Page 11 of Falling Too Late

They kept me underfed so I wouldn’t have the strength to fight him.

Alex chuckled. “Why did you run?” He straightened and reached over the fence. I shrugged off my backpack and handed it to him, the simple routine comforting.

“Was trying to get out before my mom and her boyfriend woke up.” I slid myself between the two fences and took my bag, putting it back on.

“Oh, I get you.” And then, “Is it weird with her dating?”

I was quiet for a minute, a snarky response on the tip of my tongue, but I bit it back. Alex asked a lot of questions, but I thought he did it because he was lonely, not nosy.

I never kept friends long. They always started to ask questions that I couldn’t answer.

“They got together a few months after my dad died. Her boyfriend used to live in the apartments below us but moved in.”

“I see.”

We started along our path home. He handed me a breakfast bar. He had been doing this more and more lately, bringing me food. I restrained myself by putting it in my pocket. I wanted to devour it right now. “Do you and your mom go anywhere for Christmas?”

He shook his head. “No. We don’t have any other family. Dad is dead. My mom’s sister is dead. So it’s just her and me.”

“No grandparents?” I always wondered what it was like to have grandparents.

“Nope. Never had any. I think they died when I was little. You?”

“My mom and her parents don’t talk, and she rarely talks to her sister.”

“So, no Christmas plans?”

“Nope,” I confirmed as we turned onto the sidewalk.

We walked along in silence. Today felt melancholy. I thought we were both thinking about how we wouldn’t see each other for the next two weeks. It’s a different kind of pain than what I was used to.

I’m going to miss this.

I’m going to miss him.

“Since you aren’t going anywhere, maybe we can hang out? I can give you my apartment number and you can come over and watch a movie or something. Or we can go for a walk.” His words came out in a rush.

I felt my heart lift at the thought of spending more time with him, doing something other than just walking to and from school, then broke, knowing it wasn’t possible.

I’ll kill you and anyone you tell.

“I’d love to. . .”

“Yeah? Ah, that’s great. I have a deck of cards and I can teachyou how to play. . .” He finally looked over at my face, stopping. “What’s wrong?”

I was fighting back the tears. There was a part of me that wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to confess to him all the things that were happening in that fucking apartment. I thought he would listen and believe me. I thought he would do something to help me, but Kevin’s words slash through me.

Go ahead and tell someone, but I’ll kill you before they can ever get you out of here.

I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that Kevin would kill me, and my mom would let him. She wouldn’t even bat an eye, but I couldn’t let anything happen to Alex.

I didn’t want to die. There had always been a small sliver of hope that this wouldn’t be my whole story. That there was more to my life than the beginning.

“My mom is taking me to work with her every day,” I lied. “She works for this cleaning company and cleans people’s houses and company buildings at night. So, she’s going to have me pretty busy the entire break.” I watched his face fall and it honestly was one of the saddest things I had ever experienced. I could tell Alex was lonely. His mom was never home, but he never talked badly about her. When he did talk about her, he only spoke highly of her. I could tell that he missed her.

Watching movies at his place sounded like a dream. The only movies I had seen recently were whatever the teachers played in the classroom. Last one was on cell division for biology.

“Oh,” was all he said, his face dropping. “Well, if you ever have a day off, just let me know.”

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