Chapter 17: Chapter Sixteen

“How was school?” Alexander asked that night as we all sat around the dinner table. We hadn’t seen him all afternoon, though, that wasn’t an odd thing. Alexander had many interests he pursued, and he kept a strict schedule, even for himself.

“Fine,” we all said half at the same time, making it sound jumbled and like we were echoing each other.

“Just fine?”

“The truth is the shit is going to hit the fan one of these days,” Sloan said.

“How so?” Alexander asked him.

“Kage met a girl,” he said. Everyone turned their heads toward me and looked at me in surprise.

“Sloan,” I said and gave him a look.

“There’s this football jock, he pushed Kage in the hallway because he was talking to Madison and I’m just putting it on the record that if he hits first, we’re not standing on the side and doing nothing,” Sloan said.

“Aggression is a weak man’s armor,” Alexander said.

“True, but you can’t expect any of us to just walk away if Kage gets hit,” he said.

“That’s if we get a chance to help, out of all of us Kage is the fighter,” Miles said.

“I agree, you touch one of us, you touch all of us,” Castiel said.

“I started training you all in martial arts and boxing specifically for self-defense. I don’t condone fighting and I never will but there’s only so much you can do when it happens,” Alexander said.

“So, you’re saying….” Endri said.

“Never start the fight, but end it,” he said.

“That wasn’t really what I expected you to say,” Castiel said.

“In a perfect world I’d ask you to avoid that fight altogether,” he said.

“You’re asking us to be perfect?” Miles asked.

“No. I expect you to be better, that’s all, but some evils in this world are unavoidable,” he said.

“Sure, we’ll go to school and make him our best buddy,” Sloan said sarcastically.

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit,” Miles said.

“Who asked you, geek?” Sloan asked.

“Why don’t you go hide under your piano, emo boy?” Miles shot back.

“Nice, feel the brotherly love,” Alexander said with a smile and got up from the table.

“I’m going to call it a night,” I said and stood up as well.

“Shaking it more than twice is playing!” Castiel yelled as I left the dining room and headed up the stairs.

“Oh Madison!” Sloan said loudly and the rest of them started laughing.

“Assholes,” I muttered under my breath.

My dreams were filled with Madison that night and when I woke up for the third time before three am I envisioned myself pummeling Sloan for planting that seed. I barely spoke two sentences to her, and she couldn’t be a good person if she was with Josh.

I headed downstairs for coffee and settled down in the library. It was a sort of sanctuary. I liked reading, anything and everything, the subject didn’t really matter. I had just turned the page when Alexander joined me on the couch.

“What’s got you up at this time of the morning?” he asked me as he took the cup from my hand and took a sip.

“My teacher asked me to come see him today, to work out a schedule so I can take the SATs,” I said to him.

“I’m glad you’re taking it, it’s a good step forward, but that’s not what’s on your mind,” he said.

“Why didn’t you ever get married and have your own kids?” I asked him.

“I almost did. She was everything I thought I wanted, turned out I was wrong,” he said.

“What happened?” I asked him.

“She cheated on me with one of my best friends,” he said.

“That’s life, as soon as you think you’re doing okay then it kicks you down again,” I said.

“Not all love is bad, Kage. I love you guys and I think our life here’s a good one. I feel content looking after you boys. You give my life a purpose, something I didn’t have for a while. It’s good to love and be loved in return, bad things happen but you need to rise above it,” he said.

“The only good thing that has ever happened in my life was being adopted by you and meeting Joe,” I said.

“It’s only the beginning, if you let it be,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“Do you like that girl?” he asked me.

“I don’t know her, she hangs out with the jocks,” I said.

“It’s a big step to admit you like someone, especially for you. I get it, Kage, I really do, trust is a hard thing to give but you’ll never start to heal if you don’t try,” he said.

“What’s the point? I already know how it’s going to end,” I said.

“And how’s it going to end?” he asked.

“We’ll get to know each other, one of us will screw up, break each other’s hearts and go our separate ways, end of story,” I said.

“You just turned seventeen Kage, there’s going to be plenty of girls in your life. I agree that you should take the time to really get to know someone, but the heart wants what the heart wants,” he said.

“I don’t even know why we’re talking about this, like I said, we’re not even friends, and I don’t think that I’ll like her if I get to know her,” I said.

“She might surprise you, don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s happened to you too many times for you to know that appearances aren’t always what it seems,” he said.

“It’s hard not to when the evidence of what I’m saying is right there,” I said.

“Everything in life that’s worthwhile is hard. The world doesn’t owe you anything,” he said.

“I know that,” I said.

“Just be yourself, it’s your time to shine. You have every tool in the book to succeed, you just have to want it enough, nothing’s impossible when you believe and work for it,” he said and stood up.

“Alexander,” I said as he reached the library door.

“Yes?”

“Thank you for saving me,” I said.

“You saved me too, Kage,” he said and walked out.