And I Know It's a Wonderful World

After that day Alex pretended like it never. He acted like everything was perfect between him and Katie, even though she never kissed him back. He kept telling himself that she was just tired.

Katie sat at the table and stared into the open area in front of her. For the past few days she was getting bored. She started to hate her job. No one came to visit her, and none of the kids stayed to talk with her, so she stopped being polite, and over friendly. She was resting her head on the table when she heard someone tap on the table. She looked up and blinked a few times before she focused on the figure in front of her.

"Hey, Rian," she said running her fingers through her hair.

"Hey, Katie, I was wondering if we could talk?" he asked sitting on the table and swinging his legs over it.

"What would you like to talk about?" she asked looking to her right as Rian sat in a chair.

"You're not hooking up with Zack are you?"

Rian wasn't sure what her reaction would be. He almost didn't ask her but Matt had suckered him into doing it. He didn't really want to considering he wanted to remain neutral. He wanted to be Switzerland in this situation.

"Where on Earth would you get that idea?" Katie asked wanting to laugh.

"Well, I don't know, you and Alex haven't really been you and Alex since you went out with Zack. And I mean you already hooked up with-" Katie cut him off before he could finish.

"Are you trying to imply that I'm just going around this band?" she asked shocked that Rian of all people would ask her that.

"No! I mean clearly I would be your first choice, but maybe other people are getting the wrong idea," he started to mumble at the end.

"Dear god, why do I always have the worst things happen to me? I'm not in love with Zack!" she shouted raising her arms in the air.

"Well, that's good to know," Alex walking in from behind the tent.

Both Katie and Rian turned around to see Alex standing behind them. He had his shirt off and even though he played an hour ago he was still sweating.

"Hey," Katie mumbled.

She felt awkward considering her and Alex haven't spoken about what happened that one day.

"Hey," Alex said walking up to Katie and kissing the top of her head.

"Well, I'm going to go out to eat with Zack, at Friday's," Rian said quickly glancing at Katie and then at Alex.

The tan on Katie's face drained and Alex glared at Rian.

"Brah," Alex groaned as Rian hopped over the table and ran over to the area where the buses were.

"So, I guess we'll be having a talk?" Katie asked watching Alex sit down in the seat Rian once occupied.

"I just want to know what's happening between us. Or," Alex paused and then sighed. "And you said there's nothing between you and Zack?"

"Alex, please believe me that Zack and I are just friends. And I honestly don't know about us. What's going to happen after tour? Am I suppose to go back to Maryland? My life is in Chicago now," Katie said saying everything she wanted to that was in her head.

"Do you still want to be with me? Set aside all the other factors?"

Alex sat nervous next to Katie. Never has a girl made him question his ego.

"Of course, Alex. If I didn't this would be over," Katie said seeing relief was over his face.

"But," she started up again. "I think I'm ready for something serious, and I'm not sure if you are."

"I can be. I am, if you want me to be," Alex said almost pleading for her to stay with him.

"Alex, even we do have a serious relationship-"

"We will," Alex ensured her.

"How are we going to make it work?"

"What are you talking about? You'll come back to Maryland with me," Alex said smiling and running his fingers through her hair.

"What about Chicago? I have friends there, and a life there," Katie said with a said look at Alex's fingers stopped moving through her hair.

"But you had a life in Maryland. You've only been there three months, and I know that you've made friends there, but it's not like you won't see them again," Alex said.

His hearted started racing when he thought about Katie going back to Chicago for good. If that happened he knew for sure he would never get her back. The Steve character would win her back, and she wouldn't care about anyone else.

"I know, it's just I feel like I've known them longer," Katie mumbled.

She literally had no idea what to do. One part wanted to just go to Chicago grab her shit and go back to her old life. But the other part felt like she would be leaving behind something great. Something that she would never get back again. And with Charlie and Monica how could she do that to them, and such a horrible time, were Charlie could use all the support he could get. But then Monica had told Katie Steve had moved on and that she shouldn't hold back on Alex because of him.

Katie never told anyone about Steve, because she felt like a pathetic girl. She spent so much energy on missing and being angry at him, that it wasn't even worth it. She was only gone three months, and he was already crazy in love with the girl who moved in downstairs.
All these things weighed out on the scale, and at the moment it seemed like the scale was balanced.

"I can't decide yet if I'm staying in Chicago or not," Katie said looking away from Alex and helping a kid standing in front of the table.

She could feel Alex hold his gaze on her, and she was pissed that this kid had come in on their conversation, because the break in between their talk just gave them time to let all this sink in. Katie had to decide her future within the next two weeks, and Alex's future was in the hands of a indecisive girl.

"How do you not know you want to go back to Maryland? What about Zack? You already left your best friend for three months, are you going to make this for good this time?" Alex said hitting her below the belt.

He knew that talking about Zack was a touchy subject. No one wanted Alex and Katie to break up more than Zack, but Alex knew if the only way Katie would stay in Maryland was to be with Alex, he would take it.

"Let me at least sleep on it, Alex. This is harder than you think."

"You only have two weeks until you're meeting your crossroad. Katie you go back to Chicago, I can't wait for you to realize that you made a mistake."

Katie looked out again into the crowd and sighed as she watched couples walk hand in hand smiling.

"Sometimes I think I shouldn't have come tour. I've just made this so hard. I'm sure everyone thinks I'm the All Time Low slut, and that I'm just ruining everything for you guys," Katie said sighing again as she looked behind her to see Matt had entered the tent.

"I'm going to take a nap," Katie said standing up and assuming Matt knew that was his sign to take over the tent.

"So how'd your talk go?" Matt asked sitting in Katie's old seat.

"Honestly," Alex started as he put his head in his hands. "I have no idea."