can you get here for the party?"

"Oh, I'll be the one distracting her while you set it up. I can be here Friday morning to pick her up and take her wherever she wants to go."

"Great! You'll need to have her back here by lunch, and be kinda loud when you get there so we can get in our places on time."

Jareth grinned his icy grin and Lilly wondered how on God's green Earth they were going to pull this off. Alex was sharp, very sharp. But Lilly didn't know how old Jareth was, and how good at surprises he could be. This was going to be fun. If not for everyone, then at least for Jareth.

Alex returned to the room after a few more minutes, completely unaware of the surprises that her friends had in store for her. She knew that Jareth had been told about her parents, about her birthday, probably, but she really didn't care. He was bound to learn somehow, she was just glad that he had learned from Lilly. Some people were very good at distorting the truth.

That night she didn't dream, a lullaby sang her to sleep through her open window as a white owl watched her carefully. That old and nameless lullaby gave her so much peace. She didn't dream about her family, her friends. All she knew while she slept was that song. This time there were words. Old words that had no meaning to her, and yet the singer knew what they meant, and that was all that mattered. He knew they spoke of peace, and so she slept in peace.