Come Around

"What?" Alex yelled as Cassie finished off his character in Street Fighter 2. "You cheated!" he hollered, hitting the buttons and dropping his head down onto the machine.

Cassie laughed, "I told you I was amazing at this game. But you thought I was all talk."

It was the fifth time in a row she had beat him. Each time he would make up some sort of excuse as to why, but he was finally running out of them.

"Oh my goodness," Cassie said looking at her watch. Alex lifted his head and looked at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's three thirty," she said. They had not only wasted the morning away, but most of the afternoon as well.

"So?" he said, "You got a hot date or something?"

Cassie hit him playfully, "No, I don't have a hot date. I was just going to go into the office today to do a little bit of work I can't do at home. But I guess now I'm not going to."

"Are you sure? I mean about the hot date," he said, "Because if you do, you can tell me. You don't have to make up excuses about work just to spare my feelings."

"I'm not terribly concerned about your feelings, Alex. I don't have any kind of date, hot or otherwise," Cassie said.

Alex ignored the first part and grinned, "Do you want one?" he asked.

Cassie laughed, "One what? A hot date, or a not hot date?"

"You tell me," he said, flashing her another grin.

"I haven't been on a date in over two years."

Alex stared at her, "You're not answering my question," he said.

"Mmm, I know," Cassie said leaning back against the video game machine, "I'm trying to ignore that you're asking me on a date, but you don't seem to want to drop it."

Alex took a couple steps toward her and put his hand on the machine next to her head, "Who said I was asking you on a date?"

"That's what it sounded like to me," she said. Her breath caught in her throat as he brought his face closer to hers. She took a deep breath in and before he could try anything, she asked, "What are you doing, Alex?"

"Trying to figure you out," he said, looking straight into her eyes, "Anyway, I was just kidding. I mean, not that you aren't cute and all."

He dropped his hand and took a step back. Cassie breathed a quiet sigh of relief then reached over and hit Alex in the stomach.

"Don't do that again! You kind of freaked me out," she said.

"Jeez!" he said, grabbing his stomach, "Do you have to be so voilent?"

"When you pull shit like that, yes!"

Alex laughed quietly, "Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't think you would take it like that."

"How did you think I would take it?" she asked.

Alex shrugged, "I don't know. I guess I thought you would be sarcastic and ask if one of my friends was interested or something like that. You know, put me in my place yet again."

Cassie laughed and nodded, "That does sound like something I would say. I just, I'm kind of weird about dating."

"Why's that?"

"Well," she said, trying to figure out the best way to explain, "You could say that I made some bad choices in the past in regards to dating."

Alex looked at her, "Hmm, I'm intrigued. Do explain."

"Maybe another time," she said, not looking at Alex.

Much to her surprise, Alex let the subect drop. He was doing his best to not be too pushy even though he was really curious. After all, she had said that she wasn't afraid of commitment.

The two were silent as they walked around the arcade, looking to see if there was anything else they wanted to waste time and money on. As if sending telepathic messages, they headed toward the door and began walking back to their cars. While Cassie fished around in her purse for her car keys, Alex caught a glimpse of a pack of cigarettes.

"How often do you smoke?" he asked.

"Hmm?" she looked at him, her hand still moving around in her purse.

Alex reached over and grabbed the pack just as it was falling from her bag. He was a little surprised to see that it was unopened.

"Oh," she said, "Usually just when I'm stressed and when I drink. Sometimes on a nice morning with a cup of coffee. Or when I'm really bored," she laughed, "It's honestly more of a habit than anything. Angie hates it. She tells me I'm going to get lung cancer every chance she gets."

"How nice."

"Right?" Cassie said, "If I didn't love her to death, I would probably want to shoot her."

Alex laughed, "I think I should be offended that you apparently bought these assuming that you would get stressed from hanging out with me today."

Cassie took the cigarettes from Alex and dropped them back into her purse, "Your feelings are yours and there's nothing I can do about them," she said with a small smile, feeling her pockets then pulling her keys out of one of them, "I am a genius," she said, laughing at herself.

They reached their cars, said goodbye and went their separate ways. When Alex arrived at the house he was renting with his bandmates for the duration of their stay in Los Angeles, he wandered inside and kicked off his shoes. Once in the living room, he fell into a chair.

"Dude, where have you been?" Zack asked him.

"Out with Cassandra," he replied.

"The girl who did our interview? I thought you didn't like her," Jack chimed in.

Alex laughed, "Dude, did you not notice how fucking cute she is? And man, if you could've seen her yesterday at the beach in her bikini..." he trailed off when Rian walked into the room.

"Who?" Rian asked.

Alex opened his mouth to respond but Jack beat him to it, "Alex was just telling us how hot your childhood best friend is. Apparently we," Jack motioned between himself and Zack, "should've gone to the same beach you guys did yesterday."

Rian sighed, "Dude, don't go after her, make her fall for you and then cheat on her like you did to your other girlfriends."

"I'm hurt, Dawson," Alex said, twisting himself in the chair so he was facing Rian, "I can't believe you just assume that I was going to try to get into her pants. Maybe I just want to be her friend but I happen to appreciate her face and her body."

"I mean it, Alex. Don't fuck with her."

Alex looked at his friend, "Seriously Rian, I'm just trying to get to know her right now, okay? I know it doesn't happen often but it is actually possible for me to be just friends with a girl. Relax, okay?" he said and then added, "And just to set the record straight, I didn't cheat on my last girlfriend. She cheated on me and blamed me for it."

Without another word, he got up from the chair and headed for the stairs. On his way past the table in the hall, he saw Rian's cell phone and swiftly picked it up, looking through his contact list. He grew frustrated as he scrolled through the list, not finding what he was looking for. But when he got back to the top, a lightbulb went on.

He opened a blank text message on Rian's phone, typed a message and pressed send. Within a few minutes, he received a reply.