ALEXANDER

With my mother crying and the police officer here, it didn't take me long to put two and two together.

"Y-Your father died from alcohol poisoning two hours ago." My mother weeped, but she looked like she was trying to keep it together for me.

I knew it from the beginning. I knew it ever since that night when he came for dinner, that he would find some way to leave. Never did I think he would die, but I still knew it.

Just this morning, he was over in this house. I could still see him making funny faces at Layla, and her laughing until she couldn't breathe. I could still see the two of them fake wrestling, and Layla's laughs when she jumped on his stomach.

His last words to me were still fresh in my mind. I'm proud of you son. At that moment, I didn't realize that those words would be the last I heard from him.

Just like Sky's words, I had different parts of me that felt different things.

One part was angry. At my father and at Sky.

Another part of me was in despair. It was like people in my life just decided when they could leave me.

The third part was regretting something. Even if I hated my father with everything I had, I was regretting telling him that I was happy that he came back into our lives.

Since Sky wasn't going to be in my life anymore, I shut off her little voice telling me to touch on those emotions and just stuck to be angry.

All I saw was red when I looked down at my mother.

"Why the fuck are you crying?" I spat.

My mother looked up at me, and her quiet sobs silenced. "W-What?"

"That beggar is out of our lives for good." I continued my attack, wondering how far I would have to go to release that anger in me.

"He's dead, Alexander. Show him some respect." She replied, not angry but still sad.

"Respect? Don't fucking talk about respect!" I shouted. "You don't even have respect for yourself. You continuously kept welcoming back Steven for years, even though he had hurt you. You're pathetic, mom!"

The officer sat up from his chair, his eyes harsh on me.

"You sit the fuck back down." I pointed the officer to the chair.

"It's okay, John." She lightly pushed him back down on the chair. "Alex, I know you're hurt but don't put the blame on me."

"I'm not fucking hurt." I tried to convince her and myself. "And I will put the blame on you because it's your fault. You shouldn't have even let that fucking drug addict come back into our house."

"I thought-" She began but I cut her off.

"You thought what? That Steven would finally change for you? That he would become a father to us and get on one knee to marry you? Wake the fuck up mom, you chose the wrong man to have sex with in fucking high school, and Layla and I will always be products of you being dumb and in love with a man that was never in love with you." I screamed at my mother.

As I watched my mother look up at me like I had just ripped her heart, I felt this wave of satisfaction through me. Soon later though, a deep sadness overtook me.

"Mommy? Alex?" I heard my sister call out from upstairs.

"You isolent fucking boy." The officer grumbled under his breath, but I heard every single word.

"Get out of my fucking house." I told the officer.

"Your house?" He looked shocked. "What has this generation done to teenagers?"

"Yes. My house. You can try to fucking get in my mother's pants as hard as you want, but it won't happen." I continued the attack on my next victim.

"I'm not your mother, or any fucking else you talk to that way, I'll beat the shit out of you, kid." He spat.

I immediately took my vest off and undid my tie, letting the fabric hang from around my neck.

"Alex, you've done enough. Please, he's going to leave." My mother begged.

I ignored her and that uniform that John guy had on and punched him in the face.

I blacked out, but felt my fist connected with his face several times.

I remember hearing my mother yell at the officer to let me go as he grabbed me and harshly body slammed me on the kitchen floor.

The impact was so hard on my nose that it started it bleed uncontrollably.

"Alex!" My sister yelled, looking down at me pinned on the floor.

I looked away from her, and didn't fight as the policer cuffed my wrists.

"You're under arrest for assaulting a cop." The officer pulled me up.

As he was pushing me out of the house, I looked back at my mother and Layla.

My mother was sitting back down, looking down and covering her face as she cried.

Layla was crying too. Her innocent eyes didn't deserve to see that destruction.

She had the exact same look in her as me when I was young and saw my father hit my mom, or drink in front of me or fight random people on the street.

I was ripping that innocence from her. . . just like my father had done to me.

* * *

The police officer I assaulted was driving fucking slowly to the police station.

It was still raining.

My nose was still bleeding, the space in the backseat was too small for my legs and the fucking handcuffs were hurting the shit out of my wrists.

"Can you fucking give me a napkin or something, your dumbass broke my fucking nose." I asked him, putting my forehead on the metal barrier between the backseat and the front one.

"I'll give you something when we get there." He said. "Now shut the fuck up and let me drive."

"I should've fucking killed you." I groaned at the officer.

"Don't make me add charges on you." He chuckled.

If it wasn't for that fucking metal wall and the handcuffs, I would strangle the life out of that man.

We made it to the station. There were many police cars parked outside of it, and policemen bringing people in.

The rain was falling hard down on me as the officer pulled me into the station.

Inside, it was packed with officers, girls wearing prom dresses and guys wearing suits. I could recognize a few from my school.

"Seems like you kids think prom night is a time to be reckless." John said from behind me. "We'll put you in a cell with someone."

He yanked me around until I ended up in a cell with a girl in a long ugly pink dress.

"Can you take these fucking handcuffs off of me?" I shouted at him.

"I don't trust you." He responded.

"Okay, then give me something for my fucking nose." I said but he ignored, pushing me in before locking the cell.

The girl was sitting on the floor with her legs out and her head against the wall behind her. She had the palest skin I'd ever seen, light blue eyes and wet auburn hair down to her shoulders. I noticed she had the same cardigan Sky wore at times.

I regretted thinking about Sky because now I couldn't even get her face out of my mind. Her face was attached to betrayal now, so I didn't want to think about it.

"What are you here for?" The girl beside me asked, and I was glad she was talking because I wouldn't think of Sky.

"None of your business." I spat, being my usual cold self.

She looked to be shocked by my reaction but didn't say a thing. She looked down, playing with the flower around her wrist.

With the silence, came Sky. Her whole being consumed my mind.

I sat down on the bench with my elbows on my knees, cursing to myself.

"I need to get the fuck out of here." I murmured, getting up to pace around this small fucking room.

"I've been here for five hours." The girl in the pink dress sighed.

"What for?"

"My friends thought it would be fun to go vandalize stores after prom." She responded. "What about you?"

"Beating the shit out of that cop." I motioned to the fucking cop I want to kill.

"Looks like he beat you up." She clapped back, looking at my bleeding nose and the blood all the way down my dress shirt.

"Shut up." I grumbled, sitting back down on the bench.

She laughed before taking out a tissue from her bra. She got up to give it to me.

"I can't really fucking take it." I showed her my cuffed hands.

"Sorry." She laughed. "Pull your head back."

She stuffed the tissue paper into my nose, took another one and cleaned up the blood that was going down my nose.

"Thanks." I thanked her.

"No problem." She smiled and sat back down where she was.

"So why did you fight that cop?" She asked curiously.

I shrugged, not wanting to go over the fucked up things that happened.

"Something is bothering you, I can tell." She recognized, analyzing me with her eyes. "Is it girlfriend drama?"

I rolled my eyes, looking away from her.

"I'm a girl, maybe I could help." She suggested.

"You're not like her." I told her truthfully. No girl on this planet was like Sky, and that was a fact.

"I know, just try me." She shrugged.

I sighed loudly. "Aren't girls supposed to be obsessed with commitment?"

"What do you mean?" She wondered.

"Girls are known to shove marriage down men's throats, right?" I continued.

"Well, it's because we mature earlier than men but yeah. Why?"

"My girlfriend wants to leave to Seattle for school. I want her to come with me to Virginia." I explained.

"She doesn't want to go to Virginia with you?"

"No." I mumbled. "And I offered her everything. A place for us that I would pay, she would never have to get a job. . ."

She laughed. "Wow, that's moving fast."

"I just fucking love her." I started to get pissed all over again.

"It almost seems like you want her to come with you, and give her everything just so she can't ever leave you." She laughed, not realizing the truth in her own words.

I looked away from her and stayed silent, leading her to gasp.

"That's what you're doing, isn't it?!" She exclaimed.

"What's your name anyway?" I tried to change the subject.

"Nikki." She fell for it, but then frowned. "You're horrible."

"I-I just can't let her leave me, I don't care how fucked up that sounds." I said.

She scoffed. "Did you try to convince her to go with you?"

"I thought she wanted to come, and she hid the fact that she was leaving me all along. For months! I found out from her fucking diary!" I shouted.

"Calm down." She giggled. "She shouldn't have hid that from you, that was wrong, but if you want her to come with you just because you want to hold her in a cage, she should run."

"That doesn't help shit. You suck at advice." I spat at her.

"Can't you try long distance?"

"Don't you fucking understand? I. Need. Her. With me." I talked to her like she was a child.

"If you really need her that badly, you'll make it work." She smiled.

I stared at her for a moment, before I turned my head to the sound of my mother. She was talking to John, looking like a broken soul. Layla was beside her, and I hid so my sister couldn't see me like this.

Minutes later, Officer Jackass opened up my cell. "Let's go, Scott."

I walked out of this fucking cell and he took off my handcuffs. I twisted my wrists to relieve some of the pain.

Looking back at Nikki, she gave me one wave and a smile. I waved back and walked out of this place. My mother's car was parked right in front.

When I got in, my mother stayed absolutely silent. Her eyes were puffy and red.

"Are you okay, Alexander?" My sister was crying in the backseat because of the blood down my shirt.

"Yeah, Layla. It's just ketchup." I shrugged it off like it was nothing.

"I'm not stupid. You are!" She crossed her arms.

"Layla calm down." I groaned, resting back against the seat.

"No! You made mommy cry and you hit a police man. That's not nice! You so stupid!" Layla yelled.

The car was silent after that until I heard my mother sniffles five minutes later.

"I'm sorry mom, okay?" I apologized to her. She shook her head and moved her face more away from me.

"What you said to me tonight hurt, Alex. And assaulting a cop? Why would you do such a thing?!" She shouted.

"That fucking dumbass deserved it." I mumbled and rested my head on the window.

"Don't talk about him like that! He was kind enough to let this go as a misdemeanour. If it wasn't for him, I would've had to pay thousands of dollars which I can't afford so you would've been taken to jail." She yelled.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I shouted, starting to really feel guilty.

"After you met Sky, I really thought that you were done with this." She said slowly. "Where is she?"

I stayed silent at the topic of Sky. There was nothing I could say that wouldn't hurt saying out loud.

We made it home finally. Layla was silently sleeping in the back, her mouth open wide and snoring lightly.

I opened up my car door and opened Layla's to pick her up. She didn't make a sound.

"Does she know?" I asked, referring to my father's death. Layla shuffled in my arms, my mother was walking next to us.

"I'll tell her in the morning." My mother's voice broke.

I carried Layla all the way up to the room and went back downstairs to be alone.

My mother was sleeping as well, but I didn't think I would want to close my eyes because of the risk of seeing Sky.

Sky. Fucking beautiful Sky.

What hurt the most was the fact that she let me talk about our future together tonight, knowing that wasn't what she had in mind. For months, I was excited to get out of here and live my life with her, but her plans were different.

I loved her way more than words could say, I needed her to be sane or else I would do stupid shit like. . . assault a cop.

The top cabinet of my mother's wines and vodkas was the only thing I saw.

I grabbed a bottle of vodka and ran out of the house to drive to wherever.