This choice: Alex, returning to retrieve you and see if you’re ready for that walk. • Go Back...Chapter #6Alex’s Unfortunate Past by: Azazel-8   Your momentary concerns melted into relief as you saw Alex making her way back towards you, the redhead favouring you with a brilliant smile of her own as she offered you her open palm to climb on. “Ready for that walk Anthony?” You nodded, climbing up and feeling your body wrapped in gentle fingers as your date headed for the exit. Stopping at the cashier, you gently insisted on getting the bill, before emerging into the sunlight and heading to the local park. When the athlete asked if she could transfer you to her shoulder, freeing up her hand, the daring part of you almost asked to be placed in her cleavage, but you pushed the thought down and agreed, gripping her hair for safety.
At first your conversation continued where it had left off. You learnt that Alex had always had a keen interest in sports, and like you had worked hard to get where she was today. Her father had left the family when she and her siblings were still young, and as she didn’t elaborate on the circumstances you didn’t attempt to pry, just noting that your own father had disappeared when you were young as well. As you headed deeper into the park however, you noticed that the redhead was growing more and more quiet, letting you do most of the talking as she started to glance around and slowly navigated towards a more densely wooded area, away from the main thoroughfares and foot traffic.
You trailed off yourself as the ambient noise around you dimmed and you felt your concern rising at being taken to a place where no-one else could see or hear you. Had this all been a ploy to lure you into a false sense of security? Maybe you’d been wrong about the Valkyries, and they were as bad as any other team, with you their latest target for forceful recruitment as a team PET. Were your hopes and dreams to be replaced with a life as a collective insole, sweat rag and who knows what else?
That rapidly spiralling train of thought was broken as Alex finally started to speak again, her eyes fixed forward as she avoided your gaze. “Anthony I… there are some other things I should tell you before you decide whether you would actually want to start a relationship with me.” You tried to find comfort in the fact that she was still talking about a potential relationship, yet still couldn’t swallow your fears enough to speak, part of you now wanting to just run away. It didn’t seem to matter though, as your date continued regardless. “I mean, there’s a reason I’ve gotten desperate enough to let Riley set me up on a date, even though I know she doesn’t have the best opinions of tinies.” Well, given that her twin Riley was close friends with Katherine, that at least checked out.
The athlete’s eyes finally flicked back to you, and you were relieved to see that she looked anxious rather than displaying any hint of malicious, though she struggled to meet your eyes before turning away. “My… my previous boyfriends have all left me, and even my brother doesn’t seem to want to be around me anymore. It just… it just seems like I have really terrible luck with tinies I get close to.” That got your attention, and while you were relieved to realise that she wasn’t planning to kidnap you, your experiences with your own mother had taught you just how dangerous a careless woman could be. As if reading your thoughts, Alex continued, her voice rising a little in distress. “I’m not clumsy though! I swear I never have issues like this with random tinies. It’s just… sometimes it seems like the act of getting close to me results in tinies suddenly developing the worst luck imaginable.”
“It started with my friends in high school. Everything was fine at first, but then I started inviting them over to my house and it was just like… every time they came over, they’d somehow end up under my butt, or in my shoes, or mixed in with my dirty laundry. Soon enough they stopped coming over, and then eventually we grew apart altogether.” The forlorn look in her eyes at the memory touched your heart, and you placed a comforting hand on her neck, though you weren’t sure if she even felt it. “I couldn’t even get a boyfriend after that, with all the rumours that spread about me at school. I had hoped it would be all behind me once I went to college, figuring if I just avoided taking tinies home it would all be okay.” She sighed loudly, turning to lean against a nearby tree. “Then I got a boyfriend.”
Finally finding the words to speak, you moved a bit closer, running your hand along Alex’s neck in an attempt to provide some comfort. “What happened?” At least this time she heard you, shooting you a small, tired smile before continuing. “At first it was great. He was a really funny guy and I liked him. But… about two months after we started dating, we were on a double movie date with my sister and her girlfriend. I needed to use the restroom and somehow when I was gone, he fell onto my seat. My sister was talking to me, and I didn’t see him when I sat back down. He was under there for the rest of the film, and then when I got up, he was left behind.” The guilt in her voice as she continued was obvious. “One of the employees found him when they were opening up the next morning. He gave me a pretty good description of the women who had sat on him when he dumped me later that day.”
Well, you could understand where the guy was coming from, but it did sound like it was an accident. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.” You did wonder how exactly he’d gotten on that seat, though you’d keep those thoughts to yourself for now as Alex continued. “Thanks. That was just the tip of the iceberg though. I got my next boyfriend when I started training with the Valkyries’ junior team. He was a big fan of the team and he really seemed to like me. We were both ecstatic when I got chosen for the main squad and I though we were… I though we were going to last. But then…” At this point you could already guess where this was going, yet you still cringed in anticipation. “It was my first big game. Everyone came to wish me luck, mum and Riley, my brother, but… he didn’t come. I was kind of mad to be honest, so I channelled that anger onto the court and played the best game of my life. The post-match party went for hours, and it was only after I woke from where I’d passed out on Riley’s couch that I finally took off my sneakers and found my boyfriend stuck to the insole.”
Ouch. You weren’t sure what to say about that one, so you just kept your mouth shut and kept up your gentle stroking of the redhead’s neck. “After he recovered, he called me a bitch and said if I just wanted to use him as an insole I could go to hell. I tried to tell him it was an accident, but he just ran off.” Well, that was… not really fair. It couldn’t have been a pleasant experience, but he should have at least heard her out rather than assume it was on purpose. “Again… that seems an unfair response.” You got another sad smile for that, but it was clear that Alex was far from okay as she continued.
“Then there was my most recent boyfriend. He seemed a bit more… resilient than the others. There were a few unfortunate incidents, but they weren’t enough to scare him off and he even moved into my apartment with me. Then we… we had both of our families over for Christmas day and it was all going great except that somehow, he got mixed up with one of my gifts and ended up taking the place of my new sweat towel! I though he’d gone home to visit his extended family, and I ended up using him for several days of work outs, and even shared him with my teammates at practice.” She sounded even more guilty as she admitted that last part, and you could imagine just how unpleasant that must have been for the unfortunate tiny. “His only salvation was that one of my teammates was familiar enough with PETs to know the towel was a tiny and asked where I had gotten him from.”
Alex sighed, and for the first time properly met your eyes as her sad green orbs gazed down at you. “At least he was nicer about it than the others. We broke up but he didn’t yell at me. He just said that he couldn’t deal with ‘all of it’ anymore and that he hoped things worked out for me.” Her lips twisted down as the redhead tried to blink back the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “The worst part is that I never heard from him again. From any of them for that matter. I’d try to call but they’d never answer, and my texts were never responded to. Like I didn’t even exist to them.” She used the hand opposite from your perch to wipe at her eyes, taking a couple of deep breaths to centre herself. “Riley… Riley said that she could find me a boyfriend that was ‘used’ to that kind of thing and who wouldn’t ‘give up’ so easily. But I… I don’t want to just take my sister’s word for it. I want you to know what you’re getting into if you agree to date me. The potential risks involved.”
Silence reigned for several moments as you digested all of that. It didn’t seem like Alex was going to push you for a response, but you could see the growing anxiety on her face as the seconds ticked by. You felt that you realised now why Katherine had set you up on this date, that she and Riley were probably hoping for a repeat of what happened with the redhead’s previous boyfriends. Or maybe more than hoping. You wondered if your date had noticed the connecting thread between each of the unfortunate incidents she had relayed to you. She didn’t seem the inattentive sort, unlike some women you’d met or were related to, yet you couldn’t deny the risk involved. Katherine was right that you were used to such incidents, but you were still somewhat hesitant to actively seek them out.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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