"Alex, you should read more," Theresa fussed over her lazy daughter who ate pickles out of a bowl, mixed with hot sauce.
"Come on, reading is for nerds," Alex groaned, then noticed her brother, Justin, walking down the stairs in a sharp suit, "Like him."
"What kind of nonsense did you drag me in?" Justin rolled his eyes impatiently.
"Nothing. You wouldn't get it anyways," Alex placed another pickle covered with hot sauce in her mouth.
"Honey I am serious, you need to broaden your horizon!" Theresa exclaimed.
"Oh so I was used as a role model," Justin smirked as he thought of his sister bowing down to him with deep found respect. Alex snorted.
"Not in a million years would I use you as a good example. Keep dreaming," Alex snorted.
"You still didn't answer my statement on broadening your horizon," Theresa snapped.
Alex rolled her eyes and slouched further in the couch grabbing the remote next to her.
"No thanks," Alex smirked, turning on the television, "I like to broaden my horizon in front of my TV."
Theresa rolled her eyes when she realized that her daughter wasn't going to lighten up on her lazy nature any time soon. So she stormed into the living room and switched off the television.
"Hey! I was watching that!" Alex groaned.
"Well, you aren't busy for this. Here is a library card I registered under your name. Start reading and then you can watch TV again," Theresa handed a plastic, light blue card with the logo of the local library near their sandwich shop.
"Alex? Reading? I think the world is coming to an end," Justin joked as he grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge.
"Fine, I'll do it," Alex glared at her brother and grabbed the card, stuffing the rest of pickles in her mouth before heading out the door.
"I think I need to make a living will in case if the world ends today," Justin started up the stairs, "See you later, mother."
Theresa rolled her eyes as she came up with dinner ideas while the whole family wasn't crowded in the living room.
-x-
Alex flashed herself in the back alley of the library, not wanting to cause a scene of her popping out of nowhere.
Walking into the library, Alex went immediately for the teen non-fiction section of the library. She knew her mother was hoping for her to read some kind of intellectual stuff like her older brother, but she knew that he would be geeking over all astronauts and medical related stuff.
The teen section was so much better. It was the most colorful room, not that the other rooms were artistic. The library was brand new, in fact. But this room seemed to appeal to Alex's taste more.
Alex furrowed her eyebrows as she looked for the romance novels. As she found a huge section marked underneath the 'romance' placard, Alex skipped rows and rows of books to the favored section.
The young wizard had a big secret that she would die rather than everyone else – especially Justin – knowing.
She is a huge romantic person by heart. Surprising, right? Who knew that the sarcastic, sometimes unfeeling, prankster, annoying, lazy, glutton, procrastinating Alex Russo had such a sweet side?
She did. She always had a knack for romance novels that would have a girl that was not like other girls. The most handsome of guys would suddenly be interested in the girl, then as time passed, deeply, madly fall in love with her. The girl might fall in love with him along the way, and they would be pushed to confess, or a major trauma would push them together with a lot of force. Or the girl would remain oblivious, until the guy, frustrated from waiting so long, would scream his feelings in her face as if clues weren't enough for her to know. Then the girl would cry and admit she loves him back as well. They would hug, kiss and cry and walk into the stupid sunset.
But all books had a same simple ending.
The end. Final. Happily ever after. That's it. Done. And then they went down the road and started their lives together.
How corny, clichéd, untrue it was. Alex, unbeknownst to her family and friends, was very perceptive and mature about the dark realities of the world.
She knew love at first sight doesn't exist. She knows the boy she will spend the rest of her life with won't be a prince in shining armor or a typical bad boy. She knew she would never become as desperate as Juliet for her Romeo. That is not how life works. Love is cruel.
Alex sighed as she sat down in a bean bag chair, piling all the romantic and cheesy books around her.
If love was easy, then she would long time be engaged to Riley, Dean, or even her boyfriend Mason, who disappeared. She thought things would be forever with him, but her father encouraged her to fight to be a full wizard and marry a cute wizard guy that she likes.
Justin was running after Juliet Van Heusen and she was boyfriend-less, just the way her older brother liked her. He was protective but Alex found it cruel.
How could he have someone to love and not have one herself? It just doesn't make sense.
Cracking open the first book, Alex skimmed the summary and read the main couple of the book was Clara and Drew.
Flipping all the way to the back to the book, Alex intently read the last few pages.
"You lied to me," Clara gasped, tears stinging her eyes.
"What is there to lie about? I love her and that is final," Drew shrugged as he hugged Amanda closer to his body.
"We were supposed to be together forever! What happened to that promise?!"
"We never made a promise."
"But our promise rings from middle school-" Clara's eyes darted to Drew's hands and found the hands ring-free.
"I don't want to keep a promise I can't keep. See ya."
He walked off with Amanda, leaving Clara to break down, sobbing. Wiping her own tears, her amber eyes darted to her left ring finger that adorned her own promise ring.
"After all… what promise does this ring hold, anyways?" Clara whispered, chucking the ring in the lake.
THE END
"Lame. The guy didn't get the girl," Alex monotonously said as she picked up her next book to inspect.
Alex flipped to the next book. She read that Cecile and Brad were the main couple of the book. She checked the back of the book, looking to see if they were still a couple.
When Cecile and Brad stayed strong, Alex decided to put it on a pile she will read. The brunette pawed through all the other books she picked out and was able to eliminate half of them.
Taking the five books she wanted to read, Alex went to the counter. When the huge big ball turned around to reveal such a nasty looking librarian, Alex freaked out and went to one of the self-check outs.
When she successfully checked out the books, Alex decided she might like it being a library member. Maybe when she decides to get married and all that nonsense, a side career she could have can be an author. She slid the light blue card in her wallet like it was a treasure, which she kept in her other boot.
Alex took the books and ducked back into the alley. Taking out her wand, she flashed herself into her room, in which she placed her books into her satchel, because purses are too girly.
Walking down the stairs, she saw her mom making finalizations to the dinner.
"So, had fun at the library?" Theresa smiled. Justin snickered. Alex having fun at an intellectual place was something that would never happen.
"Yeah I had fun. I guess I am going to like being a member of the new library down the block," Alex smiled.
"I don't have their library card! Mom!" Justin cried out in jealousy.
"Honey, you have the school library. I know that library has a high fee for membership enrollment but if I tried to make Alex go to the school library and read more she will scoff and say it is lame," Theresa sighed.
"I would so not-" Alex started but then laughed, "Yeah that is so what I would do."
"Ugh!" Justin ran out the door in jealousy.
-x-
Alex was so submerged in the books she was reading. She was becoming so emotional, that she needed a box of tissues.
"But I ran out of tissues," Alex realized, to which she simply shrugged her shoulders and flashed a new box at her feet.
"Hey Alex," Harper knocked at her room door, "Coming in."
"Hey Harper," Alex smiled.
Harper's happy smile dropped when she saw Alex… with books.
"Justin said if something like this happened, I should go make my living will!" Harper turned around to run.
"Harper! Oh, come on!" Alex sighed.
"What are you reading anyways?" Harper sighed in defeat as she plopped on Alex's bed.
"Why don't you find out?" Alex held one out to her friend and was sucked right back in for reading.
"Romance novels?" Harper asked in disbelief when she flipped through a few pages finding scenes of kissing, hugging and undying love confessions.
"The only way to live through life. Daily dose of romance," Alex mumbled.
"These are so cliché, Alex, although I wish Zeke would do these kinds of things with me…" Harper longingly started to read a love scene.
"Yeah that would have happened had the sparks fly spell been for sparking romance, not making fire," Alex sighed.
"Hey, meddling doesn't help relationships, they tear them apart," Harper defended herself.
"Yeah. Me and my lonely life," Alex sighed as she put her second finished book on the side.
"It's Mason, isn't it?" Harper asked silently.
"I thought it was going to stay. But I should have known better," Alex looked down.
"Alex…"
"Look at these books. They are about a girl who meets a guy, they hit it off, there is an evil villain who gets exterminated and then they ride off into the sunset. I am so desperate for love I will read sappy romance novels to satisfy my desire for love and affection," Alex rubbed her temple.
"He'll come, Alex, I know it," Harper pleaded.
"No he won't Harper, he won't," Alex sighed.
"How do you know?" Harper tilted her head to the side.
"I saw him the day after I came back from the library, when I made a special trip to the wizard world," Alex sighed, "He doesn't remember me at all."
"I'm sorry," Harper sadly hugged her friend, wishing she could offer more comfort than meaningless apologies.
"You know I learned one good thing out of all of the books," Alex whispered.
"What would that be?" Harper asked silently.
"There are no happy endings," Alex looked down, "Nothing is perfect."
-x-
Here our heroine was, coming and going to the library, dropping off five romance books and picking up seven more.
"What am I even doing with my life?" Alex whispered.
She heard some squabbling right outside her sandwich shop, so Alex listened intently.
"What do you mean you're breaking up with me?" A girl with black hair cried pitifully. Alex rolled her eyes, typical heartbreaking scenes from her books.
"Jenny, I don't feel the way for you when we first met. The spark is gone," a guy with tall chiseled features and styled cute brown hair spoke.
"But Dan, we could always find a way," Jenny sobbed.
"No. You're just plain and boring," Dan didn't waver in his stance, "I don't know what I saw in you in the first place."
Alex knew this was a hard blow to any girl that was in innocent and pure love. Girls are special therefore guys who are douches, will not see the beautiful light in these creatures.
Jenny's fragile teenage heart couldn't handle the heartbreak when Dan walked away and high fived some idiots down the street.
"I-I thought he w-was the one…" Jenny's voice broke into a series of hiccups.
Alex's eyes softened so she secretly took her wand out and flashed the books into the satchel in her room.
After she had tucked her wand in her boot, Alex softly padded over to the huddled girl on the bench, crying her eyes out into the palm of her hand.
Slinging a friendly arm around Jenny, the girl whipped her face out in hope it was Dan, but it melted into disappointment.
"How much did you see?" Jenny whispered.
"When you asked your ex why he was ending it," Alex softly said.
"Oh…"
"Listen, I understand how painful it must be right now," Alex broke the silent atmosphere around them.
"How would you know?" Jenny asked.
"I had three relationships already. My last one was a painful one," Alex sighed in distant memory.
"What happened?" Jenny sniffled as she turned to look at Alex in newfound respect.
"He treated me like a princess, catered to any desire I possessed, convinced my parents to let me date him, and even acted cute and jealous when other guys would try to ask me out," Alex smiled as she recounted all the times she was with Mason, her werewolf ex-boyfriend.
"And after that?"
"Well, he disappeared. And I tried looking for him. He had found another girl when I met him, and when I tried to tell him who I was, he said he forgot me and that he never met me in the first place," Alex sighed, so close to releasing tears when she retold the time she saw Mason with another girl werewolf. And this wasn't just any random werewolf, it was Justin's ex-girlfriend from long time ago.
Why Mason, a purebred werewolf would want to mix with a mutt, she would never know.
"I'm sorry to think I was the most unlucky person in the world, you obviously sound like you went through more pain than me," Jenny sniffled.
"No, it's fine," Alex wiped some tears that were brimming at her eyes, "It's all good."
The two girls sat there for a few more seconds before Alex extended her hand, "How about you come over to my parents' sandwich shop and I will make you a foot long sub and give you a drink all for free? A girl needs a pick me up after a rough break up."
"Really?" Jenny's lit up, and for the first time, Alex wanted the girl to smile forever.
"Yeah, really," Alex smiled.
"I never asked your name," Jenny smiled at Alex as they walked into the sandwich shop.
"My name is Alex, Alex Russo," Alex shook her hands with the girl.
"Jennifer Altzara," the girl beamed, shaking the hand back.
"Pretty last name," Alex smiled, as the girl took her seat and gave her order.
There are no happy endings in life, Alex realized as she had socialized with Jennifer.
But life gives you bumps along the road. There are terrible times, there are amazing times. All Alex has to do is accept them with a smile and keep moving forward, never looking back.
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