Chapter 7- When Love and Tragedy Collide (Alex’s POV)
I was sitting with Liam at one of the tables, at my mom’s and dad’s wedding when all of the sudden they came over to me. They sat down next to me and told me the best news in the world. I was going to get to stay in La Push with my grandma and Liam. Two whole weeks with Liam here in La Push. I can spend time on the beach with him, go to the movies with him, and all kinds of things! Wow, I can’t wait to start. I was jumping up and down with excitement. I hugged him and whispered into his ear.
“I get to stay here with you for two whole weeks.” He smiled at me and we laughed. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me again. I melted into his arms, content and happy.
I was so tired after my new mom and dad left, that Liam went ahead and walked me to my grandma’s house. I almost fell but he caught me and picked me up and carried me the rest of the way into the house. He took me into Seth’s room and laid me down on the bed. I guess he thought I was asleep, he whispered in my ear.
“I’m in love with you, one day you will be mine.” When he said this he brushed the back of his hand down my cheek and then he was gone.
Wow, he was in love with me. I knew how I felt about him, but how can he be in love with me? I laid there unable to go to sleep now, thinking about what he said. Hours went by and I was still awake. I really cared about him but I wasn’t sure if I loved him. I loved being with him and spending time with him, I was miserable without him around me.
I finally fell asleep around four in the morning.
I was running through the woods; running from something that I couldn’t see. The only thing I saw was it’s eyes. They were a beautiful brown color, but they were way too high up to be a person. More like a large horse. Every time I would turn around to see if it was still following me, there it was, staring right at me. The eye’s drew me in and I stopped dead in my tracks. The creature that was definitely not a horse, it looked more like a wolf.
I looked at it and it just stood there staring at me. It was a beautiful creature. It was light brown with darker brown streaks throughout its fur. It had white around the mouth and nose and those piercing eye’s that were still staring at me. His ears stood straight up, and still staring at me, he made a whining nose in his throat and I let out the breath I must have been holding. I didn’t feel scared for some reason, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I took a step closer to him and his ears pinned to his head and he whined again. I stopped and spoke to him.
“I won’t hurt you, will you let me touch you?” I asked.
He stood there staring at me and then he nodded his head. Wow, he’s smart. It was like he was trying to tell me something with his eyes though. Like he was trying to communicate something important. I took another step closer to him and he didn’t move at all this time, so I closed the gap between us and hesitantly stood there. I looked at him and noticed just how tall he really was. I looked up and straight into his eyes, I knew those eyes.
“Liam?” I whispered.
I sat straight up in my bed and was so out of breath. I couldn’t believe that crazy dream. What in the world was that? I laid there for a while thinking about the wolf in my dream, he was so beautiful. I shook off the dream and looked around, I was no longer in Seth’s bed, where Liam had left me, I was now in my new mom Leah’s room. How in the world did I get in here? I thought. Whatever, I’ll just get up, get dressed, go down stairs and get something to eat. When I got dressed after my shower, I was walking down the stairs when I heard his voice. Liam was here. I started to shake a little, the picture of him as a wolf popped into my head.
I shuddered and continued down the stairs. When I walked into the kitchen all talking stopped. I looked around and locked eyes with Liam and shuddered again. He looked at me and a look of worry crossed his face. I smiled at him and that look went away. I went over to sit at the table just as Seth came in the back door. He didn’t look so well, I hope he’s okay.
My grandma sat down a plate of pancakes and I put two on my plate and covered them with butter and syrup. I thought I was devouring them, but when I looked over at my uncle Seth and Liam, they were cramming the pancakes down their throats. I counted silently in my head and I know they both ate like fifteen each before I finished my second one. Liam caught me looking at him and he laughed, which in turn made me laugh. It loosened up all the tension in the room and we all relaxed and finished our breakfast.
After we ate, Liam had a brilliant idea. We would go swimming for awhile today and hang out on the beach, which is exactly what I wanted to do. I ran up the stairs to get changed into my bikini and headed downstairs to wait for Liam, he was already there and I had to stare, he looked so amazing. He was wearing a pair of white swim trunks with palm tree’s with light blue around them, oh my god, and his bare chest. Rippled muscles went down his stomach, I didn’t think I could breath. There was no way I looked that good in my baby blue bikini and matching flip flops, but he was staring at me with his mouth hanging open.
Seth walked by him and slapped him on the head, and I had to laugh because Seth said ’oops’ under his breath as he did it.
I smiled at him and put on my sandals and my matching glasses. I grabbed my beach towel and headed down to the beach. It was the perfect day to spend at the beach. It wasn’t raining thank god.
I laid my towel down on the sand and stretched out on it. Liam had followed me all the way down here at a slower pace then I was walking. When he got down to me, I was sitting there waiting for him to help me with putting suntan lotion on my back. I twirled the bottle in my hand at him, with a smile on my face. He smiled at me and dropped down to his knees and said the most priceless words to me.
“Hello Beautiful.” I know I was two shades of red right then, but I loved to hear him call me beautiful. I smiled up at him and tossed the bottle of lotion to him.
“Do you mind?” I asked, with the same smile on my face.
“Of course not. I’d do anything for you.” He had a shocked look on his face, like I had asked something I shouldn’t have. Or like I should have known the answer before I asked.
He lightly pushed me down on the towel, on my stomach, and spread the lotion all over my back, my shoulders, and my neck. I had already done my legs and he didn’t even ask. Then when he was done he set the bottle down on my towel and took off. I watched him as he leapt into the ocean, he was so tall but so graceful and beautiful at the same time. I should have been the one to say ‘Hello Beautiful,’ not him.
He came back over to me after about fifteen minutes of swimming. The water was dripping off of his rippled abs, my mouth just about hit the sand. It was like everything was moving in slow motion. He came over to me and said something, but I didn’t hear him. I was just staring at him. His brilliant smile spread across his face and he leaned down to me and whispered in my ear again.
“Like what you see?” He licked his lips and took off again into the water. I felt like I was breathless--more like speechless. Did he just ask me that?
I laid there with my sunglasses on and let the sun bake on my body. The sun felt so wonderful to me, but I still had all the thoughts of the dream, what he called me, the looks he was giving me, what he had asked me--all of it going into hyper drive inside my brain. I would give anything to be able to jump inside his head and know what he thought about me. I could have been dreaming last night when he said he loved me, but again I could have sworn I was awake. My dreams felt so real last night though.
I must have fallen asleep on the beach, because Liam was waking me up telling me to hurry up and get my stuff together because the rain was coming. I looked up at him, jumped up and when I looked up at the clouds I immediately noticed they were jet black. I grabbed my stuff, but I wasn’t fast enough. The rain started to pour down and the drops that hit my sun baked skin, were as cold as ice. We ran for it as fast as we could causing me to almost fall like three times. Every time I lost my balance, Liam caught me before I could make contact with the ground. He kept laughing at my clumsiness but we kept on running.
We made it to my grandma’s and got up on the porch. We stood there watching the rain for a few minutes in silence. Then all of the sudden he turned around and kissed me. At first I was startled, then I closed my eyes and kissed him back. We stood there for only seconds kissing, but it was so magical kissing him in the rain. When the kiss was over he took my face in his hands and bent his head down to me and we connected our foreheads and stared at each other.
I don’t know how or why, but I felt so complete being with him and around him. When I was away from him I remembered feeling empty, like I wasn’t whole anymore and the moment I saw him again I was me again, I was whole. I must have shivered because he wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head.
“You better get in before you freeze,” he whispered softly into my hair. I didn’t want to move away from his arms, he was so warm.
“Do I have too?” I asked him, comfortable in his warm embrace.
He laughed and I didn’t even think about moving.
“No you don’t have to, but if you don’t you won’t be able to go on our date tonight.” With that he kissed my head again and ran out into the rain towards his house.
I walked into grandma Sue’s house and went up to my new room here. I was so worried about the date. What did he mean about date? Oh god what do I wear? Carolyn had already gone home, so who do I go to for help? I figured I had a new grandma down stairs maybe I could ask her.
So I walked down the stairs to find her--she wasn’t hard to find. She was sitting in the living room watching TV. She saw me come in and gave me a smile, then I guess she saw my face and looked a little worried. I walked over to the couch across from the chair she was in and sat down.
“Um…… can I ask you something?” I asked hesitantly.
“Of course you can Alex, you can ask me anything,” she said, still with that worried look on her face.
“Well, you know I hung out with Liam today right? It started to rain on us and when we got up to the porch he told me I should go in so I wouldn’t get cold. I told him I didn’t want to, and he said I should because then I wouldn’t be able to go on our date tonight. Well I’ve never been on a date before and I have no clue what to wear.”
I watched as she smiled and shook her head then stood up and grabbed my hand. She led me up the stairs and back into the room I was staying in. It had been Leah’s and as she crossed the room, she opened the closet and I about hit the floor. There was a crazy amount of clothes in there. Grandma Sue looked at me and picked out a perfect light blue strapless dress, it was beautiful. It had matching shoes and a blue flower to go in my hair.
I couldn’t wait to try it on. Usually I didn’t like dresses but this was a perfect dress for my date with Liam. I wanted to look perfect for him. I was so jittery when I was getting dressed. My grandma Sue did my hair too, she pulled it part up in a clip and curled it a little bit more. I had the dress on and the shoes, I didn’t have any jewelry and I wondered why she didn’t think about that, but she didn’t and I let it go. I was too worried about the date to think about one thing too long.
I looked at myself in the mirror and couldn’t believe it was me. I looked beautiful. I couldn’t wait to see his face when he sees me in this. I wonder where we were going for our date or what we are doing on our date. I’m so freaked out.
I heard a knock on the door and Seth went to answer it. I walked down the stairs slowly, these heels were crazy. I loved them though. When I made it to the bottom stair, there he was standing in a pair of kaki pants and a navy blue dress shirt. He had on a silver and blue watch and black shoes. I was stunned when I looked at him. I stood there with my mouth hanging open. I met his eyes with mine and gasped, he was standing there just like me. I blushed and smiled at him and he came over and took my hand and kissed it, which made me blush even more.
He kept hold of my hand and led me outside, to his dad’s truck who was waiting inside. He smiled at me and I nervously mumbled some sort of greeting. We both got in and headed somewhere, I had no clue where we were going. We drove for a while, Liam kept sneaking peeks at me and it kept making me blush.
Finally Sam stopped the truck and parked. We were in Port Angeles. I only had been here once and that was when we were planning Leah’s wedding. We were parked in front of a Italian restaurant called LaBella Italia. Wow, I loved Italian food. He opened the door for me to exit the truck and Sam told us he would be back in about two hours. Wow, that gives us plenty time to eat and talk. Liam took my hand again and led me into the restaurant.
The waitress took us to a back booth and gave us our menu’s, she then asked for our drink orders.
“I’ll have a Coke,” I said timidly. I was so going to be shy tonight.
“I’ll have the same,” he told the girl. He didn’t look at her at all, he just kept eye contact with me.
We sat there for a little while in complete silence just looking at each other. I wasn’t about to break the silence, I was still a little nervous. I sat there twisting my fingers around my other fingers, braiding them. He broke the silence first. To me he seemed so much more mature then me, he was only eleven. I was getting ready to turn eleven in five weeks, but to me he acted so much more mature than normal boys his age.
“So your birthdays coming up, I knew you would be at home by then and I wanted to do something special for you for your birthday. That’s why I invited you on this date, that and I love spending time with you. But, what I’m getting at, well…” he started to look like the nervous one. He pulled out a black box out of his pocket and handed it to me. “Happy early birthday Alexandra. I hope you like it. I picked it out for you right after you left last time. I saw it and thought about you.”
I looked at him and then down at the box, I felt like I would cry, he was so sweet. My birthday wasn’t for five more weeks, but he was right, he more than likely wouldn’t be there, I would be back home for my birthday. It made me a little sick to my stomach thinking about not being with him for my birthday. I wanted him to be there. Before I opened my present, I stopped with my hands on the box lid. I looked over at him and he was watching me. I took a deep breath and said what I was thinking.
“But, I want you to be at my birthday party. I understand why you won’t be, but I wish you would be.” I let the tear that was threatening to fall, trail a slow path down my cheek.
He saw the tear and came around the table and sat on the booth seat next to me and wrapped his arms around me and held me. I ended up crying in his arms, it was breaking my heart. I was going to have to say goodbye to him again and I might not see him again. It was only the first day of two weeks of me being here and I was already thinking about our goodbye. I knew I would have to stop, I was here with him now, I should enjoy it. So I wiped the tears away and sat up in his arms and kissed him on the cheek. He hugged me again and kissed the top of my head.
“Are you okay?” He asked me, I just nodded my head yes. “I know what you mean, I would love to be there and if I can be I will be I promise you. I know your thinking about leaving too and so am I. I wish more than anything that you lived here. I’ll make you a promise right here and now. I will always be here for you. If you ever need me, call me and I’ll be there. If you just need to talk. Open your present,” he said with a smile.
I could tell he was feeling down thinking about the same thing I was, being apart was going to kill us both again.
I opened the box that now sat in front of me and was stunned. It was a beautiful bracelet. It was a silver link charm bracelet. There was a heart charm on it and a diamond ring held it together. I looked at it and held it in my hand. It was too much, I looked up at him and he smiled at me.
“It’s too much Liam,” I whispered
“Nothing is too much for you Alexandra, it’s a promise bracelet, it lets you know that I’m always here like I said, you’re always in my heart.”
He was so sweet, I knew at that moment, even being ten years old, I knew I was in love with him. I know its weird to find love at ten and that some people would say it’s just a crush, but I knew in my heart that he would always be there for me. There had to be a way for us to be around each other and be able to talk to each other. I needed to be around him or I would die. I know, over dramatic, but it felt like it was the truth. Hey, I’m only ten right?
He took the bracelet from my hands and put it on me. It fit perfectly and I loved it. Since he was still sitting next to me, I reached over and kissed him very softly, and slowly pulled back.
“Thank you, I love it, Liam,” I whispered, my voice full of emotion.
Our food came right as I got his name out of my mouth. I was so hungry, but I didn’t want to eat, I wanted to talk to him and spend time with him. But, I was with him so I guess it counts as spending time with him. I laughed at myself for that thought.
We sat there for the rest of our two hours and talked and ate. I had never laughed so much in my life, then we talked about my mom and I told him the whole story. About how she died and how I took care of my dad. We talked about his family and his brothers and his baby sister, that was on the way. Emily was almost eight months pregnant now. He was excited about his baby sister.
When our time was over, we walked out to the restaurant and Sam was already there and waiting to pick us up. Liam opened the door for me and I climbed in. We headed back towards La Push. On the way back, Liam grabbed my hand and held onto it tightly. I smiled up at him and didn’t even think of pulling it away. We rode back in complete silence again and when we reached grandma Sue’s, Liam walked me all the way to the door, kissed me again and went to get back into his dad’s truck…but then he stopped.
“Um Alex, I won’t be around in the morning. I have something special to do. I will come get you in the afternoon and we can hang out. Okay?” He asked.
I was totally bummed. I wanted to spend the whole day with him again. I missed him when he wasn’t around. I looked down at my bracelet and then back up at him and shook my head at him. He could tell I was sad. He ran back over to me and hugged me and told me he would see me as soon as he could. He kissed me again and then went back to the truck. I watched as the truck left and I knew that tomorrow would be a very long day without him.
I walked in and went straight to my room, changed and put on my pj’s--a long sleeved blue and pink top with pink plaid with blue and green striped pants.
After I got dressed, I went over and curled up into a pink chair and grabbed my journal. I sat there for two hours writing about all that happened today and all the stuff on the date and the bracelet. I wrote about how I felt about Liam. It took over six pages to write about everything I was feeling. After that, I headed over to the bed and got under the covers.
“Goodnight Liam,” I whispered before I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning I woke up and I dreaded the day. I just wanted to stay in bed all day and not get out till he came for me. I thought about doing just that, but Seth knocked on my door. I got up out of bed and answered the door and told him to come in.
I went back to the bed and sat down, he took the pink seat I was sitting in last night to write in and sat down also. He smiled at me and I didn’t know what to say to him.
“Well, I just wanted to see if you wanted to go with me today? I’m heading into Port Angeles and I know that Liam is busy today, so I figured I could see if you wanted to go with me.”
“Did Liam put you up to this?” I asked. Seth looked at me for a second and looked so guilty I knew Liam had put him up to it. “ Sorry Seth I have plans of my own today. Have a good time though,” I said. I walked past him and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.
I heard him walk out of my room muttering something about girls and attitudes. I laughed at that. I wasn’t really mad, it was kind of sweet of him to be worried about me, but for him to ask Seth to keep me busy bothered me. Was there something I wasn’t supposed to know or was there someone else he liked and he was just being nice to me. That couldn’t be it though, not after what he said last night at the restaurant.
I got up and got dressed in a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and my usual pair of shoes. I still had on the bracelet he gave me last night. I walked down and headed toward the kitchen and grabbed a granola bar and headed towards the beach.
I was playing with the bracelet, when I saw a pair of boys watching me. I looked over towards them and smiled. They looked just like Liam, I figured they were his brothers. They both looked at each other and then came towards me.
“Hi I’m Sam Jr. and this is my brother Ty, we’re Liam’s brothers. You’re Alex right?”
“Yeah, I am,” I said a little angrily. He still had people watching out for me. But in a way it was sweet.
Ty snickered at me and I shot him my evil stare. He stopped immediately.
“Well, Alex, um Liam isn’t going to be able to be around today at all. He wanted us to come and tell you that. He didn’t want you to think he stood you up. Okay, well we have to go.”
They went to turn around but I stopped them.
“Hey, tell him I said hi. And that well…….. Um yeah tell him I’ll miss him being around today,” I said.
They smiled at me again and shook their heads and left. Man a whole day by myself.
I sat down on a beached tree and wished I had gone with Seth, I was so bored. I sat there playing with my bracelet for a long time and watched as the ocean waves racked in and off the shore. The rocks were so pretty, they were all different colors. Greens, blues, and purples. It was magnificent. I sat there day dreaming for a long time and I looked up just in time to see Liam’s mom, Emily, walking down the beach.
She was so pregnant, I had to smile at her. She looked so sweet to me. She sat down next to me and smiled.
“Hey Alex, what are you doing out here?” She asked me
“Nothing, just sitting. I’m a little bored. I should have went ahead and went with Seth, but I didn’t feel like shopping. I kind of miss my dad and Leah. I’ve never been away from my dad.” I had my feet pulled up to my chest and my chin on my knees.
All of the sudden, I saw Liam, he smiled right at me. He came running down the beach towards me. Emily didn’t even have time to say anything to me. He stopped right in front of his mom.
“Thanks mom,” he said as she got up and kissed him on the cheek. Then he took the seat she had been in.
He took my hand and kissed it.
“ So, what has you so down?” He asked. Was it written on my face or something?
I put my face down and just sat there, without saying anything at first. Then, being Liam, he put his hand under my chin to lift it up. He made me look him in the eye’s.
“What’s the matter?” He asked again.
“Well, I kind of miss my dad and I was so bored without you around it all just hit me. I’ve never been away from my dad and I have this weird feeling something is going to go wrong and it scares me,” I said. He could get me to tell him anything.
“Alex, I’m sorry I couldn’t be here sooner. But, I’m here now. Your dad will be fine, Okay? No more worrying.” He kissed my cheek, and then wrapped me up in his arms.
We sat there for a long time, with him just holding me. All of the sudden he got up and dragged me up with him, he wouldn’t let go of my hand, but he didn’t say anything either.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Well, I want you to have dinner with my family. Please?” He asked, I nodded my head yes.
“But we have to stop at my grandma’s and let her know,” I told him. We went there first and of course, she was fine with it.
We went to his house and hung out in his living room until dinner was done and when it was, we all sat around the table eating. All the boys in this house ate like pigs. It was like they wolfed down everything in their sight. Emily kept smiling at Liam and me as he kept making me laugh. I watched at Sam and Emily were holding hands and smiling at each other too. You could just see and feel how much in love they were.
The night continued like this for a while, we played a board game together and then Liam walked me home. Just like every other night, he kissed me goodnight and I went inside.
My first week flew by with Liam with me everyday. He was so much fun to be with, I enjoyed being with him. I had forgot all about the worries I had about my dad almost all together, but I shouldn’t have.
It was Monday morning of the second week that I was supposed to be here, when I was walking down the stairs and I heard grandma Sue scream. I ran the rest of the way down the stairs and into the kitchen where she was standing with the phone in her hands. She looked up at me with tears streaking down her face. All I could do was stare at her.
It was as if all time stopped--no time didn’t exist at all. She just stared back at me, when all of the sudden the house was full. Liam was behind me with his arms wrapped around me. Seth had come in to be with his mom. Sam was there and so was Emily. And a couple of other people I didn’t know.
I didn’t even know what was happening and I knew I really didn’t want to know. I looked over at my new grandma and her tear streaked face. I couldn’t take it anymore and I screamed.
“WHAT IS GOING ON?”
“Alex, um… that was Leah on the phone.”
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