Minutes and Days 1x10: Happier:

I would love to dedicate this chapter to two amazing reviewers. Momentofweakness and xxHeadInTheStarsxx who have reviewed for every chapter that I've written so thank you. Also, thank you to everybody who has reviewed, they always make me smile :)

So I don't know if the lyrics for the song Happier by A Fine Frenzy are correct because I couldn't find them and had to do it myself. haha.

I don't like this new I want the old

But its how you say enough has changed

Cold but sympathetical the same

Like to convince me

That I'll be better off so

You go on and I'll be happier

So you go on and I'll be happier

She buried her head deeper in her pillow hoping that maybe, just maybe Mitchie would leave her alone. Maybe everybody would. She could just lay in bed and do nothing. The world would still spin, the world would go on, maybe nobody would notice. So maybe she was being a little over dramatic, it wasn't like she was supposed to have feelings for Nate and maybe she did, maybe she didn't. She didn't know.

She didn't know why she felt so disappointed when he told her, wasn't she supposed to be happy for him. For them. But she wasn't. What did that mean, if it mean anything at all. He was happy, she's supposed to be happy not sad.

Alex closed her eyes tighter hoping that it would all go away. She liked Nate. Liked. Liked. Liked. Maybe not loved him, she loved him, but she wasn't in love with him. But the promise ring, it made everything seem so permanent. So official, like they were practically married already.

"I know you're Up," Mitchie said taking a seat on the foot of the bed. She set her cup of tea down and sighed, "Is this about last night?"

Alex kept her head down in her pillow. How would Mitchie even know about what Nate told her. It was only them in the tree house. Well them and that stupid promise ring. Finally Alex mumbled Yes into her pillow.

"Is this about Nate and Miley and the Promise ring?"

Alex sat up, her hair was a mess and she was wearing a baggy t-shirt and sweats. Mitchie's eyes widened. Alex's hair was a lighter shade of brown instead of the dark brown it usually was, "How did you know?" Alex asked.

"What did you do to your hair?" Mitchie asked still staring.

"You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't answer mine."

"Miley told me, and then I over heard Nate telling you last night," Mitchie said swinging her legs onto the bed and crossing them so she was facing Alex, "Now answer mine."

"Oh, Miley told you," Alex said looking down suddenly remembering that their lives were all intertwined.

Mitchie just nodded her head waiting for Alex to continue.

"I got my hair done last night. I called my hair dresser, said I wanted a change. A little lighter color and I cut my hair a bit." Alex's hair went to a little bit below her shoulders and she had side bangs.

"It looks good," Mitchie replied. The two girls sat there in a comfortable silence. Then Mitchie realized something, she wasn't stupid enough to say it out loud, but she noticed Alex's hair color was just about the same color as Miley's. Maybe a little bit lighter. She bit her lip, so close to saying some thing about it before realizing that it wouldn't be right. She was dealing with enough.

"Are you okay?" Mitchie asked.

Hell no. "Yes."

"I know you Alex, You're not okay with this."

Alex looked down, she wasn't even sure why she wasn't okay with it. So she liked Nate, but why did she like him. What was she falling for him if she was at all. She was just so confused. "It doesn't matter if I'm okay with it or not. It doesn't matter."

"It does matter."

"To who Mitchie?" Alex asked cutting her off, "To who? It doesn't matter if I don't like it. Nate and Miley do and that's all that Matter. There's only two people in a relationship." It was weird, the way she let him back into her life and how it was like she was falling for him all over again with different circumstances and this time he had a girlfriend and they had a history. Maybe being friends wasn't such a bright idea Alex thought to herself, who in the right mind is ever friends with their ex boyfriends. Nobody because it just doesn't happen. Well hardly. Alex covered her face with her hands.

"It's not that big a deal babe," Mitchie said, "It's just a ring and things will still be the same."

"It's not just a ring, it's what it means."

"Just don't leave this time," Mitchie said looking down and then out the window.

Alex looked down. She knew what Mitchie meant. She surrounded herself with projects that kept her busy all year round. She hardly got any time off but she didn't mind. It got lonely at times but she was always meeting new people and people were starting to take her seriously. But she was never around her friends, and family, only the holidays. It seemed to keep her mind off her messy love life and the pain. By not thinking about it and by always being busy, she found herself happy and eventually it hardly mattered.

"Mitchie..."

"It's not fair Lexie. Leaving your friends, Me, Justin, Harper, Shane, Jason, and even Nate now. You're his friend now. Don't you think it would be weird if you suddenly decided to take all these jobs out of the country. Never being around anymore." Alex opened her mouth, to say something anything but nothing came out. Mitchie continued, "Yea, it's hard to be in love with somebody who doesn't love you back, but that's just the way it is sometimes. You just have to suck it up and deal with it. It's just life." Mitchie could feel tears on the brims of her eyes but tried to blink them away.

"Wait, did something happen you're not telling me about?" Alex said moving over to sit next to her best friend.

"Things are always happening," She said her voice barely audible, "Some times people aren't meant to be together."

"What are you talking about?"

Mitchie bit her lip, she wasn't really the type of person who spent a whole lot of time about a guy but lately, it seemed like it was all she did.

"It's not Trace is it?" Alex asked holding her breath hoping it wasn't.

Mitchie shook her head and Alex let out a sigh of relief, "Shane and I are friends," She started, "I really wanted to be with him once, I really did, but he never loved me the same way that I loved him." She read the confusion on Alex's face, "I told him I wanted to be more than friends once, I would want to stop the world so we could be together," She said quoting lyrics, "But he just wanted to be friends. Just friends, nothing more, and I never understood why. So every kiss between us, I don't know what it is. I don't know."

Alex pulled her into a hug as the two girls cried their eyes out about the Grey brothers, "How are you even friends with him then?" Alex asked in wonder once the tears had subsided.

"I realized that I'd rather be just his friend then not having him in my life at all."

Alex nodded realizing this was true, not with just them, but with her and Nate. She was happy right now, she was happier being his friend, then nothing at all, "You're right. You're always right."

"It takes a lot of strength to move on Lexie, but you're a strong person."

"Thank you," Alex said smiling and this is why Mitchie was her best friend. But she wished Mitchie would just take her side for once, that she couldn't because she was best friends with Miley and now both girls wanted him again. Or one girl thought she did.

She remembered when everything was so much easier. When it was just the five of them. The fabulous 5. Mitchie, Shane, Alex, Nate and Jason. Take me back to when I was sixteen Alex thought to herself. Take me back to walking on the beach in the summer hand in hand with Nate. Giggling side by side having nothing to worry about. Summer kisses on the beach, good luck kisses before shows, the burning up music video.

The five of them playing twister in the Grey living room always having it come down to Nate and Shane to see who would break first. Or watching Jason hide his head behind Mitchie when watching scary movies. Alex smiled at the thought of all of this.

Mitchie and Shane chasing each other in the yard and everybody thinking that one day, they were going to get together because the flirty looks they would send each other across the room was way too obvious.

"I'm going to go," Mitchie said getting off and the bed giving Alex one more hug before going off to the studio.

Maybe I should talk to him Alex thought. The night didn't exactly end well but not horribly either. Just a little awkward. She wiped out her iphone scrolling through her list of contacts until she landed on Nate Grey with a little heart next to his name. She sighed, and deleted the heart by his name and then decided on putting her phone away. She didn't want to deal with it right now, to deal with him.

She laid back down on her pillow closing her eyes.

Surely they wouldn't invite her to their wedding would they? Alex thought to herself. Would they? Would they force her to sit in the audience watching them say their vows and then the kiss.

Alex giggled, they weren't even getting married. They were 19. Not yet anyway, Nate and Miley were both so young, they had a few years before they could get married. Maybe something would happen before then. Alex felt ashamed, she was wishing bad luck and heart break on one of her friends and even though Miley wasn't exactly her friend, she knew what heart break felt like and wished it upon no one (until now). Geeze, she thought to herself, now I feel like the bad guy.

Alex walked over to her window staring out at the rain falling, the dropping rolling down her window. Her lips pressed together in a line just staring, not really thinking. She opened the window letting a slight breeze into the room and then she decided to stick her head out the window. The rain poured down on her soaking her hair and top. She laughed, she giggled, she sang songs, she screamed and for once in a long time, she felt free. Like she didn't have to wear a mask, she didn't have to hid her feelings, they were all just out there. Alex didn't care who heard her, who saw her, she didn't care because she felt like herself again.

Free.

Happy.

Herself.

So not to much Nate/Alex in this chapter, so I apologize, but next chapter will totally have more. And I'm sorry that this chapter wasn't very long. I'll try to make the next one longer :D I got a twist coming up for you guys ;) Please Review.

Oh and one more thing, I'm sorry I didn't try the perspectives thing yet, I chickened out. lol.

--Katie :)