Alex and Elian's The Long Way Round

This is not a love story.

This story starts where most love stories end.

This makes sense, I guess, considering Alex and I were always fond of the complicated.

Romantic comedies sell you this perfect happiness. You meet a boy, you build a connection, you love him, he loves you, and in that full, bursting, heart-squeezing way that makes you stop and take a breath and wonder how you could've found someone that right for you.

I thought I had that with Alex. Until the day I told him how I felt. Then suddenly, the guy I'd been in love with for years...and my best friend was looking at me with these sad, pitying eyes, and explaining that he was in love too. Just not with me.

Points for honesty though. It was something I'd always loved about Alex. Long before I started noticing the length of his neck and the way the sun bounced off of his always floppy hair, I loved Alex because he was always saying the first stupid thing to land on his mind. This was a habit we shared, but he usually managed to do it faster, and with the confidence only a straight white-passing kid from a gated community can possess.

When Alex told me about Garcia I thought...she's not what I imagined. She wasn't my worst fear of the girl he'd choose instead of me. She was pretty, but quiet in every way, the kind girl I always imagined I'd be close friends with if Alex and I weren't so obnoxious, and attached at the hip.

Suddenly something had shattered in my mind. And in my chest. This wasn't a romance. Or if it was, I wasn't the main character. I was the best friend with ill-placed feelings, bad timing, and a broken heart.

-------

Alex and Elian have been best friends since they were 13. They were the same side of the same coin, the kind of people who thrived off of the spotlight but only truly revealed their real selves in the comfort of their person. They were each other's persons...(Complete Summary Inside)