The Fundraiser Part 2

James steps forward blocking Alexandra before she could to walk away nonchalantly. She keeps her eyes away from his face, she stared at the walls on either side, the floor, his shirt; anything as long as it isn't his face. At doesn't take long for her to cave and then she's looking into his warm brown eyes. Those deceivingly kind brown eyes that had pleaded before and failed. That will plead again and fail. Alexandra pulls herself together and takes in his appearance. His tie is loose around his neck and his dress shirt is nearly untucked. His suit coat is hooked on a finger hanging over his should and his other hand is tucked deeply into his pocket. He hadn't shaved before he came and his patchy three-day old stubble made him look as if he had just rolled out of bed. It didn't help that he hadn't combed his hair either and overall he truly looked like the rich outcast he wished he was.

"Hello James, I wasn't expecting to see you here tonight." Alexandra does her best to keep her discomfort out of her voice but couldn't manage a smile for him. She was already so tired of the people and the event, on top of it all she thought she had adjusted to the pain but it was clear that she hadn't because the pain was growing worse by the minute.

"Well my family did receive an invitation." He smiles as if it's some kind of joke he made but his whitened teeth disappear when she doesn't smile or laugh. "A friend of mine may have hinted the you would be willing to hear me out tonight." He doesn't seem to optimistic when he adds this. Alexandra takes this as a good thing, thinking that maybe he was finally giving up; finally moving on. Still remembering all they had shared, her heart aching in her chest and he tries to ignore it.

"Willing or forced? You know how these events work James. I can't step out of line here." Her heart sinks with her facial expression and she curses it for still caring, still wanting.

"What did you do this time? Back talk a teacher?" James tries to smile but it comes out resembling a grimace and not a smile. Alexandra knew that he had already heard what happened, everyone had, but he played dumb anyway; trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. Trying to make her feel better.

"Please don't do this."

"Do what?" and just like that James goes from the gentle kind-hearted James she knew so well to the cold jerk she had gotten to know these past few weeks, "Have a conversation with you? Why, because you can't face me after what happened?"

"Yes James. Please don't talk to me, ask about me, or mention me." She sweeps the room, praying Mary had been looking somewhere else when she said that. She catches Victoria's eye and pleads with her silently but she was in the middle of a group of adults and would be no help. Soon she finds Mary and breathes a silent sigh of relief that she had been looking away and is still busy with a few potential donors.

"Alex please. I know I screwed up but how many times do I have to apologize before you'll get over it." James pleads with his eyes for her to look up at him but she refuses and steps back, her exposed skin flushing with color from his attention. Damn her body for still wanting him, still being unable to resist her charm.

"It meant nothing. I only love you. I was drunk and stupid, thinking I had lost you." James steps closer then before his shoes crazing the hem of her dress and gently lifts her chin with his index finger until all she can see is his face and the old church ceiling above. Alexandra found herself unable to move away, transfixed once again by his shear will and unbreakable smile. It was at this moment she began to feel the eyes lands on them, silently hopping their forbidden love would come back together. Some small part of her hoped too.

"You know I would never do something like that, not to you." Alexandra finally finds the will to pull away and forces the angry heartbroken tears to stay down.

"How can you stay it meant nothing?" her voice is barely more then a whisper but she was almost certain the whole room heard her. "James, when I wouldn't have sex with you, you went and got drunk and tried forcing yourself on me. When that didn't work you went and found someone else." Alexandra's words are sharper then she meant them to be but decides against shrinking away from him and throws her shoulders back, "You can't honestly expect to come back from that."

"Alexandra please. We were both drunk, she doesn't even remember it. I just want to make this work." He was growing impatience with her. He had depended on the event to make her more excepting so that he could weasel his way back in, and it wasn't working, "I miss you."

"James, you cheated on me. You truly cheated on me. You took our relationship and flushed it. All for a few moments of hormonal reprieve, so no I will not forgive you and no there is no coming back from that choice."

"Alex please." James pleads but Alexandra had already turned away, hiding her broken heart from the crowd but she knew she couldn't hide it from him. Partially hoping that they had truly had been that close once. She could feel his pain radiating off of him and it only made it harder to walk away, to say what had to be said.

"We are over James. Drop it already and allow me to heal. Please." A tear escapes down Alexandra's cheek in pure disobedience. The emotional pain she had been avoiding now felt raw and freshly scrubbed clear with salt water. She felt naked in front of all these people with all the emotions running through her. Alexandra quickly finds her way to the kitchen and closes the door behind her, finally away from all the watchful eyes out in the dining room.

To her relief the kitchen is empty and she can take a moment to collect her emotions. Mary would have her head for speaking to a quest that way. No way would she be able to follow through with Victoria's plan after a second beating, she'd be to weak. As if summoned by Alexandra's thoughts, Mary comes bursting through the door, her anger turning her face red.

"What in the devil's name made you think you could speak to a quest in such a way?" Mary's face flushes red with anger as she taps her heel on the tile floor. The same heels she had kicked Alex with yesterday.

"What makes you think he didn't deserve it?" The few moments Alexandra had gotten had not been long enough. Alexandra's anger was getting the best of her but something was different tonight. For the first time, she felt like she could win this fight and didn't really care is there were repercussions. At least not in that moment.

"How dare you!" Mary doesn't bother to keep her voice down, as if trying to bring people's attention towards the kitchen even though no one could see through the door. "You have no right to think such a question. You do not judge them, they judge you! They decide your worth. You should be out there apologizing right now!"

"No." Alexandra had always hated being told she was less than others, being treated less than others.

"Excuse me?" Mary was even less happy about the new development then she was about yesterday. Almost moving forward to yell in her face.

"I said no. That's a fairly clear statement Mary." As damning as it was to say those words Alexandra still stood her ground, simply not caring anymore. There was nothing Mary could do to Alex that she hadn't already experienced nothing she was willing to do and able to hide. What she had not been expecting was the anger, the outright rage, she felt when Mary grabbed her chin, pulling her face down until they were sharing air and Alex could see the cracks in Mary's liquid foundation. The woman honestly looked revolting up close and when Mary's shoulder and arm begin to move back Alexandra follows her instincts and her slams her heel into Mary's foot and grabs her shoulders. Before she could even think she feels her arms push the boney shoulders under her hands away. Mary's hand slips off Alexandra's chin with a yelp and she's falling backward into the counter. Mary was shocked at first but then her face twisted into something else, something much darker then Alexandra was used to seeing. By the time Mary started to regain her balance Alexandra is out the back door. Alexandra didn't hesitate when she thinks of Victoria or her bag because Mary's already yelling for help. Just as Alexandra reaches the tree line, she hears more yelling and the back-door slam against the brick building that she knew she would never call home again. The loss of control feels strange and uncomfortable as the events of the night settle into Alexandra's mind. She runs through the trees, trying not to focus on anything as she pulls her dress free of a snag but loses her breath at the idea of what will happen when she's caught. Alexandra hears voices close behind as she finally gets her dress free and starts running again. She knew she could run faster than the men from the party but she also knew that they could hear her running which meant that they would easily be able to follow her. It wasn't like any of them were being particularly sneaky as they ran through the woods.

Alexandra slows down, unable to keep the same pace any longer with the bruising covering her abdomen. She knows she still isn't far enough away but she couldn't go back after what she did. She comes through a break in the trees and pauses, listening for the men following her. Her breathing out of control and her vision swimming in a hazy pain filled blur. If she didn't stop soon she could pass out from the pain. She would surely be caught and brought back to St. Joseph's and possibly juvey. Suddenly Alex finds herself on her knees, hand to her chest, bile rising in her throat, breathing like she would if she had just finished a gym test. Slowly the trees come back into focus and she looks around at the small overgrown clearing she had fallen into. In the clearing there where three very old and run-down fountains equally distant from each other and barely recognizable as fountains. Two of them had large cracks down the side and all the water had leaked out but the one closest to her was still in decent shape. She could tell that each of the fountains had once been beautifully decorated but that have been years and years ago. Alexandra sits on the edge of the closest fountain and breathes deeply. She couldn't hear the men anymore which was a good sign but the sun had set hours ago and now the moon was bright above her, the cold fall air sucking the warmth from her skin. The water in the fountain is thick with moss and dirt and leaves. She wasn't sure if it was how dark it was out there or the events that had occurred but the whole place had an eeriness about it that made her nervous. Something felt off about this place.

She forgets all of that when she looks down at her reflection in the water. Her hair looked like something a homeless person would have on their head and a small scratch ran from her chin down her neck, red with irritation. She had ruined Victoria's plan and left her there to pick up the pieces. Alexandra wished she could go back, wished she could take back what she had done to Mary and James but knew there was no fixing what had happened. Alexandra stares at her reflection in the water, focusing her shame into the image until she only sees herself, completely zoned out. While she had been running leaves had gotten caught in her messing hair and dirt is smeared on her face. She wonders if her mother had ever looked like this. If she had ever gotten into trouble like Alexandra did and what she would say if she were here right now. Alexandra would probably never know either of her parents and a part of her didn't care but a different part, a small aching part of her wished that she had never ended up at St. Joseph's. Wished that she didn't have nightmares and wished that she were wanted by someone for more than just an accessory. The moon shining above her head gave her face and hair a blueish hue and she smiled. Alexandra pulls one of the leaves from her hair and places it in the water, watching the little ripples of disturbance flow out from around it.

"I don't suppose that you, oh ancient fountain, would know where I am supposed to go now?" though it had been a silly question, a wave of calmness washes over Alexandra, as if she had just fit the last piece of a long-standing puzzle into place.

The bottom of the fountain darkens, the water becomes choppy, and Alexandra's throat closes as she watches something stir in the darkness. Alexandra's legs move of their own accord as they try to stand up and get away from the fountain, but she doesn't get two steps before the weeds on the ground wrap themselves up her ankles and hold her where she stands. The air darkens as she watches long, boney fingers snap onto the edge of the fountain and pull itself up as if someone is going to come out of it. The fingers bend and twist in an unnatural yet familiar way. Another hand snaps onto the edge as the first one begins reaching for Alexandra. She pulls at the weeds around her ankles trying to get away from what could only be explained as a bad dream but it's no use. She can't get free. More hands begin to climb out of the fountain, climbing on top of each other to get closer to her. Alexandra falls backwards when one grazes her hair. She reaches for a rock, a stick, anything she can use to fight them off. When she finally wraps her hand around something, she puts all the strength she had into hitting the hands, making them pull back but it doesn't last long. One of the hands anticipates her move and catches the stick, ripping it from her hands. Another hand catches her wrist and it's all over. Two more join the first and they begin pulling her towards the fountain, towards the water. Alexandra fights back trying to get away from whatever evil it could be that has wrapped around her arm. Soon enough the weeds loosen from her feet and she is pulled from her flats and sent into the water. She braces herself expecting a hard-concrete bottom and freezing water, but they don't come. She opens her eyes to find a gaping hole in the bottom of the fountain getting smaller and smaller as she is pulled down farther and farther until she can no longer see the opening to her world and darkness swallows her completely.