Hope you enjoy, let me know if you do. Still on Twitter if you want to follow: heartvshand

Consider this the disclaimer.

Also, the title comes from Fall Out Boy's song, "Alone Together."

Alone Together

1. Shanelle

Alex paced outside of Mitchie's house, checking the time on her phone. She debated going up to the front door and ringing the bell, or calling her. She chewed on her lip and leaned against Mitchie's car.

If she waited much longer, Mitchie would be late for her first class. She sighed and decided she'd try calling once more.

"Hey, you've reached Mitchie Torres. Or well, not really, this is her voice mail. So, leave a message and she'll-I'll call you back. UH, wow, okay, bye!"

Alex laughed and hung up. She dropped her hand back to her side and set her backpack on the top of the trunk. She grabbed her keys out of the front pocket and headed over to her house.

"Alex!"

She spun around to see Mitchie jogging down the hill.

"Hey! Sorry, I found a stray dog and started knocking on doors, looking for its owner. Lost track of time." She slowed to a walk and stopped when she was standing in front of the other girl.

Alex smiled. "It's okay. I tried calling, but your phone—"

Mitchie pulled it out of her armband. "Yeah, I forgot to charge it last night, so it died while I was listening to music on it on the run." She walked up to her house. "I guess I'm going to miss math this morning. Oops." She unlocked the door. "I'll just be a minute, do you want to come in or meet me back here in a few minutes?"

Alex shifted and took a step back, remembering the last time they'd been alone inside a house together. "Won't your girlfriend, um…"

Mitchie laughed. "God, you're right, she has enough issues with us riding to school together. I'll just call you, like, thirty minutes."

Alex lifted her bag and went over to her house. Despite the fact that she'd been renting this house for several months, the quiet was still unsettling. She sat in a folding chair in her kitchen, her foot jiggling up and down.

She hated Mitchie's crazy girlfriend. She could still hear Shanelle shouting through the cardboard boxes from the day she moved in; Mitchie had just been trying to be a nice neighbor. Alex sighed and looked around the empty place. She hadn't had too many boxes to move, so maybe Mitchie had stayed a little longer than she should have, but it wasn't like they'd been doing anything. They'd only been getting to know one another since they'd be living next to each other for the next ten to twelve months.

Alex heard the clock ticking above her sink and entertained the idea of getting a cat or a dog, but quickly remembered she wasn't allowed pets here. She sighed and surfed the Web on her cell phone.

She saw a status update from her younger brother about her parents making him work more and laughed. She missed living with him, but she didn't miss living with her parents.

Her phone vibrated in her hand, and Mitchie's name popped up. Hey, I'm ready when you are. Sorry!

Alex headed to Mitchie's car to find her buckling into the driver's seat. She set her bag in the back seat and situated herself in the passenger seat. "Hey."

Mitchie backed out of the driveway. "Sorry about that."

Alex shrugged and flipped through the CD case Mitchie kept on the floor of the passenger's side. "It's okay. My class doesn't start for another hour. You're the only one missing class." She smiled. "What do you want to listen to?"

Mitchie shrugged and merged onto the highway. "Pick whatever looks good."

Alex flipped through the pages of CDs, most of them were burnt mixes with quotes on the fronts. "When are you going to just get a CD player that can hook up to your phone?"

Mitchie glanced at her. "I like my CDs, thank you very much. Plus, I'm broke."

She flipped another page in the book. "If you spent less money on music and CDs, you'd have that player."

"Oh, hush." They stopped at a stoplight.

"What's on this one?" Alex pulled one out its spot. "It says, 'My heart is like a stallion, they love it better when it's broke in' on the front."

Mitchie smiled. "Oh, I like that one."

Alex put it in and an upbeat song started. "Cool."

"So, Alex Russo." Mitchie glanced from the road to her. "What else do you do?" Mitchie still felt like she knew nothing about her new neighbor.

Alex looked out the window. "I don't know. I guess I just mainly go to school and work."

"And run with me sometimes."

Alex nodded, a small smile on her lips. "Sometimes, yeah." She chewed on her lip. "Why doesn't Shanelle live with you?"

Mitchie sighed. "She lives on campus. She's actually nineteen still."

"Oh." Alex studied Mitchie for a minute.

"I was tutoring her in English last spring, and she was really nice. Eventually, she asked me out and I said yes." She shrugged and switched lanes. "But yeah, she refuses to move in with me, because she hasn't told her parents she's gay. I keep telling her that it's not a big deal to live with another girl, like they wouldn't be suspicious, you know?" She changed lanes again and took the exit for the school. "It's whatever, I guess. I mean she's still kinda young." Mitchie laughed. "But don't let her know I said that."

Alex pretended to zip her mouth shut and throw away the key. "I probably won't be talking to her more than I have to, so no worries."

Mitchie smiled. "She's really not as bad as she seems. I know the first time you met her she was bitching about me cheating, but she's got trust issues or some shit. I don't know, either way, she hates when I meet people my age, because she assumes we're going to all get shit-faced at a bar and forget about her." She parked the car and turned it off. "Like I said, she's still kinda young. But that's her only real issue, you know? I'm still trying to convince her to apologize to you in person, but I guess, really, a phone apology is better than nothing from her."

"Yeah, I guess." Alex slung her bag over her shoulder and slid the other arm through the remaining strap. "Thanks for the ride, Mitch. I'll text you after my classes."

"Of course." Mitchie dialed Shanelle's number after Alex walked away. "Hey, where you at?" Mitchie guessed from the loudness of the other, she was going to say the University Center.

"The UC, are you out of class already?"

"Yeah, I missed class, because I was trying to find this dog's owner, but I just got to campus." Mitchie realized her mistake immediately, but tried to ignore it as she stepped into the building Shanelle was in.

"Oh." Shanelle was quiet for a minute. "Did Alex ride with you?"

"Yeah. Hey, where in the UC are you, because I'm here." Mitchie scanned the tables of people, eating lunch. "Oh, never mind, found you." She hung up before Shanelle could start the Alex interrogation.

Shanelle was sitting in front of Burger King with several people Mitchie didn't know. She really wanted to turn around and avoid having to meet more people, but put on a big smile and waved.

Shanelle didn't wave back and Mitchie tried not to roll her eyes. The more she thought about it, Mitchie wasn't sure why she was dating her. She sat down across from Shanelle. "Hey, what's up? Did you already eat?"

"Yeah." Shanelle checked her phone and started typing a text quickly. "Did you and Alex eat already?"

"No. I was running late. So, I'm actually starving." Mitchie's phone vibrated in her pocket, and she resisted the urge to check it. She already knew who it was.

Shanelle's eyes narrowed and she took a sip from her soft drink. "Oh."

"Yeah. So, I'm gonna go get something. Want anything?"

Shanelle shook her head. "Nope."

Mitchie nodded and walked away. She stood in line for the pizza place and glanced at her phone. Alex's name sat in the middle of the screen: Class is cancelled, can I join you?

Mitchie glanced at Shanelle and sighed as she answered. Shanelle is being super weird about us being late this morning right now, so it's up to you if you wanna join, we're at the UC, first floor.

She shoved the phone back into her pocket once she was closer to the front of the line. She felt it vibrate again; she almost hoped Alex would come.

She sat back down with Shanelle and the strangers who she still hadn't been introduced to. She poked the straw into the lid and took a sip. She considered telling Shanelle about the possibility of Alex joining them, but decided against it. She watched Shanelle talking to one of the unknowns.

"So," Mitchie said, clearing her throat. "How's your day going?"

Shanelle paused. "Oh, it's okay, I guess." She went back to her conversation with the other person and Mitchie sighed.

"Look, I'm only eating in here because you're here, and you're not even talking to me, and acting like you're mad at me." Mitchie shut the lid of her to-go box and stood up. "I'll just talk to you later. Ever since Alex moved in, you're acting like I'm cheating on you and you're just accusing me of having zero decency and you're acting like Alex is some kind of homewrecker, when she's not even the problem. The only problem in our relationship is how you're choosing to conduct yourself."

Shanelle stood up and stared at her. "So you're admitting—"

"There's nothing to admit. You're the one pushing me away. I don't get it. I'm so sick of this passive-aggressive bullshit." Mitchie headed for the door before she said anything else she regretted.

She walked out of the UC and collided with Alex.

"Oh, hey, I'm—." Alex stepped back and stopped mid-apology when she realized it was Mitchie. "Mitch, are you okay?"

Mitchie laughed. "You're Mitch? Nice to meet you." She winked. "No, I'm kidding. Sorry about running into you. At least I didn't get pizza on you." She sighed and kept walking, Alex trailing after her.

"Are you okay?" Alex readjusted the straps of her bag.

"I just said some stuff I didn't mean to Shanelle, or well, maybe I meant them." She took a sip from her drink and led them to an outside table away from the main drag. "She acted like we were having all kinds of passionate sex this morning or something and I missed class to bone you."

Alex felt her insides growing warm, but ignored it and laughed instead. She didn't have any actual comebacks. She blinked and tried to relax her eyes.

Mitchie sighed and opened her to-go box up. "Want a breadstick?"

Alex shook her head. "Nah, it's okay. Um, but you would you mind if I ran in and got something substantial to eat?"

Mitchie nodded. "Yeah, sure. If you want to go in through the second set of doors where Shanelle can't see us, and go upstairs and get something from there, I can go with you."

Alex blinked and rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, sure. But wouldn't that be worse than her just seeing us?"

Mitchie pressed her lips into a tight line and stuck them out as she thought. "You're probably right, but I don't want her to assume I just ran to you with our issue or whatever. Or that I like immediately went and found you or something. It'll just make later worse."

Alex shrugged. "You're allowed to have friends. And technically, I still don't even know what happened. I mean, the only thing I've got is one fact and one assumption about how today went. The fact is we didn't have sex, the assumption is that we did." Her hands dropped to her lap; she hadn't even realized she'd been talking with them.

Mitchie stared at Alex for a moment. "Fine, let's just go in through the doors we came from."

#

Alex sat in her English class, watching the clock above the professor's head. She was trying to take notes, but she was too busy wondering about Mitchie and Shanelle.

Shanelle sounded controlling. She sounded like she was taking assumptions and blowing facts up into some elaborate lie, and then trying to dictate who Mitchie could and couldn't be friends with. Alex wondered why she wanted to believe the worst from Mitchie. Alex snorted; "Trust issues" was one of the weakest excuses to be an asshole in a relationship. She doodled in the margins of her notebook, wondering if Mitchie had cheated or if Shanelle was cheating, or maybe she had been cheated on?

Shanelle wasn't even that good looking. Mitchie could do better and Alex wished she could tell her that, but she knew right now was probably not ideal. She knew that Mitchie would be better off without Shanelle, which sounded more appropriate than basically telling her to do exactly what Shanelle was afraid of happening: dump Shanelle, date Alex.

Alex shook her head. Dating Mitchie was off the table, because they were neighbors and commuting buddies and Mitchie kept defending the fact that Alex was just a friend; therefore, Mitchie either didn't feel the same about Alex or Mitchie really wanted to be with Shanelle.

After class, Alex just had to wait for Mitchie to get out of class, and they could leave. She was sitting outside of the Mitchie's classroom, scrolling through her phone, looking for something on the Internet to distract her.

"Hey, Alex."

She looked up, and smiled. "Oh, hey, Shanelle, how are you?"

She shrugged. "Oh, you know. Just waiting to say hi to my girlfriend."

Alex smiled, gave a small nod, and gestured for her to have a seat. She chose sit right next to Alex.

"So, what did you do this morning?"

Alex had wondered if this would come. "Cleaned my place, tried to unpack a few more boxes. Then I thought Mitchie overslept since she didn't meet me at the car. Then I almost left without her, but then she came jogging over the hill and she said she found this dog on her run and had to find its owner. Then she decided to skip her class, and shower instead, so I went home and read a little then she messaged saying she was ready, so I went back to her car." She shrugged. "It's been a pretty mundane Monday." Alex tapped her phone against her knee.

Shanelle's shoulders rose and fell, and then she turned her face towards Alex. "Look, Alex, I'm going to ask this once and only once."

Alex wanted to laugh at her overdramatic words, but frowned like she was confused. "What is it?"

Shanelle took a deep breath. "Mitchie's my girlfriend, and her relationship with you makes me uncomfortable. I get that you're her new neighbor, but don't you, like, have friends?"

Alex wasn't expecting that question; she had been expecting "Stay away from my girlfriend" or "Is Mitchie cheating on me with you?" but not this. Yes, she had friends, but they'd all dumped her when she decided to get sober. So, maybe she didn't have friends, right now, but that was okay.

Shanelle's features turned sympathetic. "You don't, do you?"

Alex swallowed and shook her head. "Um, not really."

She realized that maybe this would work in her favor; she could save Mitchie from whatever fit Shanelle seemed on the verge of having when class let out. She checked the time on her phone. She had ten minutes to save Mitchie from some kind of psycho-girlfriend fight.

Shanelle put her hand on Alex's shoulder, causing her to jump. Shanelle laughed. "I'm really sorry you don't have any friends, but you could promise me one thing?"

Alex squinted. "Um, I don't like to agree to things before I hear the questions."

Shanelle dropped her hand. "Don't fall in love with my girlfriend."

Alex couldn't promise that for so many reasons. "You can't tell me who to love and who not to."

"Oh," Shanelle said, folding her arms across her chest. "So, you actually do like her."

Alex groaned and shifted to face her a little bit. "No! She's a nice person, yes, and I like her like a friend, but not like that. I just met her."

"Two months ago!"

"Yeah, that's not enough time to know someone well enough to date them seriously." Alex glanced at the time once more. She had five minutes. "You can't tell people who they can hang out with or who they can love, so do not pretend to know me. You don't know anything about me. Maybe I don't like brunettes!"

Mitchie walked out of the door and Alex dropped her hand. Shanelle looked up with wide eyes. Mitchie smiled, a small laugh trickling out. "Hey, guys. He let us out early…bonding, I see?"

Alex blinked and stood. "Yeah. We ran into each other, waiting for you."

Mitchie nodded at her response and then held her hand out for Shanelle and pulled her up. "Hey, babe. What are you doing here? You're not usually in this building."

"I was just going to come say hi before you left campus." Shanelle gave her a peck on the cheek, staring at Alex the whole time.

Alex looked away. "I'm going to go to the bathroom."

Mitchie nodded again. "Yeah, okay. I'll meet you over by the stairs."

Shanelle's voice got a little louder; Mitchie was getting an earful anyway. Alex sighed and pushed the door open to the bathroom. She leaned against the row of sinks. She sent a message to Mitchie. Whatever she's saying, well, I've got my own side. She hoped her phone was still on silent, so that it wouldn't add to their current fight out there.

The bathroom door opened and Mitchie walked in. Alex pushed off the sink and stared, confused. Mitchie just stood there, shaking.

Alex stayed where she was, but decided to try speaking. "Hey. You okay?"

Déjà vu hit Mitchie and she looked up. "You've asked me that a lot today." She laughed and rubbed her eyes. "No. I'm honestly not. I guess, I get why she's so crazy about you, but it's not a big deal that we're friends."

Alex frowned; Mitchie knew why Shanelle hated Alex so much and hadn't mentioned it? "Why doesn't she like me?"

Mitchie sighed and dropped her hands from her eyes. "Come on, let's just go."

As they walked down the side stairs, Alex tried again. "I want to know why she doesn't like me."

"She thinks you're prettier than her. You're my age and smoking hot, she's concerned. But the only reason she should be concerned is because this," she gestured between the two of them, "keeps happening. And it's her fault this is happening."

Alex cocked her head to the side. "What's 'this'?"

"Like, me 'running to you' or whatever. She's pushing me right into your arms figuratively."

Alex laughed. "Oh, that's dumb, but kind of true."

"I'm going to try to talk to her later when she's not under the influence of her friends. When her friends get involved, they're relentless and feed her all kinds of ideas. I'm sure that they assume because they can't keep it their pants on when they're drunk that nobody else can. So, they just tell her bullshit." Mitchie unlocked the car. "Like, if I'm sleeping or running and I can't answer her right away if she messages me or calls, they say things like, 'I bet Mitchie and Alex are getting drunk right now and you know what that means.' They act like I just party all the time, but it's stupid because they don't even know me. I stopped partying, like, last year before I even met Shanelle or you, but Shanelle doesn't believe me. She thinks I just don't want to drink with her."

They drove in silence for a while. Alex was thinking about what happened in the hall, and wanted to ask, but decided against it. "Shanelle demanded me to promise not to fall in love with you. So I guess that's the stipulation for us being friends. I can't love you."

Mitchie laughed. "She said you just started yelling while she was just trying to talk to you. I wondered why you would have been a bitch."

Alex yawned. "Yeah, it was dumb. But I didn't promise her anything. I told her she couldn't tell people who to hang out with or love, and then I just kind of started ranting about how she didn't even know me."

Mitchie laughed. "Well, you sound like me."

She nodded and looked over as Mitchie merged onto the highway. "So, what kind of homework do you have to finish today?"

"I've got two assignments for my class tomorrow. I've got to watch this movie, which I need to rent on my way home, would you mind if we did that?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Cool. And then, I also have to write a paper on it. So, woo."

"What class is that?"

"The Shakespeare one."
"Oh, so what's the movie?"

"The Tempest with Russell Brand and whoever else. I have to compare and contrast it to the actual play."

Alex watched the cars passing them by, watched the buildings going by. "That's cool."

"Yeah." Mitchie watched the road, while she thought about what to do with Shanelle. "Would you mind if Shanelle, you and I all hung out sometime, like maybe we could do a double date?"

Alex turned to look at her. "But I'm not seeing anyone."

"I know, but I could find someone to like, set you up with. Just to maybe get her off our case a little."

Alex considered the offer. "I'm not really looking to date anyone…would I have to actually like the person?"

Mitchie smiled, hoping it masked her disappointment. "Why aren't you looking to date anyone?"

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. Last year, I decided to get sober and while I was at it, I decided I'd stay celibate until I was done with school; it's easier to focus on school when I don't have any distractions like that."

Mitchie nodded and pulled into the parking lot of the video store. "Oh, that's cool. I like that idea, a lot actually."

Alex shut her car door and followed Mitchie inside. "Yeah, it's nice."

Mitchie contemplated stealing Alex's celibacy idea, because she really wasn't sure if she liked how Shanelle was treating her these days.

"So, do you need any other movies?" Alex looked around the rows of DVDs and Blu-rays.

Mitchie shrugged. "Not really. But if you want to get a new release, we get The Tempest for free, because they have that deal still."

"Oh, cool." They walked along the wall of new releases. "See anything you want to watch?"

"We could get the last Twilight movie." Mitchie picked it up and wiggled her eyebrows.

Alex tensed. "Eh, no, thanks."

Mitchie laughed. "I'm kidding. Those are garbage." She set the case down. "Oh, hey we could watch this one!" She held up the DVD case for Silver Linings Playbook. "Shanelle and I saw it when it came out. It's so good!"

Alex nodded. "Yeah, sure!"

"Cool." Mitchie led the way to find the other movie, still considering how to go about it. She'd just tell her tomorrow: it was over.

Alex was starting to worry; should she be alone with Mitchie? She didn't want her to get yelled at again, but then again, maybe it didn't matter. If neither of them would tell Shanelle that they were watching movies together, maybe she'd never find out.

"Want to come over and watch these with me tonight, so I can just return them in the morning?" Mitchie grabbed a few dollars out of her pocket and headed to the register.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Mitchie nodded. "Yeah, I don't think we'll have to worry about that much longer."

Alex raised her eyebrow. "Oh?" She was serious about not dating anyone, even though she wanted to date Mitchie. She didn't think it was the best idea.

#

Alex was engrossed in the movie, when Mitchie looked over at her. "How serious about your celibacy are you?"

Alex lifted her head and blinked. "I haven't dated anyone in over a year and half; so, I guess pretty serious." She shrugged. "Why?"

Mitchie chewed on her lip. "When do you graduate?"

"This coming spring." Alex reached for the remote, so she didn't miss any of the movie.

"Would you want to be alone together?"

Alex frowned. "What?"

"Like, I guess…I don't know. Never mind." She reached for the remote. "It's not important."

Alex grabbed the remote first. "No, I want to hear this. What do you mean?"

"Can we do things we'd do with a girlfriend, but not date?"

Alex's jaw dropped. "Are you asking me to be friends with benefits? You're not single yet, Mitch."

Mitchie laughed. "No, no." She reached for the remote. "No. I mean, like, can we go to movies and out to eat once in a while and watch movies together and stuff like that? I didn't mean…sex."

"So…you want to be friends, and do things friends do?" Alex fought a grin.

Mitchie sighed. "Yeah, I guess." She wasn't going to try to explain again. One failed attempt was embarrassing enough. She just wanted to be alone, with Alex. She'd been considering the idea since Alex mentioned her no-dating rule. It sounded wonderful. No pressure, but the freedom to flirt with her when she wanted. She pulled her knees to her chest and waited for Alex to hit play.

Alex hit play, but entertained Mitchie's idea. They really hadn't done any of those things before. They simply rode to and from school together, sometimes studied at the library, or ran together, or hung out on campus.

After the movie ended, Alex wasn't sure if she should stay or go, so she started gathering her things. "I'll see you Wednesday."

Mitchie smiled and got up to open the door. "Yeah, are you driving or am I?"

"Eh, we'll see who feels like it." Alex pulled her bag onto her back and left.

Walking across the grass to her house, their conversation during the movie bounced around inside Alex's head. Mitchie was seriously considering getting rid of Shanelle; she was surprised.

Mitchie hadn't technically let the girl walk all over her, but since the day Alex moved in, she felt like the couple had been in a constant fight. Always about the same thing, always ending the same way. She wondered if Mitchie was just tired of fighting or if she truly wanted to be friends so badly, she was going to give up her girlfriend. Now that Alex thought about it, she wasn't sure how long they'd been dating. She said they'd started dating last spring, which meant they could have just been dating a few months before Alex moved in.

She dropped her bag next to her desk and decided to just go to bed. She could finish her homework in the morning at work since it wasn't due until Wednesday.

#

Hey, I'm sorry about today. Do you want to meet up at the coffee shop on campus tomorrow? Mitchie stared at her phone for a long time, trying to decide if she wanted to send the message or not.

Her phone vibrated while she was contemplating sending the message or not.

Hey, baby, I miss you. Shanelle's baby voice filled her head and Mitchie cringed, then decided to send her message. It was now or never.

She rolled over and faced the wall. It sucked that she and Shanelle had been dating since May and she still didn't trust Mitchie. They'd been together for about six months, and until Alex came along, they'd been fine.

Shanelle sent her a second message. Sure, I'll meet you before your first class.

Mitchie yawned and set the phone on her nightstand. She wished Alex had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but realized it was probably better she wouldn't be there for the break up.

When Mitchie walked into the coffee shop, she instantly regretted doing this face to face. Shanelle was sitting alone at a table, two coffees already in front of her. Mitchie swallowed and walked up to her.

"Hey, you're late." Shanelle scooted a cup towards her.

"Yeah, sorry." Mitchie sat down, but didn't touch the coffee. "I overslept." She cleared her throat. "Thanks for the coffee."

"Yeah, no problem." Shanelle smiled and took another sip from her drink.

Mitchie took a deep breath and scooted the coffee away from her. "I'm not happy being with you anymore. It's over."

Shanelle's lips turned into a tight line and her eyes turned into slits surrounded by black circles of make up, and Mitchie realized how obnoxious that looked. She shifted in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable for Shanelle.

After realizing Shanelle still hadn't spoken, Mitchie picked up her bag, stood and said, "Sorry" before walking away.

Her heart was beating so fast she felt nauseous. She walked into the classroom she needed to be in and grabbed her phone. She changed Shanelle's name to 'Do Not Answer' and typed up a text to Alex, and then deleted it instead.

Mitchie took a breath and stared at the chalkboard at the front of the room. Her professor spoke, but she couldn't hear him. She sighed and turned her phone off.

After class, she was greeted by several missed calls and texts, all from Shanelle. She deleted all of them and headed to her history class. When she got to history, her phone lit up with a message from Alex. It was a screen shot of a private message from Facebook.

It was to Alex, from Shanelle. It simply read: What did you DO? I KNOW you're the reason. So own up.

Mitchie set her phone down and closed her eyes. She didn't know what to say to Alex, she stared at the message for a while, before finally deciding to send: I'll explain after class. Don't reply. Actually, feel free to block her or whatever.

She put her phone away and hoped Shanelle would chill out.

#

Alex had just walked into her house when there was a knock on the door. She groaned and turned around to go peek through the window. Her brow furrowed and she threw the door open. "Mitchie, what's up? Anything you want to talk about?"

Mitchie bit her lip and rocked on her feet. "Can I come in?"

Alex stepped aside. "Of course, you good?"

She paced around the main hall and spun around to face Alex. "I broke up with her."

"I figured." Alex led them to the living room. "I didn't reply to her. Eventually, she stopped messaging me altogether."

Mitchie nodded, plopping down onto the couch next to Alex. "Good. Sorry. I didn't know she'd do that."

Alex glanced at the kitchen, ran her tongue over her lips, and got up. "It's no big. But, um, would you mind if we got food or something? I just got home and I'm kind of hungry."

Mitchie shrugged. "Yeah, sure. What are you in the mood for?"

Alex tied her hair up in a ponytail and opened the freezer door. "I was just going to throw in a frozen pizza. Would you want that?"

She nodded from her spot on the couch. "Sure. Thanks."

"No problem." Alex threw the pizza in the oven and got a cup of water. "Want anything to drink?"

Mitchie sighed. "No, thanks. Not right now."

Alex leaned against doorway between the kitchen and the living room. "So, were you watching for me or something? How'd you know I was home?"

Mitchie gestured to her clothes. "I was running and saw your car was back."

"Oh." Alex glanced at her outfit. Mitchie was wearing those tight, nylon capris, her running sneakers and a tank top that matched her capris; Alex felt an ache inside of her and looked way. "That's cool."

Mitchie fidgeted with her armband, wrestling her phone out of the casing. "So, do you have homework?"

"Yeah. You?"

Mitchie watched Alex walk out of view and raised her voice just slightly. "Yeah, just a little bit."

"Cool." Alex reappeared and sat down next to her again. "Do you want to go get it and do it here?"

Mitchie shrugged, watching the water go down Alex's throat as she drank. "Sure." She got up. "I'll go get a shower and grab my books."

"Cool. The pizza will be done in like fifteen minutes. But no rush."

Alex walked her to the door and shut it behind her, peeking at her through the window. She finished the cup of water and refilled it at the sink. She grabbed her bag from the kitchen table and set it on the floor next to the couch.

She wondered if Mitchie would bring up the break up, she was curious about how sudden it had happened. She wasn't about to question it since she was happy that Mitchie didn't stick around for that situation to deteriorate any further. But she did wonder if Shanelle was right. Did she have anything to do with Mitchie's decision to end it?

Alex stared at the wall where she planned to put a television eventually, once she could afford one. She imagined Mitchie taking a shower here, wondered what her lips might feel like, thought about being pressed up against her, just to sleep with their arms around each other.

She closed her eyes and let the feeling pulsing through her lower half circulate through her. She hadn't acted on any kind of crush she had on someone for such a long time. She didn't plan to do so now, either. She opened her eyes. "Just get through this year, Russo. If you want to date her after this year, that's cool, but just graduate before you get hung up on somebody else." Her fingertip traced the rim of the cup and she watched the water inside ripple slightly.

The pizza's timer went off and Mitchie knocked on the door as she walked in. "Hey, I'm back."

Alex got up and headed to the kitchen. "Hey, pizza's ready."

Mitchie followed Alex's voice and grabbed plates for them. After putting the plates on the counter, she walked her bag over to the couch and set it down next to Alex's bag. "Thanks again for dinner."

"No prob." Alex ran the pizza cutter over the pizza. "Thanks for eating with me, really. It gets lonely around here sometimes."

Mitchie ran her hand through her damp hair. "Oh, I know. It's always so boring after a certain point."

Alex laughed. "Yeah, it sucks sometimes. Feel free to grab however many pieces you want." She stood at the sink, rinsing the pizza cutter off.

Mitchie peeled the paper plates apart. "Thanks. Seriously."

Alex nodded to the sink, staying quiet.

They sat on the couch in silence, eating their pizza. Her mind still replayed the words Mitchie had said the night before. Alone together, what did that even mean? Not friends with benefits, but something else? She was tempted to ask her about it, but when she opened her mouth, she simply bit into her slice of pizza.

After Mitchie finished eating, she got out her homework and started doing it and Alex couldn't take it anymore. She set her plate on the coffee table and stared at Mitchie.

"Are we really not going to talk about the break up?"

Mitchie looked up from her notebook. "Oh. Um, do you want to?"

"Well, kind of. I mean, she messaged me like I was supposed to already know about it or something. And I'm honestly just surprised it even happened."

Mitchie's eyebrow shot up. "Oh. I didn't really…it wasn't because of you, or well, maybe it was. It was something you said yesterday. And I realized I was just unhappy with her, and that I couldn't see a future with her…I don't know. What else do you want to know?"

"Well, how did you do it?"

"I met her at Starbucks, said it was over, and then left." Mitchie tapped her pen on the spiral of her notebook. "I don't know. There wasn't much to it. She didn't say anything. Then after I left, she sent me a lot of messages and called me a lot then you sent me that picture." Mitchie eyed the other girl, wondering what she wanted to hear. "Now I'm just ignoring her."

Alex blinked and picked up her glass of water. "Oh." She was trying to remember what she had said last night that would prompt Mitchie to dump her girlfriend. She didn't remember saying anything too directive. "What did I say last night?"

Mitchie folded her arms and felt herself growing warm. "Oh, you just said, dating was a distraction, and that you didn't date." She dropped her eyes from Alex's and stared at her notebook. "I don't know. It just sounded like a good plan, especially with my last year in school. I don't really have time for Shanelle's drama."

Alex grinned. "Oh. Well, I'm glad I could help."

Mitchie looked up, relieved Alex wasn't making fun of her. "Thanks." She bit her lip and went back to doing homework.

#

After Mitchie went home, she felt stupid for not saying more to Alex about the break up. She was annoyed with herself for not trying to explain what she meant by being alone together again. She stared up at her ceiling; all she could see was the darkness. She shut her eyes and tried to sleep. Her phone started vibrating, and she felt for it on the bed.

Shanelle's reassigned name 'Do Not Answer' was flashing on the screen. She sighed and hit the decline button. She went to her text messages and opened a new message. Hey, do you want to come over? She sent it to Alex before she could chicken out.

The reply was almost instant. Lol, you left like two hours ago! But yeah, sure. Meet me outside? I'm a little creeped out going outside this late by myself. Sorry.

Mitchie's smile hurt her cheeks. It's not even that far, dork. But yeah, sure I'll meet you outside. She got out of bed and slipped on her flip-flops.

Mitchie led her over to the bedroom. "It's kinda messy, sorry."

Alex glanced around. "Eh, it's cool. Mine is, too." She bumped into Mitchie who had spun around in the bedroom doorway. "Oh, sorry."

Mitchie laughed and shook her head, waving her hand. "That was my fault. Sorry." She took a step back. "I just realized this feels like a total booty call. I didn't even show you around first."

She walked Alex around the house; Alex tried not to laugh, because she'd seen the inside of her house earlier this week. She let Mitchie give her the 'grand tour' like she'd never seen the place before. It was basically the same kind of layout as Alex's house, except the bedroom was on the other side of the house, which Alex noticed meant that their rooms were closer to each other. While Mitchie's was on the left side of the house, Alex's was on the right side. They could open their bedroom windows and see each other. Alex bit her lip, shook her head and let her eyes fall from Mitchie's body to the ground.

"So, Mitchie," Alex said, sitting down on the floor in front of the bed. "Why did you invite me over?"

Mitchie pulled up her missed calls on her phone and held it out for Alex to read. "Honestly? I was just afraid I'd give in and text Shanelle."

Alex frowned; she felt like a distraction, a rebound. She sighed and draped her arms over her knees. "Oh."

"I just didn't want to be alone right now." Mitchie picked at her nails, trying to get some dirt out from under them. "Sorry if you feel used. I really did want to see you, specifically. Like, I didn't just ask you since you were right there."

She wasn't sure if she felt used, but she did feel mildly upset that the other girl's answer hadn't been 'I missed you,' and she wasn't sure why that bothered her so much. Alex tapped her foot inside her shoe. She guessed that would have to do. It was almost 'I missed you.' She closed her eyes. "It's cool, Mitch. I am tired, though. What do you want to do?"

Mitchie cleared her throat and sat down next to her. "Um, do you want to watch a movie?"

Alex yawned. "Yeah, sure. What do you have?"

Mitchie rattled off a short list of films and Alex picked one. Mitchie turned it on and sat next to her again. "Um, we can sit on the bed, if you want."

Alex leaned her head back on the foot of the bed. "I'm good here for now. I'm pretty sure I'd fall asleep if I get too comfortable. But feel free to get up there; I can let myself out if you fall asleep."

Mitchie yawned, but stayed where she was. "I'll be fine here."