Alexander

Alex pulled into a parking spot, immediately scanning the field. He found what he was looking for sitting under the biggest tree. He quickly got out of his car and started walking over to her. He was going to make whatever it was right. He didn’t care what the cost at this point.

He was three feet away from her when he got a good look at her. She didn’t look like the girl he knew at all. When he thought of her an image of a tank soon followed. She was tough, strong, and able to withstand hurricanes. This wasn’t her. The girl he was looking at looked so worn down, beaten, broken, fragile.

She looked up when he was about a foot away. He could see tear streaks down her cheeks. Her big, brown eyes were shiny. She had been crying. She’s still crying. Alex’s heart sank. He had never seen her cry, ever. He never thought it was possible. Her crying didn’t exist, like the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

Her eyes were down, looking at her hands on the grass. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“I lost something. I needed to find it,” Alex answered.

He sat down in front of her. It was taking all his self control to keep himself from throwing his arms around her, holding her to his chest, making promises to hurt everybody who did this to her. He knew better.

“What did you lose?” she asked.

“You,” Alex answered, readying himself for the next question. She asked more questions than a six year old. He would get his chance to ask his once she went though hers.

“I’m not your keys. You don’t just lose me.”

“You’re harder to find when you leave your phone at home.”

“I didn’t want to be found.”

“I figured that much on my own,” Alex said.

He could feel it coming. The moment where he was either going to find out what happened to her or where she was going to tell him to get the hell away from her if he knew what was good for him.

She wiped her eyes, finally looking up at him. Alex noticed she wasn’t wearing make-up, another thing that she never did. He could feel his anger rising with every new discovery. Whoever did this to her was going to pay. He didn’t care anymore. Nobody was going to get away with this. He was going to make this right.

“I’m a monster, you know,” she said, looking back down.

“Monsters aren’t beautiful. They’re skin is also green.”

“That’s what storybooks tell us.”

Alex sighed, moving a little bit closer to her. His self control wavering.

“You’re not a monster,” he said.

She just shrugged her shoulders. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“I didn’t. I was hoping,” Alex admitted. It was such a long shot when he thought about it. He didn’t expect her to be here. It was almost too obvious. If she didn’t want to be found he thought she would have picked a more secretive place. He almost didn’t come here at all. But then he remembered something she used to say, ‘Where do you hide something you don’t want to be found? In the most obvious place.’ That’s when his long shot became more of a most likely. He still thought he was lucky that he found her here. He wasn’t going to admit it though.

He watched her shoulders shake as more tears flooded her eyes. She kept her face down, hoping to hide the fact that she was crying.

She suddenly stood up, walking to the blue bike path. Alex jumped up, walking as fast as he could without running until he caught up with her. He didn’t care where she was going, he would follow her to the end of the world if he had to.