Aloha!

I just wanted to say thank you to the last couple people who reviewed my story. There was a point where I was not sure if I was going in the right direction or let alone developing the story with enough conflict and truth to the character. But when I got those last reviews, I was really happy. It seemed like I was heading towards a good spot for this story.

THANK YOU SO BERRY BERRY MUCH! As they say in Hawaii… Mahalo Nui Loa.

ERIC

The next couple days went by as if they were years. By the time Friday rolled around, Alex wasn't talking to me. At first I thought she was just still upset or frustrated about not being able to cheer this week and next week. But it was deeper than that.

I had my suspicions that she was told something that day of the fight, but I always brushed it off, thinking that Will had talked to Christina and that none of the other girls would say anything either. But it wasn't those girls I had to worry about.

The next day after the fight, Tuesday, during AP Gov, fourth period, Julie walked in and spilled her milkshake from lunch all over Alex. She claimed it was an accident, but you could tell from the look on Julie's face that she had intended on doing so.

During practice that day, I saw Alex being walked off the field with some cuts on her knees and hands. Apparently, there were some rocks on the track and while their coach made them run as part of their punishment, Alex supposedly ran into Tara and fell down. I couldn't help but think that Tara tripped her.

Wednesday, Alex's backpack went missing. All her homework gone. She had to pay for two of the lost school text books that were in her backpack. She had to stay after third period to redo the homework.

Thursday, I found out there was mud all over in her locker. She took her things down to wash, but all the washers were taken with Rachel and Britney's things. She couldn't participate in PE that day, let alone run the 50 laps for her punishment for cheer. She ended up confronting Rachel about it and since that led to another altercation, she got a third game taken away from her.

And now, she wasn't talking to me. She wouldn't even look at me. These girls could tell I was starting to like Alex, so they were making it hard for her. I should have known that that was what Rachel was planning that morning I shut her down and she was screaming about Alex. I shut myself in my room that morning, until Aidan came and got me out and convinced me to go to second period.

But all of it drove me insane. It was like while she was being punished, I was going through my own form of punishment by not being close to her. I just needed to know that we were alright. I know she promised that we would talk after punishment was done, which was only until next week Saturday, but I needed her with me now.

I told coach I had to skip practice today.

"The game is tomorrow, Matthews," he scolded me.

"I know, but I just don't feel into it today."

"You skip practice, you're not going to play the first half of the game," he reminded me.

I slowly took a breath in and out. I just needed to assure Alex things were fine, things were going to be okay. She had to sacrifice three games, then what was two quarters of a game for me? I looked out at the field. Edward, Peter, Dominic, Roman, and Brian, they got this, I thought to myself. They would probably have Al fill my place for the first half, which wasn't that bad.

"I understand," I said to coach and walked off the field.

I knew Alex would be making up the AP English assignment, instead of running for cheer practice today. I walked over to the Language and Arts building and saw her coming out. Perfect timing, I thought to myself.

"Alex," I called. Once she saw me, she looked around, debating if it was safe to even acknowledge me. I wouldn't blame her if she didn't, especially after the week she been through. She was probably second guessing our friendship, like she did on Monday that night I visited her at her room.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at practice," she asked when I got closer. Thank God, I thought. She is going to talk to me today.

"I just needed to see you."

"You're skipping practice, doesn't that mean you're not going to play tomorrow?"

"I'll catch second half."

"That's not fair for you, Eric. What happened to showing everyone we got the best defense this year? How can you show them, if one of the team's captains isn't going to play during the first half?" Was she really thinking about me?

"I had to make sure that you were alright."

"I'm fine. Get back to practice before it's too late," she said and tried to walk away. I followed her.

"I already told coach that I'm skipping today." She spun around to face me.

"Now why the hell would you do that?"

"Like I said, I had to find you and see if..."

"Well, you found me. Now go back to practice," she said as if she was commanding me and kept on walking.

"Alex, I..."

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU I'M FINE!" She interrupted by yelling at me. This isn't where I pictured this discussion heading.

"Look, it's too late for me to go back to practice and now I just want to talk to you and you're being difficult."

"I'm being difficult? Seriously, you're going to tell me that I'm being difficult?"

"I said it, didn't I?" Why was I arguing with her?

"Let's talk about difficult for a minute, then shall we? It's DIFFICULT for me to turn in my assignments, because one of your whores stole my backpack."

Ouch that hurt.

"Now I have to make up all this week's assignments. It's DIFFICULT for me to get a decent night sleep, because I just had to get into a fight with one of your other fucking sluts for telling all my friends that their boyfriends cheat on them."

She was really pissed. I rarely ever heard her swear, yet here she stood just throwing out an f bomb like she didn't care.

"Now I have to clean the cafeteria after dinner and then clean the bathrooms in all four classroom buildings, all before curfew! It's DIFFICULT for me to even be friends with you anymore, knowing what the rest of your skanks and tramps will do, not just to me, but to Lauren, or Tris, or Christina. That's how very frickin difficult things have been for me these past couple days, Eric! You don't tell me that I'm being difficult, because right now my whole life is difficult! I don't need this from YOU! Just stay away from me already."

She was contemplating to end our friendship. I was almost stuck where I stood. We had just became friends, I didn't want to lose her now.

"Don't do it, Alex." I pulled her into a hug, but she was stiff. She wasn't going to budge. Had I lost her already?

"Please, Alex," I said rubbing my hand up and down her back, trying to calm her down.

"Please Alex, we can still be friends. I know after everything, you don't want to be, but please just rethink this through." She pulled back a little and I looked down at her, hoping she wouldn't say we weren't friends anymore. God knows I wanted more than that, but I rather have her as a friend than nothing at all.

"It's not that I don't want to be, Eric," she whispered. At least she wasn't yelling at me anymore. "It's the fact that I can't. I just can't." So she still wanted to be friends. Then what was stopping her? Was it really all those stupid girls? Who cared about everything else? I didn't care about it all. Screw it all. I was going to be there for her no matter what. Oh man, I really was in deep.

"Things are just too complicated, Eric. I think it would be better for everyone, if we just didn't..."

"No," I objected my pulling her back into me, not allowing her to finish. "No, that's not what I'm about to let happen." She finally relented and I felt her arms slide around my back and her body melt against mine.

"No matter what, I'm still want to hang out with you, I'm still going to be friends with you. No matter what." One of my hands starting running through her wavy hair as my lips pressed against her forehead.

"No matter how complicated?"

"No matter how complicated," I repeated her, assuring her by bringing her head up to look in her eyes. "Alex, your friends aren't mad at you. They and the guys, they're not blaming you for anything. Don't stress out over classes. You'll get through it, you're pretty smart, you know? Forget about those other dumb girls, just screw them all."

"You kind of already did," she said and tried to put a small smile on her face.

"Did you just try to crack a joke?"

"Was it too soon?"

"No," I answered running my hand through her hair again. "I'm just glad you're not yelling. Like I said last week, I can't stand it when you're mad with me."

"In my defense, you're not the easiest person to be friends with, you know?"

"That's probably true. But hey who said life is easy? Besides things are always complicated with me. I thought Christina told you that," I said trying to lighten the mood the same way she did, with cracking a joke. She smiled and playfully hit my chest. Relief overcame me. I had almost lost her and now we were back to being friends.

Game day was hard for me. As expected they let Al play for me first half. The only problem was that he was still playing special teams too. He was quick for special teams, gunning down the field and stopping the runner. But he wasn't an attacker on defense and sort of lacked that killer-instinct. He couldn't read the other team's plays well. We ended up going into the half down by two touchdowns. But I didn't blame him and neither did half the team. They kept looking at me. Some of them understood that if I didn't get my head straight, that I wouldn't be playing at all. And part of getting my head straight, was keeping Alex by my side. The rest of them was probably wondering why I had given up half the game for 'some' girl. That was what bothered me the most, because Alex wasn't just some girl.

"Hey," Alex called right before we ran out for third quarter. She pulled me into a hug. "You have a lot of work to do," she whispered into my ear just before she let me go. "My brother has even more work," she called out to Aidan and gave him a quick hug.

"Perhaps because I don't hear you cheering," he somewhat scolded / teased.

"I know, I know," she said slightly pushing him.

"Stay out of trouble," he called to her as he walked back to the field.

"Come find me at the lockers after the game," I said and she nodded. I watched as she walked back to where Tris and Lauren were standing. It wasn't the same not seeing them on the sidelines. I felt guilty looking at Four kiss Tris goodbye and walk on the field. His girlfriend couldn't cheer for him, because one of those tramps, as Alex put it, just had to cause trouble. It was probably the same feeling Alex felt that day of the fight and probably what she was still feeling now.

I must say that Edward, Peter, Dominic, and Roman had to pull double once I got out there. I wasn't about to let us lose our first home game. We pretty much shut down the Hancock Boarding School's offense during third quarter, which allowed Aidan, Four, and Zeke to work their magic when they got on the field. Once that momentum shifted in third quarter to us, it was over for them in the fourth. From being down two touchdowns at the half, to coming back and winning by three. Another victory in the bag.

I walked out of the locker room with Peter, Edward, and Uriah following close behind. Shauna, Marlene, and Christina them were all there. But I couldn't find Alex. Why was she always missing?

"She said to say sorry," said Tris stepping in front of me recognizing who I was looking for.

"Who's sorry," asked Four as he came to take her hand in his.

"Alex," she said. Four nodded and then turned to my direction. I looked down at Tris waiting for her to explain further. "She got extra punishment for the second fight with Rachel this past Thursday. She has to clean the classroom building bathrooms now and her curfew is still enforced for the weekend." I'm guessing Tris and Lauren didn't get curfew on the weekend, only the weekdays.

"I think I remember her telling me that." More like yelled at me.

"She forgot she had to do that, so she left right after the game was done. Said to tell you sorry she couldn't meet you," finished Tris.

"Do you know which building she would start at first?"

"Probably the language and arts building," Tris answered.

"Yo Eric, you coming to the party," asked Uriah. "Same place, should have more booze, games, and definitely more fun," he said winking at some of the girls.

"I think Eric has somewhere else he wants to go," Four told Uriah. I did have somewhere else to go. Four then punched my arm. "Go get her. Oh and don't screw it up man."

I walked up to the science and math building, because she was already gone from the language and arts building.

"Hey, you're almost done," I called out when I saw her throwing the trash from the science building into the trash bin outside.

"Yeah, just got one more building to go before I'm on lock down," she said with a smile, throwing the last garbage bag into the bin. "What are you doing out here anyways?"

"I wanted to see you after the game."

"Oh yeah, I told Tris to tell you I couldn't make it."

"Yeah, she told me."

"I'm sorry we can't hang out Eric," she said picking up the bucket of leaning supplies. "I'll see you in class on Monday."

"Wait, why don't I help you?"

"Because it's not your punishment."

"Yeah, but I don't think you should be out here alone."

"Why not? Everyone is at the party, no one is going to come and mess with me." I hadn't realize that when I said it. She was out here alone. If Clayson or Drake wanted their chance at her, now would be the perfect time. Like she said everyone was at the party, no one would bother to check on her.

"See there's that too. I just want to make sure you're safe as well."

"You don't need to."

"Isn't that what friends do? Stand by each other no matter what," I said hoping she would remember our earlier conversation. She smiled softly.

"Fine," she said. "Come on, we still got one more building of bathrooms to clean."

"Aye aye, captain," I teased.

The last building Alex had to clean, was where Alex and I had our third and fifth periods. Unfortunately, this building had the most bathrooms. But, it went by rather quickly.

When we were finally done, I walked her back to her room. After I dropped her off, I walked back to mine to take a shower. I was cleaning bathrooms after all. I knew the party was still going on, but I didn't feel like going knowing that Alex wasn't going to be there. Instead I walked back down to her room, knocked on the door, and waited for her to answer.

"You not going to the party," she asked when she opened the door. I looked up at her and realized that she just came out of the shower too. Her hair was slightly damp and she already had changed into her clothes to get ready for bed, short shorts and a relaxed tank.

"I figured I hang out with you," I said trying not to think about all the dirty thoughts flooding my mind with her standing there like that.

"I have curfew though."

"The rules for curfew is that you need to be in your room by 11:00 on weekends. You're still going to be in your room, it's just that I'm going to be in there, too." Brilliant. Why didn't I ever think of that? We could still hang out. Even on school nights, when she had to be in by 9:00. I could still come down here.

She smiled. "Are you sure? I don't want you to get in trouble. Or worst, miss out on your folks victory party."

"It's not really a party if all my friends aren't there," I responded. Boy did that sound cheesy. But it worked. She moved on the side and let me walk in.

"I don't know what you want to do, me and Christina don't really have a lot of stuff in our room," she said.

"That's probably why Will and her only do one thing when he comes down here," I replied. I meant for it to be in my head, but accidentally said it out loud. She turned to look at me. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say it out loud," I apologized while sitting on the floor by her bed.

"No, it's alright," she said sitting next to me carrying with her a bag of chips and two sodas.

"Really? I just put a bad image of your friend into your head," I questioned while taking one of the sodas she offered.

"I already have an image of that in my head." I looked at her confused. "I walked in on them once..." she looked away. "Twice actually. That was only in the first week, too." She made a face of disgust and immediately I started to laugh. "It's not funny!" She pushed me, but I didn't really move. I liked it when we just joked with each other. Although I know if it came down to it, she would probably knock me out. She already slapped me once before, and that really stung.

"Ever since then, I told her that I had to know if Will was coming by, so I can stay in the library or somewhere else."

"I think I remember you telling me that you hung out on the steps outside the building a couple times," I reminded her.

"That's right I did tell you that." She said smiling. How could I forget that night? That night we almost kissed. I wanted to bring it up, but I figured later. I almost lost her as friend, I didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

"I don't know if I told you, but thanks for letting me hang out in your folks room a couple times while Christina had her visits," she said continuing.

"No problem. Besides even if I said no, I still think my roommate would let you in."

"He better!" She said to which I started to chuckle.

"I'm pretty sure Will was done here this week, so where did you go if not to our room?"

"Lauren and Shauna's one night. The other night I was in Marlene and Tris' room. Then last night I was with Myra."

"He was done here three times this week?"

"Yeah, it's normally just once or twice. But I guess Christina is still flipping out over the whole locker room incident, that she needs extra comforting." She made a face again. I decided to make a joke out of it.

"Does her extra comforting extend over here too," I said pointing to where we were sitting. "I mean are we sitting in a safe zone," I teased pretending to look around. "I don't wanna find any used condoms over here."

"Shut up. Yes I believe it's safe right there. Christina said they stay on that side of the room," she said motioning towards Christina's bed. "Apparently tonight she's going to Will's room." That means Alex will be here by herself, I thought. I was both excited and scared. Excited that I could stay longer, just spending time with her. But then I was scared that something might happen because she would be all alone.

I finally opened the soda and took a sip of it trying to clear my head of the second thought that raced through my mind. I must have looked upset, because then she said "Sorry we don't have beer or any other form of alcohol." I looked up at her. I knew that she knew I drank, but I didn't want her to think that I was a complete drunkard. This year I was actually doing pretty okay. And one reason why, was because of the beautiful, smart, and crazy girl sitting in front of me. Besides it wasn't the soda that I was suddenly upset about. I was scared for her safety. That damn Drake and Clayson were still up to doing that. I felt bad, knowing full well I had somewhat of a hand in what they did last year.

"Alex, this is fine. I'm actually just glad I can talk to you. This whole week, we haven't really talked." We were quiet for a while, just sipping our sodas and munching on a few chips. I almost regretted mentioning that we didn't talk this week. We already ironed that out, why did I have to mention it again?

"What do you want to talk about," Alex asked after a while looking at me with those big brown eyes. Yeah, there's a little bit of devil in her angel eyes, she's a little bit of heaven with a wild side, got a rebel heart a country mile wide. (Line from "Angel Eyes" by Love and Theft - country song, for those of you who don't know.) Yeah, she got a little naughtiness behind all the innocence, I thought as she looked at me. How I really loved that.

"Let's just talk about anything," I answered her. And we did. Talked for probably an hour about classes, why she loved math. Talked about her brother and all the trouble we got into. She said she wanted to pull more pranks on him and I agreed to help her. We started teasing her friends again. And I say her friends, because I knew Christina didn't like me at all. Marlene and Lauren only tolerated me. Shauna and Tris were probably the only decent ones, but it took a while for me to earn their respect.

I saw Alex lean back against her bed and moved over to offer her my shoulder. Instead of just taking me shoulder, she climbed onto me and sat down in my lap. I wrapped my arms around her. We continued to talk, with her sitting in my lap, engulfed in my arms. I could have stayed like this for the rest of the night. After a while I looked at the time, it was almost 2 in the morning and I could tell she wanted some sleep. She must have been tired after all that cleaning.

"Do you have to do that every night?"

"No, just Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, for the next two weeks." I made a mental note that after dinner I would follow her and help her finish cleaning. If that was the only way we would spend time together, then hey it was worth it.

"Thanks by the way for helping me," she said while yawning against my chest.

"It's not really punishment for me. Like I said I'm just helping a friend. Why don't you get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow." I pulled her up to stand with me.

"Can't you just stay," she asked looking up at me with those eyes again. As if her sitting in my lap wasn't shocking enough already, here she was asking me to stay.

"Please Eric," she said softly. She sat down on her bed and scooted over, looking up at me. I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to lay down next to her, to hold her, to touch her. But I wanted to know that she wanted it too.

"Are you sure you want me to stay?"

"Please," she said again tilting her head. It wasn't really seductive in a sexual way, although I'm pretty sure that she could do that too, but this look was totally inviting. She looked almost like she would die, if you told her 'no'. And I wanted to stay anyways. I actually never stayed with a girl overnight. But I knew that's not what I would be staying for. Alex wasn't some piece of trash, she was treasure. And I just needed to feel her in my arms.

"If you really want me to," I replied while taking off my shirt and climbing in under the blankets next to her. She laid down on her side facing me and curled up against my chest. I put my arms around her bringing her in closer. Everything in me was screaming to kiss her. Here we were in bed with each other. This wasn't the dirty old science building. I had to fight every inclination to touch her any further than I already was. Oh man, was Aidan going to kill me. He said he didn't want anyone to mess with his sister. And here I was sleeping next to her.

I felt her breathing slow down. She was slowly drifting off. I ran one of my hands through her hair and kissed her forehead. It felt like nothing before to just have her next to me. For the first time in a long time, I actually felt needed.

"Goodnight Alex," I whispered before I too fell off to sleep.