That Girl

Finley followed Alex into his house, glancing at her surroundings. It was a nice house, not exactly lavish but it was definitely nice. She followed him through the living room and into the kitchen when he stopped at the refrigerator.

"Would you like something to drink?" Alex asked. "We have Coke."

Finley smiled softly. All right. She loved Coke. And, okay, maybe he noticed that. It shouldn't have made her smile but, well, it did. "Yes, please."

Alex nodded and grabbed two cans of Coke before opening the cupboard, shifting stuff around until he came upon a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. He nodded and smiled. "All right. Wanna go to my room?" he asked.

"Um--"

"Oh, shit, not like that," he interrupted. "Sorry. I just meant… To… My parents are nosey."

Finley laughed softly. "Yeah, that's fine," she agreed.

"Okay, cool," he said quietly before walking up the flight of stairs that was connected to the kitchen. He turned down the hall and walked towards his room, shutting the door behind Finley.

She glanced around his room and laughed lightly. "You cleaned your room?"

Alex set the cans of Coke down on his nightstand, throwing the bag of cookies onto his bed. He looked around his own room, wondering if it was that obvious. "No?"

Finley rolled her eyes. "You're a teenage boy. I'm supposed to believe your room is always spotless?" she asked.

"Maybe I'm very organized."

"I doubt it."

Alex sighed. "I just…tidied up a little bit," he told her with a shrug. He sat down on his bed, backing up until his back was against the wall. He pulled a cookie out of the bag and took a bite. "You can make yourself comfy, you know."

Finley nodded. "I know," she told him, taking her time to look around the room. He had a wooden desk against one wall, cluttered with his laptop and a plethora of notebooks, ones she noticed that he always carried around with him. She opened the cover of one, barely looking at the words before closing it. After that was a dresser with a TV on top, paired with a DVD and a VHS player (how classy); there was a rack of DVD's and CD's propped up next to it. After appreciating his music collection, she moved onto his night stand, picking up the picture frame. "Was this before he died?" she asked quietly.

Alex's breath caught in his throat and he just nodded.

She set the picture frame down without a comment and looked over to Alex. "I have a picture of me and my mother by my bed, too," she said quietly. And she didn't know why she said it, she didn't know why she was confiding in him, but she was. Maybe it was because he would understand a hell of a lot easier than anyone else.

"I try to remember the good times, not the bad," he told her.

She nodded.

"What's in the bag?" he asked, deciding to change the subject before it could get even more awkward.

"I had to change before I came over," she told him. "It's my clothes from practice earlier."

"Practice?"

"My father owns a Tae Kwon Do studio a few blocks away. My punishment for getting a detention was to help the kids during sparring lessons today," she said while shaking her head. "I don't know if you know this but, uh, eight year olds can kick pretty hard."

Alex laughed lightly. "I believe it. What's your uniform look like?" he asked.

"Oh, no, it's not flattering at all," she said while still shaking her head. "Not happening."

"C'mon! It can't be that bad!"

Finley rolled her eyes. "You'd be surprised by how bad it could be," she told him.

Alex smiled. "Please?" he asked before trying diligently to suppress the smile so he could pout but, yeah, he was unsuccessful.

Finley laughed before kicking off her flip flops and sitting down on his bed a few feet away from him. She drug her bag onto her lap before slowly opening it and pulling out the yards of white fabric, handing it to Alex.

"Oh, wow," Alex said before holding up the material and nodding. "You're right. It's not flattering."

She smiled. "I told you."

"How do you even move in this?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I'm wonderfully talented."

"So I imagine you know Tae Kwon Do?"

"First degree black belt," she informed him with a proud smile.

"Does that mean you can kick ass like…I don't know, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill?"

"Volume 1 or Volume 2?"

"Does it matter?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm not as good with a katana but I could probably learn. But I can handle my own in a fight. My father made sure of that."

Alex nodded slowly. "Yeah, your father seems pretty…uh…strong," he said, deciding that was an adequate enough word to describe it.

Finley laughed. "Yeah, he's a retired Navy SEAL."

"Holy shit. I thought those only existed in movies or something," he muttered.

"Nope, he's the real deal."

"Why did he retire?"

Finley looked down at her hands, biting her lip. "For me and my mom," she told him.

"What did she do?"

"You ask a lot of questions, Alex."

"Then how about this one: why did you want to see me today?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"Maybe I should go," Finley said, standing up from the bed.

Alex shook his head, grabbing her arm and pulling her back onto the bed. He wasn't trying to be gentle, he was just tired of her always trying to leave. "You're not leaving," he told her.

"You're not the boss of me," she snapped, ripping her arm out of his grasp and moving to stand again.

Alex rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around her waist pulling her back down against the bed. To prevent her from leaving, he trapped one of her legs between his thighs. "I said no," he repeated. "You always run. You're not doing that this time."

Finley frowned, trying to push him off but he grabbed her shoulders and held her down. "I could easily throw you off of me, Alex."

"Then do it or stop fighting me," he told her.

Finley lifted her hips off the bed and used her own weight as leverage to flip them over, pinning Alex underneath her. "You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do, Alex."

Alex flipped her back over again. "Are you going to stop leaving before we have an actual conversation?" he asked her. "Or is that all you know how to do?"

"I know how to do this, too," she told him, lifting him up again and using her knees to propel him off of her.

Alex fell back against the wall, his head hitting it and causing him to cry out in pain. "What the--"

"Oh, shit," Finley muttered, crawling over to him and looking down at him. "Are you okay?"

Alex rubbed the back of his head for a minute before he smiled. Laughter came next--something he couldn't control.

Finley sat back, clearly unprepared for that reaction, and she watched Alex for a minute. "Are you sure you aren't concussed?"

"No, I'm not sure," Alex said through his laughter. "I had no idea you were that strong."

"I'm not that strong," she protested before shrugging. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he told her, laying back down on his bed.

"You probably shouldn't sleep or anything, just…in case," she said quietly.

Alex reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of her face before pulling her down so she could lay right next to him. "Are you going to try to run again?"

"Are you going to try to stop me again?" she asked.

He shook his head cupping the side of her face in his hands.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, her eyes growing wide.

"I'm glad you came over."

"Why?"

Alex paused. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Am I asking?"

He nodded.

"Then it's not obvious," she told him.

"I like you, Finley," Alex admitted, resting his weight on his forearms. "And I could act like I don't, but it'd be a lie. And I could pretend like I don't, but that's too hard."

"I don't want you to lie to me," she said quietly. "It makes me feel guilty for lying to you."

"Don't," he told her before covering her lips with his own.

For the first time, they weren't interrupted. There were no sirens, there were no teachers, there was nothing except the blissful silence in Alex's room. Finley didn't see the point in pulling away--after all, the position that she was in was, well, the only place she really wanted to be. Alex had a way of making her feel safe and secure when she was in a position where she should feel anything but. Everything slipped away when they were together and, even though letting her guard down could be detrimental, she wasn't afraid.

Alex's lips moved lazily against hers, his free arm sliding beneath her shoulders, pressing them closer together. Finley slid her arms around Alex's neck, causing Alex's arm to slip down to her waist, sliding under her shirt to press against her back. His hands were cool against her warm skin, causing her to gasp against his lips, a situation that Alex took full advantage of because, well, who wouldn't? Finley bit back a moan as one of her hands slid up his neck and into his hair, grasping at his thick strands of hair.

Finley held him close, not ready for him to pull away. But Alex wasn't ready either. Because he, just like Finley, didn't want to be anywhere else.