11:11

If planes are delayed… where would I find that information? Because seriously, it’s 6:55 and Alexis’ plane was supposed to land at 6:30, according to Max… How long does it take to walk from the plane to baggage claim? Maybe it’s delayed… I’m going to assume that it’s delayed.

I spot a soda machine across the room and I make my way over to it slowly, occasionally checking back over my shoulder just in case Alexis decides to show. I would rather not be caught off guard when she does.

I scan the selection in the machine and decide to get a cherry coke. So, I put my money in and I press C4, but it’s jammed. Of course. My luck. I stare at the soda stuck behind the glass, and I frown. I really wanted that. Now I actually have to think about what I’m going to say to Alexis when I see her. How about ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ She’ll think I’m retarded.

There’s nothing I can say that won’t sound ridiculous, because if I really think about it, the place we’re at is completely ridiculous. It should never have gotten this bad. And I can’t really blame the whole thing on her. Yes, she cheated on me and was the one who said that we should take a break, but I didn’t really do anything to try and keep her. She’s the one making the first move.

After my little staring contest with the bottle of soda that’s still stuck behind the glass, I decided that maybe it will fall out if I kick it hard enough. So that’s what I do. It moves only a little bit the first time, and when I kick it again, it finally falls down to the bottom. Success!

I twist it open and take a sip, but I shouldn’t have bothered because right after I do, I hear her voice and I almost choke.

“I really hope you’re not practicing for when you see me.”

I spin around and come face to face with my problem. Alexis.

“Alexis!” I spit out after I swallow, and I just stare at her. Her hair is black, like it was when I saw her only yesterday. Other than that, she looks the same.

She looks at me, fear apparent in her eyes. She doesn’t know what to do either.

“Did my brothers tell you to pick me up?” she asks.

“Yeah… they came by my house this morning.”

“Oh. Well, okay… Um, I just have to get my bags…”

I nod as she walks away. I don’t know how to say what I want to say, and that’s going to be a problem. I can’t believe how … anti-climatic this just was. I was expecting a whole big scene, but she’s not giving me any sort of clue to the reason that she’s here. I’m guessing she wants to wait until we’re alone without a bunch of other people around us. But still, it would have been cool to have a scene like they do in the movies – like when they see each other and time almost stops? That’d be awesome.

And, it’s almost as if she wasn’t surprised in the slightest by the fact that I’m here instead of her brother.

After a few seconds of just watching her struggle to get her bags off the conveyor belt, I realize that I should probably go and help her. That would be very nice of me, I guess. And that’s what a boyfriend would do. And that’s what I’m trying to be, isn’t it?

“Here, I’ll carry them to the car.”

I take of her duffle bag and she puts her carry-on over her shoulder. She looks really good with black hair, I notice.

“Thanks,” is her whispered response and I can’t help but smile.

Our walk to my car is short, but still manages to be slightly awkward. Every single time I’ve been around her before, I’ve never had to think twice about taking her hand. Now I don’t know what a good idea is and what’s not.

I put her bags in the back as she gets into the passenger seat. I walk around and get into the car. After I turn the car on and buckle my seatbelt, she turns her head and smiles at me.

“I missed you,” she says. “And I’m sorry for how much I hurt you.”

I’m slightly thrown by her apology – I wasn’t expecting one yet. I thought we’d have a heart to heart in my room or something… Fuck, I know what this means. This means that she wants to get this over with now and that she’s not really here to see me.

“It’s… fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, it’s not fine, Alex. I love you, and I shouldn’t have done all the things that I did. First of all, I shouldn’t have cheated on you. That was just… I don’t even know how I could have done that. I don’t know what I was-”

“Listen,” I interrupt. “Stop apologizing. It’s done. It happened.”

“I know… I still feel awful.”

I let her sentence hang there, not answering. I don’t really know where this is going.

We make small talk about her school for the rest of the ride home and once we hit our town, I find that I have to ask her where she’s going.

“Are you going to your house or…?”

“Well, I don’t know… I was hoping that we could talk.”

“Talk?”

“Yeah. About us. I came home to see you, you realize that, right?”

“Yeah, yeah of course…”

No. I did not. But it’s great to know now.

I pull into my driveway and while I’m unbuckling my seatbelt, I notice Jack staring at us from the front door. When he sees me looking, he waves like an idiot and I hear Alexis laugh, but she doesn’t say anything.

“Um… Is Zack here?” she asks as we walk up the steps to my bedroom. Jack is still being a total creep and staring at us from the bottom of the stairs.

“Yeah… probably. He’s sleeping, I bet, or something…”

The fact that Zack’s in the house makes her look nervous, and I feel bad. I don’t want her to be nervous here.

I open the door to my room and she walks in first. She looks around with a smile on her face, as if she’s happy that it looks exactly the same. She looks between the bed and the computer chair and after a few seconds of debating, she sits down in the chair. I sit down on the bed and can’t help but feel disappointed that she’s so far away from me.

“Did Zack tell you that I called?” she questions, looking everywhere but at me.

“Yeah. He told me everything about that… And I’m really sorry that he was such a-”

“No,” she interrupts. “If he hadn’t said what he did, I don’t think I would be here right now, to be completely honest.” She pauses, trying to find the right words. “I think… that I would probably still be waiting until after finals to come home and maybe then it would be too late…”

“Too late for what?” I wonder out loud and a sad smile appears on her face.

“Too late to fix things.”

“It’s not,” I assure her, and I think that we might be okay.