[Alex's POV]
Alex watched as the door of the toilet room closed behind Jessy and took a shaky breath.
A single tear escaped from the corner of his eye and instantly glided all the way down to his chin, but Alex quickly wiped it away and straightened up. No, he wasn't safe yet. Just don't think about it yet. He had to get home first.
Home, the place where he could hide until his world would stop falling apart. He felt like hiding away in a dark place until the pain and confusion had ebbed away.
He glanced outside of the girls toilet room, to check if the coast was clear and started walking.
As he walked, his mind was on Otto. It was a welcome distraction. For a brief moment, he'd considered to confess what was bothering him, but then Jessy had showed up... He was grateful that she hadn't asked questions, even though she'd clearly noticed something was wrong.
Alex had managed to walk all the way to the secluded path through the park that he usually took to go home, when the tears started blurring his vision.
"Damn it!" he cursed as he tried to wipe them away furiously, but it was no use. The tears were coming faster than he could wipe them away.
He started running, praying to God that he wouldn't pass anyone, occasionally bumping into things as he could hardly see were he was going.
When he had finally made it home and was about to put his key into the lock to open the front door, the door swung open on its own.
Alex looked up startled, as he'd expected the house to be empty, as usual, and found a face staring at him worriedly.
"Dad?" Alex asked surprised. "Why are you home?"
"Goodness!" his dad gasped once he'd registered the tears on Alex's face and quickly pulled him into a hug. "What happened to you? Are you ok?"
For an instant, Alex considered saying he was fine, just to make his dad stop worrying, but he couldn't. It hurt too much.
"Come on, let's go inside. You can tell me what's bothering you, ok?" his dad said kindly when he didn't answer. Alex nodded and followed his father inside.
"Take your time," Mar said kindly as he rubbed Alex's back in soothing strokes. Tears blurred Alex's vision again as Thomas his words came to mind again. His dad wasn't mad! Well, maybe he was, but in a good way! His dad was brilliant! Thomas had to be lying, right?
"Dad? Did mom leave the day I was born?" he finally asked in a stubborn wave of denial and was certain his dad would answer along the lines of "Of course not!" But instead of denying his question, he turned pale and looked startled.
"Where did you hear that?" he asked.
"So it's true then?" Alex asked as he felt the tears start streaming down his face. "How can a mother leave her newborn baby like that?"
"PATCH!" was the sound the mood-light in the corner of the room made when its light-bulb blew, shattering glass all round it and taking the fuse with it, right at the same time that Mar smothered him in a big hug. Both his father hugging him and the sudden shroud of darkness, startled him into silence.
"Your mother is the most beautiful woman I know," Mar said so gentle and so tender at her memory, that it untangled the knot in Alex's stomach a little bit. "She also is the only woman I have ever loved. She would never have left you if she would have had a choice."
"But then why did she leave?" Alex asked as he let himself be hugged and held on to his dad's shirt tightly.
"She didn't have a choice," Mar said. "Damn it, I would have chased her to the end of the world if I could!"
Alex could hear the lump in his father's throat. The memory of her hurt him. It was comforting to know that, at the very least, he wasn't hurting alone.
They stood a moment longer in comfortable silence as Alex basked in the safe feeling of his father's arms around him, until the knot in his stomach had loosened up enough to breathe comfortably again.
"If she was such a great person, you should talk about her more often," Alex said. "At this point, I wouldn't be able to recognize her even if she stood before me."
"Oh, you would know," Mar said seriously. "Because you'd be having a brother or sister soon."
Alex's eyes widened in surprise.
"Eeew! Dad! Gross!" he complained and pushed his hands against his dad's chest as the hug suddenly felt too close. Mar chuckled and ruffled Alex's hair. And just like that, everything felt alright again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Otto's POV]
"Come on Jasper, just one more round!" Otto heard Alex shout and looked around to see if she could spot him anywhere. She found him standing at the corner of the courtyard, his hair still damp from taking a shower, gym clothes in a bag on his arm.
"Hey," she said casually as she went to stand by his side and watched as Jasper ran past them.
"Hey," Alex said as he looked at her briefly.
"What did he do this time?"
Alex snorted.
"Where to start?" he asked with a playful grin pulling at his lips.
"Oh, come on? It couldn't have been worse then the time the history teacher asked him: 'In which direction did Columbus set sail to find America?' and Jasper simply answered: 'That way.'"
Alex snorted once more. "Well, knowing the history teacher that certainly explains Jasper's dislike for the subject."
"So what did he do this time?" Otto asked once more, her curiosity rising. Alex thought about it for a moment.
"He arrived late in class, his too small uniform T-shirt barely reaching to his navel," Alex said.
"What? That's it? Isn't being punished for being late a little harsh?" Otto asked confused.
"It would have been... If Jasper hadn't started flexing to show of his -and I quote- 'pristine body' when the teacher called him out on it," Alex explained, complete with an imitation of Jasper's power-pose. Otto saw the display clearly in her minds-eye and instantly doubled over laughing.
"Looks like you told her, you traitor," Jasper said with a sneer directed to Alex. It looked like he'd finished running his laps.
He waited until Otto stopped laughing long enough to look up at him. Then, without warning, he suddenly posed, flexed his muscles, and said; "You're just jealous of my body!"
Otto, who had steeled herself from laughing to look up at him, noticed he was still wearing his too small T-shirt and instantly doubled over again. She laughed so hard she was gasping for air and nearly lost her balance.
"I think you actually broke her this time," Alex said with a smirk pulling at his lips. Jasper snickered proudly.
"Now get your sweaty ass to the shower before the break ends. I'm not sitting next to you this afternoon if you don't."
"You know you love me," Jasper said with a wide grin as he left.
"Don't try your luck," Alex said as he shook his head in disapproval.
"I know I love him," Otto said as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. She'd laughed way too hard. "There's no-one who can make me laugh like he does. Plus, you have to admit; he has guts."
"Ha!" Alex sneered with a smile and left it at that.
They stood there for an instant in amicable silence as the crowd grew thicker. Otto glanced over at Alex secretively.
"Looks like he's fine," she thought to herself. Maybe he was acting a little snappy, but that was understandable since he had to put up with Jasper the whole day.
After the confrontation with Thomas yesterday, she'd worried herself senseless. She'd cursed herself for leaving Alex alone. No matter how many times she went through the incident in her mind, he simply couldn't have been fine.
"Do you want to talk about yesterday?" she asked. It had meant to sound like she didn't particularly cared, but her voice betrayed her worries.
"No," he replied, his voice even.
"Then I'll ask just this one question; was what he said about your parents true?" Normally she wouldn't pry, but she knew that if she didn't ask about it, it would eat her alive.
"Yeah," he answered reluctantly.
"It- it was? Even that about your mom?!" Otto stuttered incredulously. "My God, I thought he had just been saying things to rile me up, but it was true! I'm so sorry!"
"Don't be. I'm glad he told me," Alex said. That surprised Otto even more.
"You mean you didn't know?!" Otto asked even more incredulously now.
Alex shrugged.
"Well, I knew my dad was eccentric, but what you heard about my mom yesterday was new to me. Heck, I even dare to say you know as much about my mom as I do myself now," he said. Otto studied his face carefully. He might have sounded neutral, but his expression was guarded.
"But at least I still have my dad, right?" Alex continued as she hadn't replied. Only now did she notice his forced smile. It nearly broke her heart. She could only imagine what it felt like to be abandoned by a parent, the insecurity he must be feeling. Otto took a step closer as she felt her bottom lip quiver and hugged him.
"Wha-?" he asked surprised as she felt him tense in her embrace. She didn't care though. In fact, she even hugged him a little tighter and buried her face in the crook of his neck.
"Don't act so tough," she mumbled. "If something hurts, just say so! Don't laugh it off."
"Eh?" Alex uttered once more before he chuckled and relaxed a little.
"Still worrying about me, huh?" he asked with a laugh in his voice and returned the hug. "I am fine, Otto. Really."
Otto noticed that he was looking around.
"You know?" he asked as he pulled them both a little more towards the shadows. "It surprises me that you'd hug me so openly if you're so afraid to be judged by everyone."
"Screw everyone! You need this hug," she mumbled, her face still in the crook of his neck. She was surprised to feel him cringe.
"Ah! Ha, ha, Otto! Please don't talk, that tickles," he laughed.
Otto felt her cheeks heat up immediately. Normally she would have scrambled up and ran away as fast as she could, but she found herself enjoying the sound of his genuine laughter and decided to rub her face against his neck instead.
He reacted with a surprised shriek and suddenly she found herself standing an arms length away from him.
"Enough!" he said sternly, his cheeks as red as hers. "I reckon that if you're feeling well enough to tease me, you've gotten over your worries, hmm?"
"Sorry," she mumbled, blushing even brighter as the full weight of what she had been doing sunk in.
"Dear God, do you get that close with all of your friends?" Alex complained to no-one in particular as he rubbed his neck to get rid of the alien feeling. "No wonder Thomas got the wrong idea."
"Huh?" Otto asked surprised.
"Nothing," Alex replied quickly, the blush on his cheeks flaring up again. "Come on, let's go find Jessy and Jasper. The bell's about to ring."
"Ok," Otto said quietly as they both left the shadow they had been hiding in. To her surprise, nobody had been paying attention to them. There were merely a few people throwing curious glances their way as they had appeared out of nowhere. She could only hope that Jessy wouldn't catch wind of what had happened.