Redefine Me, Redesign Me

“Alex!” Ellie called as she entered the house after a long day at work, “please tell me that you brought some sort of alcohol.”

Alex appeared coming from the back yard with Sebastian and Payton following at his heels. “There’s beer, but if you want something stronger I can always go out,” he offered making Ellie smile. He seemed to be the only one capable of making her do that lately.

“Beer will do,” she said stepping out of her shoes.

“Nice dress,” Alex complimented as he placed his hands on her hips pulling them against his own as he pressed a kiss to her lips.

Ellie groaned pulling away from him and letting herself fall back against the door. Alex only followed her pressing her up against the door more firmly. “You like making this more complicated than it has to be, don’t you?” she asked him.

Alex grinned kissing the corner of her mouth before leaning into her ear, “I like to think that I drive you crazy,” he whispered to her causing an involuntary shiver to run down her spine.

“God, you’re impossible,” she complained resting her head on his chest.

“Come on,” he said moving away from her and catching her hand, “I’ll make you dinner.”

“But Alex I don’t have any food,” she whined as she let him drag her through her own house to the kitchen.

Alex chuckled. “I noticed that you seemed to only have left over Chinese, a couple blocks of cheese, two boxes of crackers, and enough rolls and Ramen to keep you fed through the apocalypse, so I went grocery shopping.” He seemed so genuinely excited to cook for her that she couldn’t possibly deny him.

He pulled out a seat for her at the breakfast bar and went around the counter as he began bustling about. Ellie rested her chin in her hand and watched him. She never seemed to have time to study him without it being strange, so she took the time now.

She decided to start with his hair. It was slightly disheveled but something told her that if she asked he’d tell her it was precisely how he wanted it. There was a tattoo of a skull and cross bones behind one of his ears. She’d never really gotten the chance to get a good look at it until now and it almost looked like a doodle. His face was clean shaven today, which was rare; he always seemed to have some amount of stubble on his chin. His lips were forming a concentrated pout as he cut chicken breasts into cubes. Just as she looked up to his eyes he looked up to her.

Ellie was very sober so a blush rushed to her cheeks before she could convince herself that she didn’t care. A grin spread across his lips. “How do you feel about red wine?” he asked raising an eyebrow at her.

“I don’t have any if that’s what you mean,” she said looking away from him.

Alex chuckled as he tossed the cubed chicken into a frying pan. “No actually I was asking if you liked it,” he said rolling his eyes and going to the refrigerator.

“I enjoy a glass of red wine from time to time,” Ellie admitted, “When I actually remember to go to the grocery store.”

“You never stopped living like a college kid I’m guessing,” Alex noted as he returned from the refrigerator with a bottle of red wine.

“Didn’t have to,” she told him shrugging, “back in Sycamore, I had two roommates and they were pretty good about keeping the kitchen stocked; we all just split the cost.” Alex sent her a questioning look raising the bottle. Ellie pointed to the cabinet above the toaster and Alex quickly grabbed two glasses. She smiled at how easy their exchanges had become; they barely had to speak to get a message across. Sometimes the thought scared her. She was letting him get too close, she didn’t want to ruin him.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked as he handed her a full glass of wine.

Just then her phone buzzed with Mallory’s name lighting up the screen. She sent Alex a grin that clearly read of triumph, that she’d gotten out of answering a question.

“I know you have a test tomorrow, Mallory,” Ellie said putting the call on speaker.

“Hello Ellie, it’s so nice to hear from you too,” Mallory replied jokingly, “Tell Alex I said hi, because I’m sure he’s still there.”

She and Alex both looked to each other and laughed, “Hey,” Alex said as he returned his attention to the chicken.

“Oh good,” Mallory said, “I’m on speaker, which means I can ask a series of uncomfortable questions.”

Ellie laughed and shook her head as she took a long drink from her glass, “Go right ahead Mallory,” she invited her sister to continue.

Alex glanced up to meet Ellie’s eyes and grinned. She found herself wanting to lean over the counter and press her lips to his, but she quickly shook the feeling.

“Let’s start off with something simple,” Mallory decided as she shuffled around for a moment probably trying to get comfortable, “Does Alex have a last name?” she asked.

Ellie bit her lip she hadn’t expected that one. In fact it surprised her a little that she honestly didn’t know the answer to that. “I’m sure Alex does have a last name,” she said sending Alex a pointed look, “But that doesn’t mean that I know it.”

Mallory gasped, “Ellie, you have not been letting some guy that you know solely as Alex come and go from your house as he pleases for the past two weeks,” her tone was boarder-line scolding.

Alex grinned at Ellie before he said, “My name is Alex Gaskarth and she knows a bit more about me than just my first name, dear,” he winked at Ellie and she busied herself by taking another gulp of wine.

After a moment of silence Mallory gasped again, “Arielle you have some serious explaining to do,” she told her older sister. There were sounds of the clicking of fingers against computer keys from Mallory’s end.

Ellie sighed and leaned back in her seat, “And what do I need to explain?” she asked looking over to Alex who was already watching her every move. She grabbed a napkin from the decorative napkin holder on the counter and balled it up before throwing it at Alex.

“Check your email would you?” Mallory asked making Ellie sit up and pull her phone towards herself so she could open her email. She opened the most recent message from Mallory and found one line, ‘is this your Alex?’ and as she scrolled down she found a picture of Alex.

“Mallory what is this?” she asked looking up from the picture where Alex looked younger but still so much the same as the Alex who was looking curiously back at her.

“How many All Time Low concerts have we gone to?” Mallory replied ignoring Ellie’s question.

The curious look on Alex’s face grew more intense as he looked at Ellie obviously waiting for her to reply. She sighed not really sure where this was headed. She tried to count up all of the times they’d seen All Time Low live. “I think it would be easier to ask how many times we’d missed an All Time Low show,” Ellie countered.

She didn’t miss the way Alex’s interest in the conversation peeked as his eyebrows raised and he stared at Ellie.

“Ellie,” Mallory spoke her sister’s name through laughter, “You’ve been spending all of this time with the lead singer and had no idea.”

Ellie looked up to meet Alex’s gaze and quirked an eyebrow at him, Alex gave her an answering grin and a shrug of his shoulders. She clicked her tongue, “Right, well, thanks for the enlightenment Mallory, I’ll call you back later,” and with that she quickly hung up the phone.

“This was a poor hair choice, yeah?” Ellie asked showing Alex the picture that Mallory had sent her. His hair was much longer and obviously highlighted in the worst ways. Ellie decided that she definitely didn't care what Alex's social status was. She'd been judged by hers her entire life back home and she knew how much that sucked. It actually made her feel a lot better that Alex had some secrets too.

Alex grinned at her, “You’ve seen me play several times and never once took the time to see what I looked like?” he asked her going back to cooking.

Ellie shrugged, “I didn’t go to concerts for the band I went for the music,” she told him, “I left all of that silly obsessing stuff to Mallory.”

Alex nodded obviously thinking over what Ellie had told him. “Try this,” he ordered holding out a fork with a piece of chicken covered in some sort of sauce for her.

She leaned over the breakfast bar and bit the meat off the fork. “That’s actually really good,” she told him after swallowing the morsel. She was obviously surprised to learn that Alex was a good cook.

“Good, because it’s done,” he said switching off the stove and straining some noodles that she hadn’t even noticed that he was preparing.

“A rock star chef,” Ellie said thinking out loud.

“A guy’s gotta have a hobby,” Alex told her shrugging.

Ellie smiled at him. She couldn’t get over him, he was just full of so much that surprised her so much that made her want to get to know him. This was becoming a problem.