She Was The Challenge He'd Been Waiting For

And I was Alex Gaskarth; I could have anyone and anything I wanted, right?

Almost two weeks had passed since the party at my house and it was now mid-October. Alex and I had become friends, I no longer snapped at him as much but he still wasn't my first choice to hang out with if given the option. It was a Thursday afternoon and Jack and I were at the party store searching for costumes for the Halloween dance our school was throwing tomorrow night. "So have you asked anyone yet?" I asked him, picking up a bumblebee costume and looking at it before shaking my head and putting it back; red hair and yellow just didn't go together.

"No, I haven't. Has anyone asked you yet?" he questioned while rummaging through the shelves of accessories. I shook my head, I wasn't very popular.

"Wanna go together?" I offered, stopping to pop a piece of gum into my mouth.

"No, I can't," he answered, picking up a turkey hat and modeling it for me.

I laughed and shook my head, "Why not?" I inquired, holding up a lady bug costume for him to look at.

"Because, that would be a fucked up thing to do. And no, that costume sucks," he said shaking his head and I put it back. If we kept this up then we would never find costumes.

After I set it down, I turned around looking at him confused. "How?" I questioned curiously.

"Well, Leah, you can't tell anyone I told you this. You pinky promise? Cross your heart?" he asked coming close and holding out his pinky. He was completely serious which was unusual for him and that just made me even more curious.

"I cross my heart and I pinky promise, now tell me," I said impatiently as I hooked my pinky around his.

He came close to me, "Alex likes you likes you," he whispered in my ear. My mouth dropped and I felt horrified. Why Alex of all people? "And it be fucked up to take you to the dance cause he likes you, you should ask him though," Jack suggested, pulling away.

Almost choking on my gum, I glared at him and I shook my head, "No, I rather not, I was thinking about asking James anyways," I said nonchalantly. Jack and Alex were best friends so I would never tell Jack but I would rather die than go anywhere as a date with Alex.

"James? James McNeal? Really Lee? He's a douche bag," Jack said looking at me like I was crazy.

"Well so is Alex. At least James doesn't have a million girls drooling all over him and threatening to kill me if I even look at Alex. And I like James more anyways," I told him. Jack did have a point. James was kind of a douche bag but then again, so was Alex. The only reason James was better was I didn't have to compete like I would with Alex; plus James didn't make me want to punch people.

"Leah, please don't go with him!" Jack shouted dramatically.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone and texted James, asking him to go with me. "Too late Jack, I already asked him," I said. He glared at me and threw a rubber hand at me. It whacked me in the face and I stuck out my bottom lip. "Ow, Jack!" I said throwing an oversized clown shoe at him.

"Ahem, excuse me, if you keep this up you'll have to leave." a lady with a purple iParty shirt said before walking away.

We both stopped and once she was gone I turned to Jack. "Jack, I'm sorry, I just don't like Alex like that, hell, and I barely like Alex at all," I said turning back to the costumes.

Jack frowned at me and looked down. His face brightened a moment later though and he leaned down to pick up a Scooby Doo costume, "THIS, is what I'm gonna be!" he said while grinning like a five year old. We searched for a couple minutes for me and we were coming up with basically nothing. All girls costumes either were slutty or stupid. Finally I decided on the Alice in Wonderland costume after finding pretty much nothing else I liked.