Breaking Hearts and Breaking Bones Has Never Been So Romantic

From my seat on my bed, I took a look around my room and sighed heavily to myself. I had long since gotten all my belongings moved into my room, given that I didn't have very many things to begin with. Now, I was left with nothing to do but to listen to Alex uttering a few choice words in the master bedroom across from mine every once in a while as he struggled with his room arrangement.

Though Alex was an entertaining guy from time to time, I was more interested in what was going on within the bedroom at the very end of the hallway.

I hadn't seen Angie since a little after lunch, when we helped each other and had gotten all our beds moved up into the apartment and taken care of. After my bed had been moved into my room, and all my boxes had been carried up as well, I shut my door and kept to myself, working quietly until all of my belongings had been put away.

When I had finished, I opened my door once again and sat down on my bed, hoping to catch a glimpse of Angie as she walked by my room. Needless to say, I hadn't seen her walk by once. Hell, I didn't even hear a single sound coming from her room, and if I hadn't just been packing her bed frame into her room a couple of hours prior, I would think that it was just me and Alex moving into this apartment.

Suddenly, there was a loud thud from across the hallway, followed by an even louder utterance of a swear word. Snickering slightly to myself, I climbed to my feet and made my way out the door, across the hallway, and into Alex's room only to find him lying crumpled on the floor, next to the wall. Sweeping my eyes along the floor, I saw where a pile of dressers drawers had been knocked over, and I quickly pieced together what must have happened.

"Leave it to you to fall over a pile of drawers." I smirked as I leaned up against the doorframe and cross my arms in front of my chest. "If only I were in here to watch it all go down."

"Shut up." Alex muttered as he slowly climbed to his feet, and straightened himself out. "Are you all done putting your stuff away?"

I nodded my head in response.

"Good." He said. "Come with me to get some more hangers. I don't have enough." He said, motioning to his closet, where half of his clothes were already hung up, while the other half was gathered into a huge pile on the floor.

"Fine." I sighed, not really feeling like going anywhere. But then again, it's not as if I had anything else interesting to do.

"Do me a favor and see if my sister needs anything." Alex requested. "Let me put these damn drawers away."

With another nod, I straightened myself, turned around, and made my way down the hallway to Angie's room. Her door was already wide open, and the light from her bedroom spilled out into the semi-dark hallway.

I slowed to a stop just before I got to her door, and then poked my head around the corner, quietly peaking into her room. Somewhere, the radio was on, and was playing the song "So Sick" by Ne-Yo, and Angie sat Indian style on her bed with her back to me as she listened to the music. She was bent over something in her lap, and as I tilted my head to the side a bit to get a better look, I saw that she was a photo album she was flipping through.

I hesitated for a second, not really wanting to interrupt her, and then cleared my throat, finally making my presence known. Angie jumped ever so slightly, before she closed the photo album rather hastily and turned around.

"Oh, hi Gabe." She said quietly. "I didn't even hear you coming down the hallway."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I apologized. "But, your brother is making me go with him to get some more hangers. Is there anything that you need us to get while we're out?"

"Well," she paused as she looked around her room, which still had many boxes waiting to be unpacked, "no, there's nothing I can think of at the moment."

"Maybe when you get into the mood to unpack your things, you'll think of something." I said with a hint of laughter in my voice as I nodded to the boxes that looked as if hadn't been moved since Alex had brought them in earlier.

"Yeah," she grinned, "I probably will. I just," she paused for a second to hold up the photo album that she had been looking through, "got sidetracked." She said.

I couldn't help but notice as she finished her sentence, her smile faltered ever so slightly, and a look of sadness suddenly flashed in her eyes. I reached up, rubbing the back of my neck, suddenly feeling a bit awkward in Angie's presence and then cleared my throat.

"Well, if there's anything you think of while we're gone, just give us a call and let us know." I said, giving her a soft smile in hopes that it would help, even if just a little, to cheer her up.

"Alright, thanks Gabe." She said softly, giving me a small, yet seemingly forced smile in return.

I nodded my head and strummed my fingers on the doorframe a couple of times before I waved a little bit, and turned around to make my way into the living room where Alex had been waiting for me.

"What took you so long?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I had to poke a little fun at Angie and her lack of enthusiasm to unpack her things." I replied.

At my words, Alex frowned slightly. "What is she doing? Just sitting around on her butt or what?"

I nodded my head. "And looking at pictures." I said. "You know, she looked kind of sad in there Alex." I added quietly. "I don't know for sure, but I didn't want to - "

Alex cut me off as he stepped past me and hurried down the hallway to Angie's room. My mouth hung open slightly as I heard Alex demand that Angie give him the photo album.

"Alex, go away." Angie said, her voice a mixture of anger and gloom. "Let me alone."

"Give me that damn thing, Angela." Alex said sharply, and was followed shortly by a sound of protest from Angie. "I swear, I'm going to burn this in the dumpster out back."

"Alex, give that b - "

Angie's words were soon muffled by the sound of a door slamming, and a second or two later Alex reappeared at the end of the hallway, packing Angie's photo album in hand. I raised an eyebrow at Alex, and gave him a questioning look. I knew that Alex was a good guy, and although I hadn't known him for all that long, I'd never heard him talk or act like that toward anyone.

Seeing my look, Alex sighed heavily and held up the photo album.

"I told her to get rid of these stupid pictures, but for some reason she insists on keeping them." He mumbled before he tucked it underneath his arm and then he grabbed his keys from the countertop. "You ready?" He asked.

I muttered a quiet 'yeah' in response, and together we left the apartment, made our way downstairs, and were out in the evening sun within a couple of minutes. I made a move to take a right, to where I knew there was a Rite Aid, but Alex tapped my shoulder, and nodded to the alleyway.

"I gotta get rid of this." He sighed, motioning to the photo album once again.

Not saying anything, I nodded my head and followed him into the alleyway, not stopping until we got the dumpster. Alex took the album and threw it into the dumpster. Its pages fluttered in the wind as it flew threw the air, causing a few of the pictures to fall out, and then disappeared amongst the black plastic garbage bags. I looked to my feet where one of the loose pictures had fallen and bent over to take it in my hands.

I couldn't help but smile softly to myself as my eyes locked with a picture of Angie, simply gleaming as she posed with another guy, their arms wrapped tightly around one another, looking as if there was no place else in the world that they'd rather be.

"Is this Angie's boyfriend?" I asked without thinking, only to earn a snort of disgust from Alex.

"Ex-boyfriend." He said, snatching the picture from me and throwing it into the dumpster with the rest of the pictures. "That guy's a fucking scumbag. He broke my sister's heart into a million pieces, and humiliated her. He's a prick."

I shoved my hands into my pockets as we started back toward the sidewalk, now understanding the sad look on Angie's face when I talked to her in her room.

"But, she's such a sweet, pretty girl." I said quietly. "Why would anybody want to hurt her?"

Alex shrugged his shoulders as we turned onto the sidewalk and began the short walk to Rite Aid.

"You and I both know how guys can be." He said simply, and I nodded my head, agreeing with him.

I'm not going to deny that us guys can do some pretty irrational and unexplainable things, but then again, girls can too.

"What exactly did he do?" I asked curiously.

I saw Alex glance at me momentarily out of the corner of my eye before he looked back to the sidewalk in front of him.

"A lot of things." He mumbled. "Like, cheated on her for one. And he secretly taped them having sex and then showed it to all his friends as entertainment for another." He shook his head and uttered a few choice words before sighing once more. "He did a lot more things that I don't want to talk about."

I frowned and dug my hands deeper into my pocket as a sudden chilling breeze blew past us. "What a sick bastard." I mumbled, shaking my head at the thought.

"Yeah." Alex agreed quietly. "Look, Gabe, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to anybody else, and please don't tell Angie that I told you, either."

"Of course." I replied.

With that we both fell silent for the remainder of the way to Rite Aid. After we got there, Alex went off to go get his hangers, letting me wander off in search of some bath essentials. About ten minutes later we had all the things we needed and was on our way back to the apartment. Along the way, we exchanged some small talk, and although I wanted to ask Alex more questions about his sister, I bit my tongue and instead kept the conversation about something else.

It wasn't that I wanted to know more details about her and her ex-boyfriend. Trust me, I never wanted to hear another thing about that sick bastard. It's just that ... well, I don't know what it was, but for some reason, I wanted to know more about her.

"So, how old is your sister?" I asked suddenly, cutting Alex off in mid sentence as I was unable to contain my curiosity.

"Angie?" He asked in surprise. "She's twenty-three ... she'll be twenty-four at the end of the July." He replied. " ... Why?"

I shrugged my shoulders and continued on. "What's she like?"

"Gabe, you know what's she's like."

I shook my head. "No, not really." I said simply.

Alex gave me a quizzical look before he sighed softly. "I don't know. She's a sweetheart who cares about everyone but herself. She hardly ever raises her voice, with the exception to put someone in their place. That person is usually me." He said with a small laugh. "Though she's been through a lot of shit, she rarely cries. She's witty and funny, and has a smirk that makes you just want to slap off of her face from time to time. She's the baby of the family, but she sure as hell acts like she's the oldest. Oh, I don't know Gabe ... " Alex trailed off.

"What's her favorite animal?" I asked curiously.

"She loves dogs to death, but she likes any kind of animal pretty much. Except for snakes ... she's scared to death of snakes." Alex paused for a second before he asked. "Gabe, you do have a crush on my sister or something?"

"No." I said offhandedly. "I just, I don't know ... wanted to know more about her, that's all."

At my words, Alex slowed to a stop, causing me to stop as well and turn to look at him. He continued to give me a questioning stare, asking me with just his mere look if I were in fact telling the truth. I shrugged my shoulders once more before I replied.

"Seriously, Alex, I hardly even know her. I was just wondering what she was like." I hesitated for a second, thinking as to whether or not I was going to mention something else that was on my mind. "I know that when I first met her, I didn't make too much of an impression on her since I was, well, stoned. And I guess I'm just worried that she doesn't think too highly of me ... " I trailed off, mumbling a few words of jibberish under my breath.

"So basically you're worried about what she thinks of you?" Alex asked slowly.

"Well, I guess so." I said awkwardly.

"She doesn't think bad of you or anything, Gabe. She knows now that you are in fact a good person." He sighed. I nodded my head, and after a few seconds of silence, Alex spoke once more. "So, why are you so worried about what my sister thinks of you? You don't even give a damn about what people think of you."

I opened my mouth to reply, but quickly closed it when I realized that I didn't have an answer for him. Why was I worrying what Angie thought of me? I had absolutely no idea. I just ... did. With my lack of response, Alex mumbled a few incoherent words under his breath before he started to walk once more, leaving me to catch up with him.

"Come on, lets hurry up and get back to the apartment; it's getting late." He sighed as he picked up his pace.

I made a move to quicken my pace as well, but slowed down when another store caught my eye. As an idea began to form in my mind, I stopped walking altogether, and Alex glanced over his shoulder to me, only to stop when he had seen that I had stopped.

"Gabe, what's up?" He asked.

"Go ahead, man, I'll meet you back at the apartment pretty soon."

Alex raised an eyebrow, but nodded his head all the same before he turned around, and started off once again toward the apartment, leaving me standing alone on the sidewalk.