A/N: Thanks for the fic love! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Now, let's start the week with some Alex/Olivia time. :)

"It's the kind of thing you only see in scented, glossy magazines and I can't remember life before her name."

Alex had spent her entire weekend in her room, crying over her situation with Olivia. She had tried to talk to her friends from Framingham but, as always, they were no help. Amber had told her to sleep with Olivia and then cut her loose. She gave Alex an entire speech about sexual tension and how all she wanted to do is have sex with Olivia, anyway, so she might as well do it and get it over with. Her other friend Ashley said she was stupid for talking to Olivia to begin with and she should just sever all ties to Olivia before Olivia had the chance to hurt her even more. She then called Olivia an attention whore and said she was nowhere near good enough for Alex. That was the final straw for her. She signed off of AIM and decided to talk to Sarah who had an entirely different opinion of her situation. She told her not to give up on Olivia and that all the hell she was going through would be worth it someday because Olivia was feeling something intense for her. Sarah then told her that she had to take things slow with Olivia and go at Olivia's pace. Alex wanted to tell Sarah about the bruises, but she felt as if it wasn't her place to say anything. She assumed Sarah knew and, if she didn't, there was probably a reason Olivia wasn't telling her.

Alex had wanted her mom's advice, but there was no way she could ask without giving away everything she had been doing with Olivia. Even though their "relationship" wasn't sexual, just the fact that Alex had even kissed anyone was cause for her to be grounded. She also knew her mom wouldn't buy into Alex insisting this was happening to a friend or someone she knows. Alex felt as if all of her friends were either irrational or biased and the one person who could actually give her good advice would probably ground her and not let her see Olivia for another month.

Olivia wasn't a popular girl, but she had a core group of close friends and Alex made it her goal to seek out Olivia's closest friend that Monday morning. She had a feeling it might backfire on her if Olivia found out, but Alex didn't care. What happened on Saturday had stayed on her mind and she was determined to find out the truth.

"We need to talk," Alex said as she approached Shawn's locker before school.

"Nothing good has ever started with a chick saying that," Shawn teased, but the look on Alex's face told him it was time to be serious.

"I need you to tell me about Olivia," Alex insisted.

"She's not banging any other chicks, if that's what you think," Shawn said and Alex rolled her eyes.

"She's not banging me either, Shawn."

"Is that your problem?"

Alex wanted to slam her head against the locker. As much as it'd hurt, she had a feeling it would be less painful than talking to Shawn.

"Do you and Olivia like to skateboard?"

"Yeah," Shawn told her. "Olivia sucks at skateboarding, though. We both feel as if surfing might be a better fit because water must hurt less than concrete. She fucking bruised the hell out of herself the other day. I have pictures and everything. She was showing them off to me like battle scars. Whenever one of us gets hurt from falling off our board, we take pictures and show them off to each other. Last year, she thought she had won when she scraped her knees, but I took the title when I almost broke my neck. It was awesome."

How almost breaking your neck could be considered awesome had completely stumped Alex, but she had finally gotten the answers she needed.

"Thank you so much," Alex said and gave Shawn a hug. It was unexpected, but she was thrilled that Olivia had told her the truth and Shawn had confirmed it.

Alex had intended on talking to Olivia at lunch but Olivia had opted to sit with Shawn instead of the girls. During their lunch period, Alex noticed Olivia wink at her so she assumed everything must be okay. Alex hated to admit it, but her happiness was starting to depend on Olivia and her moods were starting to shift with Olivia's. It was unhealthy, but she couldn't stop feeling for Olivia and wanting to be a part of her life.

Her intentions were to go straight home after school, but Olivia approached her after school and the smile on Olivia's face made Alex forget all about her plans for going home early and getting a head start on her homework.

"I'm sorry," Olivia said and gave her a hug. "I just felt so vulnerable."

"It's okay," Alex told her even though she had no idea if she should dismiss Olivia's behavior.

"Shawn told me about your talk. You don't give up, do you?"

"No, but I probably should."

"Don't," Olivia insisted. "Please? I'll tell you everything eventually, but right now isn't the time."

Alex couldn't get any words to form, so she opted for giving Olivia a kiss on the cheek.

"What are you doing today?" Olivia asked.

"Homework," Alex responded, hoping she could actually stand her ground. "How about you?"

"Showing you around the city," Olivia said matter-of-factly.

"What?"

Olivia starting smiling again. "I think I owe you a real date."

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't resist Olivia's smile and, within minutes, she was on a tour of New York City. Alex had expected to see the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and anything that tourists would want to see on a trip to the city. However, Olivia insisted that she wasn't that kind of tour guide. Instead, she showed Alex her city, the parts of New York that tourists never care to see.

"I'm showing you my world," Olivia told her. "I know you hate the city, but I want to show you that it's not always what you see in movies. There's more to it than that."

Their first stop was a tree in the middle of a park. There were other trees near it, but Olivia chose that particular tree to show Alex.

"This is the first tree I ever climbed," she told her. "When we were little, Shawn and I used to pretend this was a jungle and we were monkeys who lived in the trees. We'd stay out here until the sun went down. You see that branch right there? I tried swinging like a monkey and I fell off of it. Luckily, I didn't break any bones and because we were wearing thick jackets I didn't even get scraped."

Alex couldn't help but smile when she imagined a miniature version of Olivia climbing trees and swinging like a monkey. That moment, she laced her fingers with Olivia's and she could have sworn Olivia started to blush.

Their next stop was the place that she and Shawn would go to skateboard. Alex saw the infamous rail she would unsuccessfully grind on. She urged Olivia to be careful, but Olivia just started laughing. She told Alex how she's the only girl who hangs out there and if she starts caring about her safety, the guys would all tease her endlessly.

"Shawn and the guys will call me 'needle dick'" Olivia informed her.

"Olivia, you're a girl. Your anatomy is different," Alex pointed out.

"I know, but that's just an insult we toss around to each other. After the time I did an Airwalk, my friend Rick said if I wore a strap-on, I'd only wear a big one."

"What's a strap-on?" Alex asked.

"You're cute," Olivia said.

"No, really. What is it?"

"I'd rather show you instead of telling you," Olivia said and started kissing Alex. Alex wanted to enjoy the kiss, but she hated not knowing something. As Olivia was kissing her, she made a mental note to research strap-ons.

Alex's tour continued with dinner at Olivia's favorite pizza place followed by the rooftop of a building where she and Shawn go to when they want to drink, talk about life, or drink while talking about life.

"I don't want to be just a tourist," Alex said as they were sitting on the roof.

"You want to be a permanent resident?"

"Of your world? Yes," Alex said.

"You already are," Olivia told her. "That's why we should get to our next destination."

Olivia grabbed Alex by the hand and led her to their next destination. They had to take a subway to get there, but Alex felt a lot safer now that she was riding a subway with Olivia instead of by herself. Even though there were a dozen other people near them, Alex felt as if she was all alone with Olivia once her arms were wrapped around her.

Alex noticed that Olivia had taken her to the same street corner where they shared their first kiss.

"Recognize this place?" Olivia asked.

"Vaguely," Alex teased.

"New York is such a beautiful city, but out of everything I've seen, this is my favorite place and the place that means the most to me. No matter what happens in life, this will always be the place where we shared our first kiss."

"I like you," Alex said, well aware of how juvenile she sounded.

"I like you, too," Olivia told her. "And there's only one more month until you're mine."