The Silence Between Us

Alex

Chapter 20:

"Louisa Kelley, you have approximately two seconds to tell me what's going on with you."

Well, I should've known he'd be here. Just when I wanted peace and quiet, he had to show up and be an ass. Why did he have to be so demanding right now when I just wanted him to go away and leave me alone? I knew this was supposed to be a good night, but instead it was just filled with a whole bunch of embarrassing moments on my end and confusing conflicting emotions. To say I was done and didn't want to talk to anybody right now was an understatement.

I sucked in a long breath, exhaling in a dramatic sigh. "Alex, I'm sorry, but I'm really not in the mood."

And again, I should've known that he wouldn't take that for an answer. Still, there was the tiniest shred of hope that maybe, just maybe, he'd drop it and instead let the room surround us in that comfortable silence that I was really craving right now. Such wishful thinking. I never realized that I was such an optimist when faced with adversity.

"I can't accept that. Tell me what's wrong with you. Did I do something wrong?"

I'm sure that he could've seen the flash of anger and irritation in my eyes after his statement as he took a step backwards from me, the floorboards creaking under his weight. I was about ready to go off on him and yell at him for being so dense, but I was tired and I didn't want to argue. Not with Alex; he was always the one I wanted to argue with the least, and yet, I yell at him the most.

I blew the strands of hair that were tickling my nose away from my face in yet another dramatic sigh. "Why are you talking to me, Alex?"

I could hear the confusion in his voice. "What do you mean? I thought you wanted me to talk to you more. I thought you said-"

"I know what I said." I cut him off, angrily interrupting him. "But that's not what I meant." I shuffled my feet, turning away from him as I muttered, "Why me? Why are you talking to me? What did I do to make you trust me?" When he didn't answer, I repeated once more, "Why me?"

Now it was his turn to shuffle his feet. I could hear the rustling of his hair as he ran his hand through it, obviously uncomfortable with the situation. "It was always you."

"What?" I nearly did a double take. If I was drinking water I would've spit it out right then. What did he mean it was always me? He just met me! And before that he was dating Cora. How could he have trusted me for this long without even knowing really who I was?

It took him a little bit to speak up after that, probably allowing the shock to settle down before he continued. "I told you, freshman year, I saw you." That's all he said at first, like that explained it all.

"And?" I asked, prompting him along.

He took a step closer to me, but this time I didn't step back, not flinching in the least. I was going to be confident, I was going to accept whatever he told me. "It's not my fault my eyes were naturally drawn to you whenever you would walk past me in the hallways. You're just that type of person that attracts attention wherever you go. That's why..." He paused, taking the time to run his hand through his hair again. "That's why Cora never liked you. Whenever you would enter a room, everyone would be in awe by you, not her. She was almost like a figure on the sidelines."

The sudden realization of what he was saying hit me hard, and I had to rest my hand on my bedpost in order to stop me from swaying. That was the reason? After all this time, Cora was...jealous of me?