Chapter 8 - ch. 8 *contains language and violence*

Alix lay in her bed laughing at the events occurring in the last hour.



It had been 30 minutes of Christmas carols, skipping, and occasional giggles. But now the pudgy, bald mall security cop came walking towards the pair of lunatics. Alix jumped behind one of Nordstrom's displays; Greg on the other hand just kept singing.

“SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TO-“

“Excuse me young man.” he said, stopping Greg in the middle of his song. “What are you doing?”

“Duh! I'm caroling for Christmas.”

“Well, Son. Not everyone celebrates Christmas so...”

“Oooh! I understand!” The man smiled and was about to leave when “DRADLE DRADLE DRADLE...I MADE YOU OUT OF CLAY!!” The mans face turned a bright shade of red and Alix realized she had to do something, before Greg was arrested.

“DRADLE DRAD-“

“RYAN!” Alix shouted, running towards Greg. “There you are!! I have been looking all over for you!!”

“Ma'am? Do you know this man?”

“Yes Sir, This is my brother Ryan.” she then leaned close to the bald, fat man. “Sadly, he is mentally disabled. But he looooves Christmas! Don't you Ryan?”

Playing along, Greg nodded rapidly and began singing again. “WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS! WE WI-“

“Come on Ryan! Time to go home!” Alix shouted, grabbing Greg by the arm and pulling him to the exit. As soon as they turned the corner, the two burst into laughter.

“Oh *laugh* God *snort* Alix! Th- *laugh* that was *laugh* HILIARIOUS!”





Alix awoke to a door creaking and Goobie's barks.

“Mom!” Kacie shouted “Mom! Oh my god!! Mom guess what?!” She spoke jumping up and down.

“What Hun?” Their mother said half asleep. Alix had managed to slip out of her room and to the top of the stairs without being noticed.

“Mommy, Daddy's getting married....in Spain!!!” Kacie shouted excitedly. Alix's jaw dropped. `Married?! To that dog?! And in SPAIN?! WTF?!' Alix felt tears swell in her eyes and she felt like she was going to puke. She fled to her room and slammed on the bed.

“Married? Why?! WHY?” she whispered. She spent hours crying, and finally managed to fall asleep.



Alix woke the next morning still fuming. As she walked down the stairs, she saw Kacie pulling on her jacket.
”Alix! Have you heard about Daddy??”

“Yes.” she responded, biting the word.

“Well...aren't you excited??”

“No.” again the word came out sharp and poisonous.

“Oh come on!! Why don't you just give Mary a chance? She's really sweet, I know you'll like her!”

“That dog sweet?!”

“Ugh! You're the one being a dog, Alix!” and she stormed out the door.

“Me being a dog?!?! How am I the dog?! It's her fault he left!! She's the reason this family is so f***ed up!!” Alix yelled as she stomped into her bathroom. She rummaged threw drawers, throwing them open and closed. This was too much pain. There was only one way to handle this kind of pain. “HERE!” She shouted, finding what she was looking for. She flipped open the switchblade and stared at the shiny silver teeth. She then pulled up her left sleeve and looked at the marks that lay there. “I promised I wouldn't do this anymore...I promised...” She then pressed the teeth into her skin and dragged it across. Soon the blood came to the surface and Alix just stared at it. She was about to start a new cut when the doorbell rang. She jumped and the knife fell to the floor, next to her foot. She ran down the stairs and was about to open the door when she remembered her wrist. She pulled her sleeve over it and swung the door open.

“Hey Alix!”

“Oh. Greg. I didn't know you were coming today!” She immediately pulled on her sleeve and a drop of blood fell.

“So. I was bored! What are you doing today?!” he realized she wasn't all there so he grabbed her wrist and shook to bring her back. She cringed and he stared. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah. I'm fine.”

He watched and then looked to her wrist. With one swift movement, he took hold of her hand and pulled up her sleeve. His eyes widened when he saw the blood on her wrist, and he followed it to the floor. “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!” he screamed in her face.

“I-I-I DON'T KNOW! I JUST-JUST.....” she plopped to the floor and began to cry.

“Shhhh! It's ok...it's gonna be ok. Just promise me...promise me you'll never do anything this stupid again”

She looked up at him and saw tears on his cheeks. `Is...is he crying??' she thought. She then saw the sadness in his eyes. And she nodded, “I won't”

He smiled and stroked her hair. “Ok. Now let's take care of this bleeding.”





An hour later, her arm was bandaged and the bleeding had stopped.

“Hey Greg?”

“Yup”

“Why were you crying?”

He straightened and waited a moment before responding. “You see, my mom used to cut her wrists. And one morning...we found her; me and Boomer. We walked into the kitchen and found her lying motionless on the floor, blood surrounding her wrist. We didn't know what to do at first....and then Boomer screamed and locked himself in the bathroom. It was 4 hours before we were able to coax him out.”

Alix sat in awe. “Greg...”

“Please, don't be like her. I don't want to go through that again.”

“I won't...I promise” she said leaning on his shoulder. `mental note: get rid of switchblade.'

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