Resistance Is Useless

14.
Andy

I pulled my hair into a ponytail, quickly applied some mascara and walked into the front lounge to find Alex sitting on the sofa, looking at his computer.
"Mornin" he said, poking me in the stomach as I walked past him.
"Mornin yourself!" I said, sitting next to him and poking him back.
"Watcha doin?" I asked, looking at his computer screen. He quickly closed it.
"Nothing!" he defended.
"So, porn," I stated, raising my eyebrows.
"I don't look at porn! ...In the morning..." he added quietly.
“Well then what are you looking at?”
“Seriously! It’s nothing! Just…twitter,” Alex lied.
“mmkay… “ I said, narrowing my eyes at him. I sighed and pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time as Jack, of all people, walked in. I looked up at him as he entered, but averted my eyes, suddenly needing to closely examine my nails.
“Andy, you wanna get breakfast?” Jack asked me, apparently not seeing the elephant sitting between us.
“Actually Alex just asked me to. I mean, you can come if you want, but…” I trailed off.
“Um… I…” Alex started, but he paused when he saw me looking at him with wide eyes, nodding slightly, “…I’m gonna go get my jacket,” he finished, getting that I needed him to go along with my lie.
“Oh,” Jack said, trying to hide his disappointment and confusion, “It’s okay, I’m not really that hungry anyway. I’ll just find something here,” He looked me in the eyes then, as if waiting for me to say, “haha! Just kidding Jack!” but I simply gave him an awkward smile.
“Ready?” Alex asked me, walking back into the room with his jacket in his hand.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said, standing. I zipped up my hoodie and exited the bus. I stood outside for a moment before Alex appeared from the bus.
“Later Jack!” he called. We walked around the side of the venue and onto the sidewalk, towards a small mom-and-pop diner about a block away. As soon as we were out of sight from the bus, Alex grabbed my hand, stopping me, and pulled me to the edge of the sidewalk, near a bench.
“Okay. What the fuck was that all about?” he asked, dropping my hand and raising his eyebrows.
“What was what all about?”
“Andy.” Alex said flatly.
“Nothing. I just, think that, I’ve been spending too much time with Jack.”
“Cut the shit. There is obviously something going on with you two, ”
“Nothing’s going on with us!” I defended, surprised by his accusation. He didn’t say anything in response; he just gave me a look. I looked down at my feet, avoiding Alex’s stare.
“Okay, fine. But we’re not leaving here until you tell me the truth,” Alex said, sitting down on the bench and resting his ankle on his knee.
“Seriously, Alex? Can we please just go eat? I don’t wanna talk about it!” I pleaded as I looked around to make sure no one was staring at us.
“So then there is something going on.” He said as a statement, rather than a question. He patted the space on the bench next to him, gesturing for me to sit. I sat down next to him and pouted.
“Do I have to?” I said, in one last attempt to get out of telling Alex. He nodded. I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed.
“Okay, well, I guess it’s just that… I know that Jack likes me, and I don’t know if I have feelings for him or not and I don’t want to lead him on (anymore) cause I know I have already… pretty bad… and he just doesn’t deserve to deal with all the shit that I have going on with my home situation… and I just don’t think would be a good girlfriend to him and I just had a really fucked up break up and Jack shouldn’t have to deal with that either and…” I realized I was rambling. My thoughts were coming out of me like word-vomit, but I had made sure to avoid mentioning anything about last night. I looked at Alex to see if any of this was making sense to him and he looked back at me with understanding eyes. He pulled me into a hug.
“I know how you feel,” he said, pulling away from the hug and leaving one of his arms around my shoulders, “But you know what? I think that if you and Jack are meant to happen, then you will, and if you aren’t, well, then you won’t. And I understand that you think he doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into, and that’s probably true, but Jack doesn’t know what he’s doing about 90% of the time, and I’d say he’s doing alright. And even so, he’s an adult, sort of, and if he wants to be in a relationship with you, despite your shit, and you want to be with him too, I think you should go for it,” He paused and looked me in the eyes, to make sure I was getting all of this.
“So,” he went on, “I think that if you just give everything some time, and just let whatever needs to happen happen, then everything will turn out right in the end,”
I wrapped my arms around Alex’s waist and gave him a tight hug. I gave him a warm smile before standing from the bench.
“Thanks,” I said with a smile. I grabbed his hands to pull him up, but then paused.
“Are you gonna tell Jack all of this?” I asked timidly.
“Not if you don’t want me to,”
“I would rather you didn’t…” I said, not meeting his eyes. He then stood up from the bench, his hands still in mine.
“I won’t,” he dropped my hands and took a step away from me, “I’ll just tell him you’re on your period,” he said with a smirk, before running ahead of me on the sidewalk.
“Okay. No, wait! Alex! Don’t you dare tell him that! I’m not on my period!” I yelled ahead to him. A man standing a ways down the street gave me a very strange look. I laughed to myself and ran to catch up with Alex, who was already across the street. “Alex! Get back here you fuck!”

We entered the diner and sat down at a table next to the window. Alex was still chuckling to himself as he read over the menu. I looked across at him, smiling to myself and shaking my head. I was lucky to be surrounded by such awesome people who cared about me, even if they acted like giant dick-faces sometimes.
“But really,” I said very seriously, “I’m not on my period,”