The Guy Next Door (COMPLETED)

Chapter 42: You Belong With Me

RECAP: So Jara's ship has pretty much crashed and Jake is AWOL and doing nothing as of (yet) to fix it. Clara is desperately trying to move on but is kind of lost, depressed, angry and basically massively confused. She's managed to tick off Natlalie which can't be too good for her. Que in Alec. So Alec has finally got his shit together and is not going to let Clara slip through his fingers again. Does Clara still have feelings for him? She always did she always will. But does that mean that Alec will do anything about them and will she say yes?

THIS CHAPTER IS A TRIBUTE TO THE AWESOME TAYLOR SWIFT SONG YOU BELONG WITH ME AND ALL HER AMAZING SONGS IN 1989.

"Here you go." Alec says handing me a small parcel wrapped in plain white paper.

My gaze flickers to the black present on the dining table.

Black and white, Jake and Alec, how ironicaly accurate.

"Thank you." I say giving him the best smile I can muster.I'm about to unwrap it but he quickly stops me.

"Open it after we come back?" He asks and I nod setting the box on the table as far as away from the other one as possible.

This is ridiculous. I need to get over this.

"I still can't believe I agreed to do this." I mutter as he leads me out.

"I know, this is probably added to the list of the things I already owe you." He says and I stop abruptly.

"You owe me nothing." I say and he stops to look at me for a moment before saying,"I owe the fact that I'm standing here in front of you right now in one piece."

"I've been your friend since forever , Alec." I say softly,"If I hadn't looked out for you who would?"

He looks down at his shoes,"I know. But I let you go. I let you get hurt, I-"

I give him a small kiss on his cheek,"You're perfect Alec. You're kind sweet and funny and like everyone you make mistakes but what hapened in New York wasn't a mistake you made, okay?"

"If I had just not been a coward and asked you a long time ago-" He starts and I shake my head.

"You are not a coward. It's okay to be scared." I say,"Being fearless makes you stupid. Trust me."

He keeps quiet for sometime as we head towards the car. He opens the door for me like the perfect gentleman he is and I get into his car.

"You look beautiful tonight." He says smiling and I give him a smile back.

"Thank you."

I hadn't overdone it this time. I was in a black dress with my blonde hair let loose and the white converse shoes Alec had given to me during the winter ball.

"The shoes are my favourite part though" he grins as he runs he flattens his blonde hair. My mind flickers to how Jake did the exact opposite when he was nervous, instead of flattenting it he used to run his hand through his hair as if making an attempt to make it messier than it was.

Oh god, I need to stop comparing them.

And yet my gaze flickers to the speedometer in his car which showed that he was going 35 miles per hour.

Just under the speed limit.

"Clara?"

"Huh?"

He smiles,"Sorry you seemed to have drifted off."

"Yeah, sorry typical me."

He smiles again,"I know."

"How do you have it in you to smile so much?" I blurt out and then I realise what I had just said,"You know what just ignore I just-"