Chapter Six

Alex wearily twisted the key in the lock, jiggling it as she did so, the knack that had taken so long to master in order to force the front door open.

She sighed with something approaching relief to finally be home, sensing she had the house to herself from its uncharacteristically quiet demeanour.

She trundled into the kitchen in search of liquid refreshment, dumping her bag on one of the chairs and opening the fridge.

A desolate rack of shelves stared back at her. There was a pint of milk flirting with the right side of its best before date. A lump of cheese festered in the corner, intent on founding its own eco-system. There was no Alex-friendly pick-up-and-eat food.

"Perfect," she muttered aloud, letting the door swing shut with a protesting squeal.

"You know what they say about talking to yourself."

"Sshhiiiit, Ellie," Alex quickly reigned in her surprise, "Don't do that."

Ellie smirked, plunking herself down on a vacant kitchen chair while Alex hoisted herself onto the kitchen counter-top.

"What are you doing home so early?"

"I have an essay to write. Thought, y'know, I could make a start on it here, with the house so empty."

"Right," Alex nodded.

"You?"

"Crappy day. Extra crappy."

"Mm," Ellie offered in agreement.

Neither girl showed any inclination towards moving, content to just sit and let the minutes seep over them both.

"Where's your wife?" Alex said at last, referring to the ever-present Jesse, her lips twitching into a sly smile.

"Alex, we're not joined at the hip y'know," Ellie replied, pulling a face as they resorted to their usual mock needling of each other. "Besides, where's yours?"

"She's working late tonight. Stocktaking or something," Alex began to inspect the contents of a bowl next to her, certain that it had once harboured something resembling fruit.

"Stocktaking. That's original."

"Shut-up," Alex said, lobbing a peach in Ellie's direction.

"Ew!" The redhead rocketed out of her chair at the sight of the decaying fruit that had been discarded her way. "That is seriously a health hazard."

Alex slipped down from the counter-top, immediately thinking to clean-up the mouldy explosion on the table. If Paige had been there she would have had to, no questions asked.

But Paige wasn't here. Paige was working late. And though she knew with every ounce in her being that her girlfriend was genuine in her reasons, Ellie's comment had evidently sparked that twinge of jealousy she swallowed down whenever she thought of Paige and Spinner in close quarters together.

In a tiny act of defiance, Alex rooted herself to the spot, leaving Ellie lingering halfway between the table and the sink, debating whether she should be the one to clean up the pulpy mess.

They drifted off the passing minutes together, united by the realization that neither had the impetus to actually attend to the more scholarly pursuits that were demanding their attention. They were just contently killing time.

Ellie stood next to Alex, adopting her posture as she leaned back against the counter, arms folded, legs crossed, head tipped back in quiet contemplation of the ever-growing crack on the ceiling.

The quiet was punctuated only by the hum of the occasional passing street car and faraway shrieking from over-excited children

"Hey," Alex said at last, "I've got a joint in my room."

oooOOOooo

The two girls sat on the concrete steps that led down to the yard behind their house. Rarely did anyone venture onto the actual level surface, put off by the overgrown sprawl that was threatening to claw its way over the fence into next door.

Dylan had involuntarily become the head gardener of the clan, being the only one with the patience and brute strength to get the lawnmover started. Since his departure, the backyard has become a veritable junkyard, with rusted garden furniture left out from a barbecue several months ago, and accompanying trash bags that had been conveniently forgotten behind what was once a garden shed.

The housemates pretended they liked their garden this way. The enormity of restoring it to inhabitable status was too overwhelming for anyone to contemplate for more than five minutes before becoming mentally exhausted.

Marco had drawn up a plan once, with jobs for everyone. But then it had rained and their secret relief had manifested itself into a late-afternoon drinking session that had drowned out any future prospects of green-fingered enthusiasm.

Alex toked heavily on the joint, the sweet hot taste hitting the back of her throat and worming its way into her chest. She exhaled slowly, lazily trying to bring the middle distance into focus.

"This place is such a dump," she muttered, kicking a soda can that was rolling around near her foot.

"Mm," Ellie murmured, taking the joint from Alex's proffering fingers. "We should clean it up."

"Yeah."

They surveyed the carnage before them with quiet detachedness.

"So…" Ellie drawled between puffs, "How's everything going?"

"Yeah, Great. Or good. It's… fine y'know?" Alex crossed her arms over her knees, the sun was ebbing away and the creeping shadows were cooling amidst the last dying rays.

Ellie smiled slightly at her friend, nodding in understanding. She didn't need to say much to Alex to get what she meant. They knew each other well enough.

"How's Paige's parents doing? You calling them Mum and Dad yet?"

"Funny," Alex barely quirked an eyebrow. Ellie scoffed. "But… they've invited us around for lunch…"

"Really?" Ellie handed the joint back to Alex, "Wow, so you really are well on your way then…"

Alex grunted, realizing the thought was neither impressive nor welcoming. "I guess… We'll see. Early days…"

Ellie turned to look at her friend's solemn expression. The effects of the weed were quietly seeping into her brain, dulling the gnawing anxiety about her essay and bringing present actions to the forefront of her thoughts.

Alex's eyes were darting around distractedly, making her look uncomfortable. Ellie nudged her with her hip. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She took another heavy drag under Ellie's watchful gaze.

"You worried about it?"

"Nah," Alex responded, more out of reflex then anything else. But it was hard to keep up a front with Ellie's eyes focused on her, dark lashes fluttering innocently, words spoken earnestly. "Maybe a bit," she conceded.

"It'll be fine," Ellie assured.

"Yeah right," Alex laughed," Because I'm every parents' dream."

They both laughed at this. Partly because they were stoned. Partly because the idea of Alex being the epitome of perfectness for the parent of anyone's daughter was absurd.

"You are," Ellie said at last.

"Oh shut-up," Alex brushed of the comment with a smirk.

"Well, you should be," Ellie offered with sincerity.

The tone of her voice caused the dark haired girl to look at her friend. They rarely had moments to themselves like this. Moments where they were actually being serious. Alex wasn't used to getting compliments off people that weren't Paige.

"Thanks," the word came out almost shyly, a half-whisper.

"It's okay." Ellie replied, the smile back on her face.

"No, I mean- for everything. For putting up with Paige and… I know you guys don't exactly get on."

"It's no that," Ellie quickly interrupted, "It's not that we don't get on. It's just that…" the drugs had evidently drawn Ellie onto the brink of total uncensored honesty, "it's just we… don't really…like each other…"

Luckily, Alex found the disclosure surprisingly amusing, perhaps having known about it all along.

"Well, I know you don't exactly like Jesse either," Ellie offered in defence.

"It's not that I don't like him," Alex offered in reply, passing the joint once more as smoke billowed forth from her fractionally parted lips, "It's just… that he's a douche bag…"

This succeeded in sending the redhead into a brief giggling interlude, while Alex looked on bemused.

I should insult her boyfriend more often.

"Seriously though," she put a hand against Ellie's back to steady her and the joint that was hanging precariously from her fingertips. "I just think… you could do a lot better than him."

The words were enough for Ellie to reign in her hilarity, causing Alex to swallow hard. Had she said too much? Were friends allowed to be this honest?

Ellie seemed to pause, her response caught on the verge of her lips, indecision clouding her eyes, "Maybe… you could too?"

Alex sat upright at this, withdrawing her hand and shaking her head. "Nah. No way."

The two returned their gaze to the littered backyard, crows eagerly scavenging between the tall reeds.

"Paige is the one." Alex reaffirmed out loud, nodding to herself. "She's everything I could ever want, y'know?"

"Mm," Ellie offered an assuring smile as she leant her chin against her palm, passing the dying remains of the joint back. "Well, it's great that you've already found each other then."

"Yeah." Alex smoked down to the roach.

The two girls sat in silence once more.

The shadows grew longer, as a breeze swept in, rustling the trees and causing the birds to scatter.

Ellie distractedly brushed her auburn tresses from out of her face. "Alex?" she spoke hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think… no, actually, never mind."

"What?"

"Do you think… that Paige…" Ellie trailed off.

"Come on! Do I think Paige would what?"

"Do you think…maybe she'd, make us some of those cookies again tonight?"

Alex flicked away the roach, stood up and stretched, rubbing her arms against the increasing chill. She extended her hand down to Ellie, who used it to yank herself up from her perch.

Alex basked in the unreserved genius of the idea.

"I'm gonna call her right now."