You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away

Steff absently played with the tab of her caramel latte, her mind was outside of the coffee shop. She couldn't even let the idea of Kyra taking Jack from her when she'd already lost Alex to her. It was hard for her to wrap her mind around the fact that her boyfriend was going to be attached to her least favorite person for the rest of their lives and that she couldn't even have a say in it.

"You shouldn't be sitting by yourself."

Her blue eyes left the cup and landed on Alex, he looked just as he did when she first spotted him in the coffee shop. He adjusted his beanie as he sat down, pulling his sunglasses off and tapping his fingers against the foam cup in his hands.

"None of the usual customers were in," she shrugged, "I also needed time to think."

"About what?" he asked, his first attempt at working on bringing their friendship back.

From the confused and concerned look in his chocolate eyes, Steff had a feeling that he didn't know about his girlfriend. She just took a sip of her latte and put on a smile knowing she couldn't hurt Alex and tell him herself out of spite against Kyra; she just had to accept that Jack had a serious relationship before they'd met, and that relationship led to something too serious for the love they had for each other.

"I have a lot of free time with Jack now, since it's just us when I'm by he's by my apartment... I'm afraid things might move too fast."

"Too fast?" he smirked, "You know Jack isn't like that. He really cares about you; he's probably just as afraid."

"You moved quite fast on me, mister. We were only dating for a short amount of time before you pulled me along on that tour."

"Hey, you agreed to go Steff."

"I know," she shrugged as she looked towards the door and spotted Aimee walking in for her shift. She waved slightly at her friend before turning back to the boy in front of her, knowing she should just wait before speaking again.

"Is he bothering you?"

"No, Aim, but thank you for asking."

"Let me know," the girl eyed him before walking over to the counter and tying an apron around her waist.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Alex said as he watched her for a moment, his voice seemed honest enough.

"Did you mean to hurt me?"

The blonde covered her mouth after the words filed out of her mouth; she dropped her hand slowly as she realized she could have blurted the whole pregnancy thing. She brought her cup up to her mouth and drank so that wouldn't slip out too. She contemplated leaving before he could answer, but she didn't want him to make a scene or follow her.

"No Steff, I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that you cared more about me then I did you--"

"Conceded much?" she interrupted.

Unfazed he continued to speak, "I was still wrapped up in Kyra, while you were looking for something serious. I wanted to give that to you, and I probably would have if Kyra hadn't stepped back into my life in such a way. I'd done everything in my power to avoid her, I wanted to move on."

"But you are back where you started."

He covered her hand and put on a soft smile; she raised her brows at him and pulled her hand back, placing it on her lap and looking out the large window to her right.

"I love her so much, I can barely describe how much with all the words in the dictionary. You've got Jack now though, he's pretty crazy about you, I don't see anything stepping in the way, if you love him as much as it looks like you do when you smile at him or when your face gets all rosy in his presence."

Steff quickly sent the singer a glare before looking back out the window; she wished that she could tell Alex so he would understand why she was so afraid. She wanted to tell him so she could ask him how he was going to cope with it, and if they could wrap their minds around the whole idea together. She still felt a slight uncomfortable-ness around him, but she had to get over it as quickly as it came, because if she wanted to stay with Jack, it would mean the added complication of Alex and Kyra in her life forever.

~x~

The dark haired boy played with the baseball cap on his head as he sat in his car staring at his best friend's house. He was too afraid to go in and talk to Kyra like he'd agreed to on the phone; he just didn't want Alex to walk in on their conversation and take their -most likely- instant silence as them secretly getting together. All he wanted was for this whole mess to be over with, he wanted to freely be around anyone of his friends without worrying that someone wouldn't approve.

With a sigh, Jack opened the car door and stepped out onto the pavement. He slammed the door and walked across the street and up the pathway, rapping on the door and waiting for his ex to answer. The short blonde swung the thick door open and pulled him into the house, she didn't say a word to him until they reached the deck out back.

"Are you any calmer about this then you were on the phone?"

"Not really."

"I know this is going to put a stress on our lives and our relationsh-"

"Why did you do this Kyraleigh? I know it's equally my fault that you're pregnant, but knowing that we were going to have a child, why did you advance on Alex? You could have told me that I was going to be a father, we could have given us a go and taken a chance and making a strong family for this child."

"I love Alex with an undying passion, Jack, I liked you a lot, but you didn't bring that fire into my stomach like he does. I knew that I wouldn't be moving halfway around the world if I started dating him again, I knew you would still be around our child. You two are inseparable, don't deny it, there is no way that you won't be acknowledged as the father."

"Kyr, you can say that now when it's just us, but what are we going to do when Alex and Steff find out about this? I know my girlfriend won't like me being around you all the time and having some eternal attachment to you, I don't know how Alex will take it."

"He trusts me, and besides, he wouldn't let me slip through his fingers again -- we mean too much to each other for something like this to stand in the way."

Jack ruffled his untamed hair before putting the cap back on and looking back at the once petit girl, "This isn't going to work, I can feel it. I don't want my baby's step-mom to hate it's mother."

"You and Steff are-"

"I was being hypothetical," he muttered, "I don't know if she'll even hang around when she finds out about this."

Kyra couldn't sense his lie as he repeatedly mentioned when 'Steff found out', she only noticed the hurt expression on his face. She got up from her lawn chair and sat down on the wooden magazine table that separated them, she took his hands into her own and rubbed her thumbs against his palms.

"If she doesn't react well, I'll talk to her."

He looked up, feeling his chest tighten at how close she was to him. Somewhere not so deep in his heart he still had a thing for his ex but he couldn't let it show. He opened his mouth to reply with a snarky comment but he was cut off by a new voice.

"What's going on in here?"

Kyra pulled away from the father of her child and turned towards the glass doors, her boyfriend stood there, with his arms crossed as he glared. He dropped the grocery bag he had in his hand, the Oreos he'd bought for his girlfriend slipped out of the bag. She stood up and ran a hand through her bangs and picked the cookies up and placed them on the island on the kitchen.

As she stepped into the hallway, she saw Alex walking out the front door. She started to call for him, but he didn't come back in. Jack moved past her, jogging towards the door. He knew it would be better to settle this now before his friend had time to make the worst of the situation in his mind, even if Kyra wasn't ready to tell Alex just yet.

The lanky boy stepped outside and watched as his friend grabbed a golfing club from his car and walked across the street to Jack's car. He shook his head as he approached the vehicle slowly, so Alex wouldn't attack his new car.

"Give me one good reason not to, Barakat."

"One reason? Well, it isn't what it looks like. I shouldn't be the one to tell you this, Kyra needs to tell you."

Alex slowly dropped the club and started toward his house, Jack let out a sigh of relief before getting into his car. He figured that Kyra would need some time alone to explain things to her boyfriend; he drove off thinking of where Steff would be, he needed to find his girlfriend and see if she was alright.