Chapter 3

It was 4:12am when Alex woke up. Not that she would wake up intentionally at 4:00 in the morning, but something else woke her up. Some sort of noise, she listened for a minute and heard a banging sound. Someone was at the door. Alex groaned and quickly got up, she put some pajama pants on and a wife beater. She and Charlie had fallen asleep in their bra and underwear after having a little fun. Alex walked out of the room still half asleep. The banging at the door continued.

"I'm coming" Alex said so that the person on the other side of the door could hear them. Alex would have been angry that someone woke her up in the middle of the night, but was too tired to be angry. Alex unlocked the door, not even bothering to check through the peep hole to see who it was. She opened the door to see a woman a few years older than her, with a roller suit case and stylish clothes standing in her door way.

"can I help you?" Alex asked not recognizing the woman.

"is Charlie here?" the woman asked.

"yeah hold on." Alex said as she turned around to walk back into the apartment. She quickly walked into her bedroom and woke Charlie up.

"babe?" Alex said slightly nudging Charlie.

"mmm?" Charlie asked barely awake.

"there is someone at the door to see you" Alex said. Charlie opened her eyes a crack to see the time on the clock.

"It better be someone holding a very large check saying I've just one a million dollars for waking me up at 4 in the morning" Charlie asked.

"don't count on it"

"ugh" Charlie grunted as she got up, she wasn't really a middle of the night person. Charlie got up and started to walk out the door before Alex called her back.

"might want to put some pants on Barker" Alex said smiling.

"yeah" Charlie said walking back into the room still in her bra and underwear.

"the only person who gets that kind of show is me" Alex said smirking as she tossed Alex her short shorts and a tank top. Charlie walked back out of the room with Alex behind her. She walked over to the door which was open a crack. She opened the door to see the same woman there.

"Charlie!" the woman said pulling Charlie into a hug.

"Darcy?" Charlie asked a little shocked. "what are you doing here?"

"well I just came down to see a few familiar faces" Darcy said

"come in, come in" Charlie said pulling the woman into the room. Charlie walked over to Alex with Darcy attached to her arm.

"please don't tell me this is another 'Jackie'" Alex said half jokingly half serious.

"Alex, this is Darcy… my sister" Charlie started. She stopped when she saw the expression on Alex's face. "Darcy, this is Alex, my… room mate"

"hi it's so nice to meet you" Darcy said as she vigorously shook Alex's hand. Alex gave Darcy a small smile and then shot a glare at Charlie. Charlie immediately knew that Alex realized that she called her her room mate.

"can you just give us a sec?" Alex said as she angrily pulled Charlie away from the visitor.

"Charlie! I don't even know where to start!" Alex said quiet enough so that Darcy couldn't hear.

"first of all, a sister!? You have a sister?! Where the hell did this come from? And since when am I your room mate?"

"Alex baby calm down. Okay see I kind of have more family than you thought…"

"oh my god…" Alex said as she rubbed her head, she could already feel the head ache coming on. "how many?"

"3 sisters…" Charlie said hoping that Alex wouldn't flip out on her.

"3!?" Alex yelled. She did flip out on her "is that it?"

"yes" Charlie simply replied.

"okay so I take it they don't know"

"know about what?" Charlie said playing dumb.

"Charlie, they don't know about us do they?" Alex said looking into Charlie's eyes. Charlie didn't reply, but Alex could tell what was up. "oh god, they don't even know you're gay, do they?"

"well… not exactly" Charlie mumbled out.

"Jesus Christ!" Alex shouted.

"you can call me Charlie" Charlie said trying to lighten the mood.

"This isn't the time for jokes. This is so much to take in right now" Alex said as she looked up to see Darcy still standing in the door way.

"okay listen, let's not deal with this right now. We'll go to sleep and wake up tomorrow morning and we'll sort this all out okay?" Charlie asked as she touched Alex's arm.

"so I guess it means you can't wear this then?" Alex said as she picked up Charlie's left hand with the ring on her finger.

"I guess not, look I'm really sorry Alex but it's just temporary okay?" Charlie said as she turned the ring back and forth on her finger and slowly took it off and put it in her pocket.

"fine, what ever" Alex said in a pissed off tone. Not only had Charlie not told her she had sisters, she hadn't come out to them yet, and to top it all off, it was 4 in the morning.

Charlie walked back over to her sister "hey so why don't you come crash on our couch tonight, okay?"

"yeah sure, thanks Char" Darcy said as she walked further into the apartment. Alex waited for Charlie so they could enter their bedroom and go back to sleep, but once Charlie set up her sister on the couch she walked over to Alex.

"hey, I'm going to sleep in the other room, I don't want my sister getting suspicious" Charlie said.

"Charlie, she's going to figure it out sooner or later" Alex said.

"I know, but later is better than sooner. Night" Charlie said as she walked into the spare bedroom and shut the door.