Chapter 1 | Young Alex
• Flying back in time •
There is one girl who was /still is/ very dear to me. I’ll tell you about her ‘cause I believe we all have that one girl who’ll always be in your heart. That one special place where that person hides, each time memories passing by you smile. That special person was my safe place, my heaven on earth. Someone I felt comfortable /I do not find comfort easily/ with. Before I was mature Alex, the silly goof in me liked to live life on the edge. It was in my last years of high school I bumped /corny I know/ into her.
She was in a few classes of mine. We both took art lessons to keep our creativity alive but both went crazy on mathematics. Where all students stopped, she and I just started. My eye caught her during mathematics and I was fascinated by her, how her pencil scribbled so eager I couldn’t stop looking at her writing her formulas. Most of my friends laughed because they finally were happy their nerdy friend found his equal.
“Go get her, man!”
With a chuckle I gestured them to fuck off.
“Look man, she’s just studying I can’t disturb her.”
I knew I was pretty stupid and most of all I was anxious to interact with someone who had the same interest. I had no female connections who loved to think about formulas and dreamed about artificial intelligence and deep learning. My future was all about calculating stuff. My heart was somewhere in my throat when she looked at me. She was dressed in clothes I didn’t knew but on her they looked good. Always dressed in style, her raven black hair, long and shiny. In my imagination my fingers were already running through her hair, damn it...
Leaning on her hand she locked eyes on me. Dang, such an intense look. For some reason she Gabe me a shiver. A good one though... a very good one...
“Good afternoon”
I couldn’t think of something other than this. What was wrong with me, did I lost my tongue? Come on man...
She smiled, mom dieu that smile was just as intense as her eyes.
“Do you like what you see?”
Erm, damn it. What the hell? How was I suppose to answer to her? Yes I like what I see and I’ve been liking you in silence for the last nine months, nah not gonna say that...
“To be honest, my mouth wouldn’t speak truth if I...”
My beautiful speech was cut off by the intercom with a message for all students.
“This is not a test, this is not a drill. Everyone needs to leave this building. All students and teachers must evacuate immediately”
Within seconds the beautiful image in my head was gone and the girl grabbed her stuff and ran off. Slowly sounds of screaming students reached me, together with the smell of smoke and fire. I grabbed my bag as well and wanted to open the door. Pushing it but it looked like it was blocked from the opposite side.
“FUCK!”
I slammed to the door but couldn’t open it. A light panic started to make me anxious. My experience with fire weren’t the best so I kinda freaked out. Reliving moments of my younger years where fire made it to me and my brothers room. I still can’t believe I survived, Nathaniel didn’t. The scars on my back burned again and somehow I was punching to the door to open it. In panic I punched wrong and bruised my knuckles.
THE WINDOW!
Without thinking I grabbed a chair and threw it through the glass. My body followed, little did I know /remembered/ I was on second floor. I wanted to land on my feet and I did. But the sound of cracking bones and a sharp flash of pain hit my legs, the screams I heard came from my throat. Looking down to my legs, broken legs. Two compound fractures, my own skin pierced by my fibula and tibia. The last thing I saw before I started to roll my eyes to the back of my head were the /also piercing but then in a nice way/ intense eyes of her. She rushed to me asking me something I couldn’t hear anymore.
Slowly passing out I only see her wrapped in red, reaching out to stroke her hair and neck. But I can’t reach her. I am sinking away into oblivion, my legs pulled away from me, not knowing what’s happening...
