Convenience: The quality of being suitable to one's comfort, purposes, or needs . Alex is consoled after graduation by someone she has more in common with than she knows. (Surprises lurk in here. Surprises of the femslash-y sort) Palex mentioned, Alex? And /Paige mentioned
Disclaimer: I wrote this purely because I get really weird in the early hours of the morning lol. Anyway, if anything in here doesnt fit with the show...well, sorry. I just had a little fun with this k? Plus Ive never seen any fics anywhere this sort of pairin, so...yea.
The laneway. It held enough memories to make the brunette standing there sick. Good things had happened here. Bad things...were an abundance there. Paige was the only thing that had made that shitty place better. When they had kissed there, every memory up until that moment had disappeared. All that was there, was the soft feeling of the blonde's lips on her own, the special moment that had managed to live on for the past...(for what, 2 months?) had stayed there. How had it managed to stay there? It didn't matter now.
Alex shook her head, trying to clear up the nauseating memories that were Paige. Sure she had been hurting when they had broken up...sure it had hurt like hell when they had hugged at graduation, and Paige had merely moved on to hugging someone else.
That feeling of being discarded so easily was intensified when Marco had accidentally loosened his lips about what Spinner had told him. Maybe that's why she was here now. To say good-bye to memories she thought might as well had never happened.
The brunette sat on the steps where she had kissed Paige for the second time and put her head in her hands. It was summer now, and Paige had left for Banting a week ago. What had pulled Alex back here again, she didn't know. She sat there quietly remembering and thinking, specifically about Paige.
"Hey...didn't think anyone else was here."
Alex looked up at the person the voice belonged to. It took a few seconds for a click in her mind to tell her who it was.
"You're...Craig's girlfriend, right? Santos."
"Manny Santos. Yea. Craig's girlfriend? Not so sure. Mind if I sit next to you, Alex?"
Alex nodded, scooting a little bit over to let the other brunette sit down.
"So...mind if I ask what brings to you to the laneway on this fine summer day?"
"I could be asking you the same thing." Manny laughed and shook her head.
"Very true. Well...I guess I'll go first. I felt like walking around, I guess my feet felt like bringing me here. Sounds funny, I know, but it's the truth," she explained. Alex looked at Manny with a "what the hell are you talking about?" look. The younger girl laughed and asked Alex to share her reason for being here.
"Trying to get rid of some memories."
"It's kind of hard to get rid of memories when you just...jump right into where they became memories. Stop me if I'm not making any sense here!"
"No it's okay, I think I understand."
"So...how are you and Paige? It must be hard to be so far away from each other, kind of like me and Craig."
Manny's smile waned as she noticed the hurt look in Alex's deep brown eyes. The realization of the break up between the two girls hit Manny, as she stammered out an apology to the other girl.
"No...it's okay. You didn't know. Sometimes I wonder what was dumber of me. Breaking up with her, or thinking for one second that we could have a future together." A tear fell onto the pavement.
"Look Alex, I know you and I have never been on good terms, and that we don't know each other too well...but..."
"But?"
"I was wondering if you want to come to my, well, Emma's, no, our house. It's hot out here, and the trash down here is really starting to reek."
Sniffling, Alex looked up confused at Manny, a girl who had never even held a conversation with her, a girl who was now offering the comfort Alex so desperately needed. She nodded slowly, standing up, noticing how short the other girl was. Manny's eyes had a gleam in them, a kind of gleam Alex had only seen in people who had been truthful to her. Despite a feeling in her gut that this might be a bad idea, Alex began to get up.
"Yea...sure...it is starting to smell like shit here," Alex grumbled, twitching her nose a little bit.
The two brunettes walked out of the laneway and began walking towards Manny's place of residence. The taller brunette was still confused as to why Manny Santos, Paige's on again off again enemy, was being so nice to her.
"I know how it feels y'know."
"...How what feels?"
"To be so far away from someone you really care about. Banting is a long ways away from here..."
"Oh yeah. Craig is in Vancouver right?" Manny nodded, and Alex continued, "At least you're still together."
"Yep, Vancouver. For his record deal. As for the togetherness... I'm not really sure anymore. I love him, I really do. It's just that...we don't talk as much as we used to. He doesn't call as often, doesn't write me letters, or even e-mails like he used to. Sometimes I feel like he's drifting away." Manny glanced at the ground, feeling an ache in her heart. She stopped walking and took a few seconds to calm herself down. Alex stopped walking too and placed an uncertain hand on Manny's quivering shoulder.
"Oh...didn't know things were like that. I'm sorry..." Manny looked up at Alex, and whispered to herself.
"I can see why she fell for you..."
"What was that Manny?"
"Oh. Nothing. Just um...bashing myself for being stupid. About to cry in the street. Hah..." Alex shook off the odd tone in Manny's voice, and the two started walking again.
"I'm sorry I brought it up Manny."
"I'm sorry I brought Paige up."
The two girls looked at each other with an apologetic look in their eyes. They continued walking until they came upon the Simpson-Nelson household. It was ...simple. Nothing extravagant like Paige's house...but nothing like the hole that Alex lived in. It was...quaint. Perfect. The kind of house that Alex wanted when she was older.
"Please...come in. I think it's just Spike and Jack home right now. Emma said Mr. Simpson was planning on getting a little surprise for Spike. She probably went with him."
"Oh...Emma's mom won't mind some random thug at her house right? I'm pretty sure she knows about the bad history between me and Emma..."
"It's okay. Just...pretend you're a different Alex. And call her Spike, not Emma's mom. We'll just go to the basement, she won't bother us I promise."
"Um...alright..." Still not understanding why in the hell she was still talking to, let alone following Manny Santos into her basement, she followed her unlikely comfort into the basement. Spike glanced at the two girls, but said nothing as they walked down to the basement that was the shared bedroom of Manny and Emma.
When they got there, Manny turned on the lights, and motioned for Alex to sit on her bed. Alex did so, but sat a good distance away from Manny.
"Alex...um...I hate to...to bring it up again...but who broke up with who?"
"No it's okay. Talking about it is making me feel a little bit better. But...I broke up with her. I know it sounds dumb that I'm the one who's all broken up about it...but she...she..." Alex couldn't hold the tears in anymore and began sobbing into her hands. Manny was unsure if whether or not it was okay to hug the girl breaking down in front of her. Despite the knowledge that Alex wasn't exactly the cozy type, Manny scooted over to her and pulled her into a hug.
"She slept with Spinner..."
"How did you know?"
"...She did the same thing to me."