A/N: This chapter didn't necessarily come out the way I wanted it to, to me it came out pretty 'ehh' so in advance, my apologies.
Regarding what I said in this chapter about something being illegal, I honestly have no idea if that's true or not, but it's fan fiction for a reason, right? Lmao
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
It seems pretty clear that all you guys are in the same thinking zone, now let's see if you were right or wrong(;
Alex's POV
I spent the whole week trying to find Mitchie's necklace but came upon nothing but dust. For the first couple of days, she was acting completely different. As if she was slowly slipping back to her depressive state she was once in when I met her. Thankfully after the third day of her oppression, she gradually tried her hardest to move on. I was glad to see her keep her head held high, the old Mitchie would have never done that. Even though she's better, hiding away her emotions, I know deep inside she's hurting.
I was aware of how much her necklace meant to her and to have it disappear the next day, is just horrible. It was a huge fragment of her, and she lost a missing part of her heart. It saddens me to realize she's not fully repaired, and will probably never be without that last component. Like she stated, it was her only memory of Shane.
In a way, I wish I was able to meet this person. To meet the guy who helped and cared for Mitchie throughout the beginning of her life. Who took her under his wing and showed her true friendship and love. The way Mitch would talk about him, when she's not crying, is always in complete admiration. From what I've heard, he seemed like one of the nicest person in this world. A male who detaches from the stereotypical guy image of being a bad ass and or jerk but instead a complete sweetheart.
I'm not going to lie, every time Mitch decides to talk about Shane in that way, in the beginning I use to infer that at least one of them had a thing for each other. Obviously that's not the case anymore, you can instantly tell that they had a genuine bond that would have never been broken. It's the same bond she has with her sister Dallas. She'd do anything for them and no matter what happened, in the end of the day, they were still her family.
I have much respect for him, and the only thing I'd want to do if he was right in front of me, is to thank him. Thank him for practically saving Mitchie's life and making her feel worth it when she never thought of herself as anything but less.
I start tapping the end of my pen on the desk in a rhythmic beat, looking down at my homework. Wait, it's a Saturday, why the hell am I doing my homework right now? I groan and shut my textbook, twirling myself in the spinning chair. I catch Mitchie laughing at my childish behavior, I blow her a kiss and continue to spin myself.
"You're going to get dizzy" She tells me as I stare in the ceiling, watching it go in circles. I stop my movement and stand up just to meet the ground.
"Too late" I said as I rub my eyes, holding myself up. I feel a pair of arms help me off the ground and I smiled.
"I told you so" She whispered as I held onto her, waiting for the dizziness to exit my head. Eventually it went away and I let go of her. She gave me a kiss on my lips and sat back down on her bed.
After getting myself together, I walked around the room. Mitch continues to look at me with a confused expression, I stop and tell her that I'm bored and she nods, turning back to her book. How can she read so much? I will never understand that. I was reaching the radio to turn it on until my phone buzzed. I saw Mitch leaning to get it off the desk to hand it to me but as an instinct I quickly jumped towards it. Grabbing it before she had the chance to look at the screen. She gives me a weird look and I smiled, shrugging. Phew, that was a close call.
Oh wow, same old Alex. But I'm gonna call you later on, alright? I need to talk to you about something.
I was typing a reply when Mitchie's voice seized me.
"Anyone important?" She asks me and I send a quick response agreeing to the request. I turn off my phone and look up at Mitch.
"Just my mom checking in" I told her and she nodded. Lie number two.
I'm Alex Russo, guiltiness shouldn't be eating me alive. Ugh who am I kidding? When it comes to Mitchie of course it will. Eh, maybe I can make it up to her.
I start putting on my shoes and went in front of the small mirror. Putting my hair up in a messy bun. I walk towards Mitchie and pull on her. She whines as she resists, continuing to read her book. I roll my eyes and get on top of her, straddling her on her bed.
"Um…?" She lets out confused, finally putting the book on the side.
"Are you trying to seduce me?" She continues with a smirk and I laugh, leaning in attaching my lips on hers. I deepen the kiss as I grab her face with both hands. Her hands are on my knees, debating on whether or not she should move them further. Knowing how Mitchie is, I intertwined our fingers and my other hand made it towards her waist. A voice inside my head kept yelling at me. This wasn't supposed to go this way and it's not going any farther. Reluctantly I detached our lips and got off of her, still not letting go of her hand as I pull her off the bed.
"W-what was t-that?" She asks nervously still not fully back on earth. I kissed her again, trying to ease her nerves.
"C'mon, we're going to the mall" I told her, handing her, her shoes.
"You did all of that just to tell me we're going to the mall?" She says bewildered, while putting on her shoes and I nodded.
"You weren't listening to me before so I thought of a way of getting your attention" I honestly said and she gave me a glare.
"That's cruel" She mutters and I wink at her, dragging her out of the room.
We arrived at the mall and the first thing I did was hold onto her hand. She gave me a cautious look, letting it go and looking all around us.
"What are you doing?" She whispers and I let out a small laugh.
"Relax, no one here knows us and friends can hold hands" I wink at her and she bites her bottom lip, at last she smiles and grabs back my hand.
We continue to walk around, and enter various different stores. Every time she'd say she liked something, I immediately went up and bought it for her. At the moment she didn't know until I walked out of the store with a shopping bag. She kept feeling bad that I was wasting my money but I didn't care. I continued to buy her anything she wanted, whether she allowed me or not. I was ecstatic that my parents gave me a credit card for my birthday, but I know I'd get an earful once they receive the bill. Oh well, Mitchie's worth it.
I didn't allow Mitch to carry any bags, even though most of them were her stuff. We went back to the dorm and I set everything of hers on her bed. I thought buying her stuff and making her happy would lessen my guiltiness but I guess not. That plan didn't work.
I hear my phone ringing in my purse. Ugh speaking of guilt. I take it out and see an un-named number popping up. I sit on my bed and pick it up. Not even caring that Mitch is on the other side of the room, mostly because it's not like she'd be able to hear our full conversation.
"Hello?" I say into the phone quietly.
"Hey Alex" He says softly and I smiled. I bit my tongue, not wanting to cry.
"How have you been?" He asks and I sigh.
"Good. But it's not the same without you." I tell him and I could hear him sigh into the phone.
"I know Lex. And I'm sorry. But you're going to be fine." I shut my eyes, stopping the tears from coming out, which at the time worked.
"So um what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" I ask a little scared at what his response may be. The line goes quiet for a couple of seconds but he finally speaks up.
"It's time." He whispers sadly and I swallow. Knowing exactly what he means.
"I'm getting deployed to Afghanistan." He continues and a tear rolled down my cheek.
"For how long…?" I ask lowly into the phone and then I see Mitchie turn to me with curious eyes. She mouths 'who is it' and I shook my head.
"Eight months." He says and I close my eyes again. I didn't say anything and then I feel a weight shifted on the side next to me on my bed. I see Mitch wiping away the tear that slipped out. She seems confused out of her mind and I shake my head again, continuing to hold the phone against my ear.
"I'm leaving tomorrow" He continues on the other line and I remain quiet.
"I'm gonna miss you Justin. Please be careful." I tell my older brother.
"Always am sis. I love you" Justin whispers to me and I was about to say it back until a knock on the door brought me out of the conversation. Mitchie stands up to get it and I follow behind her. She opens the door and I drop the phone out of my hand. The tears explode from within and I couldn't stop them. I see Justin in his Air Force uniform and I immediately run to him, jumping into his open arms, sobbing like crazy. He holds me tight and I could feel a couple tears of his fall on my shoulder. He rubs my back, calming me down a bit.
Slowly, he sets me down on the ground giving me a sad smile.
"H-how'd you g-get in the b-building?" I ask him and he laughs.
"I'm a soldier Lex, I get special treatment. I told them I just wanted a quick visit" He says calmly compared to me. I hug him back whispering how much I've missed him.
It's been over two years since I've seen my big brother, and it's all my mom's fault. Justin was always a good kid but he made mistakes in his life. My mom never understood that. At a time of his life, Justin was hooked on drugs, I didn't know that, no one did, he would always be so secretive. Until my mom found out and it was the end of it. She immediately took him away from me, calling him a bad influence and shipping him off to military school. I hated her for that. He stayed there for half a year and my mom forced him to enlist in the Air Force after he stayed clean of drugs for a couple of months.
I hear someone clear their throat and saw Mitchie with an unreadable expression on her face. I wiped away my tears and walked towards her.
"Mitch, this is my big brother Justin. Justin this is my roommate Mitchie" I introduced them to each other as they shook their hands. Mitchie's mood right away fell into a surprised expression.
"It's nice to meet you" She finally says, still looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Likewise, Alex has told me a lot about you. It's nice to know my little sister finally found a girl best friend and stopped hanging around all those guys" Justin tells her and I playfully hit his shoulder. Mitchie smiles and sits down on her bed, giving Justin and I time to talk. I hug him again, and he laughs.
"Dang, when I was around you didn't even care to hug me" He joked and I gave him a glare.
"That's not fair" I said sternly with a sad expression and he shakes his head, bringing me into another hug.
"I know, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know you care about me and I'm sorry for making you go through all that stuff." He says and I shake my head, knowing he was talking about one particular thing.
"None of it is your fault, you know that." I tell him and he gives me a forced smile.
"Does mom and dad already know you're leaving?" I ask him and he nods.
"Told them a couple of hours ago. They took it kind of bittersweet. I know dad feels bad, mom didn't show much emotion like always" He continues and I sigh. He grabs my hand.
"Enough about me, how are you doing? Really." He gives me a worried look.
"I'm doing good. Don't worry about me."
"Are you still taking your – " He starts off but I cover his mouth. I nod and he smiles.
"Good." Justin whispers.
I unlock the door of my house and step inside. I make my way towards the kitchen looking for food until I start hearing screams from the second floor. I close the refrigerator door and run upstairs, following the loud noise. I see my mom screaming at Justin while he's obviously trying to control his anger as tears fall from his eyes.
"You can't make me go!" He screams out to my mom and she throws a frame at him but he dodges it.
"Yes I can and you will! I will not have a drug addict living under my roof! You already enlisted so you're forced to go, or you'd go to jail for breaking the law!" She continues and I see my dad trying to hold her back.
"Mom?" I let out completely shocked and confused at what I'm witnessing. She looks at me and then back at my brother.
"Go to your room Alex!" She yells out to me and Justin steps in front of me.
"Don't scream at her! Just get out of my room!" He says and right away I hear a door from downstairs slam open. In a matter of seconds, two cops rush inside and grab Justin's arm, placing them behind him. He starts struggling as they hold him down. My heart beat starts racing and I start crying at the scene.
"Let go of him!" I yell out in tears and he gives me a sad smile. My dad goes up to me, throwing me over his shoulder, exiting the room.
"C'mon Alex, you can't see this" My dad whispers to me and I start hitting his back.
"Justin! Dad p-please! Don't let him l-leave!" I screamed in between sobs and he sets me down in the hallway, still holding onto me so I couldn't go running to Justin.
I see the cops drag Justin out of the house, he mouths an 'I love you' before going down the stairs and I felt my heart pace incredibly fast. Breathing was becoming a difficulty and I started getting a tingly feeling on the tips of my fingers. The room was going dizzy and pain was rising in my chest.
"Alex? Alex!" My dad calls out as my right hand makes it over my heart, gasping for air once my body fell onto the ground.
Mitch's POV
I was trying my hardest not to hear their conversation but it was pretty difficult when you're only eight feet away from them. Throughout the whole day Alex has been acting a little weird. She was constantly checking her phone or texting someone. She always said it was her mom but not even my parents text me that much. Once we got back from the mall, she was talking on the phone with whom I was assuming was the person she kept on texting.
I was reading my book at the time, but I could hear bits and pieces of what she was saying into the line. I turned to face her for a millisecond and asked who she was talking to, genuinely curious but she didn't answer me and just shook her head. I ignored it until I heard her go quiet for a moment. I turned to her again, thinking she already hung up, but then I saw a tear fall from her eyes. I immediately go up to her and wipe it away, completely worried. I stayed there with her, waiting for the phone call to end. However the only part that popped more into my ear was how she was saying how much she's going to miss this Justin character.
Right after she said that, I heard knocking on the door and got up. I opened it up to see a guy, who seemed about three years older than me, in a military uniform. I was going to ask him who he was but then I see Alex's reaction, catching me completely off guard as she jumped into his arms, crying.
It's unusual to see Alex break down like that if she didn't get hurt or saw me crying. To see her in tears because of the presence of another being, surprises me. I was already confused out of my mind, not knowing who this guy was and how they know each other. I cleared my throat and Alex introduced me to the person in the room.
She said he was her older brother Justin, and I completely fell into shock. Brother? I didn't even know Alex had a brother, let alone someone who was serving our country. She never spoke about him, I always thought she was an only child, but I guess I was wrong. Why didn't Alex ever mention him before? Why was it such a big deal that she never wanted to talk about him? Obviously she genuinely loves him to be all sentimental when he entered the room. I just don't understand…
Alex eventually left the room to get us all something to drink, leaving me and Justin alone in the dorm. It was an awkward silence that surrounded us but I decided to break it.
"So how long have you been in the military?" I ask him and he looks up at me.
"Air Force, and a year and a couple of months" He responds nicely and I smile, nodding. There was silence once again and this time he spoke up.
"So um Mitchie, I just wanted to thank you" He starts off and I give him a puzzled look.
"For what?" I ask and he smiles.
"For taking care of my little sis. Ever since I left, she's been going through some hard times. Every time I talk to her she'll always mention you and she seems like she's been doing much better. So really thanks for looking out for her" He finishes off and I smile at him but still not really sure what he's talking about.
"Can you do me a favor though?" He asks timidly and I nod my head.
"Since I'm going to be gone for a couple of months and I won't be able to contact her as much as I normally do, can you please make sure she continues to take her pills" He says and my mind goes all over the place.
"Pills for what?" I ask him and he has a raised eyebrow.
"Her pills for her PTSD" He casually says and I stay quiet. What the hell? Alex has post-traumatic stress disorder?
"You didn't know?" He asks realizing I've yet to say anything. I shake my head, looking at the ground.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I just assumed, seeing how close you guys are that she'd have told you"
"Yeah I would have thought so too." I simply said, completely angry that she never told me this.
She eventually entered back into the room. She was only able to talk to Justin for about ten more minutes until he said he needed to go already. She was already sad and shed a few tears as she hugged him goodbye. Justin and I said our goodbyes as well and he walked out of the room. I wanted to talk to Alex about everything but I knew it wasn't the right time.
A few hours passed, we didn't say anything to each other yet. She seemed less distressed as she approached me.
"Mitch?" She calls out to me. I don't face her, I didn't want her to see my emotions. She sits next to me and calls my name again.
"Why didn't you tell me you had a brother?" I asked quietly and she sighed. She shrugged.
"I didn't think it mattered." She simply said and I let out a small huff.
"You have an older brother who's in the Air Force! Why wouldn't you bring that up to me?" I tell her and she shakes her head.
"I was ashamed. Ashamed to say he was forced into the Air Force because of my mom because she found him doing drugs. I was also ashamed that they both were the reason I have…" She doesn't finish her sentence but instead shuts her mouth.
"That you have PTSD?" I ask her and she looks up at me, surprised.
"Justin told me." I tell her and she swallows loudly. I could tell she saw the anger in my face so she spoke up.
"Yes I suffer from PTSD. I witnessed cops dragging Justin out of our house, just because it was illegal to not serve when you already enlisted. I take pills to try to control it. Because of my PTSD, I sometimes get panic attacks whenever I see a –"
"Cop." I finished her sentence with a slight disbelief of a whisper. She sighs and nods her head shamefully.
"Wait that's why you didn't want to go to the fair? Because you saw a cop say hi to us?" I ask unintentionally loudly. Putting all the pieces together of the mystery of who Alex Russo is.
"Yes. Because I knew there'd be cops in there. I can't see them Mitch. I freak out completely. I hate them. I always go back to that day I got my first panic attack when they hauled Justin out of my life. It's not my fault." She says and I shake my head, standing up, having a huge headache. She thinks I'm angry because of her having PTSD but that's not the case at all.
"Are you serious right now Alex? Why the hell didn't you ever tell me! Why did you lie to me that day at the fair? Here I am thinking you had a phobia of people in general but instead it's with cops." I semi yell to her and she gets up too, standing in front of me.
"I'm sorry but I felt embarrassed! I didn't want you to know the girl you're dating is a total freak with a dysfunctional family, who has to take pills every day to be normal!" She yells out to me but not out of anger but out of remorse for not advising me.
"Are you kidding me, you met me as a freak! You know I wouldn't judge you!" I scream out to her, enrage taking over me.
"You're not a freak. But I know that now, I'm sorry. Ok?" She says calmly, grabbing my hand.
"No, not ok. Alex I can't do this…" I whisper to her, hurt passing through my body as I say each individual word and she stays frozen.
"What?" She lets out with a crack in her voice causing me to feel even more wounded. My eyes start watering up as I witnessed hers do the same.
"Alex, I've told you every single thing about me. I trusted you with all my secrets. Yet I was so naïve to realize that all my problems burdened you, that I never knew anything about you. I honestly know nothing about you Lex… I didn't know you had a brother, I didn't know you took pills every day, I didn't know you suffer from PTSD and panic attacks. I didn't know anything except your name. Throughout this whole time, I was dating a complete stranger… " I told her with tears falling down my face.
"You know enough about me Mitch. Please don't do this. We've been together for about a month. You can't throw this away because I kept something hidden…" She says lowly, grabbing both my hands.
"Alex, we both know this is hurting me as much as it is for you. I just need time. I need time to realize who you really are. This isn't going to be forever, I promise you that. Just please, don't make this any harder than it already is." I whisper to her, wiping away a tear from her cheek.
"Mitchie I love you. Please, don't break up with me" She pleads and my heart cracks at her words.
"Alex you know I love you" I simply say and she closes her eyes, trying to stop the tears.
"You're just not in love with me." She reads my mind and I stay quiet. She lets go of my hands. I grab her face and kiss her one last time, taking in every single second of that sad yet perfect moment as our lips meet each other, tears falling one by one out of the corners of my eyes.
"I just need time. I'm not breaking up with you, it's not forever. And I'm not letting this get in the way of our friendship. I care about you Lex, a lot. And right now you need to worry about your health instead of mine." I whisper to her and she stays quiet. She looks up at me, caressing my cheek. She gives me a sad smile and nods slowly. She kisses my cheek slowly and softly then prompts to turn around.
"Ok. I'll give you as much time as you need. I'll always be here waiting for you, remember that. I'm going to take a walk for a while. You don't have to wait up." She tells me, walking out of the dorm, leaving me to stand alone.
You hate me, I get it. Lmfao you may rant in my review box, I can already predict a lot of you guys will be yelling at me right now xD I'm sorry v.v
But other than that, everyone thought Alex was cheating :O How dare you guys think so negatively of her(; I've had the PTSD/Panic Attack idea since the very beginning of this story for personal reasons. I'm not sure how well it played out in this chapter, I think I could have done better /:
Anywaysss, please review!(: and please actually talk about how you're feeling about this chapter and the story overall instead of just being mad at me Lol I really need your opinions.
Clue: The breakup had to be done. Yes. But like Mitchie said, 'It's not forever' (; Please keep an open mind c(:
& I still haven't made up my mind if Max is going to exist in this story or not, most likely he won't. But just in case, bare with me