“I have no fucking clue what you are talking about. I’m not a cheat, I would never cheat on Laura.” My soul shattered again, I hoped she didn’t see it.
“God damn it Alex! Laura is dead. I am so sorry, so so sorry. I will never be Laura, but she is dead. You can’t cheat on a dead woman!” Mikki screamed at my back.
The anger roared inside of me and before I knew what I was doing I was turned around and my fingers were around Mikki’s neck. “Don’t you ever! Don’t talk about her!” I pounded my free fist against my chest. “Is this what you want to see? You can’t fix me. I’m broken. You don’t want this! I’m not what you want!” Strings of saliva fell out of my mouth as I screamed at her, sweat beaded on my brow and my breath was coming erratically.
Instead of fighting back, Mikki grabbed my free hand and placed it on her chest. I could feel her heart hammering against her chest. Fear. My other hand let go of her neck instantly, I didn’t want her to fear me.
I looked down to her face. The way her hair flowed beautifully around her shoulders and arms, the trust in her gorgeous big eyes, her big pouty lips. This woman standing in front of me wasn’t my Laura but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling things that I thought I would never feel again. She didn’t deserve someone like me. Mikayla deserved a king not a has been.
I calmed my voice and slowly raised my hands to her face, she didn’t flinch at all. “Mikki, don’t do this. I’m damaged goods. Crumbled down to the fucking ground. I’ll never be the same again.”
She pulled back and looked in my eyes. “I don’t want what you used to be. I see you Alex, I see all your jagged broken pieces and you’re still a masterpiece.”
She reached up slowly and kissed me gently on my lips. Just a small peck. It was enough to burn through every nerve ending I had. She was warm, I closed my eyes and it felt like I was being bathed in sunlight.
Chapter 11
“You snore loud.”
A big head of curls huddled in my vision as little fingers squeezed my nostrils shut. I shook my head and looked at Angel who was apparently trying to get me to stop snoring.
“What are you doing awake? You should be sleeping?” I sat up slightly but before I could I realized that Mikki was somehow tucked into my side on the couch. I don’t even know how or when we laid down but that was some of the best sleep that I had in the past few months.
“Ugh, we’ve been sleep forever, time to get up!” The little girl popped up and twirled in place. She meant something completely different by what she had said but she was right.
I was sleeping for the past few months, I was the only person in my own personal pity party. It was time for me to wake up. I didn’t know what I could do to protect these girls but I knew that I would die trying.
I got down from the couch and sat on the floor, I could feel the bass from the music in full swing downstairs. I looked around for a clock and sure enough I could see that it was two in the morning. We had slept the entire day away.
“You know how to play tic tac toe?” The little girl asked.
“Yes, if I play a few games with you will you try to go back to sleep?”
She hung her head to the side and tapped her chin dramatically, “Thirty games.”
“What, no way. Five games.” I said a small smile on my lips.
“Twenty!”
“Ten, that’s my final offer.” I said and put my hand out.
She huffed and grabbed my hand to shake, “Fine, there is no way I’m going to be sleepy after only ten games.” She ran off and quickly gathered some paper and pencils, “You can’t just let me win either, you really have to try, and a tie don’t count as a game.”
“You got it kid.” I got comfortable, I was sure that these were about to be the longest ten games of tic tac toe that I have ever played in my life.
The girl was a wiz, we had played over twenty games already, fifteen of them were ties so those didn’t count. Out of the five that there was a winner she was victorious three out of five times. I was getting beat, in tic tac toe, by a six year old. I couldn’t believe it.
“Ha! How did you not see that!” she put her x in the last box she needed to get her three in a row.
I felt the screams before I could hear them clearly. People were screaming downstairs. The music was off, I could feel the vibrations of people running and screaming.
“Mikki!” Vida ran out of the room, she must have felt it too.
Mikki popped up from the couch and Angel ran over to her and climbed into her arms. I stood up and began to walk over to the door.
“No, what are you doing, you can’t leave us.” Mikki was behind me now and was trying to pull me back.
I turned to reassure her, “I’m not leaving you girls. I just need to see what is going on down there. Devin is a friend, I have to help him out if I can.”
She let go of my arm and reached to her side and pulled a knife out. I looked at it as she handed it to me. It was a thick weapon, the handle was heavy, you could do real damage with something like this. I should know. It was the same one that she used to stab me the first time we ran into each other.
I nodded once, kissed her forehead and walked
