Chapter Two-

Alex sat in class like she always did, whispering to Daniel, her best friend, as Mr. Anderson sat at his desk, rambling on about the physical properties and phenomena of something or other. She was amazed that she was placed into any advanced classes at the start of the year, but Physics? That one truly surprised her.

"So, how was your weekend?" Daniel asked, grinning, "You went home right?"

Alex glared at him. It annoyed her that he found her parental situation so amusing. She had gone home 8 months ago, when she left Newport, she went home to LA, to see if she could reconcile with her parents, maybe even move back in with them, go to school again, be a normal family. When she showed up on the door step of their mansion, the first question they had asked her when she told them that she wanted to come home was, 'Are you still a lesbian?'

"Yeah I went home. That was a bundle of fun, " she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as he chuckled, "What's so funny about my parents hating me?" she asked, still glaring at his amused grin.

"Nothing Lexus, just… I find it amusing that you, Alexandra Kelly, Miss I-don't-care-what-anyone-thinks-about-me, gets upset about the fact that you think that your parents hate you," he said, looking at her seriously.

Just then, Alex heard her name and turned to the door, seeing Receptionist Jennings with her head poking in the door.

"Of course. Miss Kelly?" said Mr. Anderson, looking at her and spitting some of his beard out of his mouth, motioning towards the door.

Alex stood up, straightening her jeans and making sure they were covering her pink and black heelys. She knelt down slightly, placing her head next to Daniels ear, "Guess what buddy, they do hate me," she whispered, making him chuckle as she stood up fully again.

"Don't keep us waiting Miss Kelly," Anderson said, impatiently taping his fingers on the desk.

Alex smiled at Daniel and turned around to walk towards the door. It was open now, Jennings leaning against the doorframe, a shadowy figure standing in the hallway.

She stopped dead when she saw the shinning dark blonde hair of the reason she went back to her parents in the first place. A look of complete shock crossed her features as she stared into the blonde's eyes.

"Alex?"

Alex stood in silence unable to speak, her breath coming in shot gasps, her body completely over ridden with surprise and slight horror.

When she left Newport, it was because she was in love, in love with someone that wasn't in love with her, and she couldn't handle that, so she fled, in the middle of the night packing up things in her apartment that belonged to her ex-lover and leaving them in boxes in the living room, taking all her things in the back of her jeep and selling all the furniture to her land lord.

She arrived at her parents the next morning, red-eyed and pale, begging for forgiveness, bawling into her father's shoulder as her mother looked on, with a mixture of disgust and pain on her face.

She loved her father, he'd always been there for her, her mother, Annabel Kelly was the one that she couldn't stand, the way she controlled Alex's father and turned him against her, she hated that, it was the reason she got emancipated in the first place, she couldn't stand the competitiveness between them.

It bothered her that she walked away from Marissa Cooper without even as much as a goodbye. Sure they ended what they had, both shedding a tear, but she always wondered if Marissa wanted to stay friends, even from a distance, Marissa knew she was leaving, but she didn't know that she was going to leave in tears that very night.

It would've been to much pain to say, to watch Marissa with Ryan Atwood, watch him touch her they was Alex used to, watch him hold her when she was upset, kiss away her tears…

"Miss Kelly?" Jennings walked forward and placed a hand on Alex's shoulder, looking at her with a worried face, "Miss Kelly, are you alright?"

Alex looked briefly at Jennings, tearing her eyes way from Marissa for a brief second to nod, "Yeah, I'm good."

Jennings lead her outside to where she continued to stare at Marissa, looking her in the eye as Marissa looked back, "Do you two know each other?" Jennings asked, looking curious.

"Yeah, you could say that," said Alex, still not looking away from Marissa, her face looking older than Alex had last seen it, her eyes looked haunted, like something was missing, something that Alex had loved seeing there before. Marissa looked like she'd been through more in the months that they had been apart than anyone should have to go through in their entire life.

Jennings continued to look at them, confusion written all over her face, "Ok, I'll leave you to it then."

As she walked away, Marissa finally looked away, nervously pushing hair behind her ear, now refusing to meet Alex's gaze, "Hi," she said, now examining her shoes.

"Marissa, what are you doing here?" she asked, finally voicing her thoughts, ducking her head to meet Marissa's gaze.

Marissa looked up, pursing her lips and crossing her arms, as if protecting herself from all outside influences, from anything, anyone that could potentially hurt her, finally her tears fell, one slowly running down her cheek slowly, quickly followed by a flood rushing down her smooth skin.

Suddenly, she launched herself at Alex, wrapping her arms around Alex's neck and burying her face in the crook of Alex's neck, sobbing, her whole body shaking.

Slowly, Alex's arms wrapped around her thin waist, pulling Marissa close to her, trying to provide comfort.

Marissa pulled back slightly, looking Alex in the eye once again, pulling one hand from it's resting place behind the bleach blonde hair and wiping her eyes, obviously trying to smile. "I missed you."

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