Winter Rising |Heartland|

|XIV|

Alex was watching the defeated stallion from the porch, as he was loping around the paddock that she had let him out into and she was typing on her laptop. Alex was working on her college and university applications, as she had recommendations flying in from teachers, both online and in-person teachers.

"Busy?" Alex jumped at the sound of a voice and she almost punched Ty by mistake, but luckily for him he backed up quickly. "Sorry." He mumbled, holding up his hands in surrender and she'd drop her fist down.

"Applications for post secondary." Alex muttered and scanned through her options, as she had already sent off a few applications and she had a list of colleges, universities and technological institutions that she could go to. The top three were already crossed off and she was slowly making her way down the list.

"MIT. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology right?" Ty asked and he was pointing at the bottom of the notepad, where MIT was written in a hurried scrabble, as if Alex had just wanted to forget about it as an option entirely, but didn't see another choice other then to write it down, as her family had not allowed her to exclude it. "What are you studying?" He asked and Alex sighed, as she looked at the screen and continued to type. 

"How to make annoying young adults go away." Alex said bluntly and Ty looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I'm just kidding, idiot. I'm going into medical." Alex muttered and Ty shrugged as he looked at the list. "Which would be much easier to focus on, if you stopped staring over my shoulder like a creep." She snapped and Ty backed up.

"Jesus, what is with you? Your mood swings are ridiculous." Ty said and Alex slipped her headphones on and turned up the music, as she focused her eyes back on the screen in front of her.

Once Alex was sure that Ty had gone away, she spotted the time was 6pm and in silence, she pulled up the honors students list for MIT and she scoffed quietly, when she spotted the name on the list. "Apple Stanton. He should have just used Keys." She muttered and her phone buzzed in her jacket pocket. Alex looked over at her jacket and she put her laptop to the side, as she moved to grab her phone.

Alex raised her eyebrows at the familiar Caller ID and she declined the call. "Sorry Keys, I'm busy at the moment." She murmured to the empty air and in a quiet silence, she silently put her phone back into her jacket pocket and turned back to the laptop in front of her.

|Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Location: Massachusetts

Time: 9pm|

"Oof, looks like your girl isn't too happy with you right now." Keys looked over his shoulder at one of his three roommates Kevin, who had spotted the declined call and Keys shrugged his shoulders at him.

"To be fair, she isn't my anything anymore. She broke it off." Keys reminded him and Kevin rolled his eyes at him. "What?" He asked, fully aware that he probably wasn't going to like what his friend had to say.

"You had the girl, you had the money, so why the hell did you come all the way out here and break it off?" Kevin asked and Keys looked at him. "I mean it, man. How many girls do you know that would willingly jump into a fight to beat up your drunk brother?" He asked and Keys looked at him.

"I came out here for my career, which she agreed with. As for the money, it wasn't my money to begin with, it was my mother's. I needed to get out of there and I happened to have just been in and accepted here." Keys pointed out and Kevin raised his eyebrows. "If I hadn't left, my mother would have ruined both of our lives. But now that I think about it, she is probably butting her head into Alex's business anyways." He admitted and Kevin chuckled.

"Yeah well, judging by what you've told me about her, this Alex can hold her own damn well without any help. Why did you let her walk away?" Kevin asked and Keys sighed.

"My mother gave me a choice, really it was an ultimatum. It was between coming to MIT or staying there with Alex and being cut off from everything else. Alex agreed that I should go, as heartbreaking as it was and I kind of exploded at her, when she suggested that we break it off for good. So, she has been avoiding my calls." Keys admitted and Kevin looked at him. "Also, in the middle of the explosion, I told her to give the ring back." He muttered and Kevin shook his head.

"You really screwed things up between you two. Good luck brother." Kevin noted and Keys sighed, as he put his headphones on and Kevin went into his room, as Keys stayed at his desk for a little longer, unable to fall asleep.