Alex

• Dina Strangaric, Grade 11, Monbulk College
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

She stared silently at the wall, blocking out the world around her. The teacher’s voice faded to an almost inaudible mumble and the student’s chatter to a quiet buzz in the back of her mind.
Ever since the death of her best friend, she’d felt the world fade away. Become a mixture of black and grey blurs, like a dull water painting, blurry. The sunlight no longer affected her in the way it used to, ceasing to warm her skin and lighten her mood. Now, nothing could lighten her mood; except the impossible. The return of her one and only friend, the only one who’d protected her, laughed with her, and loved her. Never before had she thought such a feeling could ever exist, and though she was only 13 then, she’d grown up long ago.
She unconsciously thought of the way his hand had felt around hers when she’d tripped over a fallen branch. She’d felt so astounded that a simple sign of affection had so much affect on her. The one gesture that had seemed so innocent at the time had started a chain of feelings for her that were impossible to ignore, try as she might. They had both fallen for each other the moment they’d collided on the beach, both deep in thought. From that day on they were inseparable, two halves of a whole. She’d liked that idea, it made her feel comfortable.
She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, trying in vain to push away the unforgiving memories threatening to show themselves. She had no desire to add salt to an already fresh wound. She couldn't forget the time they’d spent in each other’s arms… not in a romantic way, no. It had been more of a comfortable companionship, one where there was no racing of pulses mixed with the chagrin of physical love; just the quiet stillness of two people sharing one heart, molded together until you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
She’d liked those days. She’d liked them more than she knew she should have. Alex had been her only companion then and she his. Together they had forsworn marriage, both in the same mind about the opposite gender (excluding one another) being a rather miserable lot.
Now she was left alone. A tear escaped from the corner of her eye, ignorant to the fact that she’d tried her best to keep it in. The white washed wall in front of her began to swim before her eyes as tears silently rolled down her cheeks. She’d sworn long before that she would let no one get close to her again. The miserable truth rose up from the chains she’s fastened in her mind, bashing a scarred hand against its restraints.
Bringing her knees up to her chin she began rocking back and forth, letting the tears flow freely, wondering why, since both her and Alex’s heart had been torn out, she wasn't dead too.