The lunch goes surprisingly well. Amelia is in the centre of attention and she loves it. She can't stop talking about the gifts she received and about tomorrow's birthday party that she's going to have with her friends. She's such a little sunshine that she cheers us all up.

There's a lot of sweets and there's also a cake. I feel like I'm getting high on sugar already. Alexander is not much for sweets, so he's not even tempted, while I adore everything sweet and having so much food in front of me at once is ... dangerous.

I go and help Rosanna in the kitchen out of habit and so I get away from all that food and also to stretch a little. I get a chance to talk to her and ask her how things are.

She tells me about Lena, although I didn't ask, but I think she knows I'm interested in knowing more about her. Not to confirm my suspicions, but I genuinely want to be her friend, although Rosanna can't tell me much. She says she's nice and respectful and that's she's very outgoing and overall full of energy at all times.

She told me she's a runner and she also got a gym membership. I sincerely admire her for that because I'm not much of a sports person myself, no matter how many times I tried.

My jealous subconsciousness appears from somewhere and lets me know that maybe Alexander and her have way more things in common than Alexander and I and maybe that makes me even more cautious of her.

Rosalyn comes into the kitchen at some point, giving me a small smile. "Gabrielle, come. I really want to speak to you."

I look at Rosanna and she just shrugs, shaking her head. I don't know why I look so differently at Rosalyn now that Alexander and I are dating. I'm just a little bit of scared of hare and when she says she wants to talk to me, I always think of everything bad. I think I'm scared that she'd at one point say that I'm not good for Alex. I don't know.

I go with her to the living room where we sit on the couch. "How is everything? How is Alex?" she asks me kindly.

And I realise that maybe she's just worried about her son. "Oh, we're good. He's good. He had a migraine last Saturday, though."

Rosalyn's face tightens as if she felt the pain he did last week. "You know, he got his first migraine when he was only 10. We didn't quite understand what was going on at the time. It happened so quickly. It was so bad. He was crying and vomiting. It hurt him but he couldn't explain to us what was wrong. And then the doctor informed us that he's just suffering from a migraine. And it's been a battle ever since, especially in his teenage years. And then when Zoe died in that accident ... It was tough for him. But he's ... so much different now."

Rosalyn shakes her head to herself, sighing. "I'm sorry, I'm getting all emotional. I'm just happy that he has someone to look after him. And someone that saw all the good parts in him when everyone saw everything bad."

Now I'm getting emotional, too. "I can say for myself that I'm happy where I am. With him, I mean." And I mean that. Sincerely. We came a long way. We literally went from hating each other to being so in love it's funny.

"So is he," Rosalyn says, assured. "But there's another thing I wanted to talk to you about."

I tilt my head to the side, waiting for her to continue.

"You two are being ... safe. Aren't you?"

My eyebrows draw together. "Safe in ... what sense?" I ask curiously.

Rosalyn intertwines her hands together. "You are protected, aren't you?" he rewords the question.

And now I get it. My cheeks heat up. "Yes! Of course we are!" Oh my God.

Alexander decides that moment to walk to the living room, taking a loud bite in the apple. "Here you're hiding," he says, his eyes going from me to his mother. "What are you two talking about?"

I look at him with wide eyes, trying to deliver a message without saying a word, but he doesn't get it.

Rosalyn, however, has no problem with this topic and just tells him how it is. "I'm just asking Gabrielle if you two are safe and use protection."

Alexander visibly shudders. "Oh, hell no," he mutters and turns on his heels.

"Alexander!" I call after him. Is he seriously going to leave me here alone?

"Have things to do," he says and almost runs out of the room.

I stare after him in disbelief and turn back to Rosalyn with wide eyes. She just chuckles. "I won't hold you for much longer. I just wanted to make sure you're alright. Is he going to classes?"

I grimace. I don't want to lie to her. "He's trying but he doesn't always succeed," I say.

Alexander already said that he's mostly just going because of me, not because he'd be interested in the subjects or having a degree. I don't want to force him to go, either, but Rosalyn and Alfred are paying a lot of money for both of us and I feel like I at least owe them to try and motivate him somehow to attend the classes.

Rosalyn sighs. I think that, deep down, she knows her son isn't academically successful and doesn't care about education, but that doesn't mean he's not smart. He is, he's just not interested in getting a degree. "That's alright. He's at least trying," she says.

"Gabby! Come, we need the fourth player for ludo," Amelia comes running into the room.

I turn my body and look at her, happy that I'm saved from this kind of awkward, kind of heartfelt conversation. She comes to me and grabs my hand, pulling me with her. I give Rosalyn an apologetic smile, but I can't wait to get away.

Lena and Alexander are already sitting on the floor. I sit down next to Alex, but Amelia gets a new idea that we should just play Uno instead and she goes looking for the cards.

Alexander swings his head into my direction, a lazy grin appearing on his lips. "So. What did my mother have to say?"

I give him a dirty look. "If you stayed, you'd know."

He grins even wider. "Nah. I know plenty about the topic already."

I roll my eyes. Lena is watching us with interest and that's why I decide to just shut up.

Amelia comes back with the cards and sits down with us. Before she'd give us each cards, Sam comes into the room. "Ooooh, can I play?" she asks excitedly.

Amelia grins and makes room for her to sit down. She sits down next to Lena and gives me a grin and a wink. Alexander is sitting with his back against the wall, looking completely disinterested. I know he's only doing this to make his sister happy.

Amelia gives us the cards. I haven't played this game in years and it's pretty nostalgic.

We go a few rounds before I catch Alexander peeking at my cards. "Hey!" I say, putting the cards against my chest to hide them. "Stop looking! That's cheating," I exclaim.

Alexander, not guilty at all, just raises a challenging eyebrow. "Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it?"

I just give him a dirty look.

Amelia actually ends up winning the first round. Lena wins one, too. And then it basically becomes a battle between Alexander and Sam because they win the most rounds and they started competing and we were just there to make it a little more interesting for them, nothing else.

˙˙˙

Alexander and I take our things to his room because we're staying here for the weekend. It's been quite some time since we stayed overnight and we decided to take this weekend completely off and spend it with the family.

This house will forever have a special place in my heart because I carry so many good memories with me that were made here. And on the rooftop where Alexander and I are sitting and watching the stars with a blanket around us because it's chilly outside.

"Do you remember when I first got here and we met unexpectedly here on the rooftop? You were losing it whenever you saw me."

"Yeah. I was just being an asshole," he speaks above my head.

"Yes, you really were," I say, recalling my first moments when I got here. "You were being rude and mean to me for no reason."

I feel him sigh. "I was just fucked up. What can I say? It's not easy living with someone as hot as you, either."

I'm quiet for some moments. Alexander and I have never really fully talked about our enemies-to-lovers relationship. We just jumped right into it. "Why did you really do it?" I ask him.

He moves his head, looking down at me. "What?" he asks.

I lift my head off his chest and move away from him so I create just a little distance, as much as this blanket will allow. I tend to get easily sidetracked because of him. "Why did you act like that towards me?"

He lets out an incredulous chuckle. "I acted like that towards everyone, Gabrielle."

He takes out a pack of cigarettes and my lips press together.

"Are you mad?" he asks.

"No," I say.

"You sure? Because you sound mad to me."

"I am not mad, Alex!"

"Okay, you're mad," he decides, nodding and looking forward,lighting his cigarette up.

I grit my teeth together.

"Why are you mad? We can talk about it if you want ..."

I let out a loud sigh. I pull my legs up, bending them, and I hug them, putting my chin on my knees, looking down at the street. "No, it's in the past anyway so we can leave it there."

Alexander looks at me and keeps looking for a long time, yet I can't bring myself to look at him. He puts his hand on my leg, trying to comfort me. I can't help and I flinch at his touch for some reason, completely unprepared for it.

Alexander is in front of me, his hands on either side of my head. He slams me against the wall again, not as hard as before, but just enough so that he scares me. And he scares me a lot. He's staring at me with hard look and cold eyes.

I put my hand against his chest, trying to push him away from me, but he doesn't budge. He steps even closer to me, intimidating me with his height. I drop my hand down in fright.

''Listen here, little one. Pull a stunt like that again and you see what happens,'' he breathes on my face, his breath smelling of smoke. My eyes water, hating that smell.

Tears unwillingly fall down my face now. ''I wasn't trying to ...'' I choke on words, coughing. ''Alexander ...'' I say in barely a whisper, trying to catch breaths. ''Please ...'' I lightly press my hand on his chest again, not even trying to push him off, just showing him, begging him to release me.

He leans his face closer to mine. ''I'm tellin' ya. Make your little brain remember this warning. The next time it won't be just a warning anymore.''

With a final dark look in my eyes, he releases me and lets me crash down on the floor while he walks away as if nothing happened. I can't stop choking and breathing hard, tears spilling down my face, even though I don't want them to.

"Babe?" Alexander asks, his face panicked.

"Sorry, I ... I was just thinking about something."

He grimaces, knowing fully well what I was thinking about. "Gabby, come on ... you know I regret that. I would never ..." He licks his lips. "I would never hurt you."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah," he says immediately.

"You regret it now. Did you regret it then? And you wouldn't hurt me now. What about then?"

Alexander rakes his hand through his hair. "I regret it now and I regretted it before. I knew I was a jackass, but that was how I made sure you would keep a distance because I was too fucked up. And if I wanted to hurt you, I would have. It was never about hurting you, more about scaring you." He rolls his shoulders. "Look, can we leave this in the past?"

I look at him, tilting my head to the side. "I mean ... yeah, sure." I don't even know why I brought it up in the first place. It's probably because this place often makes me overwhelmed and brings back some old memories, unfortunately those who aren't welcomed, either.

It's amazing to see how far I've come, though. In emotional meaning. I've grown a lot as a person and, yes, Alexander had something to do with it, yet it was still in a way that I don't want to remember.

Now, though, I know I wouldn't let him treat the way I did when I came here. No one, actually.

I lean my head on his shoulder and he wraps his arm around me. We both grew a lot as individual people; together. We've both changed a lot and that's important. We both keep growing and we're here to support and help each other in a way we know it's the best for each other.

And that is my definition of love. Him. 

*

I'm way too tired to think of anything funny to say to finish this chapter so.... yeah. Shit storm's coming. That's all, bye