< Alex

(Liam's P.O.V.)

"Are you sure you'll be fine? How will you get home, Liam?" my mother's worried voice asked through my phone.

I looked up at the sky. It was still raining heavily and I knew I couldn't just step out of the shed of the bus stand. I would immediately be soaked wet. But somehow I had to get home too. Ivory was down with a fever and had stayed home, so there was no way I was going to ask her to pick me up. Mom was visiting grandma so she wasn't available either.

"I guess I'll just wait it out. You be safe. Love ya," I told her and ended the call.

I plopped myself down on the waiting bench and . . . well . . . waited.

The reason this was particularly difficult, was that all this waiting was giving me so much time to think. Images from that night kept switching in front of my eyes. The guns, the blood, the body, the killer. Hell, if he found me alone here, he could kill me just as brutally as he wanted, and nobody would know.

What I did refuse to think about was the mysterious raven haired stranger. I was simply just not going to think about what happened there, because it was too personal at so many levels. I'd rather rewind the murder multiple times then think about him.

I looked up at the sky again, silently pleading for it to stop raining. I couldn't just keep sitting here, alone with my thoughts, any longer. I pushed myself off the bench and stepped out from underneath the shed. A shiver went down my spine causing me to wrap my arms around myself as the coldness of the rain hit me, soaking my clothing. I regretted not bringing my coat with me, if not much, it would have kept me warmer at least by some margin.

I wiped my hair back from my face and started walking anyway, praying that I wouldn't get a horrible cold in the morning. Only one of us could afford being sick with mom gone.

A car honked, stopping right in front of me. My steps faltered. Oh dear god, not the murderer, please, anything but the murderer.

My sanity was telling me to keep moving and just walk past the car. My body however decided that it would be a good idea to stop working. I froze in my spot, staring at the blinding headlights.

Someone stepped out of the car and within a matter of seconds an umbrella was over my head, preventing the rain from soaking me more than it already had.

Now my body decided to work as my face flushed red and eyes widened in recognition.

"And we meet again, Liam Keith." The exact raven haired stranger that I did not want to think about smirked at me.

Oh great. Just what I needed.

"God you're wet," he breathed and handed me the umbrella. My eyes followed his moments as he took off his coat and gently placed it on my shoulder.

Yeah I know, generally a person would've said, ‘no thank you’ and would've walked away, but the coat was so warm! Not. My. Fault.

"Come on, I'll drop you wherever." He opened the door of his car to the front seat and motioned me to sit. I hesitated, desperately wanting to find an excuse to not to.

"Uh . . . I don't even know you?" my voice came out smaller than usual which caused me to frown at myself. I cleared my throat and spoke once again, this time louder, "And I'm not telling you my address."

"I'm Alex Flynn, we met at the ball, which I'm pretty sure you remember. I could find out your address if I wanted even without you telling me so that's not an excuse." He motioned for me to sit again.

"How?" I asked, my eyes narrowing at him with suspicion.

"I have resources. Come on now, Liam, I promise not to kidnap you." He grinned cheekily at me. Before I could protest again, he just rolled his eyes and tugged at my hand. "You're not gonna win this argument."

Sensations burned my skin where his fingers touched mine. I felt my face heat up which made me feel grateful for the rainy weather, for it hid the colour that rose to my cheeks. It did the job to shut down my body again as I got in the car.

"So, where to?"

I didn't answer and he kept looking at me as I squirmed in the seat. I realised he was gonna keep staring until I answered, so I told him. When he finally looked away, relief somewhat flooded my system.

Now, here's one thing I learned about Alex. He was a mad driver. He drove so recklessly, and the heavy rain did nothing to sooth my terror. The short amount of relief left my system again as I dug my fingers into the leather of the seats to hold myself together.

"I am regretting this so much! I never imagined I would be dying because of a car crash."

"You won't, trust me a little." He chuckled. The sound of his laughter rang through my ears like a soft melody. Dammit Liam! Stop thinking this way, I scolded myself.

"Trust you? For god's sake, all I know is your name!" I don't know why I was shouting, but I was, and for some reason it was highly amusing to him.

"You just missed a shorter turn," I told him.

"I know. It was on purpose." He grinned.

My eyes widened with horror at his words. "Are you kidnapping me?" I demanded, causing him to burst into fits of laughter. I noticed how dimples settled in his cheeks whenever his smile reached his eyes. I almost wanted to trail my fingers over them . . .

Snap out of it! I scolded myself, again. This was neither the time nor the person to think about these things. I was possibly being kidnapped! Something bad could happen to me and no one would ever know!

"No you aren't getting kidnapped," he answered right on cue. "I'm just taking a longer route."

"Why?"

He looked at me when I asked the question. He wasn't laughing anymore, just a faint hint of a smile lingered on his lips. He pulled at his lower lip lightly with his teeth, causing my heart to do a fluttery flip flop. Butterflies erupted in my stomach, and I couldn't help but stare. I was sure that that image wasn't going to leave my mind anytime soon. He kept looking at me, all serious and deep in thought. I was scared that we were going to crash but I couldn't pull myself to look away from his gaze or say something.

"Because I like your presence." He finally took his eyes off of me and I could already feel the heat creeping up in my cheeks.

"My sister is sick. I just wanna go home," my voice came out low as I desperately tried to avoid looking at him.

He breathed a sigh, a small pout forming on his lips which was replaced, as soon as it came, by an evil smirk. "Fine. On one condition."

"What?"

"Go on a date with me."

My neck snapped towards him so fast that I might as well had just broken it. I looked at him as if he had grown a second head. He was still looking forward, but the longer I kept quiet, I could see the corners of his mouth twitching as he fought to keep a smile from breaking out.

"No," I finally told him.

"Are you straight?" he asked, sneaking a small glance at me.

"No." I frowned, what did it have to do with my decision to avoid him?

"Then why not?" Alex's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"Because, I don—I don't date."

He stopped the car and before I knew it, he shifted over and pinned me to the door, his arm narrowly avoiding my waist. His eyes shifted all over my face, studying me as I kept my gaze focused on his. Before I could help it and push him away, I got distracted by the deep shade of grey in his eyes. They were . . . hypnotic. I really wanted to look away, I really did. But they were so captivating that the longer I kept looking, the foggier my mind grew.

He came so close, so, so close, causing my breath to hitch in the back of my throat. He was close enough to kiss me, I thought he was going to. He didn't though, which eased me just a little. Instead his lips moved towards my ears.

"I'll pick you up on Saturday, at nine." his voice was all low and husky, sending shivers down my spine. My neck tingled where his breath fanned over me. It took all my power not to move and do something embarrassing, like admit how weak he was making me.

He opened the door and finally moved back from me. I had completely missed that we were already in front of my home. I rushed out of the car as fast as possible to get away from him.

Finally inside, I leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, before I could drown into my frenzy of thoughts threatening to drive me crazy, I heard my sister's voice.

"You home Li?" Ivory called from her room and I went up to check on her. She was snuggled under her blankets and her nose was very evidently red.

The room was a complete mess, paper tissues thrown everywhere and the multiple blankets she was hiding under were falling down the bed.

"How are you now?" I asked, heading towards the bed and sitting beside her. I placed my hand on her head, it was still warm, but lesser than it had been in the morning.

"Better. How did you get home? It's raining isn't it?"

Not wanting to go into details, as I was sure if I did she'd jump right out of bed and make me go mad with questions, I made up an excuse about getting a ride from a friend.

"Okay. I ate already, Theo's mom brought over some food earlie—wait, that's not your coat?" She frowned.

I looked down to see what she was talking about. Right. I had forgotten to return his coat. "Uh—borrowed it from the store, it's Tristan's," I lied and took it off.

"Okay . . . whatever you say. Did you talk to mom? She was asking about you."

"I did. She made sure to lecture me on all the things you're not supposed to do." I chuckled. She gave me a lazy smile, her eyes drooping closing.

"Get some sleep, I need you to be back to your usual self as quickly as possible. You're supposed to baby me, not I you." I got up and readjusted her blankets, picking up the tissues and throwing them in the bin.

"Just 'cause I'm sick doesn't mean I can't baby you. Do you want me to heat up some food for you?" she asked, moving to get up.

"I already ate," I lied. Before she could protest, I wished her good night, switching off the lights in her room before closing the door. With my appetite already lost, I went straight to my room, not bothering to check on the leftover food.

I quickly took a shower, changed out of my rain soaked clothes to fresh, dry ones and sat down on the edge of my bed. I stared at the coat that I had earlier thrown on the bed, and picked it up reluctantly. It was soft . . . slightly wet from the inside, probably due to my clothes that had already been soaked by the time he showed up. I brought it close to my face, a faint vanilla like scent lingered on it.

Creep, I scolded myself as I realised what I was doing and placed the coat on my study chair. Even after I turned off the lights and tried to sleep, which obviously was completely useless, my mind kept going back to the memory of how his lips had been so close to mine.

I didn't like what he was doing to me.

He had invaded my personal bubble both times we had met and for some reason it made me nervous rather than angry, despite the fact that generally I would've punched the person doing so right on the nose.

Alex Flynn.

His name rang in my ears. I groaned in frustration. It was the only thing I knew about him. I was being so pathetic!

The last thing I wanted was for him to invade my personal bubble yet another time. But I had an involuntary date with him.

I had an involuntary date with Alex Flynn.

I was fucked.

I was so fucked.

🥀

When you're around, hard for me to breathe
Come on, baby, don't you do that anymore
It's not like the days have never felt so short
My nerves, they give me a sign
Tell me I'm not fine, mhm
You've got me nervous to speak

– Nervous
(The Neighborhood)

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(WORD COUNT: 2200)

QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER:
When is your birthday? And if you could have anything in the world what would it be?