CHAPTER FOUR
Morning is hell.
Morning was hell, six hours ago, and now it's worse. God. She wasn't even blackout drunk or anything, just tired as fuck. And, okay, she's still hungover. Just 'cause she didn't black out doesn't mean she wasn't past-buzzed last night.
Alex's breath escapes her in the longest groan known to man. Her hand gropes blindly for the pull at the window beside her bed, and twists to let the light in. "Fffffuuuck." But she has a brunch to get to. And, while Ren can be surprisingly forgiving, she'd actually feel pretty bad if she stood him up when he came all this way to see her.
Somehow, she drags herself out of bed, stripping off her clothes from the night before as she hobbles to the shower. Jonas left last night - without cuddling, dammit - so who cares if she's naked in her own apartment? Leah is still out of the country, she's alone - free reign, baby.
The too-cold water shocks her a bit back into herself, and she resists the urge to turn up the heat too much, well aware that she is capable of falling asleep in the shower, and not wanting to tempt fate. She scrubs most of the glitter from her skin, halting for a second as her heart falls: she went to sleep with glitter. Those sheets will never be clean. Dammit. She actually has to do laundry.
Exiting the shower after a hasty hair wash/leg shave combo, Alex goes through the standard 'be suitable for public consumption' routine; half-dried hair, clean teeth, all traces of her OTT makeup for go-go night finally cleaned off. Her stomach is growling by the time she's shuffled back to her room, and she checks her phone. Shit— she's meeting Ren and Nona in 40 minutes and her phone is only at 20%. Still wrapped in a towel, she heads to the kitchen to plug it in, and pauses.
Her tips from last night are wadded up on the counter, about half of what they should be.
That motherfucker.
Then she sees the cup, the bottle, the note. An alka seltzer tab and a bottle of ibuprofen sit next to a glass of water and a note scrawled across the page she usually keeps taped to the back of her front door.
Alex-
Stock your cabinets more often. Food's in the fridge.
P.S: Don't leave the fucking code to your building on the door.
She just stares at the note for a second. So…
She turns to the fridge, pulling it open. Sure enough, there's real actual food in it. Not just a couple bottles of water, a few tubes of Go-Gurt, a pack of hotdogs, pickles, and an old half-eaten container of guac. There's actual fruit? And vegetables? There's sandwich meat? And milk? And eggs?! Whaaaaaat even.
Alex hesitates before taking a couple painkillers and dropping the tab into the rest of the water, tapping her fingers against the side as it fizzes away.
He bought her groceries. He dealt with her the night before with more patience than she's ever had (and she can be very patient on occasion), he handled her drunken shenanigans with grace, brought her home drunk and completely ignored her attempts to hit on him, carried her all the way up to her apartment, then bought her groceries and left something out for her hangover.
Holy shit.
Oh God. Wait. That's… Okay, she's never been one for religion. She really isn't. They didn't grow up with it, it's not something she's ever bought into, but… Fuck.
No, okay, she's— that's not— No. She's hungover and grateful. That's all.
Still, checking her cupboards only to find real actual bread, honey nut cheerios, and fuckin dried pea snacks - WHAT? This food has actual nutritional value?! And where is her 12-pack of ramen? - the suspicion takes root in the back of her mind.
Her stomach was growling a second ago, so she grabs the milk from the fridge and pours herself a bowl of cereal. And then sits, still wrapped in a towel, contemplating her sudden crisis of faith.
Some kind of cosmic plan - some kind of Christmas Carol bullshit to make her a better person - is that what this is? Guardian angels aren't real, she logically knows that. But still.
Her phone rings. "Yup."
"Alex, we're gonna be at the restaurant at 12:10." It's Nona. Probably calling from their nice bluetooth-enabled car. They have a car. She has a bike.
"Yup."
"...And you're gonna be…?"
"At the restaurant at noon, just to spite you."
She hears Ren snort. "We're gonna eat whether you're there or not, y'know. So if you want us to foot the bill, you better show."
"Yeah, yeah. I have my own food, you know." Or at least now she does.
"Frozen dinners and ramen aren't meals, Alex."
"I'll have you know there is a whole bag of cherries and a head of lettuce in my fridge right now."
"...Okay, you're lying."
"Not sure how I'm gonna eat the lettuce, 'cause he conveniently forgot to get me some ranch, but whatever."
"He?" Ren is instantly intrigued.
"Oh. I have. A story."
"Save it for brunch," Nona interrupts. "We're going to go be tourists at Powell's. See you at noonish."
She hangs up before anyone says goodbye. Alex snorts. "Sure, yeah." She sets her phone down again, steadily chowing down. She hasn't had breakfast for breakfast in… ages? Apart from a Go-Gurt on her bike, but that's not breakfast food as much as sugar-loaded yogurt snack for kids. Her thumb hovers before she convinces herself that it's not weird at all and taps her phone back open, heading to facebook. Jonas Long.
Nothing.
Well, plenty of Jonas Longs in the world, but no one nearby, no one with a profile pic that looks familiar.
It's 'cause he's an angel, Alex, he's an actual guardian angel and they don't use Facebook.
Lies. Lies and fallacies.
Shit, it's gonna take her 20-25 minutes to walk to the place and she still needs to get dressed. ...Which means it'll be a bike day.
.
"Sorry for the walk, Alex."
"Oh God, it's— no worries, it's fine." She waves a hand - the free hand not towing her bike along at her side. "I mean - you guys should really have a bike rack, but whatever, I'll make do."
"We do! Sometimes." Ren almost looks sheepish. "Took it off for the drive down, though— better mileage."
Alex just rolls her eyes. When are they getting married, honestly. Ren is already in millennial dad mode.
Brunch was… ugh, actually pretty good. Even if she hates to admit it. Even if she especially hates admitting that Ren's maximum-hipster avocado toast actually tasted delicious, when she stole (more than) a few bites. She'll still stick to the story that her french toast was the best possible option. The mimosas were excellent as well. So was the absolute disbelief on her friends' faces over hearing her story about the night before. The only crappy part of brunch was exiting the restaurant to a flat tire, thanks to a puncture she must've missed on the way over. So now she's stuck walking her bike back to her apartment. At least she's got company.
"Any more thoughts about joining us on the hike tomorrow?" Nona sounds interested but not too hopeful, and Alex sends her an apologetic look.
"What time?"
"10am."
She lets out a long breath. "I'm sorry, guys. I really am. I'm still dead from last night and have another long shift tonight. I would, really, but…" She shrugs helplessly. "I'm sorry."
Ren waves her off. "No, no, it's fine. We'll do something that night. I still wanted-" He glances to Nona, then shrugs. "We'll hang."
Alex knows she should be inviting them to just come chill at her apartment since they're walking there anyway, but she bites her lip. It's kind of a mess. She's kind of a mess. God, they just… they have their lives so together.
"Wait, we turn here? Up and over?"
"Ten blocks or so." The words spark a memory, and Alex lights up as she glances around. "Oh shit— hold on to this for a second?" Her bike is hardly out of her hands before she's jogging over to the warehouse building - open now, a kind of open-air gym - her bike lock slung cross-bodied and thumping against her side. The place is pretty cool, if she were into that sort of thing.
She tips her sunglasses up onto her forehead, shading her eyes to look inside. Sure enough, multicolored wings are visible on a body toward the back corner. God. Yeah, that had to be some kind of miracle, people aren't that hot.
Making a gesture to the gym employee at the entrance, motioning that she'll just be a sec, wants to say hi to someone, she steps inside. He's distracted - or, not distracted, just very focused. He can't be real. He just can't. Real people don't look like romance novel love interests made flesh. Real people don't have the most insane Intense™ gazes like he does. Or the arms, holy fuck. She tries to get a look at the piece covering one shoulder, but can't exactly examine it fully as he thuds away against a punching bag.
Alex grins. Oh. This will be good.
She doesn't quite tiptoe, but she does carefully maneuver herself into position before running forward, pouncing on him with her arms around his neck, like she stands any chance of tackling him, shades clattering off the side of the mat. "Jojo!"
.
Last night had been more than odd. He'd picked up groceries for Alex, unpacked them, wrote her a little note - because he was in a 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' situation - and then trudged his way back home to go to bed. When his alarm had buzzed sometime around noon, he'd still regretted it. But now that he's doing something else, preoccupied, Jonas is just a bit more thankful for what he'd done. If she wanted to thank him for it, she knew where he worked. And besides, he'd left her untouched. Which meant she probably wasn't going to call the cops on him. Probably.
Upon searching instagram for Alex, he'd found a few potential matches, but he didn't quite have enough information on her to do much else other than search. He'd had to remind himself multiple times why he was searching, most of which were excuses, but it made him feel better about the whole deal of leaving a drunk girl asleep in her apartment. Which wasn't even that bad, without context. If he could say he was actually her friend, that would probably make it better, but. Basically strangers. Basically.
Jonas had gotten himself up and out of the house by the time the clock had rolled around one, and headed for the gym almost instantly, because he needed the workout and his shift didn't start for another few hours. If he really wanted sleep, he could just head home and take a power nap or something. Easy. Or at least, it would be easy, if Alex hadn't randomly snuck up on him in the middle of working through a boxing set.
With his earbuds in and eyes focused on the bag in front of him, Jonas would only have noticed her if he turned around right then. He's counting his strikes — right, left left, right, up — and then something is around his neck. Which turns out to be a person, once he's gotten a better grip on them. The gloves mean he can't exactly grab them easily, but he still backs away from the bag with record speed, managing to get a hold on some extremity near his throat to flip them over his shoulders and onto the mats below.
He's on autopilot when he twists her arm underneath one of her shoulders and pins it there, the other trapped by his heel and pressed down until he can feel the muscles shift in an agonizing way. And then Jonas registers the face. "Alex?"
.
She's breathless. Utterly out of breath. Whatever wasn't knocked from her by the throw is lost when her eyes go wide, because holy shit. God. This is a problem. Because now she's thinking about the last guy she was with who could just toss her around and god, the sex had been so good until it all went down in flames. How it usually was when she stayed with someone for the sex. Or maybe she just went for people of a similar degree of mess to herself. What can she say, she likes it wild and rough. And he's bein' just the right amount of rough.
Alex's face is flushed, lids low and pupils dilating, a grin coming over her features as she sucks in a breath through her teeth, not quite wincing at the pressure making her shoulder ache. She doesn't mind it as much as she should. (Masochist, some part of her chides. She tells it to fuck off.) A tiny noise of exertion escapes her mouth before she manages a panted, "Hey, angel." Her eyes suddenly take in the rest of him - and oh God, there's a lot of him and he's sweaty and she's utter trash for muscles and tattoos - and light up upon seeing the ink on his chest.
She wiggles a bit, getting her feet planted enough to bridge her hips up and free an arm, even if she's having to squeak and pant and struggle a bit to do so. He let up slightly upon realizing it was her, otherwise she's pretty sure she'd be going nowhere. But with enough wiggle room - and enough determination on her part - she frees a hand with a soft sound of triumph. Immediately, her fingers go for his chest, ignoring the scripture on one side to run over the knot detailed on the other. Some kind of Celtic thing maybe? It's very cool. Worked into a larger piece covering the top of his arm. "Nice."
.
"Aaaah— Shit, sorry, oh my God-" He definitely didn't mean to toss her around like a sack of fucking potatoes. At least, not this time. Last night it had been more out of necessity since she couldn't really walk. Jonas tugs one of his earbuds out so that he can actually hear her, though he pauses when he registers the nickname. Angel. If it weren't for the blood already rushing because of his routine, he'd be more flushed than a tomato. Especially when she just reaches out to fucking touch him without an invite. He isn't going to complain, but he is pulling away from her, undoing one of his gloves with his teeth so that he can slide a hand out to offer it for help.
Once he's made sure that no, she's not about to bruise herself because of the shit he just pulled and no, she's not just randomly touching his chest, because that was kind of weird and he has some issues with that, Jonas is more than happy to stay where he is. Half standing half kneeling above her, still with his one free hand extended so they can both get off the mats. She's not nearly as flamboyant as last night- no pink-and-white pleather, just shorts and a tank top, those same combat boots. It's a better look for her, in his opinion. Another pair of footsteps pops up behind them, and he turns his head enough to spot blondie and his girl on their way over.
"Wow, Al, way to go! Get tossed onto the ground by some big burly… Okay wow you are ripped. "
"...Thanks?"
.
Alex ignores the offered hand, happy to stay on her back, thanks. She grins to her friends. "First off, Ren, you have a long-term girlfriend-"
"He can look-"
"I can look!" Ren defends himself, though Nona had already shrugged off Alex's allegation.
"Secondly— Guys, this is Jonas. Jojo, these are my friends Ren and Nona."
"Cool tattoos." Nona's voice is level, but she shoots Alex an accusatory glance. Alex's grin widens.
"Ren and Nona are dear old friends of mine - disgustingly responsible - who should really go ahead and tie the knot already." She's speaking teasingly, but doesn't miss the pink flushing over Ren's ears and neck. "Jonas is the man who threw me down on the bed last night."
.
"Not—" Jonas makes an exasperated noise, shaking his head as he starts fitting his glove back on again. This isn't something he expected to happen, but hey, guess it's fucking happening. "I carried her back home, is all. No big."
"And bought her groceries."
He shoots an incredulous look at Alex, lips tipping into a frown as the blond - Ren - goes on.
"And left out some pain meds for her. Thanks for taking care of my friend, by the way."
.
Alex half-shrugs at Jonas's pointed look, batting her eyelashes with faux innocence even as she grins. Best friends. Had to say something about it.
.
"No problem."
"Didn't expect you to be so jacked outside the bar, though."
Nona, the girlfriend, interrupts him. "Good to meet you, Jonas." At least she's smiling.
He returns it. "Yeah. Kind of wish it was under better circumstances, considering Alex just scared the shit out of me."
.
"Yeah, she does that."
Alex rolls her eyes at Ren's offhanded comment, and he snickers. "I'm all about keepin' you on your toes," she waves a hand dismissively. "Constant vigilance!"
"Riiight." Nona shakes her head. "You know, one day you're gonna get seriously hurt from doing something like this."
Alex scoffs, stretching out on the mat and rolling back her shoulders before sitting up to lean back on her palms. "Aw, c'mon. Jonas would never hurt me, would you Jojo?" She pats the top of his sneaker.
.
"Still don't like you calling me Jojo, but I don't have plans on it." Not yet at least. Alex is kind of toeing the line, even if she's trying to be coy about the whole thing. Which really isn't working.
.
"Not unless I ask-"
"Alex, stop talking." Ren just barely has a chance to interrupt her, and rolls his eyes at her wolfish smirk. "Christ." He holds out a hand, and when she doesn't take it, comes around behind her, wedging his arms under hers to lift. "Let's go get you some water, you thirsty girl."
She snorts, but helps him out and pulls herself to her feet. Once up, she brushes herself off, and shoots a genuine grin at Jonas. "I really do want to say thanks, though. For helping me out last night."
.
"Yeah, well. Serial killers are very much a thing, and letting a girl walk herself home half drunk wasn't exactly on my to-do list." Once the glove is back on, Jonas leaves his earbud out, but goes back to hammering home on the punching bag. Left left, right, up, right right, repeat and reverse. He's still talking. "Especially not at 5AM when she has business to attend to the next day. I've been in that position before."
A few times too many. Jonas can still feel eyes on him as he continues, half focused on the routine and half on the conversation. He's done it before, both with his own students and with friends, though he's figured out a system that works. There's a lull to his blows whenever someone starts talking. They hit faster, but they're softer, so that he can hear what's actually being said to him.
"What, half drunk and stumbling down the avenue? Kinda hard to picture." He can almost hear the grin in Ren's voice. "Especially when you look like this."
"Ren. C'mon." Nona nudges her quietly snickering boyfriend, and Jonas resists the urge to roll his eyes.
"Different kind of drunk."
"Ooooh, blood drunk?"
"Sure, we'll go with that."
.
Alex, for once, isn't talking, just following along with the conversation, adjusting the bike lock and rubbing where it had dug in against her ribs. She shoots Jonas a curious look, but doesn't ask. She's set aside flirtation for now, now that she's not pinned under him, and leans her elbow on Ren's shoulder to stretch out her quads. The struggle had been fun, but unexpected, and she's feeling it.
"Anyway, angel. Lemme pay you back some time." It's not a come-on, just an invitation, and it's sincere. "Come in to the Island, I'll set you up a tab, comp you some drinks. Nothing outrageous, but I can extend a little credit. I'm working tonight, if you're free. Or before midnight tomorrow. If not, any time Thursday through Sunday. Come hit me up." She's settled back into something a lot more relaxed, now that she's let the rush wear off.
"...And now we let Hot Jonas return to his workout." Ren pats her on the shoulder, ushering her away.
"And now we let Hot Jonas return to his workout," Alex agrees, rolling her eyes and snorting a laugh as she follows.
.
His left hand pauses halfway to the bag when they both call him the nickname in tandem. It's not enough for them to notice, seeing as they've already turned away, but… Yeah that was more than a bit odd for him to hear. Though getting the invitation to the club was another story entirely. Usually Jonas would say it isn't his scene, try to blow the whole thing off, but she's already walking away with the rest of her group. Which means that isn't really an option. Without needing to work tonight, he doesn't have much of a choice but to either go or ditch. His mother's manners might have gotten drilled further into him than he originally thought.
A nice girl invited you, Jonas. Yeah, the nice girl that had been hounding him for free drinks last night, that would sure be a trip. Great. He goes back to trying to focus on his punches, the routine, keeping her and her friends out of his head entirely. It gets easier as time passes, when he works into the rhythm again, pausing only to put his earbuds back in properly so that he can ignore the rest of the world.
.
They're almost out of the gym when Alex pauses at the desk. "Mind if I just leave a note?" The guy on duty shrugs, and Alex reaches for the pen and one of the gym's business cards.
Can't promise I won't accidentally drunk dial you, but at least you'll know who's calling.
She writes in her number, signs it with a flourish, folds it in half. "If you can get that to Jonas?" She hands it off with a, "Thanks," before leaving with Ren and Nona.
Faltering for a second, Alex runs for her bike. "Shit, you just left it here?" It's been propped up against a tree outside, not even locked or anything. Poor baby.
"It's got a flat, Alex, and you disappeared."
She runs a hand over the frame, feeling for the little toolkit tucked up under the saddle, screwing the cap on the end of the handlebars on tighter to make sure her little secret compartment is safe. She's rarely worried about it when it's chilling in the back room of the Island or locked up on the monitored rack outside her apartment building, but she doesn't just leave it out on the street. That's her meal ticket.
Once assured that, yes, her precious bean is safe, she resumes walking.
"Anyway." She's leading the way, heading for her apartment. "See, I told you. He's like weirdly hot and too nice." She didn't share her half-considered angel theory over brunch, but had definitely mentioned the weird behavior, and they'd debated on Good Christian Boy-ness. The discussion seems to be turning that way again, until Ren suddenly interrupts himself.
"Actually - sorry - hon, you wanna go back and get the car from the garage? I kinda wanna talk to Alex alone for a second."
Nona hesitates, a little confused. Understandable. Ren is just a li'l bit clingy.
"I should clarify: Alex's apartment is probably a mess and I, as best friend, need to begin the lecture now, while she can't escape."
That draws a smile and Nona waves them off, heading back the direction they'd come as Ren turns to Alex and they resume their walk.
"So. Alex, it is my duty, as best friend-" his voice drops low for a second. "To inform you that I'm gonna propose to Nona this week."
Alex staggers for a second, enough to hit her boots against the pedals of her bike. "Oh." She quickly regains her footing, maybe even picking up her pace. Seven more blocks. "Oh."
"Oh?" Ren has a bemused half-smile on his face. "I was sort of expecting some kind of congratulations?"
"No! I mean, yes! Congrats!" She's stumbling over her words now, instead of her feet, but tries to give him an encouraging grin, even if it falters. "I just— you're kinda young, right?"
He huffs out a laugh, but Alex can sense the discomfort in it even as he's rolling his eyes, and regrets saying anything. "We've been living together for two years, Alex." Oh God, it's been that long? "And before that, dating on and off for another… five? Six? It's been a long time coming, personally."
"I'm— No, you're totally right. I'm just… surprised, is all." Okay. So her best friend is getting married. Maybe. Assuming Nona says yes. "You guys have talked about this?"
Ren has his hands jammed into his shorts pockets. "Yeah. Well, not in exactly those terms, but… we've theorized. Talked about planning for the future. And we're both super stable right now, I've even got a 401k thing going - like, this is adult life, Alex. And I want to spend it with her."
Adult life. So what is she living? Alex feels a little dizzy, but she holds on tighter to her bike. It's kind of a crutch at the moment. "That's… wow, Ren."
"You're really givin' me some bad vibes, Alex…" he trails off. "Should… should I be worried, or…?"
"No, not worried - God, not worried at all," she manages a laugh, even if it's a little breathless. Don't worry about me. Just a quarter life crisis kicking off over here. "I'm— I'm so happy for you guys, wow."
"I mean-" Ren laughs, and it's a lot lighter than hers was. "She hasn't said yes yet, so… I guess we shouldn't celebrate too soon."
"Still. Good for you, Ren." The look she shoots him is softer than Alex usually is. Genuine, if a little blindsided. She is happy for them. She's just… Surprised. Really surprised. She's had friends get married before, but they were college friends, usually older than her by a few years, people she knew from work. This is Ren. This is her best friend. Christ, they're only 25. Fuck - she's only 25.
He's been talking, but Alex's ears are ringing, and she's missed some of it - which only makes her feel more guilty. "...And, lemme tell you, thank God she wears rings, 'cause asking her size woulda been a dead giveaway, really-"
Only two more blocks. Two more.
"-Which is why you aren't invited along, sorry. But you have that dance thing you do Tuesdays anyway, right?"
Alex nods, holding that pleasant smile. Yeah. She might have to pregame a little harder than usual, but at least she'll have someone's arms around her while Ren is off adulting. Not completely alone. She has friends. Friends that are also in stable relationships. Nope, can't think about that. She needs to remember that she's legitimately happy for them. She is. Really. Honest.
"...So where can Nona park when she comes around?"
They've reached her apartment building, and Alex is a little ashamed of the relief that comes when she realizes her lack of forethought. "Oh— shit, sorry Ren, I— Since I don't have a car, I just rent out my parking space to our neighbors, so… sorry."
"It's cool, we'll take a guest spot-"
"Actually, I was kinda hoping to get a couple hours of sleep in before my shift."
"...Oh."
"And my apartment is kinda… not safe for human consumption?"
"Is that legal?"
They banter back and forth a bit more, killing time waiting for Nona, and the chatter lets her anxiety fade a bit. Lets her rationalize things to herself. As long as she doesn't think about it too much, she can just be happy for them.
Notes: Eyyy another chapter. No moodboard for this one, though we've still been listening to Alex and Jonas's playlists on repeat while writing, so if you haven't checked those out you definitely should. [If you want to get involved in some kind of Jonalex community, hit me up on tumblr or discord.]