User blog:SodaCat/The Firework Show

ik this seems like it's about johnny and alexis' friendship but its actually just meant to show why alexis and jim (her dad) are so distant

emphasis on distant

they don't hate each other

they just have no idea how to deal with each other whatsoever

"Daddy, can I have a bedtime story?"

Jim Monroe turned and looked at Alexis, his six-year-old daughter, sitting upright in her bed, looking at him with large, hopeful green eyes. She held a brightly colored picture book in her hands--undoubtedly one of the fictional princess she adored so much--flicking through the pages absently in the dim glow of her night light.

He didn't really know what to say. He'd been living with Alexis here, in this house that was too big for just the two of them, in Old Bullworth Vale for about two years now. Ever since Lilian changed and threw him out of the house, and soon after told him to take Lexi with him. His little girl, now in the first grade, who always asked him why mommy was still in Liberty City instead of with them. Who always came home from school upset because one of her classmates mothers had come in to help, and she was the only little girl whose parent hadn't come in to help the teacher because Jim was working all the time and Lilian was in Liberty.

It didn't help that she looked like Lilian, either. Not the Lilian she was now--not the sharp, stick thin serious-looking woman she was--but the old Lilian, the one who was soft, radiant, and happy. She'd inherited all the good parts about Lilian, and to Jim's surprise, all the good parts that he had. Until Alexis, he hadn't even been sure if he had any goodness in him.

So why did he find it so difficult to even look his little girl in the eye anymore?

"I'd love to, Lexi... But you know I have to get some work done..."

The disappointed sigh she let out was almost too much for him, but Jim knew she could take it at this point. One story wasn't going to end her, and there was always tomorrow night.

"Night, kiddo," he mumbled as he shut the door behind him gently, his heart squeezing when he heard her wish him goodnight and remind him she loved him in her small, delicate voice.

Alexis lay in silence in the darkness, clutching her book to her chest. Daddy never read her stories anymore, but she remembered when he read them to her in her bed by the big window in their apartment when they lived in the city. Mommy would sit down and listen too, somtimes, drinking her tea, and sometimes she would give Alexis some to try. But Alexis didn't like it--Mommy added lemon to her tea, and Alexis didn't like lemons very much.

She didn't see Mommy much anymore, though. Mommy still lived in the big apartment on the tippy top floor in the big white building in the city. The last time Alexis saw her, Mommy was angry and tired, because the man she was with said he didn't wanna "play the daddy role" and left. Then Mommy had called Daddy and Daddy came to pick her up, and that was when Alexis first saw the big house in Bullworth.

She shot up the second she heard a knock on her window, her muscles tense, her grip tightening on her book. She hoped it wasn't a monster. Alexis was terrified of monsters.

Right as she began to lay back down, dismissing the noise, she heard it again, followed by a low mumble that sounded a lot like "Leeexx..."

It was definitely coming from the window, and Alexis climbed out of bed carefully before making her way to it and peering out. She almost squeaked in surprise upon seeing the face of Johnny Vincent hidden in the bushes, peering out to her and signaling for her to open the window.

She struggled--the window was heavy and she wasn't very strong--but after a couple tries Alexis managed to raise the window enough for Johnny to lean into her first-floor bedroom.

"Hey Lex," he whispered, looking around to make sure Mr. Monroe wasn't anywhere in the room.

"What are you doing here?" Alexis whispered back, a little worried. Daddy didn't like Johnny very much, but Alexis sure did. Johnny was rowdy, loud, and best of all; a second grader. A lot of kids didn't like him, but Alexis didn't understand why. Johnny brought her candy during recess, held her hand so she wouldn't step in puddles and get her dresses wet, and gave her his jacket when the mean boys pushed her in the mud on her first day of Kindergarten. Then he chased the boys and rubbed their faces in the mud, which made Alexis laugh.

It was also thanks to Johnny that Alexis met Larry. Larry was also in first grade, and they had the same teacher. Alexis liked Larry about as much as she liked Johnny. They were her bestest friends.

"I wanted to go see the fireworks with you. They're doing them in an alley in New Coventry. Come on, climb out, I'll catch you."

Alexis hesitated, looking back at her bedroom door nervously, in case Daddy were to walk in. She didn't know what he'd do if he saw Johnny at her window after bedtime; maybe he'd call Mr. Vincent and not allow Alexis to play with Johnny anymore. She definitely didn't want that.

Still, something in her told her that Daddy wasn't gonna come into her room until tomorrow, when he woke her up for school. Daddy was too busy working. Even if he wasn't working and had lied--he did that sometimes when he didn't want to read a bedtime story--Alexis knew he'd be in his office drinking the weird adult apple juice and looking at the picture of Mommy in his office. Sometimes, she heard him crying about missing Mommy.

She took another look at Johnny's hopeful, muddied, bruised face, and decided she'd go with him. Slipping on her children's size converse, she let her book drop out onto the bushes out of her window, and then she began climbing up and out of the window with Johnny's help. After a couple minutes, they both stood outside of Alexis' house in the grass.

"Okay, Lex, hold my hand so you don't get lost," Johnny instructed, and Alexis immediately obeyed. Johnny was a big kid, so she knew better than to ignore what he told her to do.

Walking through town was a little scary; it was dark and there weren't many grown ups out, but Johnny asked her about school and other fun things. Talking to him, it wasn't very scary. Actually, to Alexis, it was even a little fun.

She felt like a big girl, walking around the sidewalk without her Daddy or a grown up. It was very foreign to her, but Johnny knew what he was doing, and he didn't stop once to think about where he was going. They got to the underpass to New Coventry fairly quickly.

Alexis had only been in New Coventry once or twice. The first time, she was just starting Kindergarten, and Daddy had taken her to his store there to talk to Mr. Stan. The second time was when she had gone home with Peanut and Johnny to play after school, and they had played by the old train tracks. When Daddy picked her up, he said Alexis was only allowed to play with Peanut and Johnny after school if it was at their house in Old Bullworth Vale.

There were a lot of adults in New Coventry. Tall, curvy women in striking colors like red and pink roamed the streets, wearing make-up like the ads Alexis saw in magazines. Teenage boys in leather jackets with cigarettes dangling out of their lips, and slicked back hair. Johnny got along with a lot of the teenagers. They said hi to Johnny as they walked, and even her since they saw she was with him.

"It's just a little farther down, Lex, right down here."

They walked into an alley by a big, old-looking building, and Alexis saw that there was a fairly big crowd of the leather-jacket-wearing teenage boys and a couple of teenage girls, also dressed in leather and denim. They all looked very sophisticated and grown up, but Johnny pushed past them anyway so that he and Alexis were at the very front.

"Okay, now watch up in the sky."

She followed the direction in which Johnny pointed to, biting her lip as she anticipated the firework that would undoubtedly color the sky. Surely enough, within a few seconds, the sky was painted with streaks of blue and red, shimmering brillantly against the pitch black of the New Coventry sky. It was beautiful, and unlike any other firework she'd seen.

"Oh, Johnny," she breathed out quietly, squeezing his arm as she smiled up against the sky, "look at that!" she cried as she pointed excitedly to the latest of the fireworks, this one a gorgeous shade of green.

"I knew you'd like it," Johnny laughed, staring up at the sky with her, oblivious to the murmurs of appreciation by the teenagers behind them who also looked to the skies.

The wonders lasted about twenty minutes, before Johnny heard something that sounded hauntingly like police sirens about the same distance that the fireworks were coming from. His body tensed as he realized what was going on, and he could already hear the sirens approaching the alley he and Alexis were in.

There were sounds of confusion from the crowd behind them as the time gap since the last firework began to grow, and a quick glance at Alexis' face told Johnny that she didn't know what was happening, either.

"Lex, we gotta go," he said abruptly, taking her hand and beginning to lead her out of the alley.

"But Johnny, I want to see the fireworks," she complained, anchoring herself to where she was standing.

He opened his mouth to try and explain, but he knew he was too late. The sirens were very clear now, and the crowd of teenagers had begun to disband in a panic, separating him from Alexis. He could hear her calling for him, but he'd lost grip on her smaller hand, despite fighting his way through the running teens and adults to find her.

It didn't take long. He caught her before she could fall onto the ground as a particularly large man pushed past her, but she was calling something about a picture book. He easily remembered it; a book she'd insisted on dragging with her as they'd walked to the alley earlier. Some story book. Probably about a princess.

"We gotta go, Lex! There's no time to find a book right now!" he explained to her, giving up on being gentle with her and using all his strength to drag her out of the alley.

Alexis tried to protest, before stopping herself. Johnny was right. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew that the police were coming and for whatever reason, watching the fireworks wasn't okay. Going back for the book would only slow them down, and she didn't wanna get Johnny in trouble.

Besides. Jim wasn't going to be reading the book anytime soon.