This was originally supposed to be posted on April Fools Day, but since I ended up finishing the story earlier than expected, it's up on St. Patrick's Day! Yay!
Sorry, Ashley, for the weird insert of Rihanna lyrics. I noticed a pattern of putting a line from her songs in the other fanfics for our friends' nanoes, so it felt obligatory to add one in yours, too.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Year or the Rihanna lyrics.
STAYING ON THE SIDELINES
At first, he thought she must have been pulling some kind of April Fools joke. But even then, Alex wouldn't go so far. The phone cord kept dangling as Richard Evans glanced at the machine every few seconds, reciting Alex's phone number in his head and checking for each blinking digit on the green screen to match. He raised a suspicious eyebrow at the identical numbers and the name Alexandra Madrid flashing over the caller ID.
Unconvinced, the boy leaned back on the scratched-and-used sofa of his single apartment room, his hand stretched over the armrest in the most casual position he could make at the moment. He had once read that body language spoke even through the telephone.
Tapping his finger over the armrest, he coolly replied, "You sure about that, sweet cheeks?"
The static noise of a groan came from the receiver.
"Ugh! How many times have I told you to stop calling me that, you—" The invisible expletive died in her throat as Alex stopped. She cleared her throat, then took a deep breath before responding more calmly, though strained, Richard noted, "I mean, yes, I am. So is that okay with you?"
She could practically feel his smirk crawling on his lips from the other end of the line. Richard rubbed his chin, drawing out a long hum under his breath for exaggerated contemplation as Alex resisted an impatient sigh. Finally, he answered.
"Well, if you insist, sweet cheeks," the boy teased. "I would love to go out on a date with you."
~*~
Richard still thought she must have been pulling some kind of April Fools joke.
Blurs passed through glass windows, and every now and then a pedestrian would glance inside the shop, noticing the boy who stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of the crowd.
Despite the quaint coffee shop being nearly empty, customers who stayed sat in round tables across from their partners. They chatted, they smiled, their arms lined over the polished wooden surface, fingertips fitted together. The brewing scent of fresh caffeine lingered in the romantic air as couples sighed and whispered sweet nothings in each others' ears.
Richard, however, found himself staring across at an empty chair.
Absentmindedly, he twirled a chewed up straw around his empty cup. The glass tinkled as the boy stopped to check his watch for the fifth time. One long hour had passed already. Her seat was getting colder with each passing minute.
Richard sighed and slouched lazily in his chair. His fingers drummed across the table like the pipes of piano keys.
He was an impatient guy. Usually, if a girl didn't show up within five minutes, he'd raise his hand for the check, drive home and sit on his bum to go back to watching TV. Richard had an unspoken number system, carefully planned and mastered out in his head. If his date was late, he could easily calculate how long he would wait for her depending on whatever she scored on the hotness scale from one to ten. Multiply her score by ten, and that amounted to the minutes he would stay.
Alexandra Madrid, he pondered. He'd miss all the TV shows in the world, sitting there until he disintegrated into nothing but a skeleton.
Besides, Alex wasn't any typical girl he could leave the empty table and easily forget. Somehow, in a strange series of events, they had become friends. And nothing more.
At least, that was what Richard thought they were. Why had she called him out for a date at a coffee shop out of the blue? Had his good looks and charm finally come through, or did some funny guy used a voice warper over the phone? He suspected Jay. Living with her for so long would mean he'd get accustomed to hearing her voice, though he couldn't imagine Jay pulling off something as pretty.
A small bell chimed as a gust of wind drafted into the room. The door closed, but Richard didn't look up until Alex's voice rang.
"Sorry I'm late!"
She shuffled through the round tables, her light green dress flowing as her heels stepped past squeaky floors. The girl had made an effort to wrap her hair in a bun. Richard blinked at the gleaming butterfly clip tucked behind her ear. He saw her all the time at work, but she usually wore dress shirts, long pants, the sophisticated black-and-white scheme and never any pastel.
This time, though, Alex looked unusually… girly.
Her blunt nature soon split through as she crashed in her chair, sighing loudly as her feet kicked the table legs. She tossed her purse to the floor and hunched forward. With the girl leaning closer, Richard then noticed a free, wild strand of hair popping from her head.
"I got in a fight with Jay before leaving. He didn't want me to see you." She scoffed, flipping her menu open and skimming through the list of appetizers.
Ah, Richard mused. So it was about Jay.
Alex took her eyes off the menu to glance at him. "Did you have to wait long?"
"Nah. I just got here too."
"Liar."
The girl shook her head and clicked her tongue in disapproval. Richard blinked, taken back for a moment, before his lips curled to a smile. It was his turn to lean forward, lowering his voice in a way that blended the boy along with the other romantic couples murmuring sweet nothings.
"You know," he talked softly, "you seem to be the only girl who understands me."
"Well, it's not that hard when your drink's empty."
Richard moved back as Alex flicked the straw of his drink. It spun around the empty glass and melted ice cubes. He shrunk against his chair, realizing he had moved too close. Alex didn't notice, though, as she went back to reading, and if she did then the girl probably assumed he was being flirty as usual, conscious of it.
To be honest, Richard couldn't really tell if he was.
The two began to blend with the coffee shop scene, except Alex's hands were tucked under the table. Still, she smiled and laughed the rest of the time. They talked of the upcoming spring fashion show, shared ideas for dresses, and snickered over co-workers they both thought were annoying.
Whenever their laughter died down, in the brief moment of silence, Richard took that time to watch Alex. As if staring long enough would let him see through the close-lipped smiles and side-glancing eyes and find the answer.
Why are you really here, Alex?
A song hummed over the intercom. Faintly a voice echoed throughout the shop, mostly drowned out by the chatter of other customers, yet in Richard's mind he could hear it.
"Because he knows that I'm unfaithful, and it kills him inside…"
Alex insisted on splitting the check. The bell tinkled as they left, and Richard felt a warm arm wrap around his.
He didn't look at his date's face. Instead, he glanced back towards the table, where a straw sat in her full drink, bitten and chewed hard until holes peeked from the inside.
~*~
Whack! Whack! Whack!
"Stupid—!"
Whack!
"Little—!"
Whack!
"Weasel—!"
The hammer smashed against the plastic head of the weasel. It squeaked and dropped in the hole. The angry mallet banged repeatedly over the six holes, the bouncy show tunes turning to cries of pain. Richard looked pitifully at the poor machine on the verge of death.
Alex's purse thrashed as she lunged over every hole, her battle cries causing passerby's to stop and watch the war god. Richard dared to step closer to his date after the game ended and the machine coughed puffs of smoke. Screws wiggled as Alex placed the hammer back in the container.
"Ahh! That felt great!" she said, punching a fist in the air.
"You, uh, really get into these games."
"Nah. I just needed an outlet to vent my anger." She watched the lights of a new record blink and balloons flutter up the screen. "I imagined the weasels were Jay."
It took a while for Richard to realize he was supposed to grin. He tucked his hands in his pockets. "There's not that much of a difference between them," he coolly replied.
"Totally! He has the same beady little eyes, and his brain is probably the same size. Too bad a weasel's actually cute and loveable."
She ranted on for a while before noticing the children standing next in line. A little boy blushed as stepped forward, holding hands with a smaller girl by his side and tugging her with him.
Richard kept his hands in his pockets as they exited the arcade, while Alex was too busy gesturing wildly, her hands illustrating colorful insults, all about Jay.
~*~
They ate ice cream even though the weather outside was cold.
Alex kicked her feet back and forth against the legs of the bench. Chocolate stained the side of her mouth, but she didn't notice, chewing at her cone and staring blankly at the cars whizzing past the streets.
Richard glanced at the scrolling titles and blinking times over a board hanging on a building.
"Hey. Want to go watch a movie?" he asked.
"Oh. I've already watched all of them with Jay." Alex stopped, cream dripping from the bottom of her cone. "But he's a total popcorn-hogger. By the time the movie started, the bag was already empty." She sighed exasperatedly, growing aggravated simply by the memory. "See what I have to deal with that guy?!"
Richard chuckled as his date tossed the crumbs of her cone in the trash and then crossed her arms with a huff. He was glad that at least he didn't always make her so angry. At least, not as much as Jay.
Richard leaned forward and raised a hand to wipe the stain from the girl's lips. Alex turned away, barely grazing his fingers. Bangs covering her eyes, the girl asked if they could go home.
He stopped and tucked the hand back in his jeans. "Is that an invitation?"
The lewd wink made the girl roll her eyes. He laughed easily, as his fingers wound around the two movie tickets in his pocket. They crumpled the scraps into a wadded ball.
~*~
The streets of New York filled with honking cars and rushing pedestrians. The two dodged their steps pacing through the sidewalk.
A bright yellow cab stood out from the rolling blurs. Richard glanced at the window, where a heavy, middle-aged man fanned his red face with newspaper.
He nudged Alex, who looked.
"Wow, Jay really let himself go."
To his surprise, Alex burst out laughing so hard she hunched over and clutched her stomach. The girl wiped the tears that spiked her eyes and took a few minutes catching her breaths.
Richard grinned with his lips closed. It was the first time Alex had laughed so hard at what Richard said, and it was also the first time she smiled so big throughout the whole day.
"You want to take one?"
She took a final gasp, stopping. "Huh?"
"Take a taxi," he said, gesturing.
The girl stared blankly at the black and white checkers lining the door of the car. The yellow cab was the same as any other taxi, and yet it wasn't. Her eyes flitted over the window before she looked away.
"Could we take a bus instead?" she said. "Sorry, it just—it doesn't feel right."
Her words didn't make sense, except to him.
~*~
The bus rocked gently pacing the street until the vehicle jolted with Alex's jump. She gasped loudly, and the other passengers glanced.
"Crap!" the girl said. "I left my purse at the bench when we were waiting!"
"You only brought a few dollars, right? I could buy you a new one," offered Richard.
Alex crumpled her skirt in a fist. The wrinkles over linen trembled. "But my bracelet is in there," she muttered.
"I could buy you a new bracelet, too."
Alex shook her head. Richard sighed, and tugged the string at the ceiling of the bus for the next stop.
The sun sank into the ground by the time they reached to their stop. Alex found the bench and snatched the abandoned purse. The bracelet tinkled as she uncovered the jewelry still left inside. Silver gleamed in the dark, and Richard could make out the letters J and A, clinking together.
With a breath of relief, the girl held the bracelet close to her chest. Richard noticed her hands were shaking, and he was sure it was not because it was cold.
"I don't know why," Alex nearly whispered, shivering in the night breeze. "I told him I threw it away, but I can't."
The trees rustled in the wind. The streets were empty, silence and darkness hanging over the two. Alex wiped her eyes.
"He won't even care," she said, sniffing. "He's probably brooding over Madison instead of worrying about where I am at this time of the night."
She covered her face so Richard could hear her muffled breaths. They slowed as she calmed herself. Fingers slid from her puffy face.
Richard thought she looked pretty even when she cried, but he didn't like the reason why.
"Is that what you two were arguing about?" he asked, his voice soft. She nodded, then quietly tucked the bracelet back in her purse.
"Sorry I've been such a bother. Don't tell Jay about this, okay?"
You're really bad at being unfaithful, Alex.
Richard thought this, but grinned anyway.
"Sure thing, sweetcheeks."
~*~
Her eyes stopped puffing by the time they reached the porch. Crickets chirped in the neighborhood, and the only light shined from the white dots scattered in the sky. Alex fumbled with her keys, metal clinking in her hands. The door opened before the key fit in the hole.
Jay stared at the two, mouth gaped open in surprise yet no sound uttered.
Alex ducked her head down and shuffled inside the apartment room without a word. Her room closed shut, the bang of the door echoing in the silence.
Jay didn't move an inch. His hand over the knob tightened, and his eyes flickered over to Richard. "Why were you two so late?"
"I don't think that's any of your business."
Jay flinched. He remembered speaking the same words to Alex when she yelled at him about Madison. The taxi driver stared down at his dusty shoes, the same ones he hadn't taken off since he arrived home in his lonely apartment.
"Did she have fun?" he murmured.
The image of Alex's smiling face when she erupted with laughter flashed in Richard's mind.
"Yeah," he replied. "I never saw her smile so big before. Who knows, she might be really into me."
Jay shifted his weight. He loosened his grip on the knob, and his arm fell to his side. He had let go.
Richard felt it coming. The slow flitter of Jay's eyes to his, the thoughts that streamed in his mind, the way his lips began to part, hesitantly. Richard used this second of uncertainty to turn away, right before Jay asked one last question.
"Do you love her?"
But Richard had already left, bidding good night.
How many months had it been? Richard lost track of the days, but he was sure the numbers piled in Alex's head every time she woke. The calendar perched over her study table was marked with streaks of red. One more day down, how many more to go?
He had witnessed the girl cross out boxes and boxes with her red marker pen. Rows of X'es and no circled date. Alex didn't know when Jay would come back, or if he ever would.
Richard had stayed by her side the entire time. Nevermind the fact that Jay had told him to do so. He looked out for her, gave her the best Christmas she ever had, but no matter what, he couldn't make her forget to go back in her room and cross another day off from her calendar.
The ink of her marker was close to dying, but her thoughts of Jay never would.
"I think you should go home."
Jay looked up with his eyebrows raised. Richard tapped the window pane of the car door, gazing outside at the stars of their other world.
He looked poised as usual compared to Jay, who hunched over the steering wheel, scrutinizing the tiny print of the map before he had stared at Richard.
"Don't be ridiculous. We still have to save Caly. Besides," he paused," it's not like Alex wants to see me."
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah. She was right. I'm still brooding over Madison…"
"So the girl you've been thinking about these past few months," Richard asked, "has been Madison?"
Jay stared blankly at the compass on the map. No look flashed on his face that indicated Richard was right. Richard had seen the listless gaze on his friend's face every moment he had visited him in the other world. It was almost identical to Alex.
The paper in his hands crumpled as Jay lowered it and turned to his side of the window. He hid his face, but Richard could see the regretful expression in his reflection.
"It doesn't matter. You should stay with her," he muttered. "You're the one who makes her happy, not me."
Richard knew what Jay was thinking. The words he said that night of his date with Alex had probably lingered in Jay's mind ever since.
Jay glanced back inside the car when Richard snatched the map from his hands and unfolded the paper. The boy scribbled something with a pencil, then handed the directions back to the taxi driver.
Jay ogled it curiously. Dark lead etched in the corner. A fury of circled over a dot, with the words, HOME.
"I'll go look for Caly. She should be a close enough walking distance from here."
Before Jay could open his mouth, Richard had already unlocked the door. The car light turned on as he stepped on the pavement.
He turned, placed a hand on the roof the car, and leaned forward.
"Oh, yeah. The truth about that date with Alex?" Richard watched Jay blink curiously, then smirked, whispering, "April Fools. She was talking about you the whole time."
Jay's mouth gaped open. His eyebrows knitted together, as if he couldn't decide whether to be angry or relieved.
"What the—? It's too early for April Fools!"
Richard shrugged. "I'm an impatient guy. If I want something to happen, I'll make it happen."
Yet here he was, standing in the middle of the road, letting his friend drive back to Alex on his own. Alex, the girl whose smile he would never admit was the brightest one he'd admired, for the reason that the smile had never been intended for him at all. He wanted to keep that smile in his mind, though, if only for a little bit.
"Are you like that, really?" Jay asked. But Richard had already closed the door.
He walked along the road and waited for the engine to rumble. Finally, the car roared into the opposite direction back, scattering puffs of smoke in the night.
Richard saw his own breath as he chuckled. He swung his hands at his sides, free from pockets. The boy crossed the white line between the street and pavement, continuing the search for Caly on his own. It was okay. He was fine staying on the sidelines, as he always did.
And did Richard ever really love that girl he once dated?
He might never say.
End.