Be My Escape

I Just Can't Say No to You

June 2005

Kaelyn's Perspective

Alex and I were over my house, having a movie night in my basement. We were watching The Blair Witch Project because Alex found it hilarious when I got scared and buried my face in his chest.

Except tonight, his phone kept going off and he'd quickly send the call to voicemail.

"Aren't you gonna deal with that?" I asked. I was getting pretty annoyed.

"Nah, she'll get the hint," he said.

"Who?" I asked.

"This girl, Danielle. I slept with her at a party last weekend and left the next morning before she woke up, but apparently she didn't understand what I meant when I left her to wake up alone," he said with a shrug. I turned off the movie and turned to glare at him. "What? I don't have to marry her because we slept together," he said.

"No, but you could at least try treating her like a person. She probably really likes you!" I was suddenly feeling really glad I'd forced myself to get over Alex. Between what happened with Arya and his habit of constantly leaving girls hanging, I knew he was wrong for me.

"She'll get over it," he said.

"I can't believe you," I whispered.

He threw his hands up. "What do you want from me?"

"A little class would be nice," I spat.

"What do you care? Huh?" He snapped.

"I...I really don't know anymore. I don't know who you are," I whispered.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"All you do is use girls and party. You care more about your fucking hair than you do about other people's feelings. And to top it all off, you think you're hot shit just 'cause you're in a band. I don't know why we're even still friends 'cause we clearly don't have that much in common," I said.

"I don't know why we're friends either," he snarled.

"Fine then. You can leave," I said.

"Oh, I plan to. See ya round," he spat.

I heard him head back up to the main floor and I heard the front door shut gently behind him. Even though he was pissed, he wouldn't dare slam it and piss off my mom in the process, because he knew that she'd tell Isobel and Isobel would let Alex hear it.

As soon as I knew he was gone, I burst into tears. I hadn't meant that at all. I didn't like how he treated girls, how moody he was, how he'd get quiet and stuck in his thoughts out of nowhere, but he was my best friend and I loved him. I wasn't perfect either, no one was. And now I felt like absolute garbage for starting a fight with him.

I mean, what did I care? I was done pining after him. I didn't want him like that. Why couldn't I have just left well enough alone?

--

Alex's Perspective

I didn't feel like going home after my fight with Kae, so I just speed-walked around the neighborhood, my hands balled into fists at my side.

I felt awful about fighting with her. We hardly ever seriously fought. Mostly it was arguing over D.C. vs Marvel (she liked Marvel better) or whether pineapple belongs on pizza (I thought it was disgusting, her and Jack always bullied me into doing half ham and pineapple at every pizza night). That was normal. We'd been friends for almost a decade, we were totally comfortable bickering and bantering. But this was different.