Redefine Me, Redesign Me

“She didn’t even care man,” Alex told Jack practically bouncing, “She just commented on my bad hair choices.”

Jack laughed taking the ball that Payton offered him and threw it. “She isn’t dating you so why would she care if you are a lead singer in a rock band?” Jack didn’t see what the big deal was. Sure Alex never stopped talking about this girl and clearly thought she was great but what does it matter that she didn’t scream when she found out his occupation. In Jack’s opinion if she had freaked out then she wouldn’t be a very good person to continue to hang out with.

“It’s just really cool, I was afraid that she would see me differently, but she doesn’t ya know she just took it in stride,” Alex rambled to his best friend. Knowing that Ellie was passive about this sort of thing was really good for him.

“What would you have done if she did freak out?” Jack asked just to test his best friend’s mental stability as he continued to play fetch with Payton and Sebastian.

Alex let out a breathy laugh. “I would have ran man, I don’t do that crazy groupie shit anymore,” he explained shrugging.

Jack chuckled he remembered clearly the many bad choices that Alex had made in female companions. “Honestly Ellie is really cool and I think she’s good for you,” he let out another chuckle, “She doesn’t put up with any of your shit either.”

Alex shook his head grinning from ear to ear, “No she really doesn’t, but sometimes I wish she would,” he admitted thinking back to how she clearly doesn’t care for his attempts at showing affection.

“Sounds like you, Alex the ladies’ man, are being friend zoned,” Jack observed crouching down to pet the two dogs. Jack knew all too well about being friend zoned.

Alex shook his head laughing for a second because honestly how could he of all people ever be friend zoned. He wasn’t the type of guy that girls kept around for friendship. He wasn’t conceded he just knew what kind of guy he was… and he certainly wasn’t the friend zone guy. But the more he thought about it the more he realized that any attempt he made to get closer to Ellie the more she pushed away. Alex Gaskarth had been friend zoned. He stopped laughing and frowned. He pulled his beanie further down his forehead with both hands groaning at the realization.

Jack laughed now. “Dude if she likes you she’ll come around just let it go for now,” he advised. Jack didn’t see the big deal really if a girl doesn’t want you then why pine after them like a hopelessly lost puppy?

Alex let out another groan mumbling about how awesome he finds this girl to be but Jack was done hearing him whine. He wanted to hang out with his friend considering that Alex’s time seemed to be completely taken up these days. He understood that Alex was trying to win this girl over, but wasn’t he borderline harassing her at this point?

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Ellie made a low growl sound in the back of her throat as she searched through her refrigerator for something to cook. Mallory was on the phone keeping a light easy flowing conversation going between the two.

“What are you growling about?” Mallory demanded growing tired of hearing it considering this was the third time she’d heard the sound come from her sister.

“Alex ate all of my food and now I have nothing to cook for dinner,” Ellie complained. It wasn’t true of course. Ellie hated grocery shopping more than anything and Alex was the only one keeping her kitchen stocked.

“Are you sure that you just didn’t go shopping and that’s why you have no food?” Mallory asked with a knowing chime in her tone.

Ellie didn’t like to admit when she was wrong. She certainly didn’t like to admit that she was wrong when it involved Alex so instead of agreeing with her sister she said, “No I think I’m sticking with the Alex story.”

Ellie could practically hear Mallory rolling her eyes. She couldn’t lie to Mallory no matter how hard she tried but that didn’t mean that she had to admit that she was lying. Mallory already knew how that argument would play out so she decided to change the subject from food. “Where is Alex by the way?” she asked confused as to why Alex wasn’t shouting in the background trying to defend himself.

Mallory had already grown used to Alex’s countless interruptions. From what she could guess Alex never left Ellie’s new house.

“Alex doesn’t live here Mallory,” Ellie grumbled. She had insisted that Alex spend the day with someone else for a change because if he didn’t she would have to kill him. Well that’s what she told him at least. In all honesty she had just wanted to get away from him for a day to hopefully get her head straight. She was beginning to like to see him when he came over and that wasn’t okay with her.

“Are you sure he doesn’t live there?” Mallory quizzed, “Because he has been there every day for the past three weeks.”

Ellie was just about to disagree with her and insist that she was sure that Alex didn’t live with her when Alex came waltzing through the front door carrying a large grocery bag shouting, “Honey, I’m home!”

Mallory was laughing so hard that if Ellie hadn’t been so irritated at the current situation she would have asked her to breathe properly. “Sure, Ellie,” Mallory got out between gasps of air and laughter, “he doesn’t live there at all.”

“I thought we had an agreement,” Ellie demanded putting one hand on her hip while the other held the phone to her ear. She gave Alex an expectant look from over the breakfast bar as he began setting out what looked like Chinese takeout containers on her coffee table.

“I spent the day with Jack and was about to go home to eat dinner alone when I figured that I could swing by that Chinese place you seemed to like when we got it last week and pick up a dinner for two,” Alex explained, “that is unless you wanted to eat alone.”

Ellie rolled her eyes, “You are impossible,” she complained because, dammit, she really didn’t want to be this happy to see him.

“I got you moo goo gai pan,” he grinned holding up one of the takeout containers for her.

“He’s good,” Mallory chimed in Ellie’s ear.

Ellie rolled her eyes, “Bye Mallory,” she mumbled into the receiver trying to end the conversation quickly before she started talking about how good for Ellie Alex was.

“Bye Mallory!” Alex shouted smiling widely as he reached around Ellie for the silverware drawer. Ellie swatted him away trying to put some space between the two before he tried anything because lord knows that he tries something every time they are within close proximity.

Alex chuckled at her attempts and ducked down kissing her cheek before making his way back to the living room with two forks in hand.

“Gah you two are perfect for each other,” Mallory gushed causing Ellie to groan and mumble a second goodbye before hanging up the phone.

Ellie grabbed a couple of bottles of beer that Alex had so graciously left there the day before. It seemed that Ellie was now having at least one beer a day, not that she minded, but she might have to go back to her tea she was beginning to miss it dearly. She handed one of the bottles to Alex and he traded her a full container of moo goo gai pan.

“We should probably start eating real meals,” Ellie commented popping a mushroom into her mouth without looking up to see Alex’s reaction. He’d been “stopping by” with takeout every night for the past week. They needed to go back to actually cooking.

“You told me I should stop taking it upon myself to stock your kitchen a week ago,” Alex teased, “You also said that we should spend more time apart, which I decided to neglect to listen to, but now you want to eat home cooked meals and it’s a WE?”

Ellie bit her lip and tried to come up with a reason as to why she would be okay with him coming over for dinner every night without resorting to telling him that she liked having him around sometimes. She couldn’t come up with anything so she decided not to say anything at all.

Alex chuckled leaning over and kissing her cheek, “don’t worry I like eating with you too,” he stated going back to his food.

“How is the project going?” he asked referring to the two beds that she had bought for the front room.

She shrugged her shoulders, “I’ve got one of them sanded down but I’m still working on the other one.” She hadn’t expected it to take so long to sand them but she didn’t want to lose the detailing that had been carved into them so she had to take her time and do a lot of it by hand.

“I could help,” Alex offered. He didn’t really know anything about sanding down furniture but he was willing to figure it out if it meant that he’d have an actual excuse to hang around Ellie all day.

“You know how to sand?” Ellie asked skeptically raising an eyebrow at him.

Alex coughed not expecting her to call him out so easily, though if he had thought about it he would have expected it easily given the first time they had met. “I know how to paint,” he qualified.

Ellie nodded accepting that. “Then I suppose we’ll start tomorrow,” she decided. Why not spend tomorrow with Alex? It was the weekend and he had just spent an entire day with one of his friends so it wasn’t like she was taking him over. He wasn’t hers to take anyway.

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed smiling triumphantly. He hadn’t expected it to be so easy to find excuses to keep popping up here. Though, he didn’t really care if he had an excuse or not.

Ellie reached for the remote turning on the TV and then turning on her Xbox for Netflix, she had had enough with conversation because it only seemed to get her into trouble. She was supposed to be trying to get Alex to leave her alone not invite him for more dinners and ask for him to come over and help her paint furniture. She just needed to keep her mouth shut and the TV gave her the perfect excuse to.

Alex chuckled beside her biting his lip. If Ellie didn’t know any better, then she would question if he could read her mind. He always seemed to be able to read her actions especially when she was trying to avoid talking to him.

Maybe she shouldn’t try so hard to push him away, Ellie thought to herself. After all Alex is the kind of guy that only tries harder when you do things like that. Maybe she shouldn’t be so hard on herself, Alex could be a good friend if he would just stop with all of the kisses.