Alex's Girl [Lesbian]

Chapter 13

Alex winced. It was as if Val's answer had speared right through her, mercilessly tearing at her insides. She shook her head, as if she couldn't quite understand. "What?" she finally asked, sounding breathless. Her eyes clouded over and her brow wrinkled. "You belong to Angela..." she repeated the words, as if saying them herself would suddenly make their meaning clear. Val couldn't have possibly meant that, right?

Though Val had never seen such a broken, defeated look on Alex she managed to keep her own face relatively neutral. That is, until she looked into Alex's eyes. What she saw in them caused her to instantly reach out for the blonde, fingers trembling. "Alex..."

But Alex retreated back a step, saying only, "No." Alex shook her head again, but her eyes never left Val's green ones.

Angela stepped between them and looked at Val, trying to get her former student to look at her instead of at Alex. "Val," she said gently, "get your things and let's go."

"Go?" Alex repeated, still sounding a million miles away. "Go where?" She looked from Val to Angela to Val again. Her normally sharp eyes looked dull. "Val, where are you going?"

It wasn't enough to just crawl under a rock and hide there until this entire thing blew over. Val wanted to crawl under a rock and subsequently be crushed to death. How could she have convinced herself that Alex would escape this unscathed? Alex wasn't uncaring. She wasn't faking it when she had told Val she cared about her. Such a thing was so obvious now.

Val opened her mouth to answer Alex but the words died in her throat at the look Alex was giving her, at the way Alex had said her name. Val always liked the way Alex said her name, like they had been best friends for years. It felt like they had.  

"My place," Angela answered when it was clear Val wasn't able to speak, not when Alex looked at her like that, not when Alex looked so wounded. Even Angela didn't feel like gloating anymore. "I'll take care of her from now on," Angela added, when Alex gave her a perplexed look.

Alex's face contorted with so many emotions Val couldn't keep up. The blonde's face seemed to settle on furious. Uh-oh. Val decided to escape into the living room, where she hastily began throwing her things into her suitcase. Maybe if she ignored the look Alex was giving her she could make it through this without breaking down into a teary-eyed mess.  

Angela and Alex stared each other down. Angela wouldn't show it, but she was worried Alex was going to rip her apart. The teacher lifted her chin and swallowed hard, attempting to look confident, daring Alex to touch her. She understood Alex's thinking, she had felt it herself when she first met Alex and saw the way Val was looking at her. Alex was a lion and Angela was a tiger, and they both wanted the same gazelle that was darting away from them.  

Despite what Angela might think, Alex was raised a Sterling and thus full of class. Though her eyes were filled with fury the rest of her stayed tense and unmoving. She wouldn't lift a hand to Angela. That was beneath her.

"Are you going with her?" Alex managed to ask.

"To Arizona?" Angela asked. Alex gave a slow nod. "Yes." Angela looked like a doctor telling someone that they weren't going to make it. Her eyes were full of pity. Alex hated being pitied.

The muscles in her pretty face tightened. "What did you say to her to make her go with you?"

Angela looked offended. "Nothing. She asked me to take her in."

Alex's eyes narrowed. "You're lying." Why would Val do that? She seemed so happy. She was, wasn't she? Wouldn't she have mentioned it if something was wrong?