Lost in Stereo

Jade's Point of View

“So Skye said that Alex didn’t cheat on you?” Jay asked me over coffee the next morning. He’d been outside grabbing his paper, still in his bathrobe, and I’d been waiting on the steps for him to come out. I’d been up almost all night watching Teen Wolf and had just finished the first season. I’d been desperate to talk to him about it, and also to fill him in on the latest revelation in the whole Alex situation. Once he’d come out of his apartment, I’d practically pounced on him and asked him to go out for coffee, so we were currently sitting in some small coffee shop he knew of.

I leaned back and sighed. “That’s what she said.”

“Do you believe her?” Jay asked, sipping his coffee.

I hesitated for a second before answering. “I don’t know. I guess I do. I don’t think Skye would have any reason to lie to me, but why wouldn’t Alex just tell me that he didn’t go home with that girl? I mean, he acted so guilty.”

“Maybe he was just flustered that he got caught,” Jay suggested with a small shrug. “I don’t know the guy, so I can only speculate, but that’d be my best guess.”

“You’re probably right,” I said, finally drinking some of my coffee. I set it back down and swirled it around a little in my cup. “Do you think I should talk to him?”

“Is it going to make a difference to you whether you do or not?” Jay asked. I stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate, which he kindly did. “What I mean is, knowing what you know now, would talking to him about it change your mind about the two of you breaking up?”

I thought about this for a moment. “No, I guess not. Even knowing that he didn’t cheat, I wouldn’t want him back. I think our issues run a lot deeper than that.”

“Certainly sounds like it,” he said. “So are you going to? Talk to him, I mean?”

I ran a hand through my hair, biting my lip. “I don’t know. I should probably talk to him before he leaves again, though.”

“When does he leave?” he asked.

“In two days,” I answered. “My brother said that their tour manager got the dates mixed up. I thought he was leaving today.”

“Lucky you,” Jay quipped. “I guess that’s good for a little closure, though. Unanswered questions can drive you crazy.”

“Yeah, no joke,” I scoffed, leaning back in my seat. I hadn’t even known Jay twenty-four hours, and he was still easier to talk to than anybody else I knew. It was definitely nice having an outside perspective on the whole situation. “You know, you’re really easy to talk to.”

He chuckled at that. “I didn’t take four years of psychology and sociology classes for no reason.”

“True,” I nodded. “Obviously they paid off.” I sipped the last of my coffee and grabbed my bag off the floor. “I think I’m gonna go now and see if I can catch Alex for a few seconds.”

“Good luck with that,” Jay said, raising his cup towards me in solidarity. “I’ll see you later. Thanks for the coffee.”

I nodded and waved good-bye, throwing my cup out in one of the bins on my way to my car. I headed over to Alex and Skye’s before I could change my mind, and Kellin ended up letting me inside.

“Are you looking for Skye?” Kellin asked. “If so, she’s in the shower. We were all supposed to head over to her mom’s today and tell her about the baby.”

“Yikes,” I winced. “Good luck with that one. Actually, I was looking for Alex.”

“Oh,” Kellin said, sounding surprised. “He’s in his room, I think.”

I nodded in response and moved past him to head to Alex’s room. I knocked and waited for an answer, and after a few moments there was a muffled, “Come in.” I pushed the door open and waited sort of hesitantly in the doorway. Alex was in the process of getting dressed and was pulling his shirt on. He turned in my direction, tugging the bottom of his shirt down. He stopped when he saw me, surprised and sounding kind of distant. “Hi.”

“Hi,” I repeated a little awkwardly.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you,” he said.

“I wasn’t really expecting to be here,” I said with a shrug. “But Skye called me last night. She told me you didn’t cheat on me with the girl from Denny’s.”

“I didn’t.” Alex’s tone was very cold, and frankly, I couldn’t blame him.

“Then why didn’t you say so?” I asked him. “I mean, I asked what happened, and you didn’t say that Skye brought you back. You didn’t say anything, really.”

“I didn’t know what you wanted me to say,” he finally answered me. “But I said I didn’t cheat on you. That should’ve been enough.”

“But it wasn’t,” I said. “And you know exactly why it wasn’t.” I swallowed, anxiously waiting for this conversation to be over. Why had I even bothered coming over here again? “Can I just ask you one thing, though?”

“Sure,” Alex agreed.

“And you’ll answer it honestly?” I checked. He simply nodded in response, allowing me to continue. “If Skye hadn’t shown up at the restaurant that night and saw you, would you have gone home with that girl?”

Alex was very quiet before answering. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Honestly? Yeah. Yeah, I probably would have.”

I pretty much knew the answer before he’d spoken it out loud, but it still felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach to hear the words come out of his mouth. I nodded, blinking. “Well, that’s all I really needed to know, I guess.” I pushed off of the doorway, beginning to turn away. “I’ll see you around. Good luck with your mom.”

“Thanks,” was all he said, and then I headed down the hallway to leave, running right into Skye.

“Hey,” she greeted, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I just had to talk to your brother for a second,” I responded, eager to change to subject as soon as possible. “Kellin told me you were going to tell your mom today.”

“Yeah,” Skye sighed. “That should be interesting.”

“Good luck,” I said. “Let me know how it goes.”

“I will,” she promised. We said good-bye and I headed out and drove back to my apartment. I greeted Liz upon coming in – Andrea was still sleeping – and we talked for a little while, and I finally told her about everything that happened with Alex. She was sympathetic and asked me if she could do anything for me, but I declined and decided to hang out in my room for a while and wait to hear about how things had gone with Skye and her mom.