Title: Popcorn Makes Everything Romantic
Rating: This chapter is probably PG-13 due to some language and slight sexual content.
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine...I cannot claim them. They all belong to the hardworking people involved with Degrassi.
Feedback: Yes please, I want to know what everyone thinks of this story so far.
Summary: This will be a Palex (Paige/Alex) story...So, you are warned. If you are not into females dating other females, please don't read this story. It's not for you. It's about what might have happened had Alex and Paige not kissed in Lexicon of Love, would they have found their way together anyway, and what would have happened, in my opinion, if the details of the movie premier night were altered.
Author's Note: Look! It's an update! Which does, in fact, mean that I've returned from my trip with a new and very worldly outlook on life (hehe) and strong calf muscles (I walked about 15 miles a day there, whoo). Also, it means that there will be updates now. (See I told you that I wouldn't forget about my stories!) Okay, enough of my rambling. Thank you everyone who reviewed and who reviews in the future. I greatly appreciate it!
ALSO, so that you know, I will italicize and bold all of Alex's dreams in this chapter, hopefully that helps clear up any confusion that might otherwise appear. Also, if anyone was wondering…No, I don't really think that Manny/Emma have a real romantic-type relationship going on in Degrassi…but, it's a fun idea to toy with; I admit it. Hehe. Enjoy.
Alex glanced at the clock for the tenth time within the past minute. If her life was some kind of cartoon, then the minute hand on the clock would be literally going backwards because that's what it felt like. Every second took longer than the last, and despite how long the class was taking, she wasn't sure if she wanted the class to end. When the class ended, well, that meant that she had to explain to Paige what happened. She had several scenarios unfolding in her mind as to what could happen when she told Paige that Amy had kissed her in the bathroom in spite, and Hazel had found them kissing. Each scenario seemed to come alive as she drifted off into sleep during a very boring afternoon class...
"Hey Paige," Alex leaned up against the blonde's locker nervously. "We can go talk now right?"
"Course," Paige smiled over at her girlfriend before noting the panic on her face. "Everything okay?"
"No," the raven-haired girl gulped a quick breath of air before rushing through her story. "You know how Marco and Hazel were talking about girls kissing?" Paige pulled her book bag onto her shoulder and nodded swiftly. Alex continued, "Yeah, well, about that. In the bathroom today…It's a funny story really. You'll laugh, sometime, maybe. Well, right. Amy kissed me today."
"What?" Paige shut her locker door and looked at her girlfriend, confusion swirling on her face.
Alex was quick to ramble on, "In the bathroom. It didn't mean anything. She's just pissed off about Jay or something, I'm not really sure what. Anyway, we were talking when the door to the bathroom opened and Hazel was there, and she saw Amy kiss me…and, um, I don't like her that way, really. Actually, I don't like her at all. I like you though. I really like you. And I shoved her away and everything…" Alex had been staring at her shoes for the past minute, and she finally got the nerve to look up at her girlfriend; she was smiling. It was unnerving.
"Always resorting to violence, Hun?" Paige shook her blonde head giggling. "Really, don't look at me like that. It's not that big of a deal. Relax." Alex's head tilted forward effectively waking her up. Damn class putting her to sleep. Damn dreams…and she was asleep again.
"So, hi," Alex's mouth tried to form a smile upon seeing her girlfriend, but it wasn't successful. A lopsided grin formed instead.
"Hi yourself," the blonde girl smiled perkily at her as she gathered her stuff.
"How was your test?" Alex was effectively avoiding the subject at hand; though, she really only had a few minutes before Amy was going to show up…She knew that.
"Are you stalling?" Paige glanced at her girlfriend, knowing something was on her mind.
"No," Alex looked guiltily away. Paige waited. "Yes," Alex admitted.
"Out with it," Paige dropped her book bag on the floor and leaned against her locker to convey that she would wait.
Alex chuckled nervously and played with the hem on her shirt. "Funny you should say 'out' because, Amy, you know Amy, right?" Paige looked at her like she was daft. "Course you do. Anyway, funny story. She was threatening to out you to the whole school today while we were both in the bathroom, and then the door opened and Hazel walked in, and the only revenge that Amy could think of was kissing me…So, Hazel walked in and saw us kissing and…Paige, you alright?" Paige was staring off behind Alex, at someone who was standing behind Alex. Alex stopped mid-story and whirled around to face Amy.
"Hey Alex," Amy smirked at her ex-friend. "Hi Paige! Ready to go?"
Paige looked at Alex then at Amy. She frowned and Alex would have sworn that a growl was emitted from the blonde's throat before she lunged at Amy, knocking her off-balance. Uh-oh. Alex had never seen a violent side to Paige before… "You kissed my girlfriend!" Paige shoved Amy again, and the cat-fight was on. Someone dropped a pencil and Alex's head snapped to attention. What the hell…Paige wasn't the jealous type…Yeah, and Alex wasn't bored in class. What a good day to have a slideshow in class with the lights off. Alex couldn't be the only one sleeping through the class. Everyone was tired because they had several tests that day, and it was one of the few that wasn't having a quiz that day. Paige was taking a quiz though…
"You let Amy kiss you?" Paige's mouth quivered unhappily. Alex didn't want her to cry. She couldn't stand crying girls; they always got to her, especially cute crying girls.
"Well, no. I shoved her away and all." Alex was now officially uncomfortable with this conversation, and Paige was crying.
The raven-haired girl shifted to try to bring Paige into her own arms, to comfort her, but Paige shook her head and moved away. "Halt. Those lips which touch Amy's shall never touch mine."
What the... Alex really had to stop doing the reading for English Literature…the reading was getting to her, showing up in her dreams even. Of course, she was really only doing the reading because she wanted to be a better student, be better for Paige…
"So…Marco never dreamed about Emma and Manny kissing?" Out of everything for Paige to pick up on; Paige chose this after Alex told the whole story.
"No…that was to cover up for me…" Alex quirked her head to the side, wondering if Paige was mad or not. She wasn't sure.
"Mm," Paige was looking over her shoulder at someone.
"What?" Immediately fearing the worst, Alex whirled around to see two girls making-out a few feet farther up. "Manny and Emma?" It was real…Manny and Emma were together…
The final bell rang, and Alex's head snapped up again; several other heads snapped up too, just as the lights turned on. The teacher was announcing something about what they would do the next day, but Alex was already out the door. She had to catch Paige before Amy got there. She practically flew down the hallway to the lockers. Paige was already there. Though, that made sense because Paige's final class was closer to their lockers than Alex's was. "Hey Paige," the raven-haired girl smiled hesitantly.
"Hey Alex," Paige looked up and smiled at her girlfriend. She quirked one eyebrow silently. "Were you running?" Alex smoothed her hair, trying to not look too out of breath.
"No," Alex hesitated, not sure why she would lie about that. "Yes," she admitted. Paige looked more amused than worried at the moment. "I wanted to get here before Amy did. I wanted to talk to you."
"Oh, well…Amy should be a while…" Paige paused, noting the look on the other girl's face. "You know I'd always make time for you though, right?"
"Sure," Alex smiled unreassuringly. "I know," she promised. "Um, can we go outside?" Alex was nervous enough as it was without having to tell Paige about Amy in the middle of the hallway where anyone could be listening in. It just didn't seem right.
"Yeah, just let me grab my bag." Paige went to pick up a few books from her locker and realized that Alex was nervously shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "Never mind. The bag can wait. Come on." She took a hold of her girlfriend's hand and led her outside the school, in the alley, where no one was.
"So, what happened? Jay?" Alex's ex-boyfriend seemed to cause enough problems in her life; it seemed like a legitimate guess.
"No," Alex paused a moment to clear her head. "Well, kind of."
"Aren't you great with answers today?" Paige rolled her eyes playfully at her girlfriend.
"Yeah," Alex frowned. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Just tell me what happened okay?" Paige reached a hand out to touch her girlfriend's cheek, noticing that Alex was really upset with whatever had happened today. "Hey, hey. It's okay." Alex couldn't bring herself to shrug Paige's hand away.
"Um, well. You know today how Marco was going on about Manny and Emma?" Paige nodded as she moved a piece of Alex's hair behind her ear.
"Are they really together?"
"No," Alex tried to ignore the dream she had about the two girls. "No, they're not." She took a deep breath. "Um, it was a cover-up for me."
"You're dreaming about Manny and Emma?" Paige looked at her girlfriend curiously.
"What? No. I don't dream about them." Alex ignored the dream from during her last class; that dream was really about her and Paige anyway.
"Who do you dream about?" Paige smiled at her girlfriend flirtatiously. Really. Alex had no reason to worry about Paige being upset if it was just about some dream the girl had…
"Amy kissed me," Alex rushed the words out, unsure of any other way to say it. Paige's hand stopped mid-touch, and she immediately retracted it a moment later from Alex's cheek.
"That's what you dream about?" Paige looked at her, unsure of why Alex would bring that up now. A dream is only a dream. After all, Marco dreamed about girls…and he was very much so not into girls in real life. So, it didn't matter.
"No, she kissed me today. In the bathroom before you came in. She and I were talking. Well, she was talking about how she knew that you and I were together. She saw us at the movie theatre kissing, and, um, she was going to tell everyone about us." Alex fiddled with her own hair this time, nervously chewing on the end of it. Paige automatically moved the piece of hair from her girlfriend's mouth. It was a bad habit, chewing on your hair.
"You don't want anyone to know about us?" Paige looked more worried than confused at this point.
Alex looked at her girlfriend and contemplated her next words carefully, saying what she really felt. "I didn't think it would be the right way about it, having Amy telling everyone before you knew that she was going to do that. I wasn't sure if you were ready, if we were ready." Alex's hair was back in her mouth, chewing nervously.
"So you kiss her and make amends?" Paige crossed her arms defiantly across her chest. Let Alex chew on her hair. She wasn't going to stop her. Hmph.
"In the middle of her blackmailing, Hazel walked in. Amy did the only thing that she could think of, hoping to break us farther apart, she kissed me, hoping to cause a rift between us. I shoved her away immediately, and Hazel got the wrong idea at first, but I set her straight…" Alex rambled on, pausing only once.
Paige's arms were still crossed protectively across her chest. "At lunch, that's what you two talked about?" Alex's nod confirmed it. "Why would Amy want to break us up?"
"I don't know," Alex shrugged honestly before continuing. "Maybe Jay doesn't want her now that he thinks she's tainted or something stupid like that. I really don't know. She's not the most stable person in the world."
"Does she like you?" Paige wasn't sure if she was supposed to be jealous or not.
"She was supposed to be my best friend, and then she ended up with my boyfriend." Alex laughed an empty laugh to confirm that there was no spark between her and Amy. "I don't want her to come between you and me," she was serious as she mentioned that.
"I promise that I won't end up in a van with her at the Ravine." Paige's arms slowly uncrossed themselves from her chest.
"I'm serious, Paige." Alex usually joked her way through things, so when she was serious, Paige knew to listen.
"I am too, Alex. Talk about trashy." Alex still didn't smile at Paige's attempted humor. "It didn't mean anything, right?" Please don't let the kiss mean anything…Paige wasn't sure if she could take Alex falling for Amy.
"Definitely not," Alex cringed at the thought of her and Amy together. Paige noticed it and smiled, letting her hand trace up her girlfriend's face again. Okay, so her girlfriend had been kissed by another girl, but the other girl was a bitch and manipulative, and Alex didn't like Amy. Amy was straight most likely, and she was still into Jay as far as either of them knew…It was okay. So okay that Paige let her lips touch Alex's. Relieved, Alex sighed into the kiss, turning it into a deeper kiss, and placing her hands on Paige's waist.
The kiss continued until footsteps were heard nearby, and like magic, they sprung apart from one another. Now wasn't a good time to be caught kissing continuing what happened that day. "Hi Alex!" Amy's voice sounded shrill and unwanted to both pairs of ears. "Hi Paige," she continued almost too happily. "Ready to go work on stuff for the fundraiser?" Paige rolled her eyes so that only Alex noticed before turning around and allowing herself to go work with Amy. Amy thought she could just go kiss Paige's girlfriend. Well, Paige wasn't about to let that happen. Paige thought that she knew what was going on in Amy's mind, and well, Amy wasn't about to let that happen. Alex caught the look on each girl's face, knowing that some serious thinking was going on in each mind, and for some reason, she just couldn't fathom why she was always caught in the middle of it all.
