"You started the fight. You beat him to the ground, and I don't see a single scratch on your face."

"He deserved it." I stare out the window, my arms crossed.

"Tell me how exactly he deserved it?" Principal Harris says, his voice harsh.

"I'd rather not."

He leans forward on his desk, raising his voice. "Alex, I am considering whether or not to call the police. So if I were you i'd talk me out of it."

My eyes snap to his. "You can't do that."

"The boy is black and blue. I have no reason not to."

I straighten up in my seat. "I would get jail time for this. You don't understand what that would do." I start to panic. If i'm not around to do jobs for Caligari, he'll get Santiago involved in his business. There's no way Santiago would accept the job, and that would get him killed.

"I don't want to do it, Alex. You're a good kid and I know your family needs you, but this is a serious thing you have done."

"He sent a picture of Amelia Miller to everyone!" I shout. "He was being all threatening towards her so I did something about it. I gave him what he deserved."

Harris leans back in his chair, studying me. "So this is about a girl."

"She's not just a girl. I live with her, so she's like... my sister." I cringe when the words come out, the thoughts of her naked and us kissing flooding back into my mind.

"I won't mention this to the police. But there is a high chance James Portland's parents will."

I nod a thank you. Harris has always liked me, no matter how much trouble I get into.

"You're suspended for the rest of the week. You're lucky it's not longer. I'll call your Mom – you can go home now."

"You're in deep shit, bro," Enrico says as soon as I get home. He always comes here when we're all at school on the days he's not working to watch our big flatscreen tv. I sit down beside him on the couch. "I hear you're crushin' on Amelia."

"Who said that?"

"Valentino."

I scoff. "He knows nada."

"Alejandro?" Mom calls from upstairs. "Is that you?"

"¡Sí! I'm ready for my beating." I mumble the last part. I wince with every step I hear Mom take down the stairs. There isn't must that scares me – not even Caligari and his estúpido minions do. But mi Mamá – she terrifies me.

She stands in front of me, her hands on her hips, and Enrico pauses the tv to pay full attention to us. The prick.

After just five straight agonising minutes of her screaming at me in spanish, she calms down. "Quiero saber por qué lo hiciste."

"I did it because the guy is a fucking dickhead."

She hits me on the side of my head. "Don't you dare use that language in front of me again, Alejandro! Are you trying to make me angrier?"

I put my head in my hands. "Lo siento," I sigh. "He did something bad to Amelia."

"Ohhh," Enrico says. "It all makes sense now." He nudges me with his elbow.

"What did he do, Alex?"

I run my hands through my hair, squeezing my eyes shut. I don't want to think about it. The thought of Amelia's puffy, sad face makes me want to hurt him all over again.

"Alex?"

"He sent pictures of Amelia to everyone in school." The word pictures tastes venomous in my mouth.

"What kind of pictures?"

"Take a guess, Mamá." I look up at her, and realisation sinks into her features.

"You care for her, don't you?"

I shake my head and stand up, heading for the stairs.

"Our little Alex is in love," I hear Enrico say while i'm walking upstairs.

+++

Alex is suspended for the rest of that week, and I barely see him. I thanked him for what he did that day, and all he said was that it's okay, and that was the end of our conversation. He's gotten distant again, and it's driving me mad.

He's not home most nights when I get back from school, and I get more and more curious about where he goes. He just seems so stressed.

I'm shot awake from a nightmare about Alex getting hurt, and as I sit up in my bed, I start to wonder if he's here or not. I need to know or i'll never sleep. It's annoying that I care so much – I don't even know why I do. I guess that's just who I am.

Getting up from my bed, I hope that no one else is awake because I'm only wearing panties and a t-shirt that barely goes past my thighs. I quietly creep over to Alex's room and peak in. His beds empty. Where the hell is he? It's 3am.

I decide to go down into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water, drinking it all in one go, and taking a deep breath. I'm not tired anymore, and all I can do is worry about Alex.

Just as I'm thinking this, I hear the front door open. Hoping that it's him, I walk out of the kitchen. He hasn't noticed me yet as he leans against the front door with his hands in his hair, and I swear I hear a small whimpering noise come from him.

"Alex? What's wrong?" I whisper.

He drops his hands and looks at me, and through the darkness I can still see that his eyes are glossy. I take his hands in mine, and as I expected, they are smudged in dry blood. Where the heck was he?

"Come on, let's clean you up." I pull him to the kitchen sink and run his hands under the cold water, and rubbing gently on his fists, where there are many small cuts. When I look at his face, I see him watching me, his eyes sparkling in this dark room.

"Tell me where you were," I demand, my voice still quiet. He shakes his head no, and I turn the faucet off and wipe his hands dry with a cloth. "It's not fair, Alex. Aren't we friends? Or maybe we're not, but we live together and I can't handle all the secretive shit. Am I just supposed to ignore it all and pretend I don't care that you come home with bloody hands and cuts? And then you stay inside your room when you get back and have this look on your face. It's... its," I try to put my finger on it. "It's like guilt."

He squeezes his eyes shut, as if my words caused him pain, and puts his hands on the counter, dipping his head. "I can't," he says, his voice brittle. "I can't do this."

I rest my hand on his shoulder. "Do what?"

"You wont understand."

"Then make me understand."

When he stands up straight and looks at me again, his face is pained, and I realise i've never seen Alex Fuentes so vulnerable until this moment. He's not scary Alex that people fear anymore. He's just Alex, the boy who's afraid. And for some reason carries so much guilt on his shoulders.

"Okay," he breathes. "I'll tell you tomorrow. I don't want to talk about it right now. I need to forget."

I nod. "Go to sleep and you'll feel better in the morning."

"Thank you for cleaning my hands."

I smile, then step closer and hug him, feeling like he needs it. He is frozen for a moment, then puts his arms around my waist. I breathe in his scent, enjoying it a little too much. There's something comforting about it.

"Nunca me dejes."

I don't know what it means, but it doesn't matter. I pull back a little to see his face, and my mind goes to wondering what it would feel like to kiss him. My heart rate quickens from the thought of it. Maybe he thinks about it too, because his eyes gaze at my lips.

And then he moves an inch closer, our lips just barely touching, and I feel his warm breath on my skin. The butterflies in my stomach run wild. My body shivers, and there is a little bit of tingling down bellow, if you get what I mean.

"I just... I need..." He mumbles before pressing his lips against mine.

Fear, excitement and confusion run through me, but mostly lust. I kiss him back.

His tongue slightly touches my lips. I open my mouth and my tongue intertwines with his, making my craving for him run deeper.

"Can you stay with me?" He says a few minutes later, his lips brushing mine as he speaks. I bite my lip with a nod, ignoring the voice in my head telling me that I'm just another one of his one night stands, and that he's just using me to run from his feelings.

He takes my hand, walking upstairs with me and into his room.

I've not been in here before, and whenever I sneak a peak in, I don't have the chance to really see what it's like. His bed sheets are red, his walls white and his curtains black. There are a couple of photos on his wall that I can barely see from just the light coming from his small lamp.

Alex takes off his jacket and shoes, throwing his jacket onto a chair. He stares at my thighs with no shame, his eyes averting to my chest, where my nipples are making themselves noticeable through this thin t-shirt. Then his eyes meet mine and I feel even hotter than before.

He walks to me and places his hands on either side of my face, and kisses me again. His kiss is passionate and slow, his hands heading downwards and gripping the bottom of my shirt, then he pulls it over my head and goes back to kissing me. We move to his bed and he lays me down, removes my panties and stands over me, admiring my exposed body.

Is this really happening?

"So beautiful," he whispers.

I watch him strip, already missing his warm body against mine. The intense desire I feel for him clouds all my judgement. I won't get hurt tomorrow when he's back to ignoring me again, right?

He gets down on top of me, not wasting a second before sliding inside of me with no warning. I cover my mouth with my hand to stop myself from making any noise, and as he moves faster it gets harder and harder not to scream.

I grip onto his back as he kisses my neck, wishing this moment would never end and I'd never have to face tomorrow. I pray to the God's that I don't get pregnant when he spills out inside of me.

+++

YOU WERE WARNED.

hehe

teaser: it's the morning after and Val has a bone to pick with Alex. Also, Santiago uncharacteristically blows up at Alex

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