Long-distance relationships are often met with rolling of the eyes and the sympathetic "Hope it works out!" response. Yet after seeing her older brother Connor make it work with his long-time girlfriend, Aria Hall thought that she too could make it...
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"I just got back from talking to Lexie. Or yelling at her, really."
Brenden walked into my dorm room late Monday afternoon, checking the premises for Faith before giving me a kiss hello. I had been in bed all day, resting my arm until we got the doctor's diagnosis.
"You what?" I replied, sitting up quickly as he went to sit down beside me.
"I yelled at Lexie." Brenden repeated. "She knocked you over during dance rehearsal, she can't do that. She's just a jealous--"
"I know that." I interrupted. "But you talking to her, or yelling at her, could make her more angry. She could try to ruin things between us."
Brenden seemed shocked by the concept of his crazy ex-girlfriend coming between us.
"What?" He shook his head. "She wouldn't do that. She knows I don't like her anymore."
I suppressed the urge to flip out on him. Of course he didn't think that she would do something like that; it seemed that most guys lived in an alternate reality where ex-girlfriends stayed ex-girlfriends and no one could possibly come in the way of what they wanted. But reality was like a slap in the face: there were things that girls were capable of that I knew about first-hand, but that Brenden had no idea even existed.
"What are you thinking?" Brenden asked, staring at me worriedly. "I promise, nothing is going to come between us."
I nodded.
"I know. But at the same time, there's something about this whole Lexie situation that makes me queasy. I know what girls are capable of. My brother's ex-girlfriend continued to stalk him through high school and into college. She was absolutely insane, and she definitely shares some very similar traits with Lexie."
Brenden nodded, taking my hand in his.
"I know that this scares you, and I know that my track record isn't the best when it comes to this sort of thing. But I love you, I've loved you for years, and I don't want to compromise this for anything. Especially not for someone like Lexie."
I nodded again.
"And besides," Brenden laughed, "Ashley Yates was absolutely insane. Comparing anyone else to her is like comparing another human being to Hitler."
I couldn't help but laugh.
"I suppose so."
We sat in silence for a few moments before my phone buzzed, and I reached over to pick it up.
"Speak of the devil." I muttered.
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"Um...babe?"
"What's wrong?" Brenden asked before I handed the phone over to him.
"Is Lexie on drugs or something?"
He read the text, his eyes growing bigger as he continued.
"She's crazy." He shook his head, "I'm not going to end up with her, I have no interest in her, and nothing is going to happen."
"Then why does she think she still has a chance with you?"
Brenden shook his head.
"I have no idea. I honestly don't know. She's crazy, she doesn't know anything, and she--"
"Babe, I love you, but if you call her crazy one more time as an excuse for all of this, I might scream."
Brenden looked confused.
"What?"
I shook my head.
"I get that she sucks. She's a terrible person and that's been proved time after time. But at the same time, just writing her off as "crazy" isn't going to do anything to make me feel better about this. If there's one thing I know about crazy people, it's that they have a nasty habit of eventually getting what they want."
Brenden remained silent as he sat beside me, and I couldn't help but become increasingly worried as the silence stretched on. There was something about having another woman--a woman who Brenden had previously dated--in the picture that was just disturbing to me. I had been fine with Emily when we had dated originally; they had dated before but they ended up simply being best friends. There was nothing wrong with her and she never tried to get back with Brenden while we were dating.
Yet Lexie was completely new territory. She was strange, she was outlandish in her attempts to win Brenden back, and she seemed to go back and forth between wanting nothing to do with him and wanting everything to do with him.
Sometimes relationships simply aren't all they're cracked up to be.
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Omg guys I am so excited for this new Connor/Sydney surprise I'm planning, I'm so excited to tell you guys about it soon!
-Katherine
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