Chapter 16: Chapter Sixteen

I told Mr Dubens everything, everything there was to know about me and my life. My past.

"I wouldn't have expected that..." He murmured as he brushed his hand through his dark brown locks. I gave him a weird look, "Wouldn't have expected what?"

"That it was a one-night stand...I mean, how could your parents not want a child as beautiful as you?" My breath caught. Did he just call me beautiful?

I shrugged it off as I tried to compose myself. "They were in love but on the night they...fucked.... they had just met and were drunk. I wasn't...planned."

"Does that...upset you?" He dragged out hesitantly.

I shook my head, "I don't really think about it. This is the first time I've actually spoken about it to someone." He tilted his head, "Do you regret telling me? I mean, I'm sorry if I seem like I've forced you, I didn't-"

"No, it's cool. I'm fine with it, I don't feel upset." I cut him off. I knew all too well what he was thinking, and he didn't even have to ask. It was just the same as what everyone else asked me. Same old questions.

"What do you feel then?" He whispered.

I looked up at him as I took a sip out of my coca cola can, which he had given me from out of his fridge. "Empty." I simply responded. That was the only word to describe it, I didn't feel anything. Not even upset. Depressed, in places...yes. Upset, no. If I ever cried, it was never over myself or my past, it was just part of my depression. Mr Dubens gave me a deep look of sympathy and I had to look away. His sympathetic eyes broke my heart.

"Looks like we're going to have to fill that emptiness then."

"What?" What did he mean?

"Let me help you, Alice." His tone of voice is pleading and begging. He seems desperate almost and his eyes hold such deep want. For what, I don't know. My lips parted as I released a long breath. "How do you mean?"

"Let me fix you. Let me make you happy. I want to make your life amends and make you complete."

"I don't know." I swallowed. No one had ever spoken to me this way. "Please, Alice. I really want to help you."

"I'm too damaged for help." I confess. He shakes his head, "You are not damaged." Before I can say anything, he strides over to me and takes me face in both is hands, His thumbs stroking my cheeks. "You're just incomplete." I looked up at him, "Incomplete?"

He nods. "How are you going to complete me then?" I smirk and he pulls away from me, letting his hands travel down to my arms. "This has to come off for starters." He tagged lightly on the sleeves of my hoodie. I gulped and pulled away from his grasp. "N-no."

He sighed and his eyes became sad, "Come on, Alice. You might as well. You don't need to feel conscious about the scars, you've already shown me them."

"N-not the one across m-my n-neck." I stuttered and clung the hoodie around my body as tight as I could. He smiled a soft and sweet smile. "I don't care about the one on your neck. I just want to see you looking less like a... baddie in life."

"I am a baddie." I defended.

"No, you're not." He replied as he took three steps towards me, causing me to take three steps back. It wasn't long until my back hit the wall. Fuck! I was trapped, cornered. By Mr Dubens.

He closed me in against the wall and our bodies were only inches apart. His breath blew against my forehead where his height hung over me. I looked up at him and our eyes lock, our faces inches apart. So close. "You are a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl who is terrified of looking vulnerable." I bit my lip and looked down at the ground. I felt his breath move to my ear and whisper, "Besides, you must be hot wearing it all the time." For a moment I forgot what we were even talking about from the proximity of him.

"W-what?" I blink and look up at him. He looks down at me with a wide smirk plastered across his face. "The hoodie. It must make you hot wearing it all the time."

"Ohh...I..err. Yeah."

"It’s okay, Alice. Take it off. Let it loose." He grinned and it made me release a small laugh. "Ok. Ok, I will." I pulled down the zipper slowly and let him push it off my shoulders, I winced as he did so. His touch lit fire along my skin, literally...hot flames. I felt like my body was burning. "I'm sorry if the scars look-"

"Their beautiful." He cut me off before I could finish what I was saying. "Excuse me?"

"Their beautiful, the scars." He eyed my arms as he slowly skimmed the sleeves of the hoodie down until it was only my hands to pull out of them. He stepped back as I shrugged my hands out of the sleeve, leaving my arms hang loose at my side.

All I wore now was, my plain white button up school top, my black skirt, tights and converse trainers. He eyes my body as he laid my hoodie over the back of one of the red leather sofas. I watched him lay it next to his jacket and my cheeks heated at the action for some reason. I wrapped my arms around my body, hugging myself. He looked me over, as if to examine me. "They’re not that bad." He smiled. "Not as bad as what you make out."

"I time their revolting."

"No way. Their apart of you. They are you." He murmurs and reaches out to touch them. My breath catches and for a second his hand freezes. "I'm sorry, I should have asked first." I shook my head, "No, no. It's fine. I just, I've never had someone touch them. It feels strange."

He purses his lips in uncertainty, "Good strange or bad strange?" I nod, "Good strange."

"I should show you your room." He retreated his hand and walked out of the front room, leaving me to follow. We crossed a long hallway and I follow him towards a long case of stairs. He walked quickly up them, and I followed.

Once we had reached the top he turned to his left and walked down another long hallway. Wow, this house really was quite big. I wasn't that surprise since the outside looked big anyway, but I wasn't expecting the inside to look as huge as the inside of the Doctor's TARDIS.

Once we reached the middle of this long hall he turned to his right and looked towards a pale white, wooden door. "You're room." He simply said and pointed towards it. I stepped forward and looked up at him questionably. "How is it mine?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well...there must be stuff and that in it. How is it suddenly mine?"

He smirked and shook his head, "It's a guest room. I've never used it the whole time I've lived here. It's brand new so...all yours."

I widened my eyes in shock. Really? All mine? "You serious? You've never used it?" He shook his head. "Not even for any guests?"

"Nope."

"But...I mean, doesn't your family or friends stay?"

"I don't...I don't talk to my family." He said with a blank expression. I raised my eyebrows in shock. He struck me as a big family man. Like he was super popular. He seemed as if he would have family all over him! I guess I was wrong. "What's that face for?" He laughed.

"I just...I saw you as a big family type of person."

"Oh, I have a massive family, don't worry! That's why I don't talk to them. They do my head in."

"You refuse to speak to them? Why?"

"They’re not...they’re no family to me." He frowned and turned towards the door, pushing it open and striding in. For a moment I had completely forgot about the room. I followed him in and watched him walk over to a window at the far end of the room and push it open. "Let's let some air in, shall we?" He murmured, but more to himself than to me. I examine the room. The floor was plain white thin carpet with a black fluffy rug in the centre of the room. Then just next to the black rug was a huge white double bed. The quilts looked brand new, the out-lining black with white thrills.

"Are you alright?" I heard Mr Dubens ask and I snap my eyes towards him. "What?"

"You looked a bit away with the fairies there." He chuckled and walked over to me. "Sorry, I just...I didn't expect the room to look so...nice."

"You've been locking yourself in that house for far too long." He breathed as he stood by my side, overlooking the room with me. He went on to explaining about spare clothes in a white wardrobe on the right-hand side of the room, and a set of drawers next to the bed with a night lamp on top of it.

"There's plenty more spare clothes in the cupboard in the hallway. You'll know which one because it’s a dark blue door." I nodded, showing him, I understand and eventually he turned towards the doorway and made his way out. I wasn't sure whether to stay in the room or follow him back downstairs. "I'll bring your stuff up." He shouted from down the hall and I heard him walk down the stairs, leaving thudding noises behind him.