I Love Your Switchblade Attitude

“So, how was your date?”

Harley was aware of the new presence in her room, but refused to open her eyes as she buried herself deeper into her warm lavender comforter. Colie could not be bothering her at this hour; it was too damn early for her oh-shit-I-need-details o’ meter to kick in.

Harley rolled over and murmured something about privacy, but then realized two very important things. The first thing was that she was so sure that she had locked her door the night before, and the second being that the voice that awoke her from her slumber had definitely belonged to a male.

Immediately, Harley opened one eye, but her attempts were deemed useless upon realizing that she was buried too far under the comforter to see anything other than an ocean of purple sheets. It didn’t matter, however, for Harley recognized that voice anywhere.

It was the voice that made her swoon, the voice that made her heart plummet into her stomach and most importantly, the voice that she definitely didn’t want to hear at that moment.

Words left her mouth without her realizing, bouncing off the lavender comforter that shielded her from the boy that she longed for. “Get out.”

“So,” Alex paused ignoring her, and Harley could practically see the smirk she knew rested on his stunning face. “This is your room, huh?”

Harley immediately sat upright, suddenly embarrassed by the fact that this boy was in her room, her private sanctuary. She pulled the blankets away from her body, watching him as he walked towards her bookcase and eyed the colourful spines of her beloved hardbacks carefully. Harley felt the blood rushing through her veins as they reached the apples of her cheeks, and crossed her arms across her chest insecurely.

“Yes.” She nodded, though he was paying no mind to her. “It is. Now what do you want?” Harley paused, and as an afterthought—more to herself than to anyone else—she added, “I’m still mad at you, remember?”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Alex exclaimed, suddenly tearing his gaze away from the bookcase before pivoting to stare directly at Harley. His smouldering gaze made her stomach tighten, but she tried to ignore it and put on a brave face. “I want to apologize.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Harley cut him off, shaking her head stubbornly as she shifted her gaze to her bed sheets.

This was a lie—she desperately wanted things to be right again and for Alex to fall in love with her and dump Lisa, but she was too merciful. Every time Alex screwed up, she forgave him, and it was something she had to control. He had messed up one too many times.

“Too bad,” He groaned finally, walking forward and falling onto her bed, stomach first. He landed comfortably with his feet hanging off the side of the bed, and his large frame made her queen sized bed seem extremely small. She suddenly felt a wave of nerves roll over her as she realized how Alex had closed the proximity between the pair. Now, he was only a few inches away...lying on her bed. She felt trapped, like an animal forced into a barren cage. “I’m really sorry, okay? I’m a dick. I admit that, but I make mistakes. Everyone does. I just wanted to protect you from Max, because I thought he was bad for you...but—” Alex stopped, and the following words came out of his mouth slowly, as though he had trouble forming them, “—if you like him and he makes you happy, go ahead and date him. I won’t say anything.”

’No!’ Harley wanted desperately to scream, while clutching onto Alex’s hands for dear life. ‘It’s you that I want! You make me happy, not Max! He has no personality, but you’re great!’

Instead, she made sure a stoic expression remained on her face as she sorted her inappropriate thoughts to the back of her mind.

“I don’t know, Alex...” She trailed off, refusing to meet his pleading gaze.

“How about I make it up to you? Lunch for two at Denny’s?” Harley finally trained her eyes to glance at Alex, and immediately her heart melted at the sight of his lovely pink lips pouting, and his brown eyes wide with emotion.

“Fine.” Harley found herself sighing in defeat as Alex cheered victoriously. “Lunch at Denny’s for two. But it better be worth it.”

She really needed to work on being merciless.

_____________________

“So you still didn’t tell me about your date.”

Denny’s was extremely crowded for a Sunday lunch hour, and it took an awkward ten minutes of being crammed between Alex and a young mother with a crying baby in her lap in the waiting section of the diner before their names were called.

Everything was awkward and uncomfortable, and Harley had gotten a strange thought that it felt as though she was on a date with Alex. He held the door open for her and they made small chat, things that should have been done by a couple.

But Harley and Alex were no couple. She had to keep reminding herself that she and Alex were just going to get lunch, as two friends.

Besides the awkwardness of the date atmosphere, it was weird hearing the words ‘Gaskarth, party of two’ as the maître’d led them to a booth by the window. Harley slid easily into her seat, followed by Alex, and the pair looked over their menus silently, with only the murmurs of their fellow diners as music to their ears.

It was only when the couple had ordered that Alex smirked at her and brought up the subject of her terrible date once again. Harley sighed heavily, and contemplated whether to tell the truth about her catastrophic date or lie and keep up the facade of having a perfect, fake boyfriend.

“Oh, it was terrific!” Harley chose the latter option and plastered a phony smile on her face, hoping that her acting skills were at least above a mediocre level.

Alex’s smirking expression faltered for only a brief second, before he raised his eyebrows questioningly. Harley knew that she wasn’t going to hear the end of it now.

“Really?” His head tilted to the side slightly, and Harley felt a blush creeping up the nape of her neck. “Yesterday you seemed pretty upset, so I kind of assumed you had a bad time.”

Alex almost appeared sheepish as he confessed his assumption, and it took a moment for Harley to register that Alex actually believed her. How long could she keep up this facade?

“No, no, it was great.” Harley’s sugary voice squeaked, and she recapped the night mentally, attempting to find something good about the date. “Max was so nice to me. He’s the best boyfriend...very chivalrous, y’know?”

“Yeah.” Alex nodded, though it was clear he didn’t know. He looked uncomfortable now, and a frown began appearing on his face, the infamous smirk long gone.

His calloused hands picked up the utensils resting on the laminated place mat in front of him, and he began unrolling the napkin to play with the silverware. Silence filled the air as Harley stared at Alex challengingly, while Alex averted his gaze to examine the large block print on his place mat.

“What’s so great about him, other than that whole chivalry thing? Chivalry’s dead anyway.” He scoffed, seemingly transfixed by the bright letters in front of him.

“Well, he’s a great kisser. That’s for sure. Probably the best person to kiss me. Uses a lot of tongue.” Harley had overstepped her boundaries by a long shot, and if she had been hearing the bullshit coming out of her mouth, she would have laughed, but Alex seemed to be buying every minute of it. In fact, he looked disturbed, his hands dropping the utensils with a loud clang onto the table.

“No, no, he’s not. He’s not a good kisser.” Alex looked determined now, to prove that Max had flaws.

Harley raised an eyebrow, surprised that for once, she had the upper hand. “How would you know? Have you been making out with him recently?”

“No.” Alex grimaced, and for a brief instant, a rosy blush appeared on his cheeks. Harley wanted to capture the moment with a camera to keep for eternity, for in all the time that she had known him, the confident and ever-so-cocky Alex Gaskarth had yet to show embarrassment. Now, it was clearly written all over his face. “Well what else?” He questioned quickly, attempting to regain his composure by changing the subject.

“Um... he’s extremely smart, and we can definitely carry out intelligent conversations.”

Well, that was a lie as well, considering Max’s experiences were far from intelligent conversation topics, but Alex seemed to believe every word she said. Harley wouldn’t have been surprised if she told him that Max was actually a woman, and he believed her.

“Well, I didn’t go to college, remember?”

Harley stared at the boy across from her, suddenly confused. “What does that have to do with anything? I thought we were talking about Max?”

“We are.”

“Then what does—?”

“—Never mind.” Alex held up his hand and cut her off, indicating the end of the conversation, but continued to stare at her, an unreadable expression on his face. “So tell me more. About the date. Where did you go?”

And so it began.

Harley wanted to tell the truth, to be a good person. However, before she could stop herself, the words rolled off her tongue.

A story began to drift its way into the warm summer air, a story full of lies and make believe, a story about her perfect date with one Maximilian Porter. A date with a man possessing Alex’s charm, chivalry and a bright personality. A date that was completely and utterly fake.

But Alex, dear Alex who sat across from her playing with his utensils, he was sucking the whole story up, listening intently as though she was God and he was a disciple. This was the one time that she possessed the power and control of the situation, and she wanted to milk it for what it was worth.

After she had finished her long tale, complete with a counterfeit chaste kiss good night, Alex stared at her with his eyes wide in disbelief, his jaw tightened mechanically.

“So did you, uh, you know...?” He blubbered out, finally meeting her gaze but looking away just as quickly. Harley found it difficult to understand his stutter, and sent him a pointed look, urging him to explain more.

“You know! Did you and Max...did you get laid?”

“Alex!” Harley hissed, completely mortified as her face burned. A mother who was sitting in the next booth over gave the pair a disapproving look, before ushering her child to sit farther away. “Does it matter? Isn’t that kind of personal?”

“S-sorry.” Alex muttered, looking down once again. “I was just, uh, curious.”

“Well,” Harley knew she was really pushing it now, considering the fact that Max wasn’t even her real boyfriend, and if news got out about what she was going to say, she would be in deep shit. “Considering the fact that I didn’t invite him in, no. But I’ve slept with him before, if that’s what you’re asking.”

She would go to hell for this. Completely making up a false relationship must have been illegal in some unfamiliar country somewhere. It had to be. Harley didn’t matter, however, for she could see that Alex was visibly getting angry, his eyebrows rising in disbelief.

It finally clicked within her, the pieces fitting together. Alex was jealous.

Alex was jealous.

Now that she thought about it, Harley and Alex had discussed her relations with Max for the majority of their outing. Had he asked her to go with him to lunch only so he could get details about her love life? Why did he care so much?

Hundreds of questions raced through her mind at once, but Harley could only concentrate on the fact that Alex was jealous of Max. All this time, Harley had been heartbroken when she saw Lisa and Alex together. Now, now this lunch with Alex, this was some sort of act of unintentionally sweet revenge.

Alex continued to seethe quietly across from Harley until the food came, and Harley was grateful for a distraction to calm the atmosphere. Alex devoured his cheeseburger hungrily while Harley picked at her club sandwich slowly, contemplating her thoughts, and the subject of dating slowly began to fade away.

The luncheon still seemed like a date however, with Alex continuing to make small talks and little jokes to ease the awkwardness, much like dates before. When his knees would accidently graze Harley’s, she felt like electricity had entered through her kneecaps, and when they both reached for the ketchup bottle at the same time, Harley blushed and withdrew her hand, while Alex smiled sweetly back.

Slowly, the conversation melted into other tops, ranging from relationships of Rian to Jack and his large nose, but Harley’s mind still remained on Alex against Max.

Alex and Harley had a weird relationship going on, and Harley felt a strange unsettling feeling upon realizing that she was unable to put a label to the relationship. Where they friends? Acquaintances? Exes? Harley tuned back in to Alex and decided to enjoy the outing for what it was.

It was progress, after all.