Disclaimer: Don't own it.

I've got 500 reasons to get upset

But I'd rather laugh it off than go

And make a mess.

Got a whole lotta of demons

Acting up in my head.

But I refuse to cut a deal just yet.

Hit the Wall- Elizabeth and the Catapult

She tried to control herself, tried to swallow the lump in her throat and hold back the tears that were trying to make a reappearance. She clutched the stone in her hand, trying to think of the right thing to say. She only had one shot at this; she had to choose carefully, even more carefully than she did with that stupid genie.

She closed her eyes tightly and gripped the cold stone until it was cutting into the soft skin on the palm of her hand, she just had to bring Justin and Max back finally she said, "I want everything to be exactly the way it was."

She felt the rush of air around her, could feel the magic taking place around, pressing on her body and forcing her to a world that was supposed to be.

Finally, everything stilled around her, the pressure decreased and she inhaled deeply, opening her eyes. She heard her mother in front of her and strained harder to hear her brothers. She furrowed her brows; she was a little more than confused. If the stone worked shouldn't they be yelling joyously? Her mom was still talking to her, "Alex, you're ridiculous if you think I'm about to let you go off with a boy you barely know, a boy that I'm sure is a good four years older than you. Do you really think that I'm that stupid?" Her mother scoffed and crossed her arms angrily.

Alex shook her head, not in response to her mother's question, but in disbelief. Where was Justin? Where was Max? She heard someone entering the room behind her mother and looked over her mom's shoulder eagerly, but it was only Max. Still, she let out a sigh of relief and told herself to calm down. If Max was there surely Justin was too.

But as the minutes passed and she didn't say anything, her mother grew more concerned, Max became more confused, and Alex's heart sank. Something was seriously wrong.

"Alex, honey," her mother said gently, tone much softer now and placed a comforting hand on Alex's shoulder, "What's wrong?"

Alex blinked back tears and shook her head, "Nothing, mom. It's just—" she let out a shuddering breath, a few drops of moisture coming with it, "Where's Justin?"

Theresa's brow creased and she opened her mouth to reply before quickly shutting it and looking at Jerry who had just entered the small hotel room, she sent him a questioning look, mouthing 'who's Justin?' but her husband was no help and he merely shrugged in response.

Theresa glanced back at her daughter who was now sobbing quietly, looking so frail and scared. Theresa bit her bottom lip nervously before asking her daughter, "Alex, who is Justin? Is he that boy that invited you to that party?"

Alex let out a sob and slowly dropped to her bed, burying her head in hands; she shook her head, "No," she said miserably and continued crying.

Theresa, always hating to see one of her children in pain or distress, fought back tears of her own and quickly sat next to Alex, wrapping her daughter up in her arms, hugging her tightly, "Oh, honey." She murmured sympathetically and ran her hand over Alex's arm comfortingly, "Shh, its okay."

Alex shook her head again and pushed her mother away, "It's not," she said passionately and left the room.

*****

Alex stared out the small window on the plane, she looked almost catatonic to her parents, but they didn't say anything, having grown used to it over the past few days. She barely responded to anything, only ate when she was told to and had been randomly bursting into tears.

They decided that it was best for everyone if the vacation was cut short and they headed back to New York.

But that didn't seem to help either. Instead when they arrived at the loft she seemed to lose whatever sanity she may have had. She ran up the stairs to the loft and burst into the guest room calling out for the unknown Justin and proceeded to crumple up on the bed there and cry herself to sleep.

They tried to convince her to go to some sort of therapist, but she refused and seemed to quickly forget about the Justin that she had been talking about constantly and moved on.

She shocked her dad by becoming much more intrigued in magic and became much more devoted to it. Studying more often and researching many subjects that she didn't necessarily have to for the Wizard Competition.

Jerry wanted to say something about, question her about the sudden enthusiasm but Theresa convinced him not to, telling him to just accept it. So he did.

*****

A month had passed and Alex had read more books than she ever had before. But she found nothing. She couldn't find one damn spell that would help. She couldn't find any way to safely ask a genie for her brother. And she couldn't find any information about any sort of magical artifact that could grant her wish.

She dropped her head unto the desk in the liar and let out a deep breath, "Stupid stone of dreams. More like the goddamn stone of nightmares," she groaned at her lame attempt at a joke, "Ugh, I'm so losing my edge without Justin around here," she continued to mutter to herself.

She just missed him so much. She wanted him back. She wanted to hug him and tell him she loved him. She wanted to rag on him. She wanted to prank him. She wanted to argue with him. She wanted to get in trouble and have him bail her out. She wanted him.

But he wasn't anywhere.

She beat her head softly against the hard table and let out a frustrated sigh before lifting her head and picking another book up.

*****

By time school had started again in the fall she had given up. Apparently this is what happens when one entrusts their fate to a freaking piece of earth.

No one seemed to know who Justin was. She had asked Harper, asked Max, hell, she even approached Zeke in the hall on the first day of school (much to his astonishment) and told her that, no, he had never heard of anyone like that, although, he's sure he would be a pretty awesome person to hang out with.

Alex's eyes started to well up at that and she had to hurriedly excuse herself and rush off to the nearest bathroom where she had a very quiet breakdown in a random stall.

Justin was gone. And for once, she couldn't find a way to makes thing right.