Chapter 9
For a moment Tess looked at her sister as if she had just told her that the world is going to end in five minutes or something to that effect. Did Claire really admit to being in love with Alex? This couldn't be…
Tess was trying to look for any indication that Claire was drunk or that she was pulling her leg, but none of those solutions seemed to be true. Claire was still sitting on her bed, deadly serious, with an expression that confirmed what she just said.
"Am I hearing right? Did you just say…"
"Yeah." Claire answered quickly.
"Oh my." Tess sighed.
"I know." Claire laughed, but really she didn't feel like laughing. This realization hit her really hard.
Tess jumped into bed with her sister, because she knew this statement required further analysis and discussion.
"And it only took you what…Fifteen years to figure that out?" she joked, but Claire sent her an icy look.
"Time for jokes is over. This is serious, Tess." Claire insisted.
"I know it's serious. But it's not like you're dying or anything."
"I know, but I just realized that I have feelings for someone who clearly is interested in tall, leggy blondes."
"Well as far as I know, he also expressed interest in someone who is not a tall, leggy blonde." Tess noted.
"Yeah, when he was drunk and didn't know what he was doing." Claire sighed.
"Well he must have felt something for you, since the two of you… you know." Tess looked at her sister making sure she understood what she was referring to.
"Oh I know exactly what he felt." Claire proclaimed. "He is a man and since there was no tall, leggy blonde at hand, he figured 'Oh what the hell, Claire McLeod is a woman after all.'"
"Don't say that!" Tess looked at her sister almost hurt by this statement. "I will not allow things like that being said about my sister."
"But it's true. I mean, he's a guy, I'm a girl, he needed a girl so he decided to act on it. And what better way to get a girl to sleep with you than tell her that you love her."
"OK, now you're not only offending yourself, but Alex too. And yes, Alex has his way with women sometimes, but he is not such a pig. I dated him, remember?"
"Oh I remember." Claire grinned.
"So I will never believe that he would tell you all those things just to get you to sleep with him. There has to be something more to it." Tess was sure of it.
"Like what?"
"Like he loves you too and just hasn't found a way to tell you about it." Tess suggested and she really did believe that this was a possible scenario. And she wished with her whole heart that this was true, because she knew how much it cost Claire to admit that she loves Alex. If it turned out that there was no chance for the two of them, she knew that things might get really, really weird and uncomfortable.
"Yeah, right." Claire decided to laugh Tess' comment off. It seemed impossible to her that Alex might have any sort of feelings for her. Especially not after what she had witnessed at the pub earlier that night.
"You never know." Tess noted and for a short while the two of them sat in the bed in silence. Claire was the first one to speak again.
"Tess, this is crazy. This is not me. This is not even me at 15. I don't get crushes on boys that don't let me sleep at night. This is ridiculous. Why does it bother me so much?"
"Because it's not just a crush, Claire. And you know it. This is so much more. Obviously I have not been here for a very long time and haven't seen your relationship develop, but even I can tell there is something really extraordinary between the two of you. You have an amazing connection." Tess tried to tell Claire exactly what she thought about her and Alex.
"He's been my best mate for such a long time." Claire smiled "He was the one person I could always, always count on. He was there for me whenever I needed him, no matter what happened. Good or bad, he's always been here. I can't even remember the time that I didn't know him." She paused for a moment, what gave Tess a chance to process everything that Claire was saying. "How did it happen that I suddenly started seeing him in a different light? I mean people are cracking jokes about me and Alex all the time, but I just always thought they were just jokes. But now I don't know… There is a grain of truth in every joke, right?" she looked at Tess, but poor Tess really didn't know what she was supposed to say or do. She wanted to say something constructive, something that would make Claire feel better, but the situation was really tough.
"I think you need to talk to him." Tess finally said, realizing that this was the only way Claire and Alex might be able to resolve this whole thing.
"How? I mean it's bad enough that I have to tell him about the night that we spent together and on top of that I'm supposed to say that I love him?" Claire was getting more and more desperate. "Geez, Tess, when did my life get so pathetic?? I haven't had that much love trouble since I was like eighteen. Actually, I don't think I've ever been so hang up about one guy."
"Yeah, but Alex is not just any guy. He's Alex. He's special. And thinking about him requires special amount of time."
"But I can't start spending my days thinking about Alex and how I love him and he doesn't love me back and blah, blah, blah… I'm not like that."
"First of all, obviously even you are like that sometimes. Second of all, you will never know how Alex really feels unless you tell him everything."
"Oh I know how he feels. I think the whole damn pub knows how Alex feels."
"Claire…" Tess hated to see her sister like this. And she so desperately wanted to tell Claire that everything would be fine, but the truth was that she wasn't sure. Yes, she knew Alex definitely had feelings for Claire, but that didn't necessarily mean that everything was going to be OK.
"I'm hopeless." Claire finally stated and hit herself with a pillow. "Totally hopeless."
"You're in love." Tess smiled. "That's what it does to people." She grinned and hit Claire with a pillow as well. "Goodnight." She added and got out of Claire's bed. "Sweet Alex dreams." She called as she was leaving Claire's bedroom.
"Oh very funny." Claire said with a sigh as Tess closed the door behind her.
