"Going on?" Alex echoed, giving Justin an innocent-and-puzzled look. "What makes you think -"
"I'm not completely clueless," Justin interrupted through gritted teeth. "The plan was for me to be attentive to you, and that would make Millie think I'd treat her nicely. Somewhere along the way, though, it seems to have changed to 'make Millie jealous of Alex,' and I'm wondering what I'm missing here."
Oh Hell. Gotta think fast. "I changed my mind. Millie's not good for you."
"What?" Justin gave his head a little shake, then looked at his sister incredulously. "She's cute, she's funny, she's nice, Mom and Dad like her, Max likes her... the only one who doesn't seem to like her is you. Heck, even Harper hasn't said anything bad about her. So, tell me... what is the problem?"
"She's just using you!" Alex blurted out, her mouth outrunning her forebrain by miles. "She's got you babysitting her cousin so she can go out with other guys, and she's got you following her around and doing stuff for her, when you should be doing stuff for me, and -"
"Wait - doing stuff for you?" Justin's voice was loud enough to be painful in the tiny space of the freezer. He took a step closer to Alex, getting into her face. "Is that what this is about? Are you jealous that I might actually get a girlfriend again, Alex?"
"Jealous? No!" Alex shook her head quickly, then folded her arms and turned away from Justin, willing the blush she could feel rising away. "Why would I be jealous? I'm trying to actually be a good sister and look out for you!" A heat was building up in her, and Alex suddenly found herself angry. Angry that Justin was yelling at her when she was only trying to help him, angry that he'd actually managed to make her feel embarrassed earlier. And most of all, although she couldn't admit it even to herself, angry that he was right, and she was jealous.
With the anger came a sudden desire to hurt Justin, and she spun back around and pointed at him. "Just because you can't see that a girl like that would never waste her time on you unless she wanted something from you," she said, lashing out at him with her voice, "that doesn't mean that everyone is that blind!"
Justin stared at Alex, his jaw muscles visibly tightening, nostrils flaring, and she knew she'd pushed too far. But apologizing wasn't something that Alex Russo did. Instead, she said, "I heard her saying -"
"You know what? I don't care what you heard, or think you heard," Justin interrupted. "Thanks for thinking so little of me. Thanks for trying to sabotage me." He walked past her, to the door of the freezer, still talking. "And by the way, I'm not taking you to the movies." Grabbing the freezer handle with his hand, he finished, "Find some other sucker to do things for you."
Quickly, Alex snatched out her wand, said, "No! You're going to listen to me, Justin!" Pointing it at the door, she said, "Nobody's leaving 'til I have my say, so just break that lock today!" A ball of yellowish light leapt from the tip of Alex's wand to the door as Justin pulled the handle... and it didn't open.
Justin tried the handle again, automatically. Still, the door didn't open. Turning back around, he gritted his teeth, growled out an "Alex..." through them. "Fix the lock. Now."
"No," she said, folding her arms again. "Not until you really listen to me. If you want out before then, you'll have to fix it yourself." She grinned then, holding up her wand and waving it side-to-side. "Of course, I'll just keep breaking it," she taunted - and then she yelped and jumped backward as Justin took a quick step toward her, grabbing for her wand.
Holding it behind her, she gave him a hard look. "Hey! No wand-stealing!"
"You're the one who told me to fix it myself," Justin said, putting his arms out and hunkering down a little, obviously preparing for another grab. "My wand's upstairs, so the only way I can do that is to use yours."
"Oh, is it?" Alex grinned wickedly, then said, "To keep my wand away from Justin, put it upstairs -" Justin made a grab then, but Alex ducked under it, continuing, "in my... dustbin!" The wand flashed and disappeared, and Justin stared at Alex then, his mouth dropping open.
"You - the wand - the lock - gahhh - Alex!" He shook his head then, covering his face with his hands. "We're stuck in here until someone lets us out! That could be hours! What were you thinking?"
"Well then," Alex said with a satisfied smile, "you should have plenty of time to listen to me."
"Listen to you? Why? Because you're acting like a crazy person?" Justin shook his head. "If I'd even been inclined to take your advice before, I'm certainly not now!"
Alex made a frustrated 'uhhh!', stomped her foot, then moved right up to Justin. He retreated, but she followed, going up on tiptoe to get in his face. "I heard her on the phone after you made the date with her yesterday, talking to some new boyfriend she's got! She made a date with him for Friday, told him she had a date already, but it was just a pity date and she could get out of it!"
Bringing up a fist, Alex thumped Justin's shoulder. "I was trying not to have to tell you that, to get her to stop being interested in you, but damn it Justin, you're too good for her! You're so damn nice, and you think everyone's nice, but they aren't! Millie's just a little bitch who's using you, and I'm not going to stand by and let her do it!"
She stopped then, staring at Justin, and Alex suddenly felt like screaming and crying at the same time. She could feel her lip trembling, and she blinked several times, hard, keeping the incipient tears back.
Justin, meanwhile, looked at his little sister as if seeing her for the first time. She's telling the truth, he realized. She doesn't fake mad or upset. She wants everyone to think that she's calm and in control all the time. He swallowed, closing his own eyes for a moment, then nodded. "I believe you," he said quietly. "Millie already broke our date for Friday earlier. She -"
He broke off, then slumped down, his back sliding against the smooth metal of the door until he was sitting on the cold floor. "You're right. I'm an idiot. I should have stopped pining after her months ago... as soon as she tricked me that first time." He lowered his head, rested it on his hands, elbows on his upraised knees. "I am the biggest damn idiot. I let everybody take advantage of me, all the time. God!"
"Justin... no." Alex got down on hands and knees in front of her brother, reached with one hand to touch his face. "You - you're not an idiot. You're the smartest guy I know. And you're wonderful. You're nice, and you're good, and... I don't want you to change. If you weren't nice to everybody, and didn't trust people, you wouldn't be you. And I like you."
She moved closer, hugged her brother loosely. "So... you keep being the nice guy, and I'll look out for you, and tell you if somebody's taking too much advantage. Deal?"
Taking his hands from his face, Justin looked at Alex. His face was streaked with tears, and it made her heart ache to see him like that, but he nodded. "Deal."
It was forty-eight minutes later when Theresa finally found them, then another hour and a half by the time a locksmith could be brought to fix the lock. (Justin had done the talking, through the door, and hadn't told them what had really happened, thereby earning another hug and a 'thank you' from Alex.)
When they finally got the door open, Justin and Alex were sitting on the floor, Alex sitting sideways in Justin's lap with his arms around her, keeping her warm. Theresa took them both upstairs to get warm and made them some hot soup.
The next morning, Justin awoke, got out of bed, stretched quickly. Halfway to his closet, he noticed something on his desk, moved over and picked up the envelope, frowned at it. A lavender envelope was there, with nothing written on the outside. Picking up his letter-opener, he broke the seal, opened the flap, then carefully slid out the card inside. The front showed a cartoon puppy sticking its thumbs in its ears and blowing a raspberry, and said, "Brother, If You Were Expecting a Sappy Valentine's Card..."
He flipped it open, and inside, the same puppy was now holding up a big heart, with "You Were Right! Love you!" under it. On the inside flap was written:
You are the nicest, sweetest,
most wonderful guy I know.
Don't ever change.
I don't say it, but I love you.
If you show anyone this card, I will kill you.
Alex
Justin quit babysitting for Millie, and never did make another date with her. She also suddenly developed a very bad case of acne, which lasted until she quit working at the Sub Station. If Justin suspected that Alex had something to do with that (which he did), he never said a word.
Oh, and he did take Alex to see The Valentine Killer.
Author's Notes:
Hope you've enjoyed the "pre-Jalex" stuff so far - it's been fun to write, since I get to play with showing that they're falling in love without letting them cross the line into couplehood!
I'm not sure yet if the next chapter will be the last Valentine's Day before they get together, or first one after they do... if you have a preference, feel free to let me know.
Thanks for reading!
