What the Past Never Told Us

Once we made it home from New York sunday night, Kara went to her parents house for family dinner and Alex’s parents made me and my parents dinner so we were over there.

“So how was the show?” Isobel asked her son as we all sat around their large table, enjoying the delicious pot roast she had made.

“It was so great, mom.” Alex answered, making us all smile at how excited and happy he was. “It was so much fun.”

“Were you nervous?” Peter questioned. I looked over at Alex, who shrugged.

“A little.” He says, making me laugh and shake my head. All eyes turned towards me.

“Sorry, but you were more than just a little nervous, Alex.” I say, making him chuckle and shrug once more.

“Alright, so yeah, I was pretty nervous.” He confessed. “I just wanted to do good.”

“And you did, it was great.” I assure him. Everyone smiles and continues their meal, making small talk as we go. Soon we are all finished and Alex and I are put on clean up duty so the adults can sit around, drinking a glass of wine and talk about ‘adult things’ as they put it.

“I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow.” Alex says a little later as we get up to his room. I agreed to help him do his homework that he neglected to do over the weekend before I headed home.

“School isn’t that bad.” I say, sitting down beside him as he pulls his books out of his bag.

“I don’t need a diploma to be a rockstar. Can’t I just drop out?” He whines making me laugh and shake my head. I point at his books, making him pout.

“Homework, now.” I order. He sighs and begins his work while I sit beside him, forcing him to continue when he tries to stop, I also help him with a few things as he goes. Finally, around 11 he finishes up. “Geez, finally.” I say, falling back onto my back as he puts his books away. He laughs and puts his bag down onto the floor beside his bed.

“Sorry we aren’t all as smart as you and get our homework done in ten minutes.” He says, falling beside me, his arm wrapping around my waist and his head on the pillow beside mine.

“It’s okay, I still love you even though you aren’t as smart as me.” I joke, patting his arm. He rolls his eyes but leans down to press his lips to mine. I smile and kiss him back for a second before pulling back. “I should probably head home.”

“No, stay with me tonight.” He whines, making me laugh.

“I can’t, Lex. We have school in the morning.” I tell him, sitting up. He groans and sits up as well, pouting. “That pout won’t work on me.” I say.

“Fiiiiine. I’ll walk you over.” I nod. We both stand up and make our way out of his room and through his house, careful to keep quiet as his parents had already gone to bed. We step outside, the cool late September breeze blowing across us. “I can’t believe it’s almost October already.” Alex comments as he takes my hand and we walk across his lawn to my front porch. It was so convenient living next door to my boyfriend. “What are we going to dress up as for Halloween?” I laugh and shake my head.

“Whatever you wanna be, babe.” I tell him, making him grin. That was probably a bad idea, he’s going to come up with something weird. “More important than Halloween, what are we going to do for our one year anniversary in November?” I questioned.

“I don’t know, I’ll come up with something awesome though, don’t worry.” He assures me. I laugh and nod, reaching up to press a soft kiss to his lips. “One year. I can’t believe it.”

“Me neither.” I say. “It’s been such a good year.” He grins and nods.

“That it has.” He leans down and gives me one last kiss. “Now get inside. I’ll see you in the morning.” I grin and nod, turning to open the door.

“Good night, Lex. I love you.” He smiles at me, walking down the stairs.

“And I love you. Sweet dreams, love.” He winks at me and turns, heading back to his house while I go inside, closing the door after me.

“We figured you were gonna just stay the night over there.” My mother says from the couch as I walk in. “That would have been okay, ya know.”

“I know, but I spent the whole weekend with him, we can go one night apart.” I say, laughing. She too laughs. “Dad in bed?” I question, making her nod.

“Yeah, I was just waiting to see if you did come home or not. Kara is also home, things didn’t go so good from the sounds of it.” My mother tells me, making me sigh.

“They never do.” I lean down, kissing her on the cheek. “Good night, mom.” With that I head up the stairs and straight to Kara’s room. “Hey, you okay?” I question my best friend who sat on her bed, staring down at her chipped nail polish.

“Yeah, just the same old shit, ya know?” She says, sighing. I walk more into her room, closing the door after me and go to sit beside her.

“You wanna talk about it?” I ask her, making her sigh and shrug.

“I just don’t understand why the one time we get to see each other and be a family they have to continue arguing. They can’t even stop for even an hour.” She mutters. “I wish they would just get a divorce already, then they would be happy again, and I wouldn’t have to be stuck in the middle.

“I’m so sorry, Kara. You shouldn’t have to go through that.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into my chest. She curls against me, wrapping her arms around me as well.

“I’m just glad I only have to deal with it one night every two weeks. If I had to live there still, I would probably run away and never see them agian. Even as it is I don’t think I’m going to go to dinner in two weeks. I just... don’t want to deal with that again.” I sigh and nod, hugging her tighter.

“Wanna come cuddle in my room and fall asleep watching chick flicks?” I ask making her laugh and nod.

“Yes, please.” I laugh and stand up. “I’ll get changed into my pajamas and be over in a second.” I nod and leave the room, going across the hall to my own to get changed into a pair of shorts and one of Alex’s t-shirts that he seemed to have left over here. We both have a lot of clothes at the others house, seeing as we stayed the night with each other almost every night. I liked it.

“So, what are we watching?” Kara asks as she walks into my room.

“What do you wanna watch?” I ask her, pulling my red hair up in a pony tail. I really needed to redye it. Maybe Kara and I could do that tomorrow or something.

“How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days.” She says, sitting down on my bed, pulling the covers over herself. I laugh and nod, going over to my movies to grab the mentioned movie. I would never turn down this movie, I loved it so much. Matthew McConaughey was like my biggest celebrity crush. I’d fall in love with him in 10 days too, easily. After I put the movie in, I crawl into bed and cuddle up with my best friend and that’s how I fall asleep.

Waking up the next morning was a drag. Kara didn’t want to get out of bed so I had to spend five minutes literally pulling her from the blankets. She then beat me to the shower and took all the hot water so when I finally got my shower, it was ice cold. Then, when I got down to breakfast, my dad accidently spilled his morning coffee all over my outfit, making me have to go change. By the time I was ready, Alex, Jack and Rian were here and were causing mayhem downstairs.

“Morning, beautiful.” Alex greeted when I enter the kitchen. My mom was laughing at something Jack was talking about while she put a plate of pancakes in front of him and Rian.

“Sit down, honey. I’ve got pancakes and bacon for you and Alex.” My mom orders. I sigh and nod, sitting down in the spot I had vacated a few minutes earlier because of the coffee mishap. My mom puts a plate in front of Alex and I and we dig in. Jack was eating like a mad man, pieces of pancakes flying everywhere.

“Jack, I swear,” I start. “If you spill anything on me, I may kill you.” I tell him. He looks over at me and grins. And that’s when it happens. He brought his hand up to wave my threat off but in the process he knocked over his glass of orange juice. Guess where it lands? That’s right, my lap.

“Shit, Izzy, I am so sorry.” Jack jumps up and rushes to get napkins. I was about two seconds away from blowing up. It was only 7:30 in the morning, why was my day already starting like this?

“Get away from me, Jack.” I snap, slapping at his hands. I shove away from the table angrily. “Fuck this day. I’m staying home.” With that I stomp from the room, not caring if anyone followed. I prefered they didn’t. I storm up to my room, slamming the door shut after me. After removing my once again wet clothes, I change into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie before sitting on my bed. There was a knock on my door, followed by it opening. “Go away, Alex.” He sighs and shakes his head, coming to sit beside me.

“So I’ve heard you’ve had a bad day.” He says. I roll my eyes and cross my arms.

“Yeah, I have and I’d prefer to spend the rest of it alone so will you go away?” I snap at him but he shakes his head.

“No, I won’t actually. Come on, Iz, it’s just a few spills and a cold shower, let’s not overreact here.”

“Alex, will you just go away? Go to school.” He scoots closer to me but I shove him away, glaring. “Go, Alex.”

“No, only if you come with me.” He says but I shake my head.

“I am not fucking going, Alex. I want to stay home before something else bad happens because I just know it will.”

“Well all the bad stuff has happened here at home, maybe at school it’ll be fine. Come on, you know you’ll regret missing a day, you never miss school.” He says. I once again roll my eyes and stand up.

“Why can’t you get it through that thick fucking skull of yours that I just want to be left alone? You never give me any space, Alex. Fuck.” I yell, walking across the room. I don’t know why I was so angry with Alex, he’s the one person who hasn’t even done anything today. I see the hurt in his eyes though as he stands up.

“Fine. You want space? You can have all the space you want.” With that he leaves the room, slamming the door after him. Fuck... what did I just do? I contemplate going after him but the next second I hear the front door slam and then his car start and drive off. He was gone.

I go back over to my bed and fall down onto the soft mattress. With my face buried in the pillow, I fall asleep, just wanting to block the day out. When I wake my room is covered in shadows. Did I really just sleep the whole day? I look over at my clock and see sure enough, it was almost six in the evening.

As I get up from the bed, my bones and muscles ache from no movement all day. They pop and groan as I stretch but it feels so good. I go over to my window and push back the curtain, seeing that Alex’s bedroom light was one. Should I go over and talk to him? He was surely still mad at me. I sigh and walk over to my desk where my phone sat, seeing I had one text from Jack saying he was sorry for this morning, one text from Kara saying her mom took her on a shopping trip to make up for the night before and would be home after dinner, and one from Alex. My heart raced as I clicked it, opening it up.

From:Alexander <3
Recieved: 8:15am
I hate fighting with you. I already miss you. Come over after school, yeah? If you don’t come over, I’ll know you are still mad at me and I’ll leave you alone. I love you. <3

I groan. It had been over 4 hours since school had gotten out. He surely thinks I’m stil mad at him. Now I have to go over there. I go to my closet and slide into a pair of flip flops before leaving my room.

“Hey, you’re alive!” My mom yells but I ignore her and rush from the house, running across the lawn and entering the house that was basically my second home.

“Izzy!” Isobel yells when I enter the house. “Is everything okay with you and Alex? He’s been locked in his room since he got home from school. I think he was even crying earlier.” I sigh and shake my head.

“We got into an argument today.” I explain. “We’re okay though, don’t worry, Iz.” I give her a soft smile before I head up the stairs. I stand in front of Alex’s door before I take a deep breath and give a soft knock.

“Go away, mom, I’m fine.” Comes his soft reply. I sigh and open the door. “Mom, seriously-” He stops when he sees its me. “Oh.. hey.” He mutters. I look down at the ground, shifting my weight awkwardly.

“Hi.” I step into the room, closing the door behind me and leaned against it. “I would have come over sooner but as soon as you left this morning I feel asleep and only just woke up.” I told him, running a hand through my obviously slept on hair. “I’m not mad at you, Alex. I was never mad at you, I just.. woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess.” He simply nods, still not looking all that happy. “You aren’t mad at me, are you?”

“You don’t think I smother you, do you?” I sigh and go to sit at his desk, across the room from where he sat on his bed.

“Of course not, Alex. I mean sure, we spend almost every second together, but I don’t mind that at all.” I tell him, making him shrug.

“Maybe we should spend less time together.” He mutters, looking down at his lap, picking at a frayed string at the seam. I frown.

“What? Why..?” I question, my voice quiet as my eyes well up with tears. What does this mean? “Are you breaking up with me?”

“No, Izzy... of course I’m not.” He insists, but sighs. “I just think that we do spend too much time together, maybe we should just... not. For a few days at least, get some space.” A tear falls down my cheek as I nod.

“Alright. If that’s what you want.” I stand up, wiping at my cheeks. “I’ll go home then.” Before he can say or do anything else, I rush from the room.

“I thought you said everything was okay?!” Isobel questioned when she saw my tear covered face.

“I thought it was. I was wrong.” With that, I leave the house, rushing back to mine. As soon as my mom see’s me crying she rushes over to me, pulling me into her chest.

“What happened, sweetheart?” She questions, rubbing my back as I sob into her neck.

“Alex wants some space.” Is all I say. She gasps and kisses the side of my head.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, baby.” She says. “Come on, I’ll make you an ice cream sundae and we can watch some Supernatural, alright?” I laugh and nod, pulling back from her.

“We aren’t broken up, he says.” I explain as we walk into the kitchen. “We just thinks we should spend some time apart for a few days.”

“Well everything will work out.” She says as she starts to make my sundae. “You two are too great together to break up over something like that argument this morning.”

“Yeah, I’m sure we’ll be fine.” I mutter. “It just sucks.” And it does, it really does.