Charms or Banjos?

Chapter 5

Jessica and Alex continued to message each other every day, all day. Alex, trying to subtly tell Jessica how he truly felt, but Jessica, so caught up in her new romance with Alejandro, was blind to it. It killed Alex that she didn't notice. But as time went on, he began to be grateful that she was happy.

As Christmas approached, Jessica began to feel trapped by Alejandro, he was very controlling, sometimes annoying and very touchy with her. But she felt silly about it all. Alejandro wasn't controlling in an abusive sense but rather, he always had to know where she was, who she was with, and most importantly, how she felt about all of her male friends. It was easy to explain her relationship with Jack and George, with Jack being with Rose and George being gay, but she never told him about Alex. Jessica couldn't consciously figure out why she never told Alejandro about Alex, but in the very back of her subconscious, she knew it was because she loved him. Even if she couldn't say it.

It was two weeks before the final week of college when Jessica decided to confess to Paige how she felt about the whole thing. "I don't know Paige, Alejandro is nice and everything but I can't help but compare him to Alex. How he is different, how they are similar. I didn't want to tell you because I know that Alex is like a brother to you and I would never want you to feel awkward about everything." Jessica confessed. "Jess, I'm glad you've told me. To be honest with you, I never could understand what you saw in Alejandro. I always thought he was rather strange. But if you're conflicted, how about we make a list of pros and cons?" Paige suggested. "Yes! Great idea. But we need codenames, what if one of their friends overheard us?" Jessica replied. "Oh yeah, how about this, Alex can be Banjo, and Alejandro can be Charms?" Paige said. "Perfect."

Jessica and Paige made the lists, Charms' being filled with more cons than pros and Banjo's being filled with more pros. Though, even all the while, Jessica tried to convince herself that Alex didn't like her, even though it killed her to do so.

Meanwhile, Alex sat at home, ranting to his cat, Cozmo about it. In the almost whole month since Jessica told him about Alejandro, Alex had slowly gotten less sad about it. He still liked her, he still wanted to kill Alejandro for taking his girl and he still wanted to be the one who made her happy. But another girl had come into his life, Emily. She was doing the same course as him, she was pretty enough, but she wasn't Jessica. Emily was merely a distraction from Jessica. Someone to distract Alex from how he truly felt about Jessica so he wouldn't be in pain anymore. It had worked for a little while, but now Emily wanted more, and every time she told Alex that, all he could think about was how he only wanted that with one girl: Jessica.

A week later, one week before Paige's birthday, Alex decided to make Jessica so jealous that she would have no choice but to break up with Alejandro and be with him. Little did he know, Jessica broke up with Alejandro the same day she and Paige made the lists. And the two girls had made a plan to make Alex see how perfect he and Jessica would be together.

Paige's birthday rolled around and Jessica came to her house for dinner and a sleepover, knowing that Alex and his family would be there. Jessica wore her best dress, with the hope that Alex would notice her. And he did. The second he walked through the door, his eyes were glued to Jessica. His mind filled with thoughts of how beautiful she looked, and most importantly, comparing her to how Emily would dress. The whole night he thought of Jessica in her beautiful blue dress.

Later on in the night, Paige, her brother Sam, Alex and Alex's sister Jo went upstairs with Jessica to just chill in Paige's room. The five of them talked about anything. Jessica and Paige sneaked glances to each other every time Alex looked at Jessica. But Alex had a plan of his own.