Never Too Late

Chapter 2.1: An Unspoken Tension

                We got back to the loft about ten o'clock. Ken had taken off, and we were to escort Alex to our beautiful loft apartment, 2B. Harvey unlocked the door as we entered with Alex strolling his suitcase. Alex scouted around.

"Okay! We're here!" Harvey exclaimed. "Welcome home, Alex, to the place where you paid rent but didn't stay until now."

"Great. Thanks!" Alex said. He was standing in the living room. He probably didn't know where his room was.

"Your room's over there." I pointed to the room across the living room which was also beside my room. "I made Laura and Harvey stay in a distant room so I wouldn't have to be hearing some banging noise every night."

"I hope you don't mind that your room's beside your ex-girlfriend's." Harvey pointed out.

"No, it's cool. My only concern is the sex sounds I'd probably hear from Liyah's room, right?" Alex chuckled as he walked to his room. He turned to me and kept blinking his eyes. "Gonna be banging like rock stars?"

"Don't worry. Ken and I will keep it quiet." I smiled and crossed my arms.

"We should probably get some rest." Laura said. "It's been a long night, and Liyah and I have shift tomorrow, so good night."

"Yeah, like you're getting some rest. You're just gonna have sex." I teased.

"Good night!" Laura repeated as she walked to her room with Harvey. I turned to Alex, and he was going inside his room, so I followed to see how he was doing in his room.

"Hey." I walked into his room since he didn't close his door. He placed his suitcase on top of his bed. "How's your room? Like it?"

"It's great." He chuckled as he sat on his bed. "I could fill this room up."

"Yeah." I laughed. "Harvey took most of your stuff into their room. It's like they don't have too much stuff in there."

"Hey, Liyah." He said, and I stood in silence. "How come you didn't tell me about Ken?"

"Well." I crossed my arms. "I thought you were too busy. I didn't want to interrupt."

"Look." He stood in all seriousness. "I'm sorry for everything. I've been a hypocrite."

"Alex!" I stopped him. "It's fine! We're good, okay? I'm with someone else now, and I'm happy. That thing that happened to us, it's water under the bridge. I don't intend to make a big deal out of it. I understand your reason for being too busy, but like I said, what's past is past, and I really want to be friends with you. I hope that's okay with you and you respect that."

"I do." He pointed out and smiled. "Liyah, I'm happy for you. I'm just saying sorry for the whole time I took you for granted, and yes, I do want to be your friend, and I respect that."

"Great!" I exclaimed. "Apology accepted. It's water under the bridge now."

"Great." He laughed, and I smiled back. "Word to the wise, I am capable of sleeping with a ravaging noise, so don't worry about the whole keeping quiet during the sex thing. I don't mind."

"But I do." I laughed. "You should've been here when Laura and Harvey were doing it. It was so uncomfortable. I couldn't sleep or think. I don't want to do that to someone else."

"Understandable. I see the horrors of that event. I truly pity you." He smiled, and I laughed. Somehow, we stopped talking for a few seconds. We just smiled, and the atmosphere got a little serious. It was actually nice to talk so casually to Alex. It was like I was maturing.

"Hey." I said as I walked further into his room. I walked to his window and looked outside. "Did you know this room used to be mine?"

"Really? Does that mean you had sex here?"

"I don't..." I turned to Alex, and he laughed as I replied. "I don't remember."

"Why'd you move then?"

"Well." I laid my ass on the windowsill. "This used to be my room, and my room used to be Laura and Harvey's. Like I said, it was a horrifying sound system during nighttime, so I made them move to the room near the kitchen, and I moved to my room now because it was bigger."

"Really?" He raised a brow. "That's unfair. I haven't seen your room."

"Wanna see?"

I brought Alex to my room. I always kept my room clean unlike Laura and Harvey's. Everything was in order, and the light red paint in the night kinda' looked like pink for some weird reason.

"Wow." Alex reacted. "Nice room. Makes me wanna take this room back."

"Hey, that's not within your rights." I chuckled. Alex walked to my picture frames on top of my desk. He grabbed our graduation picture.

"Hey. It's our grad pic." He held it firmly and stared for a moment. He placed it back and grabbed another frame. It was Sharon's picture. "I haven't visited Neptune for a year."

"I just visited Sharon's grave two weeks ago." I said. "I also went to see Red and everyone."

"You heard from Nick?" he placed back the frame on top of my desk.

"He went to Hearst College in Neptune." I replied. "Apparently, he kept the whole Veronica Mars thing to his head."

Alex turned to me for a moment, staring at my eyes. He wasn't giving me a smile or anything. He was just looking at me with a completely neutral face like he was trying to read my thoughts. There was this weird tension forming between us like I was having this urge to have sex with him.

"I should probably head back to my room." He said.

"Okay." I exhaled like it was getting hard to breathe. Alex walked past me and out the door. Before he closed the door, he turned to me one last time with that same face.

"Good night, Liyah." He said.

"Good night, Alex." I replied, and he closed the door.