Darling, I Just Can't Go On

"Why are you so nervous?" Alex questioned, placing a hand over my bouncing knee to stop it's motion.

I just gave him a sheepish smile and a small shrug as I chipped at the polish on my nails making him gave a small chuckle as he put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, only for the arm rests of our chairs to get in the way.

"Well that didn't go as smoothly as I wanted," He joked making me give a small giggle, the nurse behind the counter sending us a look from where she was sitting. "These chairs are a total cuddle block, just saying."

I rolled my eyes at him with a smile as I bumped my shoulder into his lightly making him poke my side in return. I made a small giggle like sound as I tried to squirm away, only for him to use the arm around my shoulders to keep me in place.

"You never did answer my question," He pointed out when he finally stopped his assault on my side. "Why are you nervous?"

"Well I normally spend this time texting you or Jack, sometimes both," I replied with another shrug. "That's how I distract myself from being nervous all the time."

Instead of responding he just poked me in the side again making me giggle.

I was holding back a fit of laughter when the door opened and there stood Agarwal, who had a look on her face that I couldn't quite place.

"Hello Andi," She greeted. "And you too Alex."

We stood at the same time, Alex dropping his arm from around me before motioning me in front of him, me leading the way into the office as he rested his hand on my lower back lightly.

I quickly sank into my usual chair, folding in on myself as I normally do, Alex giving me a look as I did so that made me stick my tongue out at him.

"You seem like you're in a better mood than you normally are Andi," Agarwal commented as she watched Alex and I interact. "What could be the cause of this change?"

I gave a small shrug and avoiding looking at her as I dropped one of my legs away from the hold I had on them, wrapping my ankle around the back of Alex's. From the corner of my eye I could see him smile, which caused me to try and hold in a smile.

"I think that I see now," I heard her say, but my eyes were cast to the ground as I tried to keep a straight face.

"I don't want you guys to feel like you need to hold back around me," She said when she noticed the way that we were acting. "Alex, would you mind me asking you some questions?"

I looked up at that, first to her and then to Alex, who was looking at me for confirmation to see if I was okay with it. I gave a slight nod that only he noticed before he turned to look at Agarwal again.

"Yeah, sure," He replied with a shrug.

"How did you and Andi meet?" She asked him.

"We've gone to the same school for years, but it was through a mutual friend of ours that we actually met this year." He answered.

"So, you've known each other closely for how long exactly?"

"About six months I think."

"And you've become very close in those six months I can see."

I shrunk down into my seat a bit, moving my leg back up onto the chair and hugging both of them into my chest making Alex look over at me, taking in my slightly nervous expression.

"What was it that made you two become this close in six short months?"

It was then that my body tensed up just the slightest, but Alex noticed and without a second thought he reached over and grasped one of my hands, linking his fingers lightly through mine as I gave him a smile of appreciation. Agarwal took the time to notice how my body had relaxed to his touch.

He kept his gaze on me and basically ignored the question since he knew that I wouldn't enjoy what the answer was, and he wouldn't either.

"What event distressed both of you enough to become friends this close after more or less ignoring each other for so many years at school?"

Again, the two of us remained silent, but at her words Alex's hand tightened around mine.

"I can see it's a touchy subject for the both of you." She sighed, as if him not answering her on top of me never answering was frustrating her. "If you want my help Andi, some kind of response would benefit you more than I think you realize."

Instead of looking at her as she spoke to me, my eyes drifted down to where Alex's hand was intertwined with mine. His hand was bigger in comparison to my own small one and the sight of it brought a smile to my face.

"I believe that I've seen all that I needed to see." She eventually said after a thick silence had fallen over the three of us. "Time is up."

I once more was up out of my seat as the words were leaving her mouth, my hand still tightly wrapped around Alex's as we left.

When we were finally back outside of the office and the building, I let out a sigh of relief and felt some of the built up tension from the previous week finally melt away.
Sensing the change in my composure Alex pulled me into a hug and I sank into it without another thought against it.

"That wasn't so bad," He commented as he held me tightly against his chest.

"I just want to go home," I mumbled lightly. "Well no, not home. I'd rather not be around my dad when he gets the call about today."

"Let's go to my house then," He said as he loosened his arms from around me. "It's a Friday so you can just stay if you want, you know my mom won't mind."

"That'd be really nice."I sighed.

~~

"Hey ma," Alex called into the house when we walked through the door, a response coming from the kitchen. He moved over a placed a peck on her cheek before continuing on with what he was going to say. "Andi is gunna stay over."

"Oh that's fine dear. Dinner is almost ready so you two go wash up and come back down when you're ready." She replied, sending me a smile afterwards.

I followed Alex out of the kitchen and over to the stairs so we could go up to his room.

"Do you want a pair of shorts to change into?" He asked as I shed my jacket and pulled the beanie off of my head.

"That'd be nice," I replied as I ran a hand through my hair to loosen the tangles from wearing the beanie for so long, giving Alex a smile when he handed me the soft material of the shorts.

"Don't worry, I'm turning around," He laughed when I gave him a look.

I quickly removed my skinny jeans and slipped the oversized basketball shorts onto my hips, rolling the waist band up so that they didn't pool around my legs as much.

"Come on," Alex said when I told him I was done. "Let's go eat."