CHAPTER 2 – A Little More Than Just a Crush

"Hey Kirsten," Alex greeted her.

"Mmph," Kirsten replied, downing another slurp from her Tim Horton's cup. She had a hoodie on and her hair was rumpled. She couldn't function before 10 am, especially not without coffee. So what the hell was she doing at school so early?

She had a world history project to do. And her partner was Alex, so of course she didn't say no. But boy was she kicking herself for it now.

"Where's Jo?" he asked. Alex always seemed awake and alert. Kirsten envied his steadiness. Her emotions were always so strong and all over the place. Stoic was not on her list of character traits; meanwhile, Alex was always calm and collected in the face of any situation.

"Not here yet," she replied, slouching against her locker as they stood in the hall. Alex nodded, looking unperturbed – and amazingly put together in his jeans and long-sleeve t-shirt ensemble. Kirsten nearly scowled.

As she eyed him, Kirsten had to admit that she also envied her best friend's relationship. She loved Joanna to death, of course, but she couldn't help but want what Jo had with a guy like Alex. Sweet, thoughtful, athletic, charmingly boyish, funny, hot, and once she thought she caught a glimpse of a tattoo on his shoulder–

But he's taken, she reminded herself sternly. Her relationships were always fast and explosive, burning brightly and then fading quickly like a falling star. It was fun, but sometimes she longed for a steady relationship with a guy like… well, a guy like Alex. A guy she could rely on. A guy who would treat her right.

Ugh, she groaned. It's too early in the morning for this.

"Let's get going anyway," Alex said. "Joanna will meet up with us in the library."

They trudged to the library – well, Kirsten trudged and Alex walked. They sat down at once of the tables among the shelves of books. Slowly Kirsten woke up fully, sitting up, rubbing her eyes, and setting down her coffee as they got to work.

Something about Alex always woke her up.

They worked for the next half-hour, pouring over the books and papers sprawled across the table, heads bent together; his tousled brown and hers long voluminous blonde.

Kirsten sat at her desk, her elbow on the table propping up her face. She stared ahead listlessly, the teacher's monotone voice droning in the background. She and Alex had handed in their project and now the teacher was going on about… something. She wasn't bothering to listen. Alex had just given her an amused half-smile when she grumbled to him about still being tired.

She jumped as the bell rang, instantly wide awake as she grabbed her books and shovelled them into her backpack.

"Lunchtime!" she sang, slinging her bag over her shoulder as she flew upright. Alex was already standing with his own backpack on his shoulders. She ignored the amused grin once again on his face, along with the butterflies in her stomach that came with it. "C'mon!" she said impatiently. "Let's go find Jo!"

She bounded through the halls and into the cafeteria, towing Alex behind her, his long-legged stride allowing him to keep up easily. She waved to some other people she knew as she looked out across the caf. Joanna usually met them at an empty table – they'd taken to sitting near the windows – but today she was nowhere in sight. Kirsten turned to Alex.

"Is she sick today?" she demanded.

"Not that I know of," Alex replied mildly, but his keen eyes scanned the big room.

"Oh," Kirsten muttered, deflating a little even as her heart thumped. She refused acknowledge why this happened even though her body was suddenly very aware of Alex's presence beside her. "Well, let's eat," she said.

They sat at the usual table, and Kirsten noticed that sunlight was pouring in, instead of grey light and the pitter-patter of rain. It was nice. She dropped down in a chair and yanked out her lunch, tossing it onto the table. Alex sat across from her and pulled out his own food; the sharp contrast between the ways they did the simple action was almost comical.

Kirsten chatted nearly non-stop in between bites, the way she always did. Alex spoke too, of course, and the conversation flowed, but sometimes he gets this distant look in his eyes that makes him seem even more untouchable that he already is–

Kirsten dismissed the thought immediately. She was imagining things. Alex was perfectly warm to her; they were friends and they were talking like friends did. But he was looking at her strangely now, and she realized she'd broken off mid-sentence.

"Sorry," she said, flushing, having completely forgotten what she was saying. She quickly changed the subject, adding, "Where do you think Jo is?"

"I don't know," he said, showing just the right amount of boyfriend concern. "Maybe she's not feeling well. I'll stop by her place after school and see."

"Why don't you just–" Kirsten stopped and rolled her eyes. She was about to say Why don't you just text her? but then she remembered he didn't have a phone. Or a car, for that matter. Kirsten realized she didn't even know where Alex lived. In all the three years she'd known him, she'd never thought about it. "I'll text her," she finished, pulling out her phone.

But by the time the end of the lunch rolled around, Kirsten still hadn't gotten a text back.

"She must be sleeping," she decided, and mystery-man Alex nodded. Only he wasn't really a mystery, Kirsten knew him. She wondered if Joanna had ever been to his house…

"Let's go before we're late to class," Alex said. Kirsten got to her feet, chucking her garbage in a trash bin and picking up her bag again as she followed, thoughts still wandering.

A/N: Basically a chapter in Kirsten's POV. Joanna (whom you were introduced to in the previous chapter) is not the ONLY one starring in this fic. Her friends play an important role as well... Anyway, hope you liked it! It still isn't at the length I want each chapter to be, so I'll be working on that...

Also, I've never really left "author's notes" before, so we'll see how this goes. If it ruins the flow of the story for you, please skip past it to the next available chapter. Unless is says IMPORTANT, this will be mostly just me rambling on about story/TMI/Shadowhunter/other stuff.

THANKS for reading/reviewing!

- Cat