Chapter 7
Alex
“How’s my favourite redhead?”
As usual, Alex went into Elena's room to help with the lessons. Since the rehabilitation of her leg had begun, her presence at school had become irregular. Elena frowned when she saw Alex arrive. Despite the fact that he came several times a week, she still grumbled as soon as he arrived.
“I’m not a redhead! My hair is strawberry blonde. There's a difference.”
Alex rolled his eyes. Was she ever going to be happy to see him? He decided to annoy her a bit more. “You're kidding, right? Your hair's orange. That means you're a redhead, honey.”
Unlike what he expected, Elena placed her hands on her heart and pretended to be hurt. Alex smiled. Finally, she was playing along.
“Damn. Here you are, crushing my dreams. They say redheads don’t have a soul.”
“And you believe that?”
“No,” she said in a detached tone.
“Then stop being so dramatic.”
Alex took the textbooks out of his bag and sat down at the desk.
She often grumbled about Alex's presence in her house, but she seemed to have understood that he would keep coming.
At first, he'd come at her mother's request, but now he found himself intrigued by her.
Sitting together in front of Elena's MacBook, Alex tried to load a search page.
Nothing happened, and the progress cursor danced before their eyes.
Alex sighed. “I hate that coloured circle.”
“Me too, dear.”
He decided to be as dramatic as she was. “Look at that! We've got something in common. You'll see, we'll become friends because of the things we hate.”
Elena raised an eyebrow. She tried to remain impassive, but the corners of her mouth lifted. Alex knew he was on the right track.
“I doubt we have anything in common.”
Her attitude was a bit snobbish, but that was part of the deal.
Alex understood her now. Beneath her cold, haughty demeanour, Elena hid a sensitive heart that had been wounded far too often.
Her facade served as a shield. He had to keep up the momentum.
Maybe he'd eventually find a crack in her defences.
“So, what do you hate?”
Elena blinked once before answering.
“I hate hypocrisy.”
“Me too.”
“And pity.”
She wanted to send him a message; it was all too clear. Alex wasn't going to give up. He was so close. “Me too. See? Lots of things in common.”
Elena clicked her tongue. She'd hoped to find a flaw in Alex, but couldn't get through his good humour. He kind of liked this prickly side of her. She sighed and played along. In a voice lacking cheerfulness, she asked, “And what do you hate?”
Too many things.
“Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke. It's disgusting.”
“Are you kidding? Vanilla Coke is amazing!”
Alex couldn't help but wince, making her laugh. “I can't believe you like this crap. It tastes so chemical.”
“And the taste of regular Coke isn't chemical?”
“Touché,” he admitted with a sigh.
They turned their attention back to the screen, but the page still wouldn't load.
Alex closed the laptop and grabbed his notes. “Okay, it doesn't matter if the video doesn't load. I've already seen it, so I can explain. It's not that complicated.”
“It explains radioactive radiation. What do you mean, it’s not that complicated?” Elena frowned, her mouth set in a sceptical line. Here's a crack.
“You’re having trouble with physics?”
“You don’t?” she countered.
“No, I like it.”
“Oh, you like science?”
Unlike many people, Alex liked anything to do with numbers. There were rules and logic, and anything with well-defined rules was predictable. And Alex liked predictable things. Logical things were easy to control. “Just physics and maths. Chemistry and biology are more abstract to me.”
“For me, it’s the opposite. I understand chemistry and maths. The more I try to understand physics, the less I actually do.”
Alex smiled at her and opened his notepad.
He explained and helped her solve the exercises.
As they studied, Alex understood how Elena had managed to be at the top of the class every year.
She was a hard worker. Even when she didn't understand, she was stubborn and kept going until she got it right. Alex was impressed.
After a few hours, they finally stopped.
Deserving a break, they went out for ice cream.
He was surprised to see that Elena only took a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a bubble tea.
It was a strangely basic choice of flavour for someone with such a grumpy disposition, but he decided not to comment.
If he said anything, she'd probably smash her ice cream on his head.
They sat on a bench in the park to watch the ducks swim. Alex didn't quite understand why she enjoyed watching birds in a pond so much. After all, they did the same thing every day.
“Tell me about yourself.”
Alex turned his head towards her, his palms getting sweaty. Her attention was still fixed on the water. It was the first time she'd shown any curiosity towards him. Now that Elena wanted to know more, he didn't know what to say. “What do you want to know?”
She shrugged. “Whatever you want. It feels like you know almost everything about me, even if I don't like that. But I don't know anything about you. Seems kind of unfair, don't you think?”
Elena turned back to him. Something in her blue eyes indicated that she had no intention of letting him off the hook. She was still struggling to hold his gaze, but she was trying.
Alex ran a hand through his hair, thinking.
He'd wanted her to open up to him. Now she expected the same from him, and that wasn't part of the plan.
What could he say that wasn't too personal, but personal enough for her to be satisfied with the answer?
The only idea that came to him wasn't brilliant, not that he had a better option.
Things had been so much simpler when she'd just ignored him.
“I had a massive crush on you in elementary school.”
Elena choked on her bubble tea and quickly grabbed a tissue from her bag.
She rubbed her nose, coughing. How such an elegant girl managed to get tea out of her nose was a mystery.
Alex watched her, half disgusted and half amused.
After a few seconds, she was back to her usual self. “I thought I wasn't your type.”
“You were then.”
A sardonic smile played on her lips. “You had shitty taste in girls, then.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Of all the girls at school, I wasn't the prettiest or the most refined.”
He couldn’t contradict her. When they were in early elementary school, Elena was completely different from the person she was today.
Her red hair was barely at shoulder length, and her eyes always sparkled with mischief.
Back then, Alex thought she was so cool.
Even if she looked more like a tomboy, her big, uneven-toothed smile had always charmed him.
As a child, he'd been so shy, while she'd been a loud ray of sunshine.
Times had changed, and they'd grown up. Now her teeth were perfectly aligned, but her warm smile was gone.
“True, but you were the coolest of them all. I was trying to impress you.”
She giggled. “That's not how I remember it. One day you gave me a bracelet with shells, and the next you were throwing pencils at my face.”
Alex laughed too. He'd been so clumsy with girls in elementary school.
Several times he'd promised himself he'd confess his feelings to her, and each time he'd ended up chickening out.
It was nice to think of those times when they'd been normal kids whom life hadn't destroyed yet, just like it was good to reconnect with someone he'd once cared so much about.
Even if he had to keep his guard up. “I never claimed that my tactics to impress you would work.”
She shook her head, but she was having fun. At least a little bit. “Thank you,” she said, stuffing a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “I owe you.”
“You don't owe me anything.”
She pursed her lips. She really wanted to smash her ice cream on his head. He could see it in her eyes.
“You spent the whole afternoon explaining radiation to me and helping me solve the exercises for tomorrow’s test, even though you didn't have to. I'm grateful.”
“Then it’s my pleasure.”
Elena turned her attention back to the ducks. Sometimes he wondered what was going through her head. What was she thinking? How did she see the world? Elena looked back at him. Now that she'd woken up, she would keep digging.
“Why are you being so nice to me? From the start, I've been terrible towards you.”
Alex smiled. She had been bitchy at times, which was a breath of fresh air.
Unlike a lot of people, Elena stood up to him.
People tended to stay away from him, especially when they were wrong.
Elena, even when she knew she was wrong, wouldn't budge.
Was it ill will or stubbornness, Alex didn't know.
If only she could look him in the eye when they argued. That was a worry for later.
“I'm not as nice as you think.”
He wasn't going to pretend to be. There was a part of him he didn't want her to discover.
A part of him was full of darkness. And if he could, he'd erase it from his memory forever.
But under no circumstances could Elena know.
It would taint the way she saw him, and he couldn't live with that. Elena looked at him as if she knew what he was thinking. It was impossible, yet the sincerity in her eyes gave him goosebumps. He could only hope she wouldn’t figure him out.
“You are with me. Why?”
Because you're like me.
“Let's just say I think my presence can be good for you. I know you're going through a difficult time right now, and not so long ago, I went through some shit too. If I'd had a friend at my side, I think it would have been easier for me to get through it.”
It might have helped him to take a better path than the one he had taken.
“You want to be my friend because you don't want me to be alone?”
“I also enjoy your company.” Much more than he had expected.
“You really think so?”
Alex had managed to get through Elena's walls. He just hoped she wouldn't get through his. She looked so vulnerable and hopeful. In this moment, she looked like the little girl he'd once adored, and Alex knew he was screwed. But what could he do when the fall was so easy?
“Of course. Let’s be friends?”
Elena finally nodded. “I'd love to.”