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Annoying Lies

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Lying, lying, lying is all Justin feels he has been doing lately. Lie after lie have been spilling out of his mouth around her. He has been lying so much he is afraid he is going to get tangled in his own lies and fall. The worst part of it all was the more he did it and the more time passed, the guilt faded a little every time and that frighten him. He was starting to realize the most scary things weren't out in the world, but in himself. What did it matter now anyway? All he could do now was go on forward and hope the fall wasn't in the near future. He learned from Alex that all lies eventually come out, but he will be damned if he didn't try his hardest to keep it for as long as he could. Alex would be proud. He has even managed to keep it from the master herself.

Speaking of her…

Justin was staring at her as they walked to her work. Alex for the most part has been doing pretty well ignoring his gaze, but a girl could only take so much.

"What?" She asked with a hint of irritation. Justin stared a little longer. "Junior year is almost coming to an end." He implied.

"Yeah, so?"

"Isn't there some kind of farewell event coming soon?" Alex slightly frowned.

"Not that I can think of." She clearly didn't want to talk about the certain subject.

"Why haven't you been getting ready for your junior prom!" He quickly blurted out.

Alex groaned and covered her eyes. "I don't wan to talk about it."

"It's junior prom! You can't miss it!" Justin said it like it was a big deal, which wasn't the case for her.

"It's just a stupid dance. Who cares if I don't go?" She picked up her pace. The sooner she got to Ricky's the sooner this will be over.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe your friends and me." Alex raised her eyebrows and looked at him. "You?"

"I'm suppose to look after you. What kind of normal girl doesn't want to go to prom?" There was a pause in the air. "We are ignoring the fact that you're not normal at all." He added.

"If you haven't noticed I've been acting pretty normal since we moved here." Alex said.

"Yeah, I've noticed." He said quietly to himself, finally breaking his gaze.

"What?" He ignored her, but before she got too annoyed with him, he looked back at her. "You've been acting too normal if you ask me. I mean when was the last time you tried to pull something on me. You don't even seem to be Alex to me anymore." He couldn't believe what he was saying, but he really missed the old Alex. He was going as far as provoking her.

Alex narrowed her eyes. "Watch it." He ignored her and smirked. "I don't even think you can prank anymore."

"Justin." She warned him, but he continued. "I bet you don't have your touch anymore either, since you're so out of practice." That did it!

"Justin!" She lightly pushed him to the side as they walked and he smiled. "What?"

Alex was staring at him intensely, which was making him uncomfortable. What was with the stare? He was about to look away, but she snapped at him. "Justin!" She didn't let his attention go.

"Just look at me." She said. Justin concentrated thinking she wanted him to spot something on her. He looked her over, but he couldn't find anythi-

Thud!

Justin walked right into a pole and smashed his head. As he held his head he heard Alex laughing uncontrollably. "You asked for it." She said still laughing and holing her sides.

After Alex calmed down and kept telling him he wasn't bleeding, they continued to walk. Alex looked at him, smiling. "Still think I don't have it." Justin didn't respond, but secretly he was happy. Not because of the headache he had now, but because the old Alex had come out.

When they arrived at Ricky's they said their goodbyes. As he walked away he heard Alex calling him. She looked a bit worried. "Be careful when you come home tonight." He tried to smile and nodded. He knew why she said that.

The continuing lies started there.

Flashback

Alex was once again waking up by herself because her alarm was failing her again. Just another normal day…or she thought until she sat up.

"Justin!" She yelled, alarmed when she saw her brother half on her bed and half on the ground. He didn't respond. He was too tired. Alex got out of bed and kneeled next to him. She took a good look at him and she was more than a little surprised. He looked like he had been dragged down an alley. All his clothes were dirty and what's up with all the black?

"Justin wak-" She started saying, but stopped when she shook him from the side. He immediately woke up with a loud groan and held his side. When he saw where he was he looked everywhere, but her and sat on the bed.

Alex frowned as she saw his depressed expression and before he could say anything she raised his shirt and sweater. She gasped when she saw the bruise across his chest. "Justin, what happened?" She said, looking at him. Her gaze told him not to screw with her. Justin looked straight in her eyes and for the few seconds that passed something in him clicked. All he did last night was to protect her, keep her safe, and most important, to make her happy. All the truth would do was take all that away. He wouldn't-no, he will not let his efforts be for nothing. He will do anything to keep her safe and happy. He proved that last night and if from now on he was going to have to be constantly be lying to her then so be it.

"I…on my way home these guys came out of nowhere and they…" Alex's frown deepened. Justin kept his gaze on the floor. "They jumped you." She said. Justin nodded. "They threw me into an alley and hit me a few times, but I was able to get away before they did more damage." He said all these while looking at the ground. It would've looked suspicious to her if she wasn't so worried about him.

"Oh, Justin." She didn't care how dirty he was, she hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad your okay." She is so glad nothing too serious happened to him. She wouldn't know what she would do if he had been seriously hurt. Because her face was buried on his chest she didn't see the pained expression across his face. One things was for sure, it wasn't because of his bruises.

Flashback

There was not a day that went by that was dull for Justin when he met the guys at the old building hang out after finishing his shift at Ralph's. It wasn't so much hanging out for Justin than being on military school. Since they no longer needed to prepare for the bank job and they were on a break Justin was free with time and they all thought it was a good time to put him into shape. Now when I mean in shape I mean their standard for in shape. Their work demanded for them to be in better condition than others. Justin was no exception.

"No, no, no, you're doing it wrong." Zack said a bit irritated. At the moment Zack was teaching Justin the right way to punch after doing warm-ups. Teaching him how to punch was more of a challenge than he thought.

"You need to put some of your body weight into it." Zack raised a fist and showed how to do it. "When you throw your fist let your body go with it a little." Justin followed his example. Justin was determined to get this. If all they were teaching helped him stay out jail and most of all killed than he was going to definitely learn. He couldn't rely on magic. He had to make sure he wouldn't get himself in a situation where he would be forced to use it. He knew it was going to be unavoidable at some point, but that was in the future and he was focusing in the now.

Justin raised his fist. "Don't use your body weight too much or you'll-" Justin put too much weight on it and fell forward. "fall." Zack sighed.

"He'll get it, don't worry. He's good at learning." Gabriel said a he watched.

"Yeah, well it would be easier if you could help me." He said looking at Gabriel's injured arm. Not everyone was able to get away unharmed from the bank. When things hit the fan you have to expect casualties. Hell, they were surprised when Justin came the next day with nothing broken.

Flashback

Everyone, but Gabriel and Justin, were gathered at sun point. They were more than surprised when Justin walked through the door and dropped his backpack on Joseph's feet. "Here."

They all stared at him a bit shocked.

Justin looked at them. "What?"

A grin form on Zack's face. "Justin, you made it!" He went and put his arm around his neck. "Everyone here thought you were caught. Joseph was actually starting to feel a little bad for you."

"Love the confidence guys." As they all congratulated him, Joseph looked inside Justin's backpack and slowly smiled. He put it down where the rest of the other backpacks were and came over to Justin. "I guess you got lucky unlike Gabriel."

Justin looked at him, looking bit pale. Joseph knew what he was thinking. "No, he didn't get caught, but he was shot." Justin gulped. "Is he…" Joseph shook his head. "No he's fine. Just the arm." Justin nodded and relaxed, but still was a bit tense.

"But you can't expect to get lucky every time." Joseph stared at him completely serious. "So, since we won't be in action for a while. We are going to use the time to make sure you don't need luck next time." Justin look at him confused.

Flashback

Gabriel looked over Zack's shoulder smirked. "See, he's starting to get it." Zack turned around and saw Justin punching semi-right.

Maybe it wouldn't take as long as he thought.

Kate suddenly came and stopped Justin's punching practice. "Kate, what are you doing?" Zack said, upset because they were finally making progress.

Kate grabbed Justin by the arm and dragged him away. "You can come back to your little fighting training later. Now it's time to work on your stamina with a run."

"I already showed you guys I can run." Justin said as he was forced to follow her.

"No matter how good you are at something there is always room to get better." She said, smiling. "That's why we are going to do laps around the building." He looked at her like she was crazy. "Won't we look weird to the people that walk by."

"We don't have time to be weird!" She said as she dragged him out the one way door to the back of the building.

"Great." Zack looked at the door they left and back at Gabriel. "Now what?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Tacos?"

A few days later and nothing much changed. Justin wasn't making any progress with the whole prom subject. Alex didn't budge and he knew he was running out of time. Prom was getting closer and Alex wasn't making this easy. She was closing all his options and realized he wasn't going to be able to convince her by himself. He was going to need some help and he knew exactly who to go to.

It was time for Cat and Jane to meet Alex's brother.

"Okay Alex what's the big deal about Prom?" Jane asked as they ate their lunch.

"Yeah Alex." Cat said. Just like Justin, Cat and Jane were bothering her with prom. She could understand Jane, but Cat? She thought Cat would be on her side. She wasn't the girly type just like her.

"Exactly! No big deal! Why are you making it into one?"

"Is it because you don't have a date?" Jane asked. Alex rolled her eyes. Here we go again.

"For the millionth time no." They have been on this whole prom and date subject for the last few days. It really was starting to get to her.

"I don't have a date and I'm still going." Cat said, trying to convince her.

Alex didn't care that she didn't have a date. It didn't mean nobody had asked her. There were a lot of guys that had asked her, but she knew she wasn't going to go and turned them down. And even if all the guys were crazy enough not to ask her, it was their loss.

"I don't care that I don't have a date. Now can we talk about something else." Alex said.

"But Alex!"

Alex growled in frustration. The whole time that she was in school it was none stop questions about prom. To her dismay, it didn't get better after school.

Alex, Cat, and Jane were waiting by the tree as usual. Alex at the time wished she had earplugs… or that she could conjure up some. Why did she stop using magic again? Oh, right brought bad memories. It was times like this that made her think not using magic was not such a good idea.

Alex came out of her thoughts and noticed they suddenly stopped with their talking and questions. Had her miracle finally occurred.

"What is it?"

"Cute guy coming this way and looks like a senior." Jane said, looking over Alex's shoulder.

"He does look kind of cute and he is looking straight at you." Cat said, looking over her other shoulder.

Alex closed her eyes and hope they were kidding. She didn't want to say no again to another guy. It made her feel bad every time she did it. She sighed. "Look if you want to got to prom I don-"

"Wow Alex I didn't know that you wanted me to go to prom with you, but if that is what's going to make you go then I guess I'll go. I got to tell you though it's going to be very weird for me." She heard a certain voice behind her.

Alex immediately turned around to a smirking Justin.

"Justin?" This was a change. Usually he came a few minutes after school was over and when he came early he would always wait for her friends to leave. He didn't know it, but she's seen him sometimes. Why is he showing himself now?

"Justin? As in your brother Justin?" Jane asked, looking him over along with Cat. They have been meaning to see Alex's mysterious brother she lived with. They have been picturing in different ways how he looked. They had gone from tough protective older brother to shy sensitive older brother and all in between. Considering how Alex was, they didn't think he would look so normal.

"Yes I am." He smiled at them and then looked at Alex with a smirk. "You have been talking about me?" Had the popular Alex Russo been talking about her dorky brother?

Alex crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. I only talked about you when we were extremely bored and had nothing to do."

"I'm just surprised the so popular Alex would be gracious enough to talk-"

"About how much of a nerd you are? Yeah, haven't I always." She finished with a smirk.

"That coming from another nerd." Justin looked at her friends. "She is such a good student isn't she, with all those A's she has been getting." That left her mouth hanging open. She had no come back for that because it was true. All that talking she did about how good of a little student he was in the past was coming back to bite her now that she was one herself.

Cat and Jane had been watching, amused as they talked. So this was Alex with her brother. They didn't know what was different about Alex. Something changed the moment Justin came. It was a small change, but they didn't know what. Also, those two were entertaining to watch.

"So are you guys talking about going to prom?" He asked them.

"Well, we are, but Alex says she's not going." Cat said, giving Alex a disapproving look like a mother would give their child. Alex groaned.

And they were back to this.

Justin looked at her two friends and then at her. Justin sighed and got this sad look on his face. "I've should have expected this." Alex blinked and looked at him.

"She has always been so shy when it came to dances at school." Now she narrowed her eyes. What was this about being shy? Before she could speak up he went on. He looked at her friends with a convincing sad expression. "She's shy because of how insecure she feels when it comes to these things, you know?"

Oh, that was a low. She saw how Justin was trying his hardest not to smile and how her friends were buying every single word. He found a way. He was attacking her pride and dammit! It was working! Alex Russo was not shy or insecure!

Cat and Jane turned to look at her with their sad eyes now. Before they could say anything she cut them of. "We're going to the mall tomorrow to buy our dresses. I'll meet you guys there." She said, between gritted teeth and stormed away. She will deal with Justin at home. Now she had to worry about finding a dress that wasn't too girly for her.

And when the hell did Justin learn how to lie like that?

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I thank you all for the wonderful reviews I've been getting and hope to keep getting more of them. It's what makes my writing possible. Since this is going to be my last chapter for the year...Happy New Year!