THE TROUBLE WITH PAPER PLANES(18)

It riled me, that attitude, especially after all she’d done for him. I wanted to grab him and shake him until he apologised.

“Why?” he asked sullenly, hands still shoved deep into his pockets, shoulders hunched over. “You wanted me here and I came. It’s over now so I’m going.”

“Come on Alex,” Vinnie said tightly. “Don’t be an *. She wants you to stay.”

Alex fixed him with a solid stare that would’ve cut glass. “Who the hell said this had anything to do with you? You’re not even family.”

“Watch it boy,” Henry warned. “They’re practically family and they have every right to be here. Besides which, your mother invited them.”

“The big birthday celebration. Another year without her. Hip hip hooray.” Then he turned to me. My blood turned to ice. “For he’s a jolly good fellow.”

“Back off Alex,” Vinnie snapped.

I could feel the air change around us. It seemed charged with static electricity as he stared at me, through me. His eyes were cold, hard, accusing. I should say something. I should stick up for myself. I should.

“How’d you sleep last night?” he asked me, throwing me off balance. He always made me feel so exposed. “I don’t know how you have the guts to even turn up here, year after bloody year. Don’t you even have a conscience?”

“Alex!”

Bridget was teetering, I could hear it in her voice. I could take this shit from him, but she couldn’t. Besides which, she didn’t deserve this. Maybe I did, but she didn’t.

“You should watch your mouth.”

He sneered at me, as if I was something he had just scraped off the bottom of his shoe. It was hard to believe we used to be friends, especially with the way he looked at me now.

“Should I?” he spat. “Really? Who’s gonna make me? You?”

God, I wanted to smack him. I had to tie my hands to my sides, but in my head, I’d jabbed him in the face once already.

“Alex, it’s time you left,” Henry said, walking over to him and standing directly in front of him. “You’ve said enough.”

“Geez, Pop. One minute she asks me to stay, the next you want me gone. Wish you people would make up your bloody minds.”

“Alex, don’t. Please. Not today,” Bridget pleaded.

I withdrew my arm from around her shoulder, and Vinnie bristled beside me.

“You need to go,” I said, the words slipping out from between clenched teeth.

“Why? Truth cutting a little too deep is it?” Alex said, his eyes holding mine.

“I’m not the one being an *.”

I didn’t even have time to react before he hit me. Truthfully, I never even saw it coming, it happened so fast. One minute Henry was between us, the next Alex hit me square in the jaw, knocking my feet out from under me. I landed on my ass, my teeth aching.

I sat there, watching, as chaos erupted around me. Vinnie went for Alex, tackling him to the ground in front of me. Henry tried his best to break them up, but they both had fifty years on him and it showed.

Still dazed, my jaw throbbing, I glanced up to see Maia, standing several metres away, by the entrance to the Whale Bay Reserve. She just stood there, watching the spectacle, before disappearing back up the path.

I blinked. One minute she was there, the next she was gone. Was it even her? It looked like her, but I couldn’t be sure. Was I seeing things? Maybe he hit me harder than I thought. My ears were still ringing.

“That’s enough!” Henry roared, in a voice I hadn’t heard since I was a kid.

I glanced back at Vinnie and Alex. It seemed to have the desired effect. Vinnie rolled off him and staggered to his feet, wiping blood away from the corner of his mouth. Jas went to him immediately, checking him over, mumbling something under her breath.

Bridget knelt down to see to Alex, but he brushed her off, scrambling to his feet and stalking away before any of us got a chance to say anything. She watched him for a moment, before turning to me.

“Are you okay darling? I’m so sorry,” she croaked, close to tears.

“I’m fine.” My jaw was still throbbing, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “And it’s not your fault, either.”

She helped me to my feet, and I let her. She touched my jaw, turning my face to the side so she could get a better look at me.

“You should get some ice on that,” she said gently, sniffing. “Come back to the house. I have an ice pack in the freezer and some arnica in the cupboard.”