A/N - First of all... I'm so so so so so so (times 1000) sorry about getting so late with this update. I swear, every week I would open the folder and stare at it thinking 'come on.. You can beat this writer's block'.. So there's good news and bad news.

Good News - I have updated the chapter I promised you since last year (hangs head in shame)

Bad News - The story took an unexpected turn..and... um.. don't kill me :/

Disclaimer - I do not own Wizards of Waverly place.

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His fingers were shaking. That's the first thing she remembers. Everything else came after, but what really struck her was his quivering hand as he lifted her t-shirt roughly to touch her bare skin underneath. She remembers his hot breath against her throat as he pushed against her, his chest flattening hers and her hands examining the very person that is Justin. His shoulders, his back, his arms. Her fingers finally tangling in his dark strands pulling him closer to her. She remembers the tingle of impatient need she felt in the pit of her stomach as he used his other hand to lift her leg against him, her knee bending across his hips as he moved against her, his fingers rubbing teasing circles across her thigh. It was a never ending kiss as he bruised her lips like he was branding her; making her his. She did the same, biting his lower lip unknowingly. And that was when they stopped.

The look on her roommate's faces are priceless. It's a cross between a 'jaw drop surprised' look, and a 'I knew this was so going to happen, but the visuals are so much better than what I imagined' look. She feels the need to roll her eyes and 'Psh' them away. Instead she opts to slowly disentangling herself from Justin, who is just too frozen in fear to react.

One thing she thanks God for, not telling her girlfriends that the person she was carelessly making out for the last - oh I don't know - five minutes just happen to share her parents. Through a blood line. The realization brings a flush to her face, and they probably think it's embarrassment, not shame. No one says anything. And with barely a glance her way, he leaves.

Her roommates wait until the door closes softly behind him, before they round on her.

The story is this. Justin Finkle, a cousin, of a cousin, of a cousin of Harper's (twice removed) has a girlfriend who keeps breaking up with him only to get back together with him (it's the closest she can come to the truth without bursting into tears in front of her roommates). It's not like they like each other or anything, but these things just keep on happening, and it is not any of her roommates' business. However, after living with her for so long, they have built a monstrous 'we can ignore the warnings of Alex Russo banner' and they don't drop the subject (sometimes she wishes she could just magic their mouths shut). They follow her around the whole apartment, and bug her continuously with questions that should be banned from teen magazines. What is he like? Did he follow you here? Is the relationship with the girlfriend over? Is he a free man now? Why was he acting so weird? Why are you acting so weird? It comes to a point where she just simply can't anymore. She glares at them, grabs her jacket and slams the door shut behind her, finding the noise extremely therapeutic.

She's on her way to walk this whole thing off, to walk Justin off; when she sees him. He's seated on the floor next to the staircase, his head in his hands. The sight is so familiar, that it hurts. She must have made some sort of noise, because his head snaps up, and she realizes that he had been waiting for her. He stares at her for a moment, and her first impulse is to bolt.

It takes him a while to slowly stand up, his eyes never leaving hers. He moves cautiously towards her, and Alex feel the need to run so strongly, she clenches her fists. When he's finally close enough, he opens his mouth to say...something. But all that comes out is her name. He says it softly, cautiously; and it takes her whole being not to picture him whispering her name like that against her skin. He takes another step closer, and before she knows it, his hand snakes across the back of her neck, and he leans forward and kisses her. It's short and soft, and shouldn't mean anything. But it means so much to her, that little touch. She leans in and her fingers somehow curl themselves around the front of his shirt. It takes massive strength for her to let him go. He finally releases her and takes an extra step back, and she finds herself cursing him for thinking of that first.

"Can we talk about this? Properly?" He clears his throat to rid the huskiness. "Maybe in public?"

She nods, her heart's sinking a bit, but she understands. He makes a move to leave but she grabs his hand, her fingers squeezing lightly when he tries to let go. She watches his adams apple bob as he swallows a protest before he leads them down the stairs.

She nearly laughs. Usually, they fight. It's not unusual that a family dinner that has it's primary contenders, end with their parents yelling at each other. One parent always takes the side of the eldest, while the other usually takes the side of the middle child. And she prides herself in manipulating her father to such an extent that sometimes, she's just too perfect and could do no wrong. She and Justin, simply sitting and not insulting or yelling at each other? It was like an alternative universe.

"What is it?"

She looks up. "What?"

"You're smiling," he says it awkwardly as he adds a fifth tea spoon of sugar into his barely sipped coffee.

She suddenly doesn't find this situation funny anymore. Whenever she leans forward, he leans back. When she reaches for her cup, he pulls his hands back and looks away from her. Really, he's just pissing her off. "Shall we discuss this thing then?"

He chooses to ignore her tone. "I..er...I did some research."

She snorts. "That's never a good sign."

He glares at her before he sighs tiredly. He seems to do that a lot when he's around her. "There are a few memory modification spells that could work." He ignores it when she spits out her latte and sputters. "It's not too difficult just-"

"Ancient and disproved?"

He glares at her again. "Yes. But I'm sure with a few changes it'll work fine."

"And what happens if it doesn't work? You turn into a vegetable?" she says mockingly.

The quick shift of his eyes gives her an eerie feeling.

The first time it happens, it really shouldn't have.

Justin shows up with a monstrous pile of books that makes her look behind him to see if he had an army of big, burly men lugging it up the ridiculous amount of stairs. He lacks the men, and she's kind of impressed. Who knew the scrawny teenager could actually do manual work?

They spend hours sitting at the opposite sides of her modest apartment, reading. Actually, Justin read. She found it far more entertaining to try to create a slingshot that could haul a five hundred page book easily across the room. The way she sees it, she's no physics major, but the work she was doing was going to help man kind. Justin however, didn't see it like that. After getting hit in the face four times by a wayward pillow, he then proceeded to take her invention and toss it out of the window. Someone was not happy when a gift from above hit him squarely on the head. It was all Justin's fault. Obviously.

It takes another few minutes of 'Justin' whines from her and 'Alex' orders from him before she decides to give up on the pretense and kiss him. It's not that she wanted to or anything. He was just there, and she really wanted to kiss someone since she saw this sappy movie the night before. She doesn't expect him to push her away, but he does. And with wide eyes, he storms out. She recognizes the look just before he closes the door behind him. He wanted her.

The second time it happens, it's completely and utterly and totally his fault. He made her kiss him.

After forgiving her (even though she didn't ask to be forgiven - sheesh), he comes in all business-like and demands they concentrate. He's so...tightly wound. And it irritates her. Yes, she's the trouble maker, and yes, she cannot say no to a challenge when it is staring at her in the face. But the urge to undo him was just too much to bear. She wanted to unhinge him and make him less Justin and more Alex (lets face it, the world would be so much more fun then). So she did the only logical thing she could think of that stemmed from the recesses of her mind.

She slaps him.

In her defence, she hit his face with a pillow and his expression was priceless. After a moment of stunned silence, he snaps at her for being juvenile. And she snaps back, calling him a liar. On a completely unrelated note, he might have compared her to his 'girlfriend' - yuck - and she might have gotten angry and hit him (just saying, completely unrelated).

They have a big blow out, as expected. Then he storms out, as definitely expected. Seriously, could anyone be more predictable?

But then fifteen minutes later, he comes bearing a chocolate croissant and apologizes (also predictable but, whatever). And he's so sincere and so sweet and attentive and she can't help it. She kisses him. It's a light peck on the lips, nothing much to get a priest and nun to break up their little shindig. But just as she pulls away, his eyes darken ever so slightly and he pulls her towards him. Their lips meet in the middle.

She's not a fan of Valentine's Day and corny movies like 'The Notebook', but at the moment, she might have called herself a romantic sap.

The third time it happens, he's saying goodbye.

It's about time he goes back to the big U.S. of A without her and with... the random chick he had broken up with but who couldn't change her flight (apparently). She's not jealous. Not at all. Even when he confronts her with a voodoo doll she may or may not have planted to freak the blonde out. Seriously, it's not funny or anything (snort).

But the thing is, he's not angry at her. He smiles and hugs her, and she would have mocked him for having tears in his eyes had her own eyes decided not to be lame and act all girly. It's a hazard - these hormones- there should be a spell to get rid of them somewhere.

It's the first time he kisses her in forever and she holds him tight because she knows that at some point she'll have to let go. Leave it to Justin to leave everything until the last minute and make it all dramatic.

If anyone asks, she didn't ask Justin to spend the night, and Justin didn't agree after a minute of hesitation and five minutes of her pulling his sleeve.

If anyone asks, they didn't sleep in the same bed together or kiss or cuddle.

And if anyone asks... it wasn't the most perfect night of her life.

Only thing is, it was.

It takes her exactly three more weeks before she finds the book he had tried to make her read. She decides it's a complete waste of time as she flips through it. For one thing, there's no pictures, and then there was the issue of too many words. It seemed annoying, really.

She decides to stow it away just in case. It was his book after all, he might want it back someday.

The night before she leaves Italy, Harper calls her. She had seen Justin ring shopping! It's not supposed to a big deal. Really. They agreed they weren't seeing each other, and he said that he was done with the blonde. Only, it seemed he wasn't.

She hangs up on Harper before she could say anything more.

It takes her a while but she finds the book. It was hidden behind a stack of other things she never really used, including a feather boa. She finds the page she's looking for easily before she sits on her bed cross-legged. If anyone had seen her, they would have called her impulsive and wrong. But if they really knew her, they would know that that was who she is. She's impulsive, and she would never apologize for it. And if she's wrong, she would never admit it.

Before doing anything else, she takes the form she was supposed to send out the day before and ticks the box she hadn't intended to tick. She then glances once more at the empty room that was her home for a few months before she traces the words she had refused to recite all those weeks ago, with her finger. Closing her eyes, she says them softly, and feels the heat behind her eyelids. It takes a moment before she blinks and looks down in her lap, wondering vaguely why she was sitting on her bed instead of packing.

Her roommate popped her head in with the cordless phone in one hand. "Call for you, it's Justin." Megan grinned. "I think he's buying you a gift. He asked me for your ring size," she said snickering.

Alex stared at her roommate blankly before she asked coolly, "who's Justin?"

Because seriously, she's never heard that name before in her life. Alex Russo is single after all, and happily so.

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A/N 2 - I am perfectly okay with ending the story here. And maybe someone more talented than I am could maybe do a sequel if they have the idea for it (looks at Not Just A Nerd). But I warn you, if you want me to continue, it may take some time. Also, the way it's going, aleja1, you might be right about this being more than what I intended it to be (which was a two shot after all).Gosh I'm horrible at updating :s