Chereads / PLAYING HOUSE / Chapter 8 - Back in

Chapter 8 - Back in

Alexandra

"Alex, Alex" he called. I recognised that voice even in my dreams, the voice I've come to know and love.

Thank God he was finally here.

"Eric. I'm over here" I shouted so he could her me. As I saw his shadow approaching the smile on my face widened

"Eric, thank God you are finally here. I've been waiting for you for close to 2 and a half hours, where hav…" I said as I approached him but stopped speaking when I was close to him. He looked so tattered, his always well gelled hair was scattered like someone had ran their hands through them multiple times from different directions.

"What happened to you?" I asked cause I had never seen him this way. Eric always looked so well dressed even in his casual wears. He had a thing for always looking good, but right now he wasn't.

"I… Hey…" he said and instantly his breath hit me. It was bad, and Eric never had bad breath and his breath reeked of alcohol.

"Did you drink or what" I asked and he started to stagger as he walked towards me.

That's weird, cause Eric wasn't much of a drinker and when he drank he never got drunk, never.

"Are you drunk? What happened" I asked still a little confused about the situation at hand, he grabbed me with so much force he had never used before.

I was shocked and a little dazed. He began to kiss me with so much fervency. He started with my lips and then down to my neck.

"Hey, slow down tiger" I said with a chuckle. But he began to pick up his pace and started trailing kisses down my neck and then he kept moving lower and lower and lower as his kisses kept getting more violent.

Then his hands began to move down my body till they reached my pants. And as he unbuttoned the first two buttons, I held his hands, stopping him.

"I… I'm not ready for that yet" I said in between pants.

"Why not?" he asked and it got me offended a bit.

"Um, because it's my choice" I said and then forced myself out of his tight grip and buttoned my shirt back.

"But don't I get a say, I mean I'm your boyfriend. And we have been dating for like what, close to 3 years now"

"And it is still my decision!" I shouted a little, now getting furious. I sighed first to calm down before I began to speak again.

"Look, I'm sorry for yelling but it's my decision and I don't want us to fight about this, please. Good night Eric" I said and was walking out of the alley when I heard him say,

"I'm sorry too. But I want this badly" and the next thing I saw was myself on the ground…

'carry on my wayward son,

there'll be peace when you are you are gone.

Lay your warry head to rest, don't you cry no more'

"That thing supposed to ring three times" I said as my alarm rang once.

"That's because that's not the kind of songs you use for alarms" Gwen said as she drew my blinds and I slowly got up from bed and put on my flops.

"How do you wake up to that shit?"

"With a smile on my face as I walk to the shower without having someone break into my house by 6 in the morning" I said and Gwen chuckled.

"You are the weirdest person I know. And also I didn't break in, I used the door"

"I don't remember giving you a key, so did you use my door before or after cloning my keys?'

"I think it's both times or more… can't really say"

"As long as I didn't ask you to come in, it's called breaking and entering. You're an officer of the law"

"Yeah, yeah. Well you are welcome"

"I'm not thanking you for shit"

"Funny you. So are you going to tell me how your dinner with your boyfriend went?" she said and used air quotes when she said boyfriend.

"Are you asking so that I don't have to find out that Natalie already told you, cause you know I know"

"I know, but I'm asking because that's what friends do even though they know" she said and I smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Also if the deal was still on, you as my friend with those air quotes would have sold me out" I said then she chuckled.

"Why if. Are you not going through with it anymore?"

"Nope" I said popping the P out.

"Why?" she asked and kept following me round the apartment till I stopped her.

"Are you interested in having a second shower?" I asked her as I stood at the door of the bathroom from inside, she shook her head and I nodded mine and closed the door.

After the I had my shower and got ready for work, Gwen had already gotten me coffee and kept pestering me to tell her why I called the deal off, but as usual I ignored her and replied to question that needed serious sarcastic attention.

Classic me!

As we walked out of the elevator we saw a crowd in the office, something like that kind of Christopher Baxter kind of crowd. And as I stood there searching for him with my eyes I prayed so dearly that I would not see him.

Then my phone buzzed again. I looked at the contact.

Urgh!

"Are you going to answer that or what? That's like the 10th time he is calling you since the ride down to the office. Desperate much"

"If you want to talk to him, I can hand you the phone. But as for me, I have bigger fish to fry" I say as I look at my dad in Corbin's office both of them smiling, and laughing and shaking hands.

"Well when he is here, it's not good" Gwen said as she spotted him too.

"It has never been" I said as I begin walking past Corbin's office. But in the midst of my perfect escape, my dad caught me by the corner of his eyes and, I believe began to round up with Corbin and try to talk to me. I by the other hand quickly entered the office, to quickly come out and avoid my dad but just as the thought came it disappeared as my dad knocked on my door and he let himself in.

"Please do come in" I said to him.

"Hey" my dad called as he entered my office.

"Kind of busy right now, so make it quick" I said already sounding irritated, he has that effect.

"Yeah so I just wanted to say hi and see how you are doing since I was in the building"

"You just came in to see me because you wanted to. As you can see, I'm great"

"That's not wh…"

"That's exactly what you said. Can I help you with something?"

"I heard that you called off the engagement, so I wanted to know why. What did he do?"

"Oh, now you want to play super dad"

"I'm not playing. I'm your dad, I care"

"Yeah, like you do. You didn't come here because you care about me but because you want to protect your image, not to be the one with the disgraced daughter"

"What?"

"Surprised as always"

"I do care. In fact, I didn't come here to argue. I was sort of comfortable with the decision you made, I never liked that boy anyway after everything his family did"

"wow dad all you could pick from my pain is your hate"

"it's my love. I care about you"

"yeah you do. And that boy was just my fiancé hours ago!"

"Please. Don't act like all of this was not a ruse. Because if you were serious with him, you would have known that his Baxter was the Baxter. So, it's either you don't mind marrying into that terrible family or you just don't care because maybe you were just the one responsible for what happened!"

"wonderful…" I said nodding my head as I picked my gun from the table. He actually said that.

"Alex…" he was saying then I cut in.

"like I said, I'm busy. Saving lives because I care for them, two things you know nothing about. I said and stormed out of the office. As I got out I saw that a crowd had gathered. Gwen looked at me. I just walked away and she followed me behind as we left.

He was good at gathering the crowd for the wrong reasons.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"you guys made quite a spectacle today" Gwen said as I was driving to her place to drop her off.

"did you enjoy the show?" I asked.

"well I got to admit, it was quite a show. But next time for closed doors"

"what kind of friend are you? You are supposed to be giving me support"

"this is me supporting you, doing it within closed doors, makes things better"

"I hate you"

"thanks baby. That's what you should be doing, you should be thanking me". Gwen said and laughed as we arrived at her house.

"and you should be getting down from my car and walk into your place" I said. She laughed as she was stepping out, Baxter called again and it went to voice mail, again.

"you know they may be related and I may not k now much about him, but he appears to be better than his brother" she said and bided me good night as she walked into her home. After I saw her walk in, I drove off.

Baxter kept calling and texting and I kept wondering why he hasn't. in fact why was I bothered, I mean hasn't he realized the fact that I'm not picking up, he ought to have stopped calling ages ago.

How could I even go on with this? It was like reliving my worst nightmares. After what that family put me through, after what he put me through? Survival is far from the picture I see. But I needed this. There was someone who was depending on me and I had to come through for him. It was not about the money I just had someone.

I just kept thinking as I drove.

Lost in my endless thoughts, I didn't even realize I was already home, save that I rose my head up. How did I even get here? I'll never know. I stopped my car at the apartment's parking lot and resumed my thinking.

Gwen had a point. Baxter was a certified douche, but he was not his brother. He was proud and extremely rude, but he was not his brother. With these few thoughts of mine, I picked my phone and proceeded to dial the number that had called me 103 times today and sent me 206 messages.

Just after one ring he picked up the phone.

"Are you insane, are you nuts, what's your problem? You cannot just bail on me with no explanations and ignore me ever since. "I can't do this anymore" won't cut it. I need an explanation Snow. In fact I don't care your reason for acting so stupid but what I want it an explanation…"

"I'm back in" I said cutting him shut and ended the call.

I could do this, I had to do this

After all, I had a Danny. I needed to this..