Chapter Seven: Mistakes Will Break Her Heart

Craig

"Whoa! What a coincidence Alex! Your old girlfriend and your new girlfriend in the same room!" I said, laughing.

"Shut up Craig!" My mom, dad, sister, and Ashley all said at the same time. After Ashley caught Ellie and Alex kissing on the doorstep, Alex invited Ellie in to meet her. The boy that Ashley brought with her was standing in the corner, observing but staying completely silent. I guess he had the right idea.

"Ellie, this is Ashley," Alex said, introducing them. "Ashley, Ellie," she added. The two girls shook hands but weren't smiling.

"I've heard so much about you," Ellie said, trying to be nice.

"Really? Because I haven't heard a thing about you," Ashley replied, narrowing her eyes. Ellie pulled her hand back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm sorry Ellie, I didn't realize everyone would be so immature," Alex said, throwing dirty looks at both Ashley and me.

"Yeah, I think I'll go now. I'll see you on Monday," Ellie said, heading for the door. Ashley watched in contempt as Alex followed her.

We all saw her kiss Ellie on the cheek and whisper in her ear. Ellie smiled and hugged Alex. I could tell that Ashley was getting even more jealous by the second. Her face turned bright red when Ellie gave Alex a little peck on the lips.

As soon as the door was closed, my parents quickly left the room. They knew that something bad was about to happen and that they needed to give us all privacy.

"What the hell was that?" Ashley snapped, walking over to Alex and looking her in the eyes.

"That was my date!" Alex yelled at her. "You had no right to treat her like that!"

"I can't believe you already have a new girlfriend. I thought that we had a chance to make this work. You invited me here and then you brought her home with you!"

"First of all, I didn't invite you here. You invited yourself! All I wanted you to do was call Craig and talk some sense into him," Alex protested. As soon as I heard my name, I brought myself into the fight.

"WHAT?" I yelled. "Why are you even telling anyone my business Alex?"

"Don't be such a brat Craig. You need help, and since you wouldn't listen to me, I wanted Ashley to try to get through to you," she told me.

"I don't need help from either of you!" I snapped. I started up the stairs to get away from them.

"From what I've heard, you do," the kid in the corner said quietly.

"What the hell?" I asked, spinning around. "You don't know anything about me, kid. So why don't you mind your own fucking business."

"You told him, Ashley? Thanks a lot," I heard Alex say as I stormed up to my room. I slammed the door behind me and all I could hear were their muffled voices. I should've never confided in Alex, and I wouldn't have if I'd known she would tell everyone she knew.

Alex

Two hours after our fight, Ashley's friend Aiden was settled in on an air mattress on my bedroom floor. Since Craig wouldn't let anyone near him, and my parents knew I most definitely didn't like boys, they arranged for him to sleep in my room. Ashley was downstairs on the couch.

"I didn't mean to make things worse," he said suddenly as I was getting into bed.

"It's not your fault, trust me," I told him. "I shouldn't have told anyone about Craig's problems. I was only trying to help him. But Ashley also shouldn't have told you. She knew it wasn't something I wanted spread around," I added.

"Ashley's just been really down since you moved. I met her a few days after you left and she was miserable. When she heard from you, she was so happy to be able to come see you. I'm her only friend now, and she wanted to confide in someone. I'm not gonna tell anyone back home, don't worry," he explained.

"Well, either way, I guess I should apologize to Craig and then Ashley. I didn't mean to lose my temper. And I didn't mean to upset Ashley. It's just hard to sit around every weekend thinking about her and about being alone, so I went on one date. Ellie's not my girlfriend. To tell you the truth, I wanted to work things out with Ashley too. I'll be right back," I said.

I left my room and made my way down the hall to apologize to Craig first.

Craig

I never left my room after the fight. I didn't really feel like talking to anyone. Somewhere around eleven thirty there was a knock on my door. At first I didn't say anything; just waited for whoever it was to go away. But when the knock came again, more persistently this time, I gave in.

"Come in," I mumbled. I heard the door open but I kept my back to it.

"Craig? Can we talk?"

"Ashley?" I rolled over and faced her. "Yeah, I guess." She shut the door and sat at the end of my bed. "What's up?" I asked, sitting up.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I only told Aiden because he's a really good friend of mine. He'd never tell anyone, I promise," she said.

"Alex is the one who shouldn't have told anyone," I grumbled. "I thought I could trust her."

"You can trust her. She cares about you Craig. And she's right; you should go to the clinic." She moved closer to me and put an arm around my shoulders. "I care about you too, and I don't like to see you hurt like this."

"I'm not hurt and I'll be fine. I told Alex there's nothing wrong with me."

"But you don't know that for sure. Will you promise to let us take you to the clinic tomorrow?" she asked.

"I don't know…" I turned and looked her in the eyes. "I need to think about it first." She nodded and hugged me. When we pulled apart, I sighed. "What if I have something and I can't ever kiss anyone or have sex again?" I'd always been comfortable talking about sex with Ashley. I laughed as I realized that the person I had sex with was the other Ashley.

"As long as you didn't, you know," she said, pointing to a low area on her body, "Then you can kiss anyone you want." She said, smiling. Before I knew it, she was leaning close to me and her lips were on mine. I still felt a little funny, but I kissed her anyway.

"Wait," I said, stopping for a minute. "What about Alex?"

"Alex has moved on, so I think it's time I move on too." Before I could say anything else, she kissed me hard. "And you know, we can do other things besides sex…" She slipped her hand down my boxers and I shuddered. "Only if you want to, of course," she grinned.

I nodded my head and she kissed me softly before pulling my boxers off. She wrapped her hand around my…

"What are you doing?" I heard a scream from the doorway. I pulled away from Ashley and covered myself up.

"Alex, wait!" I called after my sister. But it was too late. I heard her run down the stairs and go out the front door. "Shit!"

"It's okay," Ashley said, starting to pull the covers down. I felt the cold air hit me and came to my senses.

"No, it's not!" I yelled at her. "Get out."

"Fine," she snapped, walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.

Alex

It was freezing outside but I wasn't going back in for a sweatshirt. I pulled my cell phone out of my pants pocket and started to dial.

"I hope I didn't wake you up," I said to the person who answered. "Do you think you could come get me?" I couldn't stop myself from crying as I hung up the phone. Then the door opened and closed behind me.

"Alex?" Ashley whispered, walking up to me. She put a hand on my shoulder but I pulled away.

"You're full of shit!" I yelled at her, backing up. "You were so hurt that I went on one date that you had to jerk off my brother?"

"I was only trying to get him to listen to me and go to the clinic," she argued. "I thought that was what you wanted."

"Yeah, you really had to grab his dick to get him to listen to you! I thought you were a lesbian!"

"I am. And you know that the only way to get through to boys is with sex. I was showing Craig that he could still do stuff with girls even if he has something."

"Do you honestly think I'm going to believe that? Don't talk to me Ashley; I'm sick of your crap. And I'm not coming home until you're gone!"

"Don't leave Alex. Where are you even gonna go?" she asked me, reaching out to touch me.

"Don't even try that. I'm not like Craig; you can't reel me in with sex. And it's none of your business where I'm going."

I heard Ellie's car pull up and I gladly ran to it. I didn't want to hear another word of Ashley's lies. I got in and ignored her protests. As Ellie drove away I leaned my head against the window and cried.

When I woke up, I felt a hand running through my hair. I opened my eyes to see Ellie's looking back at me. I smiled and took her hand in mine.

"Thanks for picking me up last night," I whispered.

"Any time," she replied.

There was a knock on her bedroom door and she pulled away from me. We both sat up and kept our distance from each other as who I assumed was Ellie's mom came in the room.

"I thought I heard you talking to someone," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Mom, this is my friend Alex. She had a fight with…her parents last night. It was pretty late so I just picked her up," she said.

"That's fine. I was just making sure it wasn't that boyfriend of yours," she said. "Alex, you can stay as long as you like, but only if you call your parents and tell them where you are."

"Thanks," I smiled at her. She left the room and closed the door behind her. "Your boyfriend?" I asked Ellie, facing her again.

"Nothing for you to worry about," she said, laughing. "We broke up two months ago but I never told my mom. She thinks I went on a date with him last night," she whispered.

"Oh," I grinned. I spontaneously leaned forward and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around my neck and brought me down on top of her. Our bodies pressed together as our tongues met. But then another knock at the door ripped us apart.

"Anyone want breakfast?" her mom called through the door. Thankfully she didn't open it.

"We'll be right there mom," Ellie called back.

"She doesn't seem so bad," I said. Ellie kissed me one last time before leading me to the door.

"That's because you don't really know her yet."

Craig

"One of you better start talking now," my dad said to Ashley, Aiden and I. "Where is Alex?"

"She didn't want me to tell you," Ashley said finally. "But Ellie picked her up around midnight. She said she'd be home before you woke up." I could tell she was lying, but my dad couldn't. He trusted her.

"Why did you lie to him?" I whispered to her after he left the room angry. He was probably going to try to get Alex back home, and she'd be punished for something that wasn't her fault.

"Did you want me to tell him that she walked in on us while my hand was on…?"

"Good point," I cut her off. Aiden gave me a dirty look. "She started it," I pointed at Ashley.

"I can't believe either of you would do that to Alex. She was on her way to apologize to both of you," he said, walking away. I felt even worse about it after he said that.

"She's not coming home until I'm gone," Ashley told me. "So I guess I better start packing."

"Yeah, you better."

"Craig, just go to the clinic soon, okay?" she asked. I knew she was being sincere but I was still mad at her.

"Just go home Ashley."