I Love A Challenge (Alex Babinski Fanfic)

Chapter Ten

After the incident with Jenn, Brian was even more suspicious of Alex and I; if that was even possible. We couldn't even look at each other without Brian saying something about how Alex needed to leave his baby sister alone, or I needed to get away from Alex. In an attempt to play it safe, Alex and I never saw each other alone unless we were sure Brian was going to be out with Jenn for a long time. However, none of this seemed to get Brian to relax, so we decided to try something different. Instead of trying to convince Brian we weren't crushing on each other, we were going to convince him just the opposite; that we hated each other. 

The band was having another rehearsal and I was downstairs filming and taking photos so I would have some stuff to work with when I wanted to do promo work for the upcoming local shows. I had just set up all of my equipment when Alex began fiddling around with my camera. "Can you please not touch my stuff," I sighed, trying to sound annoyed. 

Alex threw his hands up defensively, "Geeze, I'm not gonna break anything." 

I rolled my eyes and tried to shove him away from my stuff. "Look, if you want these shots to look good, you have to leave the cameras where I set them." 

"It doesn't matter where you set the cameras," Alex smirked. "If I'm in the shot, it's gonna look good." 

"You are so full of yourself it's disgusting," I tried, again, to shove him away; but because I didn't want to be too aggressive with him I barely caused him to lose his balance. "Brian, get your friend away from my stuff." 

Lynn shook her head, "Man, sometimes you two fight like an old married couple." 

Alex shot me a look of panic, afraid that our plan was already backfiring. "Why would I ever want to be married to this bitch?" he spat.

Brian's body grew tense and I watched fearfully as he slowly set his bass back on it's stand. "That 'bitch'," Brian gritted his teeth. "Is my sister. So you better watch it Alex." Brian took another step forward, taking Alex's shoulders and pushing him backwards. My eyes widened as the two of them began to shove each other around the basement. 

"Guys, guys!" I shouted. "Get off of each other." 

"Yeah, come on," Lynn called. "We gotta practice." 

Brian was much stronger than me, but luckily I was able to pull him away from Alex. "Bri please, just let it go. He's a dick, there's no need to be surprised about it." Brian let out a huff and reluctantly went to go pick his bass back up, while Lynn dragged Alex back to his guitar. 

When the others weren't looking I shot Alex a look of regret. We had meant to make Brian think we hated each other, but we never intended to make Brian hate Alex. The two of us tried to formulate yet another plan to save the mess we'd just made, but we had to do it through a series of quickly mouthed words and vague facial expressions. 

Lynn was able to cheer the guys up enough to get them to enjoy practice and I was actually able to get some good shots, despite only half paying attention to my work. I was still too focused on cleaning up the situation I'd ruined earlier. I never wanted to cause a fight between Brian and Alex and I would be devastated to see anything bad happened to their friendship; or worse the band. I couldn't bare the thought of being the reason Pvris broke up. 

After the band had finished their practice, I saw Alex walk over to Brian, who still looked angry. I didn't want them to know I was listening in on their conversation, so I stayed by Lynn and strained to hear them. 

"Listen dude, I shouldn't have said that about Blaire and I'm sorry," Alex sighed. "I just got frustrated. I didn't mean it, your sister isn't a bitch. Is it ok if I apologize?"

"Is it ok if you apologize?" Brian scoffed. "What's that supposed to mean?" 

"I just, I mean," Alex stammered. "I just, you, I don't want you to think I'm kissing up or flirting or something I just, I wanna apologize." Brian nodded in approval and Alex walked over to me, pulling me out of earshot of Lynn. "I still think you should go talk to him," Alex whispered. 

"Thank you," I said a little louder. "I'm sorry for calling you a dick, I didn't mean it."

"It's ok. Truce?" Alex offered me a friendly handshake. I accepted his hand and then went back over to Brian. 

"Hey Bri?" I asked sweetly, wrapping him in a hug in an obvious attempt to kiss up. "Can I talk to you about something? Like, in private?" 

"Uh, sure," Brian sounded nervous, but he agreed to go upstairs and talk to me while Lynn and Alex looked through the footage to find some clips they liked. "Everything ok?" Brian asked once we'd both sat down on the living room couch. 

I let out a long sigh, sinking into the sofa. "Bri," I began. "I am so sorry. I feel horrible, I never meant to start anything." Brian shot me a confused look. "Just, that whole thing with Alex, I'm sorry. There's something I have to tell you." Brian's look of confusion morphed into one of growing anger, and I tried to weave my tale as quickly as possible to calm him down. Yeah, that's what is was, a tale. Not a lie, but a tale, like a story. There was no way I was going to feel bad for telling Brian a story. "Uh, you see," I started. "Alex and I don't really hate each other." I realized that that was a bad opening when Brian began to angrily raise his eyebrows. "It's that, we aren't in any kind of relationship and we didn't want you to think we were because we knew it would make you angry," I continued. "So instead, we tried to make you think we hated each other because we thought that would make you happier. Turns out that was a terrible plan and we don't hate each other and I never intended for you and Alex to fight it's just that we're not dating ok?" I finally took a breath, realizing how much I'd actually said. 

Brian let out a sigh of relief, "Well I'm glad you told me. I really want the four of us to be able to work together and all be friends; but I also can't have you dating Alex. He's a great friend, but a horrible boyfriend." I had to resist the urge to correct him there. "I'm glad you too aren't really fighting though. Promise me you'll never date that loser though?"

I swallowed the huge lump forming in my throat, "Promise." I barely managed to squeak the word out. I hated lying to my older brother. No matter what I tried to call it, a story, a tale; I was lying to Brian; and I hated it.