Chapter Twenty Five 

I walk down the hallway Alex disappeared in and call out his name. As I look around my dark surroundings, I hope to see his face pop out and greet me, but he doesn't.

"Alex, are you down here?" As I get further away from the lounge room, I find no other sources of lights which kind of scare me. Being in a new place alone and the possibility of walking into a wall or stray piece of furniture is horrifying.

As I get further down, there's a dull glowing light in the distance. I pick up my pace in hopes of finding Alex.

When I reach my destination, it's not a glowing light for another room, but a dim outside light casting dark shadows in the distance. The moon shines over the small section of hedging and roses, but showcases the dark silhouette of Alex Bray.

I open the door and step into the freezing air which sends a shiver down my spine.

"Alex?" I shout.

He jumps, sending a string of cuss words into the silent night's air.

"Sienna, you scared me!" He tries to laugh it away. But there's beads of sweat forming along his forehead and he's got a hand over his chest.

"Are you scared?" I tease.

He pouts which makes me laugh.

"That's it! I'm going to get you," yells Alex playfully.

As Alex lunges at me, adrenaline burns through my body. I dash to hide behind the hedging that divides the pavement from the grass. As I leap onto the grass area, my shoes catches on the edging and I face plant the grass.

I roll onto my back and shake my tingly hands. Before I am able to assess the damage from the fall, I catch a short blurry image of Alex flailing through the air.

The air is knocked out of my body as Alex lands on top of me. He might look skinny, but his bones begin to crush the important organs I use to breathe.

"Ow," I whisper. "Your body is crushing me!"

"You're breathing just fine." He laughs.

"You're still crushing me."

Alex shakes his head and shifts his body so that his legs go to either side of my hips and his hands above my head.

"Is that better?" 

My breath catches in my throat as Alex brushes his nose against mine softly.

"You're not slowly killing me."

Through the soft dim glow, Alex brightly smiles down on me. My eyes catch his lips and I want them. I want Alex to press his lips against mine passionately.

Just as his lips get closer to mine, my heart thumps quicker. His hot breath fans across my moist lips which makes me shiver. Just as I think he's going to take the final step and press his lips against mine – his whole body shifts and falls to the ground beside me. Disappointment fans across me.

"Sienna?" he whispers.

Alex shifts his body to mine so that his arm is pressed up against mine. I'm reluctant to move, but I roll onto my side so that I can look down at him.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"Have you noticed that the moon is the same size as your thumb?" he asks, holding his hand up to prove his point.

"Yes." I nod my head, "Do you know where I learned that from?" 

"Taking a wild guess, not from me." He chuckles.

"Dear John, probably the saddest movie ever, and that wasn't because Channing Tatum got shot either."

"I didn't find the movie sad." He slowly shakes his head.

"If you're saying that – you either have no heart, or you didn't watch the whole movie."

"I might have stopped watching it," he admits.

"You should finish watching it."

"Regardless of where I borrowed the information from, I think it's interesting to know that wherever we are, the moon is always going to be the same size." Alex gently lifts my hand and separates my fingers so that he can hold my thumb up against the moon, and then he does the same with his own hand.

"It's comforting to know that I'm not as far away from home as I think I am," Alex continues.

As I look between the two thumbs, I notice his is a tad bigger. Comparing his thumb to the moon, it makes the moon look small to me. So in fact, his thumb isn't the same size of the moon.

"I hate to break it to you, but your thumb is larger than the moon," I point out.

"My thumb isn't." He yanks his hand away from me. I pull his hand back, and raise it up so that I can compare it back to the moon.

"Totally is." I giggle.

"Take that back." He pokes my side.

"Never!"

"You're going to regret that." Jumping up from the grass, his arms circle around my waist as he tackles me back to the ground. A string of screams and laughter come rushing out of my mouth as I try to break free from his tight grips. I manage to struggle free and I run straight to the door.

My body collides into the cold glass as I come to a skidding stop. I look over my shoulder and see Alex charging towards me. As I tug on the door, I find that it's lost and I'm trapped outside with him. How the heck did that happen?

"I'm going to get you."

"Someone's locked us out," I yell over my shoulder.

"Really?" Alex comes over to check the door and comes to the same conclusion.

"What are we going to do now?" I ask.

"Climb over the fence?"

"Serious suggestions." I frown. Alex looks at me blankly, and then scans the surrounding as he looks for a way out.

"If you chuck your shoes over, I'll give you a boost." Alex points to a brick wall to the side of the house. It's not that high, but the way Alex is talking about it makes it sound easy.

"You make that sounds too easy." I shake my head.

I let Alex lead me over to the brick wall. Taking my shoes off, I chuck them over the brick wall and then stand in front of it. Alex moves behind me and grabs my hips. He tests his strength and my weight before counting to three. As he picks me up, I hoist one leg over the wall and cling to it as I find my balance.

I jump down and quickly straighten my dress, and then put my shoes on. When I look back up, Alex is still sitting on the wall with a disappointed look on his face.

"I thought you would have waited," he says.

"Hurry up."

Alex rolls his eyes. Instead of gliding through the air and landing gracefully on the paved area, the silly kid screams as he falls bottom first into the bushes.

I try to hold it in – but I end up bursting with laughter. I try to help him climb out of the bushes, but I almost fall in with him. The look on his face is hilarious and I keep replaying the memory of him falling in my head.

When Alex is standing upright, we scan the area for other people. Without luck, there's a group of paparazzi waiting for us.

"Let's get back to the house." He grabs my hand and whisks me away.

Alex bangs on the front door, but nobody comes.

"Where's Mitch?" I shout.

"I don't know. I told him to stay inside the car and wait." I can see them sneaking up from the corner of my vision, so I try my best to angle my body away from them. Having a breakdown right now wouldn't help the situation by the slightest.

"We need to make a run for it." Before I have the chance to protest, he's got my hand tightly clasped in mine and we're sprinting down the driveway in a rush.

"My feet are already killing me," I shout, but Alex doesn't loosen his grip.

"Just keep running," he yells over his shoulder.

"Do you even know where we are going?" My father is going to slaughter me when he finds out I've left the guard of both Archer and Mitch.

"It seemed like a better idea," he admits, "you get scared of them, and this was all I could think off," replies Alex.

"I'm scared of running, can we stop doing that too?" I ask.

"Less talking, more running."

"Can I throw my shoes at them?" I ask, "That'll have to slow them down!"

"Yes! Because throwing shoes well help." Alex seems angry, so I fall silent.

We stop running as we round another corner. We eye a large hedge and dash inside the middle of two. We both hold our breath as the paparazzi zoom past in a hurry. When they are done, I lean over and suck in the cold night air.

"What are we going to do now?" Before Alex has a chance to answer my question, a large black car rolls up and I can't decide how I feel about it. This could be our help or a psychopathic killer stalking us.

I kind of wish we kept running.