One Year Later
The raven-haired beauty stirred from her restless sleep. She had not had a good night sleep in nearly 4 months and she was annoyed with how frequently her ex-girlfriend appeared in her thoughts and disturbed her otherwise blissful dreams. The break-up had hurt them both. Neither of them seemed to want to end everything, but it happened that way anyhow. Now, the year after graduation, her ex off at college, she believed she would never get her love back. She didn't think she could live another day without that beautiful woman by her side. Slowly she rose from her comfortable bed to face yet another day without Paige.
She shuffled her feet into the bathroom and turned on the hot than the cold water for her morning shower. She could hear her mother and her mother's loser boyfriend snoring in the adjacent room and thought it best not to wake them with any loud noise. The fights seemed to have worsened lately and her mother's bruises were added to almost every night. The constant doctoring of her mother had aided in her restless sleep. She had no idea what the day had in store for her, but for some reason today felt different. Alex wasn't sure why, but today felt extra special for some strange reason. She hurried into her bedroom to look at the Banting school calendar she had pinned just above the headboard of her twin sized bed. She smiled at her discovery. Today Paige was coming home for the summer. Alex could not contain her excitement and let out a low squeal. She then got into the shower, wash quickly and dressed with lightning speed. After she was groomed, she headed downstairs for a quick breakfast and headed out the door
Alex couldn't decide wear to go, so she just started walking and let her legs take her where they wanted to go. Soon she realized that her legs had led her to the Dot. She dug into her pocket and found a wrinkle ten dollar bill, smiled and walked in. Once inside she could not believe what her eyes were showing her. Paige was sitting at the counter with Marco, Dylan and Ellie drinking coffee and chatting about Paige's time at Banting. Alex nearly fainted in shock and utter happiness.
Slowly she made her way up to the small group, not saying anything until she reached the counter. "Hey Spinner." Alex greeted the busy guy behind the counter.
"Hey Alex. What can I get you?" Spinner said practically out of breath.
"The usual. Thanks." Alex said smiling.
"Alex?" Came a low voice from behind her.
"Yeah?" Alex said as she slowly turned around and acted as if she didn't recognized the voice that had said her name. "Oh. Paige. I didn't even see you." Alex lied.
"I just got back a couple hours ago." Paige said trying not to let her voice crack at the wonderful sight in front of her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. 'Was this really happening?' Paige asked herself. The love of her life was standing right in front of her and she couldn't even speak.
College hadreally changed Paige, for the better. She had a totally different attitude towards her clothing choices. No longer did she dress trampy, but more grown-up and conservetive. Well, by Paige's standards.
"Well, I got to get home." Paige said trying to make her way to the door and away from her brother, his boyfriend and her ex. "I haven't even seen mom yet." Just as Paige had walked out the door, Alex was right behind her.
"Paige, wait." Alex yelled. "I want to talk to you." Alex said causing Paige to stop dead in her tracks and turn to face her in disbelief of what was taking place.
"Alex, I really don't wanna do this now or here." Paige said slowly retreating backwards to her car. "Im just not ready for this yet." Alex didn't know what to say to Paige at this point so she let Paige get into her car and drive off as she began to cry. Alex couldn't stand to be in a place crowded with people, so she decided to go to the park and sit under here favorite oak tree away from all the parents and their small children playing in the jungle gyms all around.
Alex didn't know what to think wbout Paige's reaction to her wanting to talk. She couldn't imagine why Paige would have said something like that to her.
After nearly two hours of contemplating, she decided to walk over to Marco and Dylan's place and see if Paige had said anything to them about her. When she got there she found only Ellie to be home.
"Hey Alex." Ellie greeted Alex as she opened the door to the large upstairs appartment. "Come in." She said motioning Alex to the couch in the livingroom.
"How's everything going with the three of you here?" Alex asked trying not to let the true reason she was there show through.
"It's great." Ellie answered sounding a little over-emphesized. "I heard you ran into Paige at The Dot." She said pulling their conversation into a whole new direction.
"Yeah." Alex said looking straight at the floor unable to look Ellie in the face. The words Paige last said to her kept running through her head. She wished theyed stop.
"Marco and Dylan told me before they went to see her at Dylan's moms house." Ellie continued. "They said you two barely talked and Paige ran off saying she had to see her mom. They also said that you two said something to each other right before you both left, but they didn't hear what it was." Ellie knew that talking about Paige with Alex around or talking to her directly always proved to be rather difficult. "What did you two say?"
"I told her I wanted to talk to her about everything that had happend, you know, but she said she wasn't ready for it yet." Alex told Ellie as she tryed not to cry. "Ellie I love her and I want her back, but I don't know what to do." Alex finally looked up at Ellie with tears in her eyes.
"You have to go over to her house and talk to her." Ellie said as she stood up and headed for the small key rack near the door. "I'll drive." She said as she grabbed the only set of keys on the rack and smiled slightly at Alex.
"Okay, but your going in the house with me." Alex told her as she got up and walked towards the now open door and down to Ellie's car. Ellie was close behind.
They both got in the car and drove to Paige's mothers house without speaking a word the whole way. When they reached the house an Ellie turned the car off, Alex began to have second thoughts. "Maybe I shouldn't be here." Alex looked at Ellie with a worried look on her face.
"Non-sense!" Ellie practically yelled. "You're going in there even if I have to drag you by your hair, kicking and screaming all the way in." This made Alex laugh momentarily, but the worriedness quickly settled back in.