DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything pertaining to "Wizards of Waverly Place" or "Camp Rock." I also do not own The Yellow Pages or The White Pages, but did use their online services to assist me with this chapter.

Even after all the commotion, including the crashing dishes at her feet, Alex still couldn't take her eyes off of the girl who had gotten even more beautiful since last she saw her.

"Alex!" Jerry yelled, but then retracted after a look from Theresa and headed over to the table himself to assist.

Only then did Alex snap out of her temporary reverie, bending down to try and clean up her mess. Everything felt like a blur as she heard her dad rush to her side and apologize profusely to the customers, who Alex had in turn splattered food all over in the process of dropping the plates.

The clumsy waitress did what she could to apologize and pick up the dishes, but even seeing Mitchie out of the corner of her eye was enough to make her continue to fumble physically and verbally.

Jerry, in an attempt to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible, excused Alex. "Alex, why don't you clock out early today?" he said semi-calmly, but still loud enough for Theresa and Mitchie to hear, mortifying Alex even more than she already was.

Theresa motioned for Alex to come to her. The young wizard felt her hands start to clam up the closer she moved to her mother and the subject of last night's nightmare.

"Give me your apron, mi hija, I'll take over," Theresa said gently, knowing all along that it probably wasn't a good idea for Alex to work. "Don't worry about the dishes, it was an accident. Why don't you take your friend to your room and catch up there?"

Alex's head was spinning at an alarming rate at this point. She was banking on work as an excuse to get out of whatever conversation Mitchie wanted to have, since Alex was sure it was only going to make things harder and more complicated. What was she supposed to say? Sorry I fell in love with you and couldn't deal? Sorry that I've gotten physically ill at every tabloid picture or mention of you and Shane being a couple? Whatever reason Mitchie was there for, even if her intentions were good, was only going to complicate things for Alex, whose only concern at this point was moving on and getting something resembling a life back.

Since the middle child said nothing, Mitchie stepped in. "Thanks, Mrs. Russo. And I'm sorry again if I caused any sort of commotion."

"It's just a couple of dishes, it will be fine. Now, you girls go upstairs, I have to help your father," Theresa said, walking toward Jerry and away from the girls.

Alex and Mitchie froze where they were for a second, simply studying one another, and when Mitchie stepped closer, seemingly for a hug, Alex interrupted.

"Uh, my room's this way," she spit out, motioning toward the stairs and heading up them with Mitchie in tow.

As soon as they arrived in Alex's room, she shut the door behind them and began frenetically cleaning, even though there wasn't much of a mess in sight. She really knew no other way to act, and Mitchie never knew Alex was even capable of acting like this.

Unsure of what else to say, Mitchie produced a simple, "So… what's up?"

"Not much, just cleaning my messy room," Alex replied, in no way answering Mitchie's question like she hoped she would. "What's up with you?"

"Well, I'm in New York for…"

"I know why you're here, Mitch. How's Shane?" Alex asked pointedly.

"The guys are fine," Mitchie returned, placing equal emphasis on the plural, "but I didn't just get hungry and randomly choose your family's restaurant to eat, you know…"

Alex began to unravel mentally even more. "Why is she making this so hard?" she thought to herself. "Just keep avoiding anything that could be emotionally loaded," she self-instructed. "Really? Well, uh, you totally should get something to eat while you're here. Granted I probably shouldn't serve it to you since I clearly can't hold a plate, but my dad makes a really good chicken parm, maybe not as good as your mom's, but you'd still probably like it. I bet my parents would give it to you on the house."

Her frustration growing, Mitchie took the bathroom towel out of Alex's hand that she was using to inexplicably dust the furniture with. "Alex, why are you acting like this?"

"Look, a lot has changed this past year, Mitchie, and I can sit here and pretend that nothing's changed, or I can be real with you like I said I always would!" Alex said, a little louder than she intended.

For the first time in all the time she knew Mitchie, both in person and in her dreams, she saw the girl's face contort into an angry expression. "Yeah, 'cause you're such an expert on being yourself and all," Mitchie slung.

"Excuse me?" Alex asked, offended.

"Is being 'real' telling someone something and then peacing out so you don't have to live up to it?" Mitchie asked, her voice raising with each word.

"Oh, well I'm really sorry that I couldn't stick around for the end of that big surprise duet that you specifically wanted me to hear, to what, be even more broken up over you?" Alex asked, too upset to stop herself from letting her feelings verbally slip out.

"You wouldn't even know because you didn't stick around long enough to find out!" Mitchie replied.

"Yeah, well I would have if you had actually told me ahead of time who you had feelings for, since we were supposed to tell each other everything," Alex spat.

"The song was NOT for Shane, Alex! It wasn't even supposed to be a duet, he just jumped in because apparently my song was the one he was trying to track down all summer, and since he's Shane Gray, he thought I would be one of the thousands of girls dying for a chance with him, but I'm not! I wasn't then, and I'm not now, but I went with his improv because what the hell else was I supposed to do? God, that is what you've been bent out of shape over this whole time and it wasn't even true!" Mitchie yelled, near furious.

Alex felt a mixture of hope and pain at the same time. "I think my emotions deserve a little more credit than 'bent out of shape.' I have spent the past year waiting for my heart to heal only to watch it break repeatedly, and with each piece that breaks goes a part of myself that I don't know how to get back! I'm distant from my family, from my friends, I never want to do anything anymore, I wake up in cold sweat nightmares, and all I've wanted is for it to stop!"

Mitchie let out a cynical laugh and shook her head. "Just when I thought I could finally get you to close your mouth and open your eyes, you're still going… you weren't the only one in pain! Don't you get it? I wrote the song for you! I did everything but practically tell you directly because, believe it or not, I get self-conscious and nervous, too, and to have you walk out my life forever after I spent so much time trying to get my words perfect for you didn't exactly feel great! I felt horrible after I realized how the song came off to you, and I continued to feel horrible for the past year, but I will not be the criminal to your victim, because that's not what I am!"

Alex, who was literally rendered speechless, just continued to stare on in a wide-eyed stupor as Mitchie, who was pacing at this point, opened her bag and began throwing items onto the floor one by one as she referred to them.

The first she held up was her cell phone. "Call my mother yourself if you don't believe that I was asking for a way to track you down and visit you the day you took off from camp. She said that tracking someone down and following them to New York would take a lot of money and time, especially if that person didn't want to be found. Of course, she also didn't really understand what happened between us because I didn't let her see the note to protect your privacy," Mitchie punctuated, throwing her cell on the ground.

The next item was a small composition notebook, which Alex recognized before she even said anything to be Mitchie's songbook. "The 26 new songs that I've written since camp are all in this book, and 21 of them are about you. In case you don't believe me, they have 'AMR' written underneath the titles. You know, your initials?" The songbook hit the ground with a thud.

Next was a stack of folded up pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper. "The day that the guys asked me to tour with them, I went online and searched the New York White Pages for your family. There were 348 listings for the last name 'Russo,' and you never told me your parents' names. You'll still notice that each one has a checkmark next to it, because I looked through just in case some people listed the whole family's names. 348 names and I still couldn't find you." The stack of paper floated to the ground and scattered.

Following the first stack of paper was a second, much thicker than the first. "So, then I looked to the Yellow Pages because I knew you said your family owned a sandwich shop. There was no category for sandwich shop or deli, so I had to look under all restaurants, which there are 13,134 of in New York in case you were wondering..."

Alex could practically taste the contempt in Mitchie's voice at this point, and as much as she wanted to say something, she was almost afraid to speak, so she sat there, tears waiting to be released behind her eyes, and listened as Mitchie continued.

"Also, those restaurant listings aren't in ABC order, so it didn't help that all I remembered was that it began with a 'W' and I hadn't heard the name before," Mitchie went on. "After looking at about 2,000 listings, I finally found Waverly Sub Station and knew it sounded right." Down flew the second stack of papers.

The final item was a black and red wallet, which Mitchie opened up to reveal a picture of she and Alex together, embracing in their cabin. "And this is the picture that I've carried in my wallet since the day my mom got it developed. I've looked at it every day without fail," and lastly, the wallet met the same fate as the other objects as it dropped to the ground.

In response to Alex's only reaction being a pooled-eyed silence, the anger in Mitchie's body slowly and visibly began surrendering to sadness and disappointment, her voice choking up with tears that were threatening to fall. "Every penny, every shooting star, every time the clock turns 11:11… every single eyelash, I've wished on to just see you again," Mitchie stressed, "Do you know how many eyelashes you lose when you cry every day?!"

Alex, whose tears began falling in slow, pained drops, tried to nod, but it probably looked more like a spasm than anything else since she felt she had little to no control over anything at the moment.

"All this time, everything, to get here and have you be like this. If I had anything to do with you becoming an angry, hopeless person, then I truly do apologize, Alex. But you're not the person I knew. So, maybe I just need to go," Mitchie's voice box managed to tremble out as she bent down and began gathering her belongings and placing them back in her bag.

Alex froze in utter panic. She never felt so determined, yet unable, to move or speak in her entire life, and as Mitchie gathered her things, time became more and more of a factor.

"Move, you fucking idiot, say something! If you let her walk out, you will never be able to forgive yourself for losing this girl," Alex tried to scold herself.

It wasn't until Mitchie's bag was packed and she turned to face the door that Alex finally unfroze. She had already proven that she sucked at knowing the right thing to say, so she did the only thing that made even remote sense.

Alex grabbed Mitchie's left shoulder and spun her around to face her, grabbing hold of both of her shoulders and backing her a good 5 feet hard into her closed bedroom door. Mitchie flinched, as if she feared Alex was going to hit her, but instead of telling her that she would never, Alex figured she would just have to show her.

Alex startled Mitchie's body into a quiver when she ran her hand gently up her cheek and kissed her audibly and relentlessly, pleading to some higher power that she could successfully changed the love of her life's mind.

Alex could almost hear her heart shattering when Mitchie shoved her off.

The girl brought her wristband-clad hands up to her face as she hid behind them out of shame, regret, and anguish. She instantly racked her brain for any spell she could say to make this go away, even if it would cause trouble in the long run, when she was startled.

Mitchie took fistfuls of Alex's shirt collar and used it as leverage to swing her around and throw Alex against the door in similar fashion.

A moment of unbearable silence hung in the balance as Alex's legs began to waver.

"In my dreams, I get to kiss you every once in a while," Mitchie exhaled before pressing her lips to Alex's in a rough, romantic kiss.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I told you non-believers I wouldn't disappoint! ;) More to come! Reviews?