A/N: Sorry for the potential double post. When I first uploaded this chapter I messed it up. Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter!
Gabe - "You alive?"
Alex jumped awake at the sound of her phone going off right next to her head. She had apparently fallen asleep at one point. Seeing as though it was darker in her apartment now, she must have been out for a few hours at least.
Yawning, she reached for her phone and unlocked it with a swipe of her finger. "Oh shit, Gabe wanted to introduce me to Jed."
Alex - "Yep, I'll be down in a few minutes."
She let her phone drop back down to the bed before mustering up the will to stand to her feet. She headed into the bathroom, stopping in front of the mirror to fix her hair. She wondered if Steph would be downstairs. Their introduction had been far too short for her liking. Then again maybe it would be best if she wasn't down there. It was her first day in Haven Springs, she wondered if her focus should be on herself or reconnecting with her brother.
There was no denying in her mind that there was a spark between them earlier. Alex was fairly certain Steph had felt it too. As happy as that made her, it wasn't helping right now. She was worried that it might be awkward if Steph was down there. Would she be distracted by Steph? That wasn't even really a question. Steph was hard not to look at, she knew she'd be distracted. Would it be bad if Steph approached her in front of Gabe? Was she ready for Gabe to know that part of her so soon?
She took a deep breath trying to calm herself. All these thoughts running through her head was making her anxious about going leaving the apartment.
Gabe knowing she preferred girls was kind of terrifying for her. She wasn't ashamed of who she was, but she knew that wasn't the problem. Deep down she knew it was because of the way people viewed her after finding out. Having the power she had, they didn't need to say anything. She could feel and hear their hate or disgust. She was terrified that Gabe might hate her or find her repulsive like a certain therapist had not too long ago.
The only comfort she had right now is from what Gabe had said earlier that day. "Whatever floats your boat," Alex repeated out loud as she continued to stare into the mirror. That did help her feel a little better. Even then, there was still something telling her she shouldn't trust so easily with this part of her. It had almost never worked out. Unfortunately she was used to things not working out, so with a sigh she decided this might be no different. She figured she would just have to go down and see what happened.
Leaving the bathroom, she went to her bed and grabbed her phone before heading for the door and making her way down the stairs. She descended them slowly as her eyes scanned the entire bar as fast as they could, but Steph was no where to be seen. Even if a little disappointed, she felt some sort relief.
"It's about time you came down." Gabe said as Alex finished making her way to the bar and taking an open seat. "I wasn't sure I'd see you tonight."
"Sorry, I guess that bus ride took more out of me than I thought."
"Don't sweat it, I figured you fell asleep or something like that," Gabe shrugged as he grabbed an empty mug and started wiping it down. "So it sounds like you made some friends earlier today."
"Maybe? I met Ryan at the record store, but I barely know him," Alex said as she reached for one of the drink menu's. She figured if she might work here, it could help to get familiar with what they had.
Gabe just shook his head as Alex looked at him curiously. "What?"
"Nothing," Gabe said as he grabbed another mug to start cleaning. "I guess I just forgot you're old enough to drink now, huh?"
"I've missed so much of her life."
Alex sighed, that sad feeling Gabe was feeling may have been only brief, but it reflected her thoughts about missing her brother growing up too. In a way, she was happy that they shared this mutual feeling. He seemed to move past it pretty fast though as she noticed his aura turn to something more joyful.
"Anyways, I wasn't talking about just Ryan. Steph came by earlier. She was looking for you," Gabe casually mentioned hoping to get a reaction out of her.
"She did?" Alex asked trying not to sound too excited. She had barely met Steph, but it was a satisfying feeling knowing that she didn't scare Steph off earlier. "What did she want?"
"Dunno," Gabe shrugged. "Probably just wanted you to join her LARP that she's doing."
"Oh," Alex said with a little too much disappointment in her tone.
Gabe noticed but decided to play dumb and raised an eyebrow at her. "Were you hoping she was here for something else?"
Alex adjusted her glasses briefly as a way to hide her embarrassment, "N-No, I just... I don't know."
"You alright?" Gabe asked, it was clear Alex seemed at the very least disappointed about something. He had a pretty good idea what it was, but he didn't want to push the subject too far with Alex yet. He definitely would with Steph. He really wanted to with Alex too, it was kind of in his nature. His first priority with her was getting to know her again and making sure she felt welcome here. Teasing her about something he wasn't even one hundred percent certain on didn't feel right. That could happen later.
It took a minute, but Gabe's stare kind of made her think he was waiting for an answer. "Fine," she said eventually giving in. "I bumped into her at the record store and didn't really get to properly introduce myself. I just wanted to get to know her I guess. She's like the only girl in this town around my age that I've seen so far," Alex explained knowing full well that there was more to it than that.
"True," Gabe agreed with a nod before looking over at the door opening.
Alex followed his gaze and saw Ryan walking over towards them. She gave him a friendly nod when he looked at her.
"This seat taken?" Ryan asked Alex who just shook her head. Before he had even sat down Gabe set a drink down in front of him.
"What took you so long?" Gabe asked as Ryan took a drink
Ryan shrugged after setting his beer down. "Stopped at the record store, I saw the light on. I decided to check it out, but it was just Steph working on the LARP stuff," Ryan explained as Alex perked up.
Gabe definitely noticed it whether Alex realized it or not. "Maybe you should go say hi?" He suggested to Alex who definitely felt her cheeks burn at the suggestion. She just hoped Gabe and Ryan hadn't seen it.
"You sure?" The question did make her feel a little guilty. She definitely wanted to go to the record store right now instead of hanging out with Gabe.
Gabe glanced to Ryan quickly before looking back to Alex. He didn't really want to say this in front of him. "Come with me quick. We'll be right back, Ryan."
Alex raised an eyebrow at him curiously before jumping off her bar stool and following Gabe to the back room that was mostly empty right now. "You know I don't mind if you don't want to be at the bar all night, right?"
"How. . .?" Alex stopped truly surprised that he seemed to know what was on her mind.
"I work at a bar, Alex. I talk to a lot of people, you kind of start to pick up on some body language here and there. Bored until Steph is mentioned is what I'm seeing from you," Gabe pointed out as Alex tried hard not to blush. Had she really been that obvious?
"Sorry, I just. . ."
"You don't have to explain it to me," Gabe said interrupting her. "Look, I don't know what happened earlier with you and Steph, but she really wanted to see you. I say you should go see her if you really want to."
Alex stayed silent for a minute as she looked at Gabe. She was trying to get any reads off of him that told her he felt different, but there was nothing. It still didn't help her feel a little bad though. "You're sure? I feel like I should be here with you since it's my first day here."
Gabe placed a hand on Alex's shoulder and gave her a smile. "Very sure. This is your home Alex, not some temporary foster care place. You and I have all the time in the world to catch up."
Alex thought about his words for a moment. The idea of a home was something that never quite felt real. She was welcome to stay here for as long as she wanted. It made this place seem to good to be true. She smiled to herself before surprising Gabe with a big hug. "Thank you."
"Don't sweat it," Gabe replied before Alex let him go. "Hey, maybe don't mention that you're my sister to Steph quite yet. I kind of kept it a surprise and I was hoping to break that news to her myself."
"Oh, sure," Alex agreed, the request seemed innocent enough and she didn't know Gabe's relationship with Steph.
"Good. Now you get going. I should probably get back to the bar and keep Ryan company," Gabe said as he started walking with Alex towards the bar area again. He watched her say bye to Ryan quick before heading out the door with a little more pep in her step.
Gabe quickly pulled out his phone to send a message to Steph.
Gabe - "Chick with black hair and glasses coming your way."
. . .
Alex stopped outside of the record store looking straight at the door. She could see there were lights on in back through the window. She wondered if it would be alright to enter this late at night. She didn't want to make Steph upset, but Ryan said he had checked on her, so it probably wasn't a big deal.
She could feel the nerves and excitement in her chest as she approached the door. Nervous that Steph would be mad at her for entering the store this late. Excited at the whatever might happen if Steph wasn't mad.
The bell above the door jingled as she entered. It felt weird being here now, when it was clearly closed.
"Ryan, I told you I'm fine," Steph yelled from the back followed by a pause. When there was no immediate response she came out of the backroom and turned the light on. Her aura instantly turned purple as her eyes met Alex's. There was a long silence that fell between the two before Steph finally realized it was getting awkward. "H-Hey."
"Hey," Alex replied as they both went back to standing quietly and staring at each other.
"She came to see you. Holy shit, I was not ready for this. Do I tell her about what I was doing? Do chicks like her care about dungeon master stuff? Is that too nerdy? Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck."
Alex smiled at Steph's inner thoughts before deciding to speak again. "I-I hope it's alright that I stopped by."
Those thoughts stopped immediately as Steph nodded and started making her way towards the front of the store where Alex was. "Totally fine," she said as that purple aura surrounding her flared for a second. "I was actually kind of hoping to see you again to be honest. I totally forgot to even ask what your name was."
"Alex."
"Alex," Steph repeated with a smile as her aura faded a bit. "So, what brings you here at this late hour?"
Alex blushed at the thought of telling Steph why she was here.
"So cute."
Alex tried not to blush more at Steph's thoughts, but it was hard because it was mirroring her own thoughts fairly closely. "I. . . I might have also been hoping to see you," she finally admitted as that aura around Steph started shining a much more golden color. There was still underlying fear, but Alex could tell Steph was genuinely happy to hear that. If not by her aura, her speechlessness and the way she fiddled with the the ends of her sweater's sleeves was a good tell.
"Why are you so nervous? She's just another girl. You've talked to plenty of women in your life."
Alex smiled, Steph didn't strike her as the shy type and her thoughts seemed to give credibility to that. "Is this a bad time?"
"Never," Steph replied almost instantly before shaking her head realizing that sounded desperate. "I mean, no. It's fine. I was just working on some. . ."
"Nerd stuff."
"... Stuff," Steph said as she pointed over her shoulder towards the backroom with her thumb.
"Is it private stuff?" Alex asked curiously. She obviously knew what it was, but Steph didn't know that. "I could come back tomorrow."
"Just tell her. It's part of who you are, if she isn't into you because of something you love then she probably isn't worth it."
Steph sighed as the thought crossed her mind, there really wasn't any point in hiding it. If Alex was into it, awesome. If not, Steph had been alone for awhile now. "No, but it is pretty nerdy. If you're not into that, I get it."
"Well I'm no dungeon master, but everyone keeps mentioning this LARP thing coming up and it sounds pretty fun."
Steph smiled brighter than she had before, her aura radiating joy. It was infectious. Alex could feel a weight lifted off her shoulders. "Awesome, let me show you what I'm working on then," Steph said almost excitedly before motioning for Alex to follow her.
Alex couldn't help but smile herself as she followed Steph and entered the back room of the record store. On a big table, there was open books with drawings of monsters, maps of grand cities, and a bunch of smaller props that looked like they belonged to a board game. On the back of a chair pulled out from the table was a long black dress of some sort and a witch's hat.
"Wow, this looks intense," Alex said trying to make sense of everything she was seeing. She had heard of games like this, but had never actually seen it.
Steph just simply watched her take it all in. The genuine curiosity in Alex's eyes as she looked at the drawings of monsters and the map of the city relaxed her. She couldn't help start noticing details about Alex. She got lost in thought looking at the star tattooed on her hand. She wondered what it meant to Alex. She was curious as to why she got it.
Her eyes followed it when Alex reached up to adjust her glasses before leaning closer to look at the map in front of her. Her eyes wandered from the map up to her face. She stayed fixated on that for a minute taking in everything that she could. Alex was beautiful and staring at her was starting to make Steph really wonder if she did believe in love at first sight after all. The thought broke Steph's concentration momentarily before her eyes started traveling down the rest of Alex's body. She stopped every once in awhile appreciating everything that was this fascinating woman in front of her.
"Did you make these?" Alex asked a moment later as she inspected the drawings of two zombie or skeleton like creatures. There was no response for a moment so Alex glanced over towards Steph who was staring right at her. The look in her eyes was something Alex hadn't seen before. It was intense.
She noted the fear in her aura was gone, replaced with something she had only seen a few times. The pink in that aura was faint. Even so, the heat Alex could feel from it was overpowering. She knew it was a strong emotion but for once it seemed to be directed right at her. "Steph?" She asked feeling like she might lose her breath if she didn't interrupt this feeling.
Steph blinked once or twice snapping out of whatever daze she had been in.
"Oh fuck, she caught you checking her out."
"Sorry, I was just thinking about something," Steph lied with a wave of her hand before glancing to the pictures Alex was hovering over. "W-What did you ask?"
Alex took a breath as the feeling started to fade. "Did you make these?"
"Uh, yea I made those. I'm doing a vote on them actually. One of them is going to be the final boss for the LARP," she explained as Alex glanced back to them. The feeling was mostly gone now. "Which one would you pick for a boss?"
"Definitely this one," Alex said pointing at one of the drawings.
"Stormwrither," Steph read with a nod. "Good choice. That is the one I am voting for too. Speaking of which, I know we just met but did you maybe want to do the LARP with us?"
Alex glanced past Steph at the witches hat, she didn't have anything like that at home. She barely had enough clothes to last her the week. "I don't know if I'd fit in. Does everyone dress up?"
Steph followed her gaze to the hat nearby and clued into what she was getting at. "Oh, you don't need to go all out. I really get into it."
"That's cute," Alex said before feeling her cheeks burn. She wasn't sure where it had come from, but the words just kind of fell out of her mouth when she imagined what Steph might look like all dressed up. "I meant... You're cute. Shit. Sorry, I didn't... I..." Alex stopped when Steph placed a hand on her shoulder. She knew her face was red, it had to be. She had just butchered whatever she was trying to say and somehow made it worse.
"You're pretty cute too," Steph said as Alex looked at her straight in the eyes for a minute. Alex could feel that familiar heat again. The aura around Steph burning brighter than before. The intensity causing Alex to falter and break eye contact which caused Steph's lips to curl into a smile. She stared at Steph's lips for a moment. There was a desire coursing through her and for a moment she wondered if it was her own desire or a product of Steph's feeling invading her body.
She decided she didn't care, she knew what she wanted. She glanced back up to Steph's eyes and their gazes locked. She could feel her heart starting to race as she slowly leaned in. The question as to whether Steph was alright with this answered when Steph closed her eyes with a shaky breath.
Alex could feel Steph's breath against her lips just as a loud crash from the other room caused them to jump apart and open their eyes. Both women stared at each other for just a second before Steph cleared her throat and went into the other room to check on the noise.
Alex took a deep breath, her racing heart calming as she stood where Steph had left her. This feeling inside of her was new, being in such close vicinity to Steph was intoxicating. Now that Steph was in the other room Alex realized this desire was her own.
After a minute of calming down, she decided to head back out into the front of the store where she found Steph bent down and picking up a bunch of records on the floor. The cat lying on the counter with it's heading hanging over the edge looking at Steph was obviously to blame.
"Everything alright?" Alex asked as she approached Steph to see if she needed help.
"Yeah, Valkyrie just pushed all these records and CD's I had up here on the counter," Steph replied as she stood up with the items and set them back on the counter. She gave Valkyrie a stern look for a moment before turning back to Alex.
"Valkyrie we almost kissed. You really are a devil cat!"
"Sorry about-"
"About what just-"
Both girls stopped and laughed a little bit at interrupting each other. "You go," Alex said.
Steph thought about it for a second. "I know we just met and you know," Steph said as she motioned towards the back room with her head. Alex just nodded in response. "I'm not like super great with this stuff, but would you maybe want to get ice cream or something tomorrow? My treat."
"L-Like a date?" Alex asked as Steph's aura flared purple.
"She saw right through that. Good one, Gingrich."
"It doesn't have to be. Maybe just two new friends getting ice cream?" Steph asked again trying to make it sound less like a date. "Still my treat."
Alex looked at Steph for a moment. "How about you buy me ice cream and show me more of your LARP stuff. Then we'll call it a date."
"I love her."
The smile on Steph's face glowed almost as bright as her aura. "A date it is."
About twenty minutes later. . .
Alex entered the bar after walking around town for about an hour thinking about what had just happened. The bar was a lot emptier than earlier.
"I was wondering when you would get back here," Gabe said as he cleaned up a spot at the bar someone had just been sitting at. "I probably should have warned you that Steph can get really into that nerdy stuff."
"Yea," Alex agreed as she went over to the bar. "She showed me all the stuff she was working on for the LARP," she explained as Gabe chuckled. He remembered awhile back when he had asked Steph to explain all of it to him. He knew she could really get into it. "I guess I've officially been recruited."
"Oh yea?" Gabe asked with a raised eyebrow as he tapped away at the computer behind the bar. "I wasn't sure you'd be into it."
"Maybe not super into it yet, but definitely into her." Alex smiled at her thought. "Can't really say, I've never tried it before."
"Fair enough," Gabe replied before finally pulling himself away from the computer and looking back at her. "Well I'm glad you will be joining. I don't know what Steph has planned for you yet, but I will definitely be there."
"Should be fun," Alex said with smile. She wasn't fully sure what to expect yet, but knowing Gabe was participating too made her happy. "I don't mean to cut this short, but I'm honestly kind of tired."
"No problem. I'll be here for about another hour and then the place is closing down. If you need anything tonight just call me."
"Thanks, Gabe... for everything."
He just smiled in response before Alex turned and started heading up the stairs. Seeing as though there was no one waiting on him, he decided to check his phone quick. It seemed he had missed a few messages.
Steph - "Dude, you are the best. I totally missed your message earlier. I thought it was Ryan coming back to check on me or something."
Steph - "She. Is. Amazing. Her name is Alex btw. She didn't run away when I showed her the LARP prep I was working on."
Steph - "We kind of almost kissed."
Gabe blinked a few times before looking up at the stair case leading up to Alex's apartment. It seems she left out a few details regarding what happened at the record store.
Gabe - "Sounds like you're kind of falling for her."
Steph - "Bite me."
Gabe - "I think I'll leave that for the mystery girl."
Steph - "..."
Gabe - "Might happen tomorrow at the rate you are moving."
Steph - "..."
Steph - "I'm not intentionally moving this fast. The kiss kind of came out of no where. One moment we were talking about monsters, the next we were... idk."
Gabe - "So you did kiss?"
Steph - "No. Valkyrie decided to fuck it up."
Gabe - "I'm not sure how a cat messed up your kiss, but I've met Valkyrie."
Steph - "Literal devil cat. We were so close."
Gabe - "Maybe it was for the better. Couldn't hurt to get to know her a little bit first, right?"
Steph - "I'm meeting up with her tomorrow. I get what you are saying, but like I said there is something different about this chick. I can't explain what exactly, it's just different."
Gabe - "Get to know her more first. You might figure out what it is then. Besides, it might be good to give her a chance to think it all through. You are moving kind of fast."
Steph - "To set the record straight. She was the one who tried to kiss me. I just froze up like it was my first kissing a girl."
Gabe - "Oh."