Chapter Six
Justin gave Alex fresh towels while Max ran the shower for her. He knew Alex didn't like baths, hell, he was the only one in the family that still took them – he made sure that she had clean nightclothes after her shower, and carefully closed the door behind him when she began to change.
Justin went into Alex's room and peeled the duvet back. He set the pillows for her in the way she slept in them, cold side up, and closed the curtains. He turned on the side lamp, and went downstairs to get a plate of leftover dinner and a glass of milk, before returning upstairs and setting them by her bedside table.
When he turned around, Alex was standing in the doorway, her skin clean, fresh, and radiating after coming out of the shower. Her hair was still dripping, as she tied a hairband around it into a messy bun above her head. She was wearing flannel pants and a huge white T shirt. She looked at Justin up and down, before nodding her head and stepped further into the room.
She approached him carefully, slowly, and stood before him. "Thank you, Justin."
He smiled weakly. "It's okay. You've would've done the same for me." And with that, he turned towards the doorway and began to leave.
Alex, strangely enough, felt cold again. "Hey Justin," She called back.
He turned to face her. "Yeah?"
Alex sat on the bed and held the cup of milk. "Do you…want to watch cartoons for a little while?" She asked, fumbling around the bedside drawer for a remote control to her TV.
Justin simply smiled, and closed the bedroom door.
When Teresa found them later that night, she couldn't help her heart thaw over a little, but at the same time have a mini-panic attack when she found them on her bed. Innocently, Alex's leg was lying over Justin's, as she laid facing him, her eyes closed and her face relaxed, her left hand was underneath her head, while her right laid carelessly between them – Teresa noticed that Justin practically mirrored her movements; apart from the fact that he was clutching the remote with his right hand, while his left hand sat only a few inches from Alex's extended fingers.
Teresa sighed.
They had fallen asleep holding hands. Just like how they used to when they were little.
She walked into the room and turned off the television screen from the monitor. She turned back to her children and sighed to herself, observing them carefully. She genuinely wondered that if the average Joe just happened to stroll into the room – would they see Justin and Alex as siblings, or as a couple?
Teresa would spend the rest of the following week trying not to notice the significant changes in both Alex and Justin's behaviour towards each other. They didn't really bicker as much; although they did have their obvious disagreements – they were reasonable content with each other.
It was on that one Friday night, when Alex and Justin were taking their shifts at the sub shop that everything changed. Dean was hassling Alex about forgiving him over momentarily dumping her by kissing Harper, whereas she was ready to get over him. Ever since school had ended, Alex had been in a right mood. Justin went up to talk to her and she simply shunned him away; before going to clear up table five. Justin frowned and went back to the cash register.
Teresa and Jerry left with Max to take him to the movies (since he had actually gotten a B on his geometry exam) leaving Alex and Justin alone. Alex grabbed a bag of chips from the pantry while Justin was sat on the couch finishing the last of his Psychology homework. Alex sat beside him and attempted to talk to him but he was too busy trying to focus on the last analysis at the end of the page. Alex being Alex, decided to annoy him by chewing loudly, occasionally poking him and coughing at random moments. Justin's eyebrows furrowed and he pulled away from her, more than annoyed.
Justin was being snarky again and Alex had no idea why.
Was it something she did?
When Justin told her to leave him alone, the argument broke out. It all happened very quickly – voices were raised, Alex threw her bag of potato chips across the room, scattering all over the carpet, and Justin's homework lay forgotten as he trudged after his younger sister, who was trying to go upstairs.
"Leave me alone!" She yelled at him.
"Alex, come back here!"
"No!"
"Alex!"
"Go away!"
"God – why are you so stubborn all the time?!" He barked back at her. Alex froze as she reached the spiral staircase and turned back to face him, her eyes daggers. She narrowed them, balling her hands into tight fists, and stepped forward.
"…what did you just say to me?" She whispered icily.
Justin went still. He hesitated before plucking up the courage to repeat himself: "I said, why are you so stubborn, Alex? Why do you always act like a stubborn baby who expects everything to be dropped for her?!"
Alex shot forward and attempted to slap Justin across the face. With her hand raised, he caught her wrist just in time and held it still. Justin watched her carefully – her eyes were prickling with tears, her face pale, blushed at the cheeks, the emotion in her face was frightening.
She stared up at him, and he blinked down at her.
"Justin…" She gasped, writhing within his grip, trying to move her wrist, "You – you're hurting me…"
Justin's hardened face softened at the sound of her small plea, and let go instantly. Alex pulled her wrist back to her side, flexing it, before blinking at Justin again and turned on her heel to leave. She walked back towards the spiral staircase, she felt Justin hold onto her shoulder, ultimately pulling her back. She turned around and faced him.
"What?" Alex snapped, her face annoyed.
Justin's expression was doubtful in the sense of not knowing how to react. "I didn't mean to hurt you." He said sincerely, then running a hand through his hair. "The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Alex. I don't like seeing you upset like this – I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
Alex glared at him. She hesitated speaking, but decided to answer him anyway since he apologised to her. "I'm going to the lair." Was her only reply. Justin stared at her, confused for a few seconds. Why would she randomly bring up the lair, of all places? Alex didn't even wait for him to answer her before she started walking away. As she reached the staircase, she turned back and looked at Justin one more time before going downstairs.
11:05pm, Waverly Place,
Teresa sent Max to bed ages ago. She suspected that Justin and Alex had gotten an early night considering both of them had been working constantly in the sub shop for the last few days. When Jerry, Max and Teresa
Entered the front door of the apartment, they found Justin's books scattered across the coffee table so they immediately guessed that he would wake up the next morning to finish revising or gather his stuff before anyone else woke up. She found Alex's usual bag of Oreos on the counter, unopened. Teresa frowned. That was very unlike her to just…leave them there. Jerry went upstairs to bed. Teresa cleaned up a little downstairs, and her mind began to wonder on the possibilities of the many outcomes from this situation – honestly and truly, Justin and Alex could do the right thing and move on with their lives; marrying other people and having children and being happy. Teresa then shook her head – it was foolish to think that her children would do that to their family – maybe she was overthinking it.
Teresa went upstairs to check on Justin first. She opened his bedroom door and found the bed neatly made and untouched. She frowned again, but then stopped to think about it and rushed across the hallway to Alex's room. She opened her bedroom door and found Alex's bed unmade, as if already slept in, but no one was in the bed. Teresa began to panic and considered going to Jerry, but decided she could sort this out herself. Maybe they went out to the store? Maybe they're at Harpers? – no – stupid idea – they're probably downstairs in the sub shop kitchen making sandwiches or…
Teresa froze.
The lair.
Teresa went downstairs and slowly approached the wizard's lair. The door was closed, of course. Her fingers grazed the handle, touching it, but did not open the door. She didn't want to. She didn't want to open the door and see what she didn't want to see. Eventually, she found herself turning the handle purely out of the most vindictive curiosity and slowly opened the door. She stood in the doorway and scanned the room for Justin and Alex but couldn't see them –
– and then she did.
It frightens her a little how she finds them in the corner of the lair – strategically hidden from whoever would enter through the front door – by the extended wall near the glass that opens to the wizard world. Justin is pinning Alex to the wall; their hands entwined together as Justin's hand is cupping her face, while hers is clutching the back of his head, gently pulling him closer. They're kissing. Not the light pecks they shared as small, naïve children – they're the kisses of two sexually-depraved teenagers realising that they're in love with each other. Alex wraps her leg around Justin's, keeping him locked in her grasp. She moans a little. Justin growls her name.
Teresa shields her eyes and pulls away. She races from the room before her children can hear her.
She doesn't know how to stomach it before she goes to bed. Teresa watches her husband sleep; and she genuinely wonders where they went wrong. I mean, Max is different. Different in more ways than one because, lets face it, any son that makes a sugar cube mountain on the chances of becoming the ant king is a little freaky. She already guessed it was the accident of raising Alex and Justin a little too closer together. There was a fine line, a major distinction between sibling love and actually loving your sibling. She didn't know who fell for who first…she just wanted to know whether or not it would tear their family apart. She wanted to know if she'd wake up and see her children bickering at the dinner table like nothing had happened. She wanted to see Justin and Alex fight over TV shows, not fight over an unplanned pregnancy or whether they should tell their parents they were in love – she just wanted her children to be safe. She wanted them to do the right thing.
She wondered whether or not the kiss would lead to anything else…she didn't think so because a few minutes after going back upstairs, she heard the patter of feet against the floor and heard Alex's door close, then presumably, Justin's. She wondered if they were ashamed of the kiss more than she was about it.