A/N: To those of you who have reviewed so far, thank you so so much. You guys made me happier than Christmas morning :]
Disclaimer: Don't own WOWP. Fasho.
Alex had asked Justin if she could sleep in his room that night. He obliged after one look of her puppy-dog eyes. She went to her room and changed into sweats and a tank top, her favorite comfy PJs. She drifted off to sleep ten minutes later while he held her hand loosely. Justin took a little longer, thoughts still replaying the night. Everything will be okay now. Finally with a sigh, his eyes drooped and he too let the embrace of sleep take him.
The next morning was Saturday and Justin awoke bright and early, as usual. He turned over and saw Alex was still slumbering, hair over her face. He quickly tucked it behind her ears and saw in better detail the bruises that had plagued her face. Shocking black and blue covered her lips and cheeks. Justin's eyes started to water at the sight. As if on cue, Alex sighed and smiled a little bit in her sleep. She unconsciously reached for Justin and laid a hand on his side. The sight made Justin's lips twitch into a half-smile. She really will be fine.
As quickly and quietly as he could, he slipped off his bed and headed down the hall to shower and try to get a handle on his thoughts. If he kept lingering on what might have happened, he was going to drive himself crazy. He wondered what she would do today. Justin groaned as he remembered she had a shift at their sub station that afternoon, but he would take it over. Maybe he would call Harper and have her take Alex out for the day. Was that was best for her? Or would she just want to stay in all day?
Turning off the shower, Justin stepped out and quickly dried himself. He put on the clothes he had brought with him: denim jeans and his comfortable long-sleeve green shirt. He stuck his head out of the bathroom door and listened for any noise downstairs. Glancing at his watch he saw it was eight in the morning. His parents would be getting up soon to start breakfast.
He walked back to his room and sat on Alex's side of the bed. He stroked her forehead, trying not to scare her awake.
"Alex," he said in a singsong voice. "Wake up, come on."
Her eyes fluttered and she grumbled something unintelligible as she turned over.
Justin smirked and lightly rubbed her shoulder. "Come on, Alex. Time to get up"
After several seconds of no response, Justin grinned. "Alright, but you asked for it."
He stepped backward, grabbed with two hands the end of Alex's pillow, and pulled.
Alex's head bounced onto the bed, but still refused to open her eyes. Instead she groaned and covered her head in the covers. Justin then raised the pillow and brought it down with a smack! on her stomach. It took three more pillow slaps before Alex finally sat straight up and growled, "Wow Justin, it's bad enough you look like a 12-year-old girl, do you have to act like one too?!"
Justin gave a lopsided grin and sat back down in front of Alex. "Glad to see you're back to your old self. Even though that's not the best you can do. There is no way I look like a girl. And neither do you, right now."
Alex stuck out her tongue in retort and then leaned back like she was going to back to sleep. Justin grabbed her shoulders and kept her upright.
"Oh no you don't. Mom and Dad will be getting up soon. And we're gonna have to tell them what happened."
Alex's sleepy half-closed eyes flew open and she quickly said, "No, Justin. We can't."
"What? Alex, we have to! We have to file a report against him!" Justin exclaimed at her.
Alex just shook her head. "No, please Justin? I don't want Mom and Dad to know. I'm- it's… I'm embarrassed." Her mocha eyes were pleading, but not in the usual manipulative way.
Justin rubbed his face with his hands and let out a huge sigh. "Alex, this is a big deal. Mom and Dad need to know. Maybe we don't have to file a report, but at least they need to know."
Alex's eyes darted back and forth, trying to find a way to get out of this mess without involving her parents. Justin's voice interrupted her thoughts, "Alex. They need to know. Yeah?"
Alex slowly nodded her head but replied, "I don't know if I can do it, though."
Justin took her hand in his and told her, "I'll be right there with you. I'll even do most of the talking, okay?" Alex nodded again and she rose from the bed to go get dressed.
Ten minutes later, Justin and Alex descended the stairs to the smell of crackling bacon and chocolate chip pancakes. Their mom, back to them, was leaned over the frying pan and already dressed for the day. So was their dad, at the table reading the newspaper. Max was plopped in front of the TV, still in his PJs, playing a random video game about some magical people.
Oh, the irony... Alex thought as she chuckled inwardly.
Justin cleared his throat and said, "Mom, Dad?"
They looked up simultaneously but it was their father who answered. "Well good morning you guys. Why don't you come sit down, breakfast is almost ready."
Alex wanted to run away, to run to her room and lock the door. She wanted to catch a bus and never look back. Instead, she allowed herself to be dragged to the table by her brother. They both sat down next to each other and waited for someone to realize Alex's bruises; which were getting more prominent with the rising sun.
Theresa scurried over to the table and set down the food, smiling at her two older children. She did a double take at Alex's lowered head and Justin's creased eyebrows.
"Alex? What is that?" Her mother almost whispered. Jerry removed his nose from the paper and looked up at her.
She flinched and lifted her face so her parents could see it fully. Theresa narrowed her eyes in examination, then widened in fear. Her hand flew to her mouth. Jerry's eyes also were wide, but with confusion.
Theresa called in a shaky voice, "Maxie, could you please go play that game up in your room for awhile?"
Max looked over and stared at the display for a couple seconds. He replied, "Yeah, okay Mom," he sounded a little scared. He walked slowly towards the stairs, not taking his eyes off his family until he had started to climb up. Luckily, Alex had turned her body in the chair so Max couldn't see her face.
Once they heard his bedroom door shut upstairs, Theresa almost yelled, "Alex, baby, what happened? How did you get those?" Alex thought she already knew but she answered anyways.
"Mom, Dad… I didn't go to a movie with Harper last night. I- I went to a party," Alex stammered. She felt Justin's hand on her shoulder for reassurance.
Jerry nearly exploded. "You WHAT?! Alex, you… you lied to us?"
Alex shuddered. She hated it when her daddy was mad at her. But her trademark sarcasm took over. "Oh come on Dad, is that really so hard to believe?" she scoffed.
Jerry was about to yell again, but Theresa interrupted him. "Alex, tell us what happened."
She bowed her head, the shame crawling to her face. Justin started to tell the story.
"Well she w-" he said before Alex cut him off with a shaking of her head. He had protected her enough.
"It's okay, Justin. I'll say it." Alex turned to her parents and proceeded to tell them everything. The drinking, Dean taking her to the basement, him hurting her, and Justin coming to save her. As soon as she was done, Theresa collapsed in the seat next to Alex and held her daughter close. Jerry kept blinking. He said nothing else, just blinked at his daughter.
Theresa relinquished her hold on Alex and said, "We'll need to contact the police and file a report." Alex was shaking her head halfway through the sentence.
"Mom, please no. I don't want this to turn into a big deal. I was drinking, the police probably won't believe me anyways."
Theresa turned to Jerry, looking for help. He still refused to talk, just continued to stare.
"Daddy, this is the part where you tell me "This is what you get for lying to us" or something like that, right?" Alex teased.
Jerry raised from his chair and rushed to Alex, squeezing her. "Honey, I'm so sorry," he whispered. Alex felt tears on the back of her neck, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Daddy, it's okay. I'm the one who should be sorry," she whispered back.
He pulled her head back and stroked her bruised cheek with his thumb. He smiled through watery eyes. He looked at Theresa and said, "Dear, if she doesn't want to call the police, then we shouldn't make her."
Theresa opened her mouth in fury, about to argue, when Jerry said, "But," he looked back at Alex in the extremely fatherly way she loved, "if this guy ever talks to you again, you will talk to us about it and we will contact the police. Got it?"
Alex almost rolled her eyes. Gosh, they're so controlling. And that's when it hit her: They were her parents. They were controlling for a reason! They had a right to be controlling, especially after what she had gotten herself into.
So in a completely non-Alex way, she nodded and whispered, "Yes, Daddy. Look I just want things to go back to normal. I'm really fine you guys, okay?"
Theresa leaned down to kiss Alex on the forehead. "Of course, querida. But you will take today off, we can manage without you."
Alex grinned, "If you insist," as she started helping herself to pancakes and bacon. Justin had gone upstairs to tell Max a very condensed version of what happened with Alex, so he wouldn't be scared when he saw her. Being young and naïve, he accepted Justin's version and hopped down the stairs after his older brother for breakfast. Max looked at Alex and didn't know what to say. He settled for, "Sorry about your face, Alex."
Alex dropped her fork and looked up to him, nostrils flaring. But she saw that even though his words were abrasive, he was showing sincere affection. She smiled and pulled him in for a quick hug.
"Thanks, Max. Now, come on everyone. I can't be the only one who's hungry!"
And everyone ate breakfast; making the usual conversation they always did at meals. Alex couldn't help but grin. Everything really would be okay.
After breakfast, Alex went up to her room and removed the clothing she had hidden underneath her covers the previous night, tossing it on the floor. Taking her wand off her nightstand she pointed at the garments:
Please rid me of my disgraceful shame
Produce these clothes now into flame
A magical fire erupted in the clothes. They crackled and burned until there was only a little pile of ash left. Alex scooped it up, carried it to the window and let it go in the wind. And with letting the remains of the horrifying night go, she was letting all self-blame go as well. She had burned that bridge.
She sighed in relief and let the breeze linger on her stinging cheeks for a few moments. A bird chirping in a tree below her caught Alex's attention. The way the sunlight reflected off the bird's feathers made its colors radiate.
Alex dashed across her room and grabbed her sketchpad from underneath her bed. She returned to the sill and started to sketch the bird. Drawing had always calmed Alex and made her feel at ease. She remembered the first time she drew something that was actually good.
She was with Harper in the park a couple of winters ago. They had spent the day sledding and walking around the local shops, occasionally stopping for a snowball fight or two. They settled onto one of the benches in the park, just when the sun was setting. They both had hot chocolate in their hands and napkins in their laps.
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"Aw, look Alex! Look at that couple over there!" Harper pointed a gloved finger over towards another bench. A couple was sitting there, hand in hand. The woman's head was resting on the man's shoulder, a smile of content on her face. The man's other arm was around her shoulders, hugging her against the cold. Alex's eyes shone with joy. She loved witnessing things like this. Even though she was the image of a bad girl, tough to the core, she was such a hopeless romantic.
Rummaging in her purse, Alex found a pen. She placed her hot chocolate on the ground next to her feet and held the napkin on the flat surface of the bench. She began to draw the image before her. It took her at least twenty minutes but it was worth it. Harper, thankfully, had the tact to remain silent throughout the process. And luckily the couple stayed planted on the bench, as if they didn't want to be anywhere else in the world.
Alex held up her sketch to Harper, who grinned in approval. It was rough and not very detailed, but she had managed to capture the innocence and love that was the couple.
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Alex paused from her drawing to look at the napkin she still had, tucked into one corner of her full-length mirror, and then returned to her current work. She took out her oil pastels to color the sketch. She matched the bird's pretty shades as best she could and held her artwork up to the light.
Alex barely had time to admire her work before a knock came to her door. She tripped over her art supplies and thudded to the ground in her rush to stash them under her bed. Though she felt she was quite good at art, she was skeptical to what her family might think. And while she would never admit it, their opinions mattered most.
"Oof!" she exclaimed, landing on her elbows.
"Alex? Are you okay?" came Justin's muffled voice from the other side of the door. "I'm coming in!" Alex scrambled up and tried to toe her sketch underneath the skirt of her bed.
Justin crashed the door open and looked around frantically. There stood Alex, hands behind her back looking as innocent as an angel.
"What's up, bro?" she asked nonchalantly.
Justin looked around the room and replied slowly, "I thought I heard a crash in here. Is everything okay?"
Alex looked around the room in mimicked examination. "I didn't hear anything," she shrugged as her toe kept inching the drawing toward her bed.
Justin looked down and saw what she was trying so desperately to hide. He pointed towards it, "What's that?"
Alex shrugged again and responded, "What's what? I think you're hallucinating, Justin. Too much nerdiness can be bad for the brain, ya know." She smirked at him, attempting to distract him. But with an impressive show of speed, Justin had scooped up Alex's drawing and held it up to see, despite Alex's arms covering his face and her repeated cries of, "Justin! Give it back!"
Finally in a huff, Alex gave up and threw herself on her bed, knees pulled close to her chest with a deep frown of annoyance set in her mouth. Justin ignored her and studied the picture in his hands. It was of an Eastern bluebird, the state bird for New York. The detail was immaculate and the colors were dazzling. His jaw dropped and asked his sister needlessly, "Alex, did you draw this?"
Alex just shrugged and waved her hand, like it was nothing. Justin then looked down at the floor again, seeing the littered pastels and paper. He picked one of the colors up and fiddled with it in his hand.
"How long have you been drawing?" he asked her with sincere curiosity.
Alex shrugged once more, "Um, I guess for the past year and a half. It's just a hobby though, nothing special."
Justin went to join Alex on her bed and set the picture between them. "I'm really proud of you," he told her kindly, to which Alex scoffed. "And not just for this, which is really good. But I mean with Mom and Dad this morning. You handled yourself very well. And I'm proud of you," he repeated.
Alex leaned in across her sketch and gave her brother a quick hug. "Thanks," she whispered in his ear. He drew back with a smile on his face.
"Now get to work, loser," Alex teased.
