IMPRINTS

A/N: i started writing this one a while ago, just didn't have the courage to post it.
thanks Jocelyn Torrent and werewolf666vampire for proofing.

Summary: a Palex Fic

Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi or any of it's characters.

Chapter 1

Wednesday morning

It was her.

It was definitely her.

The sleeveless, turquoise dress with an abstract design, purse on her left shoulder, the mid-calf, brown leather boots with that flaunting smile and cell phone in her right hand, no, she could never have missed that entrance.

Alex had spotted her as soon as she had entered the little coffee shop that had become her favorite morning hangout spot for the two years now. Alex pretended to ignore her, but could she really do that?

Not in a million years could Alex ignore this blonde. This was the girl who used to be her whole life only a couple of years ago. Presently, she was just another stranger sitting in the coffee shop a few tables away, slowly sipping the hot beverage in front of her, and completely unaware of Alex's presence.

Alex looked, no, she stared at her in-between sipping her own coffee and using the daily edition of the 'Transit' newspaper she had picked up from the newsstand, as her cover. Her plan had been to get her morning coffee from her favorite and conveniently located Bloor-Bedford Tim Horton's coffee shop, drink it while updating herself on the events around the world, and then head off to her class that was supposed to start in less than an hour.

Alex's plans changed ever since she had seen the blonde. In the last fifteen minutes, she had already scanned through 'Transit' newspaper twice but had not read it even once. Suddenly, it did not matter that the continent was almost enveloped by the global depression, the world was in the midst of a global warming crisis and that Iceland glaciers were melting hastily; or the fact that Steve Jobs had come up with yet another one of his upgraded devices to compete with the Microsoft. The 'happening' news of a certain individual apparently deserved precedence over the global news.

The class was supposed to start in fifteen minutes. The excuse of finishing her coffee had run out. The newspaper had also been scanned four times now. Alex knew it was time for her to finally leave the tiny coffee shop and start her day.

She was about to stand up when she smelled the papaya body spray in the air. It was what Paige always used to wear and the smell Alex could recognize anywhere. Alex looked up. The blonde was standing by her table. She had finally seen her.

"Hi, Alex, I just saw you sitting here."

"Yeah, I was just leaving," Alex said, standing up and picking up her bag from the chair next to her own.

"Ummm, I thought we could chat for a bit, it's been a while..."

"Two years, Paige." Alex interjected, "it's been two years."

"Yeah, two years," Paige barely whispered.
The mild hostility coming from Alex was palpable to Paige, so she paused and looked nervously at everyone else but Alex in the coffee shop.

"So, what do you wanna talk about now?" Alex confronted with a calmer voice, sensing Paige's discomfort.

"Uh… I thought it'd be good if we talked, you know, about us…" Paige said hesitantly.

"I don't know, Paige, I'm pretty busy these days. My midterm's next week and I work after school and I'm late for my Physics class as we speak," Alex replied.

"I'll try to not take too much of your time, it's just that there's some things I need to say to you and I just think..." Paige let the idea linger, hoping Alex would agree.

"I don't know, Paige. Do you think that two years is a long enough time for you to come back and say those things to me?" The sarcasm was obvious.

"Alex, I'm sorry. I would've called you earlier. It's just that I tried calling you, but you had changed your number and..."

"Is that why you're here?"

"Well I wanted to meet my parents before they left to visit Dylan in Sweden and..."

"So, you weren't really looking for me? I'm just a by-the-way thing for you?" Alex had not been able to control her angry stare.

"Alex, please. Just write down your number and I'll call you…"
Understanding Alex's stubbornness, Paige just picked up an unused napkin from the table and placed it in front of Alex. Then she took out a pen from her purse and put it on top of the napkin, "Please, Alex."

The begging in Paige's eyes, made Alex write her cell number on the napkin. She decided she was not going to let Paige's magical appearance bother her.

Giving Paige a final look, she headed for the door.

"Alex, thanks,"

Alex turned to look at Paige one last time and then quickly left the coffee shop.

"Show dates?"

"I confirmed those."

"Models list?"

"Made it already, it's on your desk, Florence."

"Guest list?"

Paige quickly looked through the pile of papers in her hands. The list was not in it.

"I… don't have it."
She half ran to the desk and started going through that pile. The list wasn't there either.

"But I remember putting it in here."
Quickly, she reached for another set of files, "It has to be in here somewhere," she muttered, ruffling through more papers.

"Maybe I left it at home or it's in the car."

"Then go find it." Florence's finger was pointing at her; "Andrea told me you've worked with her for a very long time, you should know by now to come prepared." She glared.

Paige knew Florence always waited for her to mess something up so she could scold her. That was how things were around here. They had a ladder system in the fashion industry, something that was not news to Paige. The second rule in the fashion industry was that anybody who held any authority over anybody was allowed to yell at them. Andrea had moved to the heart of fashion, the city of Paris, and a new boss had taken over since then. Florence was her new boss and 'it was her ass Paige was supposed to kiss from now onwards' Paige thought.

Paige knew that yelling at her was something that probably made Florence relieve the stress of her job. In fact, Paige knew it worked extremely well because she, herself, had tested it on a few of her friends, namely, Marco, Ellie and Alex.

The only problem was that all these 'friends' of hers were not her roommates anymore and she was still at the bottom of the food chain at work even after two years.

'Shit! What do I have to do to get this woman to like me?'

Paige wondered in her head, even though, she knew this was not about that. It was not about making people like you. It was not about convincing them that you were dependable. 'This' was all about stepping on others to get where you wanted to go and Paige knew she still had a long way to go. Some days it disgusted her, just thinking about what she had to do even though she knew all along that it was in the description of her work title.

Besides the fact that she had to suck up to people like Florence, her other chores included availing any opportunity she could get to prove to these fashionistas that she deserved to be here. If that meant snatching a job from under someone else's nose, stab someone in the back, kick someone in the stomach, it was all considered a fair game.

"Are you going to look for the guest list or would you need an invitation for that?" Florence glared at her some more.

"Yeah, I'll go look in the car…" Paige replied.

"When you find it, bring it to my office; and since you're on your way to the car, get me a Grande Non-fat Cappuccino, would you?"

Florence left without waiting for her answer. How exactly did Starbucks fell into her route to her car, Paige wasn't sure, but she dared not ask that if she wanted to keep her job. Her face dropped as she went to the parking lot of the plaza.

She remembered that she had carefully put all papers in her bag last night and now there was a paper missing.

She didn't know what was happening to her. She used to be good at these things and now everything was just slipping out of her fingers. The more she was trying, the worse everything was getting. It was all falling apart.

'What's happening to me? Ever since I saw Alex in the coffee shop, I'm losing focus along with my interest in things that I thought were important to me'.

Friday Night

It was almost ten o'clock on the Friday night. Most people her age were busy partying or clubbing, and Alex had just come back from her six-hour shift at the retail store. Her roommate was not home yet which meant some time for quiet reflection or just plain old sleep. She decided to take a hot shower to get rid of some tiredness before heading to bed. The last day of the week was always tiring, but she was still relieved because tomorrow was her day off.

She stood in the hot shower and let the water run on her tired body and work its magic. As her body relaxed, her mind wandered to what her brain associated with relaxing.

It's interesting how time makes you forget things, but some things just never dissipate. These are the memories of events that you just are never able to scrape out of your brain. You can never wash them off of you, never escape them. They linger over your head like a bumblebee hovering, buzzing in your ears, escaping your every attempt to squash it… Paige was like that.

Even after two years, her memory was still there. Sometimes those memories gave Alex satisfaction that she was once loved by someone so dearly... and at other times, the memories were there to remind her how alone she was now and how shattered she had been because of her. Either way, Paige was always there.

Paige hadn't called as she had promised, and Alex was angry with herself for believing her.

'Why do I expect anything from Paige? Have I not learned my lesson?' Alex thought to herself.

Just then, her cell phone started ringing in her bedroom.

'Paige?' was the only thought in her head.

Alex quickly turned off all the faucets and quickly wrapped herself in a towel, as much as she could in two seconds, walked out of the bathroom and flipped open her cell phone.

"Is this, uh, Alex Nunez?" It was a female voice.

"Yeah,"

"This is the receptionist calling from St. Michael's Hospital Emergency Department. We have a patient with us, Paige Michalchuk."

'What? Paige is in the hospital?' Alex panicked.

"She asked us to let you know she was here. Do you think you can come to the hospital and pick her up?"

"Did you say Paige is at the hospital? Is she okay?"

"I'm sorry. I can't give that information over the phone. She gave us your phone number and told us to ask you to come to the hospital. She is at St. Michael's ER."

"Okay, I'll be right over." She hung up.

'Paige is in the hospital! I should call her parents!' Alex thought to herself nervously.
Her hands were shaking because of the anxiousness.

'Calm down, Alex, calm down. Everything's gonna be okay,' she consoled herself as she quickly pulled out her jeans and the navy blue T-shirt from the closet and dialed Paige's parents' number.

She got the answering machine. "This is the Michalchuk residence. We can't take your call right now. Please leave a message after the beep and we'll call you ASAP."

Alex hung up.

"I should hurry…." she spoke to herself. After hastily putting on her clothes and jacket, and tying her hair in a ponytail, she grabbed her purse and headed out the door.

To be continued...