Kids

...I grew up in a small village surrounded by trees and water, a fishing village where everyone fished or smoked fish or ship it. 🚢 In a tiny village like Rok everyone knows everyone and all the kids played together and the oldest watched the babies while the adults cut and canned fish. I ran barefoot and wild haired with my cousins through long grass and ran fast away from my caretakers to climb trees 🌳 and swim 🏊‍♀️ and go to the cliff where the big swing would twirl us over the abyss and back to land and together we discovered gifts....

...I could never get on the swing more than once or twice before Alex would catch up to me. He can always find me. "Ann!"...

...I let go of the rope before he could pull it from my hands. Around me the others made sounds of disappointment since the big kids at the cliff meant no more swinging. Teenagers always stopped kids fun. 🙄 😒 😑 "Ann, I don't like it when you run off. Our moms told me and Kai to watch you and your brothers. You can't play here."...

He is only 3 yrs older than me! 😠 I'm not a baby. "Max and AL are babies! They're at the park playing on the swings. Go watch them." I push him hoping to make him leave before my older cousin or some of the other teenagers come and take over the swing. If I'm forceful enough sometimes Alex does what I want. Instead Alex grabs the swing and throws it high into the branches of the old tree 🌳. "Alex!"

"Everyone go play somewhere else now." Alex is usually the teen that would play with the little kids, entertaining and making fun, but here he is taking babysitting seriously. "I'll tell your parents on you!"

The kids scatter without a thought of trying to fix the swing, some of them could. I don't get far with my friends before Alex is right behind me. "Where are you going?"

...I ignored him at first. Let my older cousin' annoying bestfriend follow me while my friend gets my bike, my annoying shadow at my back. "Sophia' house since you ruined our fun."...

"You could have fallen."

I make an angry noise as I turn around and face him. "You and Kai do it all the time!"

"We could have fallen too but I'm ok with that. I'm not ok with my soul mate getting hurt." Alex and Kai act like I will trip and break like glass and Alex always says weird things to embarrass me. I'm on my bike and gone before he can talk of marrying me someday. I'm 10 I don't care about love or soul mates or danger or change. Alex is always 3 steps behind me, my unwanted shadow and protection, and my greatest fan. I could make him laugh without trying and he would always try and make me happy 😊. I was 12 when my annoyance of him turned into like and I was 14 and he 17 when I realized how devoted he is to me. It was not a joke or him playing, Alex loves me.

I still tease and push him around even though I love him and he let me. When Alex got a job he bought me things, candies, stuffed animals, and my first camera 📷 😳 🤯💕, that I love. He treated me like I could do no wrong and enjoyed my company even when I was upset with him. I knew I love him completely too when he got his first girlfriend and I hated her on sight. A girl his age with big breasts.

"Why are you dating her?!" I hit him.

Alex laughs. "Because it's illegal to date a little girl. I want to do things with another adult that little kids like you can't do yet."

"Like what?" I snap. He thinks I'm too innocent and young. I'm not!

"Kiss." Alex leans down toward me and smacks his lips. I resent his growth spurt that made him so tall I have to tilt my head to meet his eyes. Deep hazel like fall on the Alderwood. "Caroline and I kiss 💋 😘 "

I blush 😊 " I can kiss!" I snap as I grab his face, claw it really, and press my lips to his. It is warm. It is warm and I am just starting to relax into it when his arms wrap around my waist and tongue down my throat. I am startled, out of air, and can feel his hands go everywhere. When he let's go abruptly we are both shaking as he holds me at arm's length.

"Don't ever do that again!" Red in the face Alex snaps as he runs away with his hand covering his crotch. I am left standing there stunned 😲. My first kiss.

In an ironic reverse I start following Alex around. Alex and his girlfriend. She is evil. She is a demon witch always hanging off Alex, kissing him and touching and hanging out with him. I use to hang out with him! I should be Alex' girlfriend. I tell him just that. " You're 14. That's a no for most guys, sweetie, wait for me, please? Or date a kid your age, as long as he knows his place and doesn't touch you. Treats you like I would."

" I thought I was your soul mate?" I'm so angry even as I snuffle back rejection tears 😢. Alex always gives into my tears. "Break up with Caroline."

Alex sighs. "If you want to date me when you are 16 I will marry you and never let you go. I want that. You, Annamarie, are my soul mate and I love you very much. You just turned 14 and I don't think you understand my obsession. I promised your cousin Kai, my bestfriend, that I would wait until you grew up before I threw myself at you." Alex ruffles my hair. "Even with how I feel your still too young for me."

Too young. 😱

I'm stubborn, I ignore him and walk away from his every attempts at being my quirky older brother figure. I stayed mad at him for 2 yrs, I ignored our friendship and any gifts were tossed into the closet. I didn't care that it made me seem childish or made people shake their heads and click their tongues. Why should I be alright with Alex being with someone else?

...He and Caroline dated, get serious, and got engaged 💍 😐. I thought he was obsessed? Soulmates! I felt like such a fool for waiting and wanting from a distance still hopeful. In such a small village like Rok engagement meant party 🥳 🎉 for the people and everyone is there. I went to glare. Why did this stupid boy make me fall for him? I hate him!...

People are laughing and talking, drinks are being passed around and even the underage like me is getting drunk. I'm kissing 💋 the cute boy from my math class when I'm pulled away by strong hands. "Are you drunk?"

"Are you drunk?" I snap back. I push Alex away and look around, we are alone in his bedroom 🛏. I look at his bed. Caroline's bed. "What do you want, stupid jerkface?" I slap at his chest.

When did he lose his shirt? 👕 🤔 "Never meant to get engaged to her. She's wearing your ring. 💍 "

"My?" He kisses my mouth quiet. 👄 😋

"I got that ring for you the moment I figured out I wanted to marry you." We are on the bed. "Sapphire for your birthstone and has soulmate written inside the band. It' not Caroline' fault she thinks it's for her." He kisses me deeply as he climbs between my legs. "Remember what I said? If you let me have you I will never let go." Alex' eyes burn me as he rut our hips together. I gasp then grasp at him tightly.

"Yes. I want you."

A switch has been flipped and over me is no lovesick boy but a determined man in need. My clothes tear, his too as I pull, and we are half ***** as we fall flat upon the bed. "Marry me, my Ann?" Alex growls in my ear as one hand goes for a ****** and the other down to my belly to cup me. I jolt.

"Yes." I yelp the word not use to such touches. Alex grabs my head and kisses me deeply, peppering kisses on my neck to collar. My heart is just starting to rabbit with what we are about to do when the door slams open.

It is Caroline and she is angry. "Caroline!" Alex covers me with the blanket and goes to her. Caroline is yelling and throwing things and trying to get at me but Alex won't let her. She looks crazed and she is holding a knife.

"What about our families? The money? How could you prevent the merge! I like you. You$####№##-----‐-'!!!!!" She gets violent, she screams, and then she flees out the door. There's blood on Alex ' hands.

"I have to fix this. I will see you tomorrow at our spot. Promise to wait for me?" He gives me a soulful look, kisses my lips, then gives chase.

"I promise."

I should have went with him, or told someone, or done something beside get dressed with shaky drunk hands and leave. I feel guilty, I feel excited, and all I can really think about is being with my soulmate. He will come to me with a ring, marry me, and we will live together in the fishing cabin giving to him by his grandparents. Our spot. This cozy cabin Alex inherited will be our first home 🏡 ❤. I lay on the loft bed and wait for him.

Night comes and he does not.

A day and a half passes when someone knocks frantically at the door. Alex is missing.

I am full of anxiety and anger and blame Caroline without proof. She acts like she never saw us, she acts like the worried fiancée and treating me like the Lil kid missing her big brother. No one will listen to me. "Find my fiancee" she weeps.

I weep when he is found in the water, drowned in dry clothing. Everyone is in shock. His death ruled accidental drowning. Accidental and drowning doesn't fit my Alex, a born human fish, but any say against the majority in a small remote village is dangerous for the minority. Calling the police 🚔 to the village got me looks and whispers of delusion. Then just before his burial Caroline says she is pregnant with Alex' baby. I hate her, I hate him, and I hate myself for loving Alex so much I can't breathe. I just want to hit him for being such an idiot and ask him how he had the nerve to leave me.

Alex is buried next to his grandparents 🙏⚰🪦 Caroline names the baby 👶 after him. Alexander.

💔

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