Sweet Things

24

Jade's eyes widen when she opens her door, "How'd you find me?"

"I asked around." Alex said, "You were pretty easy to find, a lot of girls fancy you. Still the same womaniser." he smiled.

Jade swings the door wide open to let him in. He waves his hand around in attempt to get the smoke the filled the room away from his face. "Open a window, will you?" he coughs and she does as he says even though she preferred them closed.

He casually sits on the couch and waits for her to do the same, "I'm sorry for everything." she began.

"I'm not the one you should be apologising to, J. I should be apologising to you too."

"For what?"

"For stealing your girl." his lips curl into a sad smile. He bumps her shoulder with his own. His voice hinted pain which didn't help with the guilt already built up inside her.

"You didn't steal her, I left her." she avoids eye contact and he does the same.

"I really like her, Jade." he confesses, "In fact, I think I love her. I've never felt like this with anybody before."

She takes the blunt that was half lit in the ashtray and presses it against her lips when she feels her stomach turn from his words, "She does that to people." she teased trying to hide the pain in her voice, "Take care of her. She deserves someone like you."

"I can't."

"What, why?"

"Because she's still in love with you."

The wheels in Jade's head started to turn, "That doesn't make any sense. She hates me for leaving her, you saw how angry she was last week."

"I thought you could read peoples minds but this confirms that you can't." he chuckled when she blinks in confusion, "Jade, she cried for months when you left. She couldn't go a day without thinking of you. It was a rough couple of months for us too.." his voice trailing off, "We were all angry at one point, we thought you were so selfish for leaving but I also guess we were pretty selfish ourselves for wanting you to stay when you that wasn't what you wanted." he continued, "When I asked Perrie out it took a while for her to start opening up and I had hoped that maybe I could make her forget about you. I knew it was an evil thing to do but I couldn't stand seeing her so miserable."

Jade's throat was suddenly dry, "I thought she resented me." she whispered.

"And I thought I could make her fall in love with me and forget about you." he tries to lighten the mood with a laugh, "I broke up with her and I'm moving out of the apartment." he suddenly adds.

"Alex, you-"

"It was the right thing to do. Our relationship was nothing other than platonic in a way anyways, and I had a feeling that she wasn't over you. I saw the way she had a spark in her eyes when she looked at you. That spark isn't there when she looks at me. And I know you still love her too because you have the same spark when you look at her."

Jade's heart ached as he talked, Alex was one of her best friends and for years he's never looked so vulnerable. They were always trying to erase life with girls and parties but now she realises that Alex had been lonely. He had been longing that special someone that everyone had but him.

"Don't bother apologising, Thirlwall." he gives her a warm smile and she does the same with a nod. She playfully punches his arm lightly, "Thanks for coming."

"Here's my number." he passes her a piece of paper, "Stop running away from your problems, it doesn't solve them at all."

"If I had a cent for every time someone said that to me I'd be a millionaire." she murmured.