It was in between classes and Alex was standing in front of her open locker. She was gathering her books for her next class. Then she heard footsteps coming and she turned towards them. Mitchie was walking up to her. Mitchie had been her best friend since the first grade.
Alex's confused on why Mitchie looked so nervous right now. There was this vibe she was always getting from the younger girl, something that made her seem different. Alex had a few ideas on what it could be but she decided not to ask Mitchie about it.
Mitchie was fidgeting with her hands when she finally was in front of Alex. "C-can I ask you question?"
"Yeah, sure." Alex said nodding. Oh god, please, I hope she's not going to ask what I think she's going to ask. Alex internally pleaded with herself to try not to appear as frantic as she was in her head.
"D-Do you want-" Oh please don't. "Do you want to come over to my house? I kinda need help in some of the classes." Alex sighed in relief and nodded her head. "Great, I'll see you after school." Mitchie turned and walked away, leaving Alex to herself.
Alex closed her locker and walked to Justin, who was standing in front of his locker. He saw Alex's worried look on her face. "Is there something wrong?"
Without making eye contact she said, "I'm going to Mitchie's house later."
"I thought that was a good thing." He said confusingly.
Alex leaned towards Justin and whispered, "I think Mitchie's gay." She leaned back to see what he had to say about it.
"That would confirm some rumors I have heard." Rumors? I haven't heard any rumors about her. "But you shouldn't assume that until you have all the facts."
"Who's gay?" Another voice was added to the conversation. It was Harper, she was like a gossip ninja except she could almost never catch the name of the person that the gossip was about.
"Um, no one." Alex said as calmly as she could.
"Oh ok. I thought you were talking about Mitchie and for a moment I was shocked that you didn't know any sooner than now." Alex and Justin's eyes widen and their mouth slightly parted in shock. "Wait," Harper said as she took in their shocked forms. "You didn't know?" The other two simultaneously shook their heads. "I'm going to have to explain, aren't I?" They nodded their heads. Harper took a deep breath before she continued. "Do you guys remember that rumor that was about two girls making out under the bleachers by the football field?"
"Yeah." Justin said. He doesn't exactly know where this was going.
"Well, one of them was Mitchie…" Harper paused for a moment. "And the other girl was me." Alex and Justin gasped. "Oh come on, I should be the one who should be shocked for you guys for not knowing any sooner."
Alex looked off in the distance, looking at Mitchie and the girl who was talking to her. "I wonder who and why that girl is talking to Mitchie."
"I think that's Jennifer Check." Justin said, answering Alex's question.
"Check, really?" Harper said as she turned around, facing the same direction as the other two.
"What do you know about her, Harper?" Alex asked.
"That she is known to be a slut. That is said by all the guys and the lesbians in the school." Then mumbled to herself, "I wondered why I haven't gotten any yet." Alex heard and smacked Harper on her arm. "Ow!" She said as she rubbed her arm with her other hand.
Alex looked intently at two girls. To her it looks like Jennifer is trying to talk Mitchie into something. If it's anything bad, Mitchie wouldn't do it. Then she saw Mitchie shake her head and walked away, leaving Jennifer by herself. Yes Mitchie, way to say no to the slut.
"Maybe you should just ask her." Harper said as she turned to face Alex.
"Ask her what?" Alex asked confusingly.
"That if she likes you."
"How would you even know?"
"Coming from the third party, I have seen her staring at you in class when you're not looking. I thought you had great peripheral vision considering she does sit right next to you in class."
"I can't ask her that."
"Why not? It's not that hard."
"Because I'm straight, I'm not bi or gay. Please, let's not have this conversation again." Alex said as she started walking in the direction of their class.
~…~
Alex is in Mitchie's bedroom working on homework. They're sitting in awkward silence or that's how Alex's felt about it. "So….what did you get for number one?" Alex looked up from where she was sitting on Mitchie's bed.
"Mitchie, what have you been doing for the past half hour?" Mitchie looked away embarrassed. "Did you need any help?" Alex grabbed the paper that Mitchie was supposedly working on and looked at it. "It's blank. What were you doing?"
"Um, I plead the fifth." She said quickly as she got up off the bed. "Do you want something to drink?" Alex nodded her head and Mitchie went to the kitchen. She grabbed the handle of the fridge and leaned her head against the door. Mitchie, could you be any more obvious with the staring? Mitchie opened the fridge and grabbed two bottles of water. She went back to her room and when she got there she saw Alex staring up at her. "Is there something wrong?" Mitchie said slowly.
"I-I need to ask you something." Alex said.
"Okay, shoot." Mitchie said as she sat down on her bed. She gave Alex a bottle of water.
"It's something that Harper told Justin and me earlier today."
"Oh, really, what is it?" Alex noticed that Mitchie was beginning to fidget and her eyes shifting, trying not to make contact with Alex.
"She thinks you like me, which I think is ridiculous." Alex chuckled of how silly the statement sounded.
Mitchie finally made eye contact with Alex. "As ridiculous as it sounds, it is true." Mitchie looked down at her lap, not wanting to see Alex's reaction.
Moments of silence have gone by and Alex decided to break the silence. "I gotta go." She quickly gathers her books and stuffed her books into her bag.
"W-What?" Mitchie voice cracked through the tears that were making an appearance on her face.
"I need to process this information, Mitchie." Alex gets up off the bed and slings the bag onto her back. She walked and she stopped as she reached the doorway of Mitchie's bedroom. "Until I process all this I don't think we can hang out." From there Alex continued to make her way out of Mitchie's house.
Mitchie just sat there crying and she wondered how she was going to get through this without her best friend.
~…~
Mitchie and Alex hadn't talked for days since the encounter in Mitchie's room. Alex's sitting in her desk in English class. She's sits in front of Harper and Justin sits on the right side of Harper. They all sit in back left corner of the classroom. Alex still was in shock of something she should've of known about Mitchie. She looks to her right to see if Mitchie was sitting there, she wasn't.
Alex's right shoulder was being tapped from behind. She looked over to find out it was Justin who tapped her. She gave him a questioning look and then he pointed to the door. Alex looked over to the door. I guess Jennifer decided to walk Mitchie to class.
"Harper? Harper?" Alex heard Justin from behind her. She turned around in her desk and found him waving a hand in front of Harper's face. Harper seemed to be mesmerized by Jennifer's hotness.
"No, Justin, that's not going to work." Alex said with a small smile on her face.
"What will?" Justin questioned.
Alex held up her index finger telling him to 'wait for it.' She swipe Harper's arm from under her head, causing Harper's head fall down and hitting the desk. Harper's head shot back up with hand rubbing her head. "Motherf-"
"Would you care to finish that sentence, Ms. Finkle?" The English teacher interrupted.
"No." Harper said slowly as she sunk into her desk. "What was that for?" She whispered to Alex, who was failing to hold in her laugh.
"I think you know why." Alex said as she turned forward in her desk.
~…~
"Does my forehead look fine?" Harper asked.
"Yeah, it just looks red." Alex answered as she was getting the books she needed from her locker before they left school. "Why do you ask? You don't actually care about things like that."
"I know but Miley and the Ho-wannabes are heading this way." She and Alex shared the same confusing expression.
"Hmm, I wonder why." Alex turned to face the group that was approaching them.
The group stopped a few feet from the two. "Russo."
"Stewart." They greeted each other with crossed arms and death stares. "What do you want?"
"Well, I heard that Mitchie is having a party at her house tomorrow night and I want you to get me in there."
"Mitchie's having a party?" Alex sounded surprised and she turned to Harper, "Did you know about this?" Harper shook her head and turned her attention back to Miley.
"Little Miss Alex wasn't invited to her best friend's party." Miley was laughing with her little group.
"Since I'm not invited, you're not getting in." The smile that was on Miley's face faded quickly and that made Alex's face light up. She turned back to Harper, "I'm going to see what this party is all about." Harper nodded as Alex left to meet Mitchie at her locker.
Alex walked her way to Mitchie's locker dodging everyone who got in her way. Mitchie's locker was open so there was no way that she knew that Alex was right next to her. As soon as Mitchie closed the door she jumped at the sight of Alex. "Jesus, Alex, are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
Alex didn't answer that question, instead she asked, "Why are you throwing a party? Did "Jennifer got you to throw the party?"
"What? I don't know what you are talking about." Mitchie tried acting dumb.
"Don't pretend you're stupid. I just heard about it from Miley." Mitchie looked down. "What has possessed you to do this? Do you think your mom won't find out about this?"
"Why do you even care anymore?" Mitchie whispered.
"What?" Alex wasn't able to hear what Mitchie had said.
"Why do you even care anymore?" Mitchie said louder.
"I'm your friend, that's why."
"Really? Couple of days ago you didn't want to hang out with me." Anger was evident in Mitchie's voice.
"Well, I'm sorry, okay. It's not every day where I find out two of my best friends are gay." Alex looked into Mitchie's eyes and saw nothing behind them. "So, you're gonna do this?" Mitchie nodded and Alex did too as she was walking backwards. "Have fun at your party. I'll be too busy anyways." Then she turned around and continued walking.
"Doing what? Calling your rockstar boyfriend that you met in camp? Do you really think he's thinking about you right now while he's sleeping with some slut?" Mitchie kinda yelled at Alex because there was a twenty feet in distance between them and Alex stopped in her tracks.
Alex turned around to face her so-called best friend. "Don't start with me, Lovato!"
"You don't tell me what to do!" Mitchie calmed down before she spoke again. "Tell Harper and Justin they're invited." Mitchie closed her locker and walked away leaving Alex there with a cold blank face.
~…~
"Are you sure we can go? I mean, we can stay if you want us to." Harper asked. She had been asking Alex this all day just to make sure and Alex would always say the same answer.
"Yes, you can go. By the way I'm going to call Nate, so don't worry about me." Alex answered.
"Does he usually call you when he's not on stage?"
"Yeah, but I want to surprise him by calling him first." Alex was kinda excited about this. She hasn't talked to Nate in days but she understood because he's busy with his tour.
"Okay, we'll see you later." Harper and Justin had left her room and then left her house.
Alex fell on her bed with her phone in hand, ready dial his number. She scrolled through the address book until she had found his name. She hit send and let it ring. "Hello?" She heard a voice on the other end.
She automatically assumed it was Nate. "Hey, Nate, what's up?"
"Uh, this isn't Nate, this is his boyfriend." Alex stopped breathing. Boyfriend? "He's busy right now, may I ask whose calling, so I can tell him."
Alex resumed breathing and she said harshly, "As of right now, his ex-girlfriend and tell him don't even bother to try to call me."
"What?" He sounded confused.
"You didn't know?" Alex sat up in her bed.
"Of course not and if you'll excuse me I have to talk to Nate." With that he hung up the phone and Alex chucked it across her room in anger. Damn Mitchie for being right, well, almost right.
She let herself fall back into her bed. She knew she should've seen this coming. He was acting a little bit off. I'll just keep this to myself, no one has to know. They'll ask questions if I do. She closed her eyes and let herself fall asleep, even though it was early she felt like she needed it.
~…~
Throughout the next day Alex hadn't talked to anyone and hadn't left her room unless it was to eat or to use the bathroom.
On Sunday, she looked outside and saw how beautiful the day was. The sun was gleaming in the sky and a cloud nowhere to be seen. Alex didn't want this day to go to waste. She put on her converse and she made her way to her backyard.
There was the tree house her and her step-dad made while she was in middle school. She hasn't really stepped in it since then. She walked up to the tree and climbed the ladder that was made by wooden boards that were nailed to the tree.
Before entering the tree house she looked around it, it still looked the same. She sat by the window so she could watch the beautiful day run its course. This house to her brought back memories and feelings that were long forgotten. Now she remembered why she didn't come up here.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a voice, "Alex!" It was being shouted from the ground.
Alex went to the opposite side of the house and looked out the window. "Zack?" Her head tilted in confusion. She hadn't spoken to the blonde haired boy in a long time. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was in the neighborhood and I was like 'I know whose house this is, maybe I should go say hi.' So here I am. What's up?"
"Nothing, just thinking, do you want to come up here?"
"Yeah." He walked towards the tree while Alex pulled her head back in the house. Zack was up there in no time. "So watcha thinking about?"
"You don't need a question to know what I'm thinking about." She said as she looked back out the window.
"After four years of not thinking about it still made its way back to your mind?" Zack had asked. Even though she trusted her best friends, she trusted Zack more. He kept some secrets that nobody but him had known about.
Alex nodded in response. "I guess maybe coming up here was a mistake."
~…~
Monday came and Alex still didn't talk to anyone. Well, to anyone but Zack.
Alex was in English class along with her friends. She kept silent. She didn't answer anyone's questions. What happened on Friday and Sunday affected her. She let a single tear slide down her cheek.
Mitchie saw the tear and she placed her hand on Alex's shoulder as if she wanted to ask her 'What's wrong?' But before a word could come out of her mouth Alex shrugged Mitchie's hand off her shoulder. Mitchie took her hand back and turned her attention back to the teacher.
After the bell rang releasing them to go to lunch, Alex quickly gathers her stuff and walked out the door before her friends could get a word in. She sat next to Zack at the lunch table. She didn't really eat much, so she just had a bottle of water and an apple.
Before Alex could take a bite out of her apple she was pulled out of her seat. She looked up to see who was dragging her into the hallway. It was Mitchie. Alex crossed her arms with her bottle and apple still in hand. The heels of her shoes dragged across the tiled floor. "We're going to talk." Mitchie had said. Mitchie was struggling to pull Alex because she let herself relax, making it harder for Mitchie.
"I don't want to talk about it." Alex said angrily. I refuse to give her the satisfaction of being right. I refuse.
"This will go a lot faster if you walk."
"I said I don't want to talk about it." Alex thought Mitchie had given up because she had let her down on the floor. Mitchie had walked in front of her and sat down. She was looking very intently at Alex and it got on her nerves. "Stop staring, it's rude." She looked down at her hands to avoid any eye contact with the girl in front of her.
"I'm not leaving this spot or stop staring at you unless you tell me what's wrong."
"Why?" Alex asked softly. "You didn't care what I had to say a few days ago."
"I was hurt, by you." Mitchie said as Alex finally looked up to make eye contact. "If the way I talked to you on Thursday hurt you then I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault Dem. It was something that had happened the next day."
"What was it then?"
"I don't really want to talk about it." Alex got up from the floor. "I have to go." She left Mitchie on the floor and headed back to the cafeteria.
Mitchie couldn't help but wonder. What is making her this way? I need Harper and Justin to help me with this. Mitchie got up from the floor and also went to the cafeteria in search for Harper and Justin.
~…~
Alex had arrived at home with the help of Zack. He's been so helpful since they talked in the tree house. They were going to hang out today, to help her get her mind off some stuff. Zack was waiting in the foyer while Alex went to get something from her bedroom.
She was on the top step when she heard some voices coming from one of the bedrooms, her bedroom. She walked towards it slowly. Her heart was beating faster because she didn't who to expect behind the door. She twisted the doorknob and quickly opened the door.
Her eyes met the people in her room. It made her angry that Mitchie had to resort to use her other best friends against her. "What is this? An intervention?" She crossed her arms, wanting an answer.
"Is that what this is? I was just told to come here." Harper said.
Alex shot a glare her way, causing Harper to take a few steps back. Alex turned to her right and walked towards her desk to grab her phone. She didn't care if they stay in the room or how they got in there in the first place. She turned and saw that Mitchie was now standing in front of the bed.
Alex just stared at them, making sure they mentally note that she was angry. This time Justin had taken a step back and looked down. She walked back to the door and as she was about to walk through the threshold she felt a hand grip her wrist.
"Where are you going?" Mitchie said. Alex turned to face and pulled her hand out of Mitchie's grip.
"I'm going to hang out with Zack." Alex said angrily.
"You need to stay here and talk."
Alex looked down at her shoes. "Please, don't make me." She said in a whisper.
Mitchie put her hand underneath Alex's chin and she lifted her face to meet her in the eyes. She saw the tears that were about to fall down her cheeks. "Whatever it is, you can tell me."
"N-Nate cheated o-on me." Alex said in a whisper to where Mitchie could only hear her. She expected an 'I told you so,' but instead Mitchie had pulled her into a hug. Alex let herself sink into the hug and when she realized what she was doing she pulled away. She took a few steps back. She pointed at Mitchie, "Y-You need to stop."
"Stop what, Sel?" Mitchie asked as she was taking two steps towards Alex but only to have her take two steps away from Mitchie.
"This." Alex was waving her hands in the around Mitchie's form. "How you feel about me." Alex wrapped her arms around herself to stop herself from shaking. "You need to forget about your feelings for me."
"Why, Sel? Why do you want me to forget what I feel about you?"
"Because I've forgot about mine for you!" Alex brought both hands to cover her mouth. Her face was horror stricken as if her outburst was a confession to a murder. Everyone was left speechless with wide eyes. Alex began to hyperventilate. Her body gave out and she let herself fall against the wall in the hallway. She slid down and brought her knees up to her chest.
Mitchie walked in front of Alex and fell to her knees. She placed her hands on Alex's knees, "What do you mean you've forgotten, Sel?"
Alex looked up but wasn't meeting Mitchie eyes. "Remember the camp where I met Nate?" Mitchie nodded and allowed Alex to continue. "It wasn't exactly camp."
"Then what was it?" Mitchie sounded confused.
"It was more like a place that straighten people out."
"And your mom made you go there?" Mitchie asked angrily.
"No, I asked her to."
"What?" Mitchie was taken aback by her answer. "Why?"
"Because at the time I didn't think you felt the same way, I thought it was wrong to have felt that way."
"But I do feel the same way. I have been feeling this way since middle school."
Alex finally made eye contact, "You did?" Mitchie nodded her head. "Then what about Jennifer? I thought you two were a thing."
"She only wanted a party and to get into my pants, which never happened just so you know." Mitchie said. She held out her hand for Alex to take, "Since both of us know we feel the same about each other maybe we should give this a try. That's if you still feel the same way."
Alex took a hold of Mitchie's hand, "I do, and they had only been suppressed but never really been gone." Mitchie had helped her up from the floor and immediately pulled her into a hug. From that hug Alex had forgotten all about Nate and his soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. She pulled away slightly, "So, um, does this make us…"
"Only if you want it to be, do you?" Alex nodded. The two of them had smiles on their faces and forgot that there three other people in the house. When they lean in and kissed they remembered they weren't because they had heard cheering and clapping. Mitchie pulled back, "So what were you guys planning to do?"
"We were gonna go bowl." Zack said. Everyone turned to face him, finally acknowledging his presence. "But if you two want to do something else…" He trailed off.
'No, we can still go." Alex said. "Do you guys wanna come?" She asked the other three. No one gave it a second thought when they said 'yes' immediately after the question being asked. They all left the house with Alex and Mitchie holding hands. The group made their way to the nearest bowling alley.
~…~
The next day Mitchie was at her locker gathering her stuff for her next class. Through her peripheral vision she saw someone lean against the lockers next to her. "So what are you doing tonight Lovato?" Mitchie closed her locker and faced the girl, Jennifer.
"I'm going to hang out with my girlfriend." Mitchie said with a smile on her face.
"What are we going to do tonight?" Jennifer asked.
"We are going to have a movie night." Alex had said as she approached the other two and she put her arm around Mitchie's waist. Mitchie looked at Alex with the biggest smile on her face. They turned and walked away from Jennifer.
Jennifer, as they saw when they turned to look at her as they walked away, was trying to act as if she wasn't affected by the rejection from Mitchie and walked off. "Maybe she'll stop bothering me." Mitchie said
"I'll make sure she will because no one touches my girl." Mitchie happily as she rested her head Alex's shoulder on their way to class. This was their happy ending and no one, not even Jennifer Check was going to tear them apart.