Crawled out of my hole to do this, because I was just so excited about the tweets.
Consider this my disclaiming statement.
Yes
When she broke up with Jared Burns, Alex Russo made a choice. No more lies. No more denying the truth. Of course, she wasn't going to offer up the truth. Dear God, no. Well, not at first anyway. At first, it would just be the new single. The song she wrote when Mitchie had turned her down, had chosen Will over her; the song that said she was ready, ready to commit, ready to come out.
She tapped her foot against the tile flooring, hoping Mitchie would answer the phone, knowing she wouldn't.
"Hey, it's Mitchie, leave a message."
The loud beep signaled it was Alex's turn to speak. She chewed on her lip, looked out the window, considering the people waiting for her in the backyard. "Hey, it's me, um, call me when you can?" Cringing at her own hesitant words, she hung up. She meant to sound confident, excited, like there wasn't a chasm between the girls.
She stepped out of the bathroom and walked downstairs to rejoin her family, wishing the only person who hadn't shown up would have. Alex scanned the group anyway; optimism rippled in her stomach.
Suddenly, her ears were assaulted with her own voice; she was shouting about a love that wasn't finished, a love she was ready to give, a love she wouldn't hide. She maneuvered through the mingling relatives to the backyard, the source of her song.
Her jaw dropped as Mitchie stood in the middle of the backyard, chatting with Alex's mom like she'd been there the whole time. She laughed at whatever her mom said, and pushed her hair away from her face.
Recovering from her shock, Alex stomped across the yard and grabbed Mitchie by the arm, pulling her away from her mom. "What are you doing here?"
Mitchie smiled even wider. "First of all, you invited me, remember?" She nudged Alex's arm and winked. "Or do you not remember?"
Alex blinked. "You never said you were coming."
"I heard your new song." Mitchie ran her tongue over her lips.
Alex remembered how the tongue felt, even though she hadn't been close enough to touch it since several New Year's Eves ago. Her heart railed against her chest, and she felt it pulsing in her throat. She was certain she would vomit if she opened her mouth. Or pass out if she stood up much longer.
"It's for me, right?"
A whooshing noise drowned out Mitchie's words, and Alex grabbed her arm. "Yeah."
Mitchie held the other girl up. "You okay?"
Her head and knees responded with shaking, while she forced a verbal reply out of her mouth. "No."
Mitchie led them inside, realizing this wasn't a good conversation to have in public. She refrained from laughing at the irony: Alex writes a song about being ready to be public, Mitchie ushers them into the dark.
Alex took several deep breaths as Mitchie shut the door to Alex's room. It was now or never, and Alex knew it. "I want to be with you. I don't care that after rehab I drifted away when I promised I wouldn't. I don't care about everything we've been through, and I don't care what people say. I don't care if our label drops us, I don't care. I just care about you and being with you and…" She trailed off, her words felt too heavy and inadequate. She took a step closer to Mitchie.
Mitchie pressed her lips gently to Alex's, afraid that just like every time before Alex would press harder, faster, hungrier, and then pull away. She placed her hands on Alex's hips, their bodies pressing together.
Alex's nerves exploded with the physical contact; she almost laughed. It had never been this fervent with Jared. Her hands roamed Mitchie's body, she wanted to undress her, wanted to taste all of her, wanted to moan her name, wanted to hear her name bursting forth from Mitchie's lips.
Mitchie pulled away. "You've got company downstairs, Alex." Her face was flushed and she was breathless; she straightened her shirt and smiled at the dumbfounded Alex. "Come on." She wove their fingers together. "We've got the rest of our lives to do all of that. Let's focus on facing this party today. Tonight, I'm yours." She winked. "We can just be casual about all of this, you know?"
Alex's breathing was slowly getting back to normal. "Wait. Casual?"
"Yeah, like just not making a big deal about coming out."
Alex's heart stopped. They were really doing this.
Mitchie held her hand, leading the way down the stairs, through Alex's relatives and closest friends, into the backyard where her mom was still talking to a group of people Mitchie and Alex had grown up around.
Alex felt the weight of the decision. There was no turning back, no undoing this. Mitchie handed her a cup of punch and Alex took it with her free hand. Sipping on it, she realized she hadn't even made it official.
"Mitch," Alex said, tugging on Mitchie's hand. "Hey, I need to ask you something." Even though she knew the answer, her heart bounced between her stomach and her mouth. "Will you be my girlfriend?"