Ok, So I promised just about everyone I'd update on Friday but I didn't get to... sorry. But good news... I happen to be typing this on my very on... bought with my hard earned money... laptop!!!! WOOHOO! Which means that I'll have more time to write since I don't have to share with my brother and sister anymore. XD

Brittany Miller paced up and down the red brick sidewalk that traced the barren grass around the old Municipal Building. It was now a full week since THAT day and she'd agreed to meet Stephen there. She wasn't sure what they were going to do, she wasn't even sure she even wanted to come. But here she was on a brisk December afternoon, waiting for her boyfriend in the middle of town center. Her thick Christmas white leggings clung to her legs, her pink skirt whipping around in the wind, a stylish white coat with a folded collar was buttoned up tightly, closing in her chest.

Ever since THAT day she'd been wondering about him. A part of her wanted to tell Stephen the truth. It wasn't her fault that he felt the way he did. It wasn't her fault she didn't match his feelings… but either way. He deserved to know the truth. But if she told him… then that could hurt him. The familiar wrenching feeling of heart break was still fresh in her mind. She wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Stephen was a nice guy… and she did like him. He was annoyingly perfect but there was something about him that just pulled her in. Even if she didn't love him… that didn't mean she didn't care about him. It just meant Brittany had to find out more about Stephen… she had to really get to know him… pay attention to what he was saying… He was a good person. Stephen just wasn't Alvin.

She missed Alvin.

That had been said. But did she actually want him back? Did she really want that self absorbed, showboat of a boyfriend back? And did she really want to lose Stephen? Completely…? Things could change. She could wake up one morning, absolutely and utterly in love with Stephen. So was she just with him because she felt sorry for him? No. Of course not. She liked Stephen.

Brittany sighed, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets. She turned on her heel, thinking about Stephen. Why wasn't he here yet? He never made her wait. Was he angry at her or something? Did he suspect that she hadn't meant what she said? Even so… Stephen wasn't the type to hold grudges. He didn't play games… and he always said what was on his mind. If… if he suspected anything he would have told her.

Brittany fingered the lint in her pocket and leaned backwards, resting her back against the traffic pole. She yawned, rolling her eyes up to the sky. When she let them fall back down Brittany saw someone walking towards her. Blue jeans, scarlet red coat and… a red cap.

Brittany watched as the hat, edged closer and closer to her… She couldn't see the wearer's face… but then again… she didn't need to. Her lungs shut down; her heart thudded in her ears… her eyes went wide. There was no way to avoid it. Nowhere to run. He was coming right at her.

"Alvin." Her words came out with a tiny white puff. Her frozen breath floated there for a minute before slowly evaporating into thin air.

The boy stopped a few feet away from her, tilting his hat up so she could see his crystal blue eyes. "Hey,"

The two were silent for what seemed like hours, their eyes boring holes in each other's skulls. Both stood still, daring the other to make the first move. Brittany drew in a tight breath. She'd had nightmares about this before…. horrible ones where she had been wearing a horrific outfit involving ankle length skirts and polka dotted headbands or worse… no clothes at all. Dreams where Alvin had two or three girls on his arms... Pretty girls with gorgeous long shimmering hair… girls who rolled their eyes at her and laughed at everything Alvin said.

Brittany stood, her eyes locked with his. It was almost as if they were in some kind of competition. If you didn't know better you'd think they were in the middle of a heated staring contest. It seemed to go on for forever before Alvin finally sighed, he blinked, giving up. His eyes drifted, the pupils slowly rolling to face the ground underneath him.

"How- how have you been?" Alvin asked carefully.

"I-"Brittany stammered. She brought her arm up, brushing her hand through her hair. "I'm fine. Um… What- What about you?" she asked. Her fingers pulled softly at the ends of her hair, combing out the little tangles before curling around her index finger.

Alvin's eyes swam to hers. "I missed you"

Brittany looked taken back for a moment, her cerulean blue eyes widening earnestly. She hadn't expected his answer; an elephant of doubt had already soared up, clouding her own words.

"I-"She began and then stopped. "Thanks."

An awkward silence hung in the air like a heavy fog, reaching and clawing at the chipmunks. Alvin finally broke it, a question mark breaking through his solemn features.

"In case you didn't know…" Alvin said. "This is the part where you tell me you missed me too"

Brittany's face hardened. Like she would ever admit to something like that. Not out loud anyway. Not to his face.

"Why would I miss you?!" she demanded.

"Just look at me!" Alvin declared. "What's not to miss?"

Brittany paused a moment, feeling a smile pulling at her lips. She rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue. "Everything."

"Gee," Alvin said, rolling his own eyes. "Thanks a lot."

"What did you expect me to say? That I spend every second thinking about you. That I couldn't bare moving on? Dating other people?" Brittany demanded. "Get over yourself!"

"Wait." Alvin murmured. "So… are you dating someone else?"

Brittany swallowed. "That's… none of your business."

"What are you- what are you even doing here?" Alvin asked.

"I'm waiting for someone." She answered.

"Oh," Alvin responded.

"Yeah," Brittany whispered.

"Who?"

"My…" Brittany gulped, clearing the large lump in her throat that had formed before beginning again. "My boyfriend, Stephen."

"Boyfriend?" Alvin questioned.

"Yeah, boyfriend" Brittany confirmed.

"Like you have a boyfriend" Alvin said with a roll of his eyes.

"What's so hard to believe about that?!" Brittany demanded.

"Is this to get back at me or something?" Alvin asked.

"To get back at you?" Brittany repeated.

"Yeah," Alvin said. "I mean… you and this guy aren't serious or anything… you're just dating him to make me jealous right?"

"Uh… No." Brittany answered. "I'm sorry Alvin… but I'm dating someone else now."

Alvin blinked. "Oh" he whispered. This time his voice was so quiet Brittany had to strain to hear his answer. "I guess I should have known that… it's not like… I mean I guess I couldn't expect you to wait."

Brittany nodded slowly. "Yeah, are you… "She asked slowly. "Dating anyone?"

"Um…" Alvin reached back to scratch the back of his head. "No… no not really"

Brittany let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "So… what…" she asked. "What have you been doing then?"

"We made it to the championships." Alvin announced.

Brittany smiled softly. "Yeah, 5th place…"

"In the state" Alvin added.

"Yeah, I heard." Brittany said. " Congratulations"

"Thanks."

"So… I guess this is what you wanted, huh?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You suggested the breakup." Brittany told him.

"This is what YOU wanted." Alvin said.

"I never expected you to actually agree to it!" Brittany exclaimed. "Since when do we ever agree… on ANYTHING!"

"So your still blaming this on me?!" Alvin demanded.

"Maybe I overreacted a little…" Brittany admitted.

Alvin snorted. "A little?"

"It's over now." Brittany said. "It doesn't matter whose fault it was."

"Who's fault what is?" A new voice asked.

Brittany almost jumped out of her skin as a hand fell around the small of her back.

She turned her head to look over her shoulder at the owner and came face to face with Stephen. She gazed from Alvin then back to Stephen then Alvin again; Stephen, Alvin, Stephen, Alvin. Brittany gulped, this wasn't going to be good.

Stephen had his arm around her shoulder now, grinning down at her; completely oblivious to her state of panic. Alvin however seemed to know exactly what was going on and exactly who the boy standing before him was. Alvin's brows were furrowed, his arms crossed firmly over his chest, his lips drawn in a deep scowl.

"What's up?" Stephen asked. And when no one answered him, added. "Who's this?" Nodding at Alvin.

Brittany blinked furiously, her mind already churning. "Oh," Brittany murmured. "He was just keeping me company while I waited for you… but he has to be going now… right?"

Brittany had both of her hands stuffed in her coat pocket, her eyes shooting Alvin an icy death glare. Her hints fell on deaf ears. Alvin wasn't looking at her anymore. His eyes were focused intently on Stephen. Stephen however either didn't notice or was ignoring both of their tension.

"Oh," Stephen said. "Well it's nice to meet you." He said, sticking his hand towards Alvin. "I'm Stephen."

Alvin's eyes dropped down, watching Stephen's out stretched hand for several long seconds before drifting back up. "You're Stephen?" he asked, making no move towards the other boy.

"Yeah, you've heard of me or something?" He asked with a laugh.

Alvin shot Brittany a glare. "You could say that." Alvin said. "I'm-"

"Not important." Brittany said, quickly stepping in-between the two. "We have to go anyway..." The Chipette said hurriedly.

Stephen shrugged. "There's no rush. I mean if you want we can just hang out for a little bit with…." His voice drifted off. He motioned to Alvin. "What did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't." Alvin muttered. He paused a moment.

Brittany felt her breath catch in her throat. There was no sidestepping it now. He was going to say it. Alvin was going to tell Stephen who he was. Stephen was going to find out who Alvin was. They were going to meet each other. Stephen was going to wonder why Brittany was talking to Alvin in the first place. This would NOT go down well.

"It's Alvin." She heard the chipmunk say.

Brittany watched Stephen's face drop; his friendly smile disappearing, and in its place there was a tight scowl. His brows furrowed in anger; his face contorting with realization. His golden eyes almost seemed to turn into fire.

"You're Alvin." Stephen murmured.

It wasn't a question but Alvin nodded anyway. "And you're wearing it out." He grunted.

Stephen turned to Brittany. "I thought you said you didn't talk to him anymore." He questioned.

"I don't." She protested. "I- we- It's like I said. He was-"

"Keeping you company" Stephen finished. "I know. But why him? You really expect me to believe you just happened to run into each other?"

"So what if we did" Alvin snapped. "Last time I checked she didn't belong to you."

"Last time I checked she dumped you" Stephen shot back.

"Last time I checked that wasn't ANY of your business." Alvin told him.

"You hurting her makes it my business." Stephen huffed.

"Me? Hurting HER?" Alvin questioned. "Dude, you don't know anything. Why do you even bother?"

"I know enough." Stephen declared.

He turned to Brittany, suddenly realizing that she was oddly silent.

"Brittany," Stephen demanded. "Say something."

"Say what?" Brittany asked. "It's just like he said. We just ran into each other... we hardly said two words."

"It looked like a little more than that to me." Stephen muttered.

"Well what did it look like?" Brittany questioned. "What? You don't trust me?!"

"No. "Stephen assured her. "I trust you… It's HIM I'm worried about."

"You don't even know her!" Alvin cried. He rolled his eyes to the left and took a step back.

"Why don't you just leave?" Stephen asked. "No one wants you here."

Alvin's unblinking eyes focused on Stephen. "Are you sure about that?"

Alvin watched Stephen carefully before slowly turning away. Brittany didn't see him as he disappeared; retracing his steps on the exact route he'd taken to get there. Stephen was almost frozen for what seemed like hours. He turned to look down at Brittany.

"You were just talking?" Stephen asked her.

"Just talking" Brittany confirmed. "I'm over him, alright? Over him"

The way she said it… it was almost like she was trying to convince herself. Feelings didn't just go away… love didn't just end. She knew that. And the way Stephen was lookingait her… it seemed like he knew that too. Brittany swallowed.

She didn't want to think about Alvin ever again. But for some odd reason… she couldn't get him out of her head. Even as she and Stephen walked down to the ice skating rink holding hands... Even when he stopped to buy her a cup of hot chocolate that burned the roof of her mouth… As they were tying up their skates talking about absolutely nothing… And when he slipped on the ice and skidded across the surface on his butt… and she toppled over laughing… even then… She couldn't stop thinking about Alvin.

Why was that?

Why couldn't she just enjoy herself?

Alvin just complicated things. He was so rude, so arrogant… so obnoxious… She never had to worry about any of those things when she was with Stephen. Stephen was sweet. Stephen was gentle. Stephen was… safe. Alvin was like a piece of Mystery Sour Twist gum. She never knew what to expect… and she never knew if she'd like it or not until she actually tried it.

He was like icy cold lake water… refreshing on a hot day but it always left her skin wrinkly and her hair frizzed.

He was like eating an entire jumbo bag of Skittles in one sitting… Delicious at first but it always left her with a stomachache.

He was like cutting your bangs yourself… it always seemed like a good idea but... well we all know how that one ends.

So if this was true... If Brittany knew that even thinking about what she was thinking about could only lead to disaster why was she actually thinking that she didn't care? Why was she actually thinking that she'd do it anyway?

So when Stephen dropped her off at home… holding her hand and kissing her goodnight. Right after she waved goodbye and closed the door behind her… No sooner had she dropped her purse, leaving it on the couch for the night. Brittany Miller picked up the phone and dialed the number she'd memorized so well over the years.

She held the phone, using her right hand to cup the receiver close to her mouth. Brittany listened as the loud ringing song pierced her ear. The phone rang three consecutive times before someone finally picked it up. There was soft static then a voice yelling in the background before Brittany hear a quiet, "Hello?"

Her throat was dry and her palms had gotten sweaty. She swallowed hard before speaking.

"Hi"

Yes, I am ending it there. I always loved writing cliff hangers... though I don't get to often. Ok. So how was that... slightly more awesome because I wrote 1/4 of it on my very own, wickedly awesome laptop!!! :D

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