Thoughts of the strange note plagued my mind on the drive home from my parents house. It was eerily similar to the note I received a few days back on my car in the school parking lot. Which brought me to the only possible conclusion: Mr. McCoy had an odd affinity for peculiar love notes.

As romantic a gesture are they were, there was a certain air circulating in the words of the poems that gave me a suspicious feeling that I couldn't seem to shake.

Before I realized it, I'd arrived at Rachel and I's apartment and noticed that Ben and Mia's cars were here as well. 

Gathering all of my bags from the passenger side seat, I stared at the maroon red, slightly worn apartment door that led to my home with a particular feelings of dread sitting in the pit of my stomach.

I knew the second I walked in there all three of my closest friends would bombard me with questions about my weekend and Nathan. I knew that it's an absurd and silly reason but part of me wanted to keep this all to myself.

I'd been dealing with it all just fine by myself and the occasional helping hand of alcohol. When I stepped foot through that door, everything would become real. Every thing and every feeling Nathan and I had shared was no longer just ours. Putting it out in the open forced the dilemmas that I'd been pushing to the back of my mind to spring forward, front and center, and demand a solution. A solution that I was not nearly ready to figure out.

With a labored sigh, I pushed myself out of my car and took those final steps towards what would no doubt be my own personal talk show session. I placed my hand on the knob connected to the door.

"Lord, please help me," I muttered begrudgingly under my breath before pushing the wooden door open and stepping inside.

Inside, the scene seemed casual enough at first. Ben and Mia in the kitchen, making what I assumed to be buffalo chicken dip. Rachel was on the couch watching an episode of Friends, the one where Ross tries to make fajitas. To anyone else, this would look like a completely normal thing to walk into. 

But I knew better.

Buffalo chicken dip was one of my favorite snacks in the entire world. This particular episode of Friends that Rachel had on just so happened to be one of my favorite episodes in the entire series. 

They were plotting something. Something devious. Using all of my favorite things against me to practically force me into staying in the living room where they will eventually begin their slow interrogation of the events of my weekend.

The moment I walked in, all conversation stopped. Three heads snapped in my direction, eyes wide with surprise. Seconds passed with nothing being said, the air thick with tension. I was the first one to speak.

"Hey guys. Smells good in here," I stated and dropped my bags on the floor right next to the door and walked over to the kitchen.

 Finally, Rachel snapped into gear.

"Oh, yeah! We thought it would be nice for you to come home to your favorite snacking dish," she replied a bit too enthusiastically.

 I nodded my head in approval as I scooped up a load of the dip with a chip and piled it into my mouth. As I continued chewing, I made eye contact with Ben and Mia and nodded my head in the direction of the TV.

"Nice choice. You guys thought of everything." 

Mia's eyes darted to Ben's in what I assumed to be nervousness at my blunt statement. Ben finally piped up.

"Yeah, Rachel mentioned that this one was your favorite, or one of, and thought it would be nice to have it on when you got home," he said through a forced smile. I raised my eyebrows at all three of them and continued to nod my head, feeling like a bobble head at this point.

"Well, she was right."

 Rachel let out a anxious laugh and took a few steps in every which direction, something she does when she's feeling skittish. A few more seconds passed in complete silence while my friends eyes darts back and forth and their thoughts were attempted to be communicated secretly through small movements. I let the charade go on for about ten more seconds before deciding that it was now or never.

"So are you guys gonna continue to be oblivious or are you planning on starting your interrogation within this decade?" I smirked at them sarcastically as all three bodies in front of me visibly relaxed.

"Oh sweet Jesus, thank you! I was beginning to sweat there," Rachel bellowed out as her whole body slumped over onto the couch. I chuckled and walked to sit on the other side of the couch, tucking my feet up underneath me.

"Alex, I promise I will do anything to make it up to you. I honestly had no idea anything out of the ordinary was happening until Ben and Mia mentioned something." A sadness crept up over the last bit of her sentence. Guilt and a sliver of hurt were encased in her light blue eyes.

"I don't blame you at all, Rachel. I'm sorry I didn't say anything to you about it." I reached out and put my hand on hers that rested on her knee. "I just didn't want to burden anyone with my love life and all of the issues that came with it. I was trying to deal with it on my own." My eyes pleaded with hers to understand where I was coming from and that I didn't mean to hurt her feelings by keeping her out of the loop. Soon enough, a small smile graced her face and her hand covered mine.

"You know we're not just friends with you for your good looks and mad partying skills, right?" she joked. "We're here for you always, no matter what the situation is. You should know that by now, Alex." 

Mia and Ben had now made their way over to us and Mia sat on the love seat with Ben standing above her, his arm casually brushing up against her shoulder, making me wonder if they ever made it official between them or not.

My thoughts were soon cast aside when Mia started talking, officially starting the round of questions.

"So...did he show up?"

Taking in a deep breath to mentally relax myself for this conversation, I slowly released it with a breathy, "Yes."

Mia squealed and started bouncing up and down on the love seat. Rachel slapped my thigh while letting out an excited 'what?'. Ben on the other hand, stayed quite stoic, not visibly reacting in any way.

"What did he say? What did your parents say about your professor being at their house?!" Mia continued to inquire.

"He didn't tell them he was my professor." Rachel and Mia share a confused glance. I took a deep breath before letting the bomb drop.

"He told them he was my boyfriend."

"Hole-y-Shit!" Rachel screamed out while Mia just screamed like the teenage girl she secretly was on the inside when it came to relationshipy things. I barely heard it over the two girls in the room screaming but the awkward silence that followed, only made it that much clear what he had said.

"What the fuck?" Ben repeated himself so everyone in the room could hear it this time more clearly. His anger-laden eyes bore into mine waiting for my retort. Bewilderment filled my mind at his furious reaction.

"I'm sorry?" It came out more as a question, prompting him to let me in on what his problem was.

"You're joking right?" His stance was rigid and fuming. Mia had sunken down in her chair, watching the scene before her unfold helplessly.

"Joking about what?" I asked with frustration and confusion clear in my voice. He rolled his eyes at me as if I was playing a sick joke on him and refused to give it up.

"You're not actually dating that prick are you?"

For some unknown reason, I suddenly felt incredibly defensive of Nathan at this point. I got up on my knees on the couch to give myself better vantage of the whole scene and put myself on the same level as Ben.

"Whoa," I put my hands up in front of me defensively. "I thought you liked that prick?"

"Yeah, that's when he wasn't trying to fuck one of my best friends!" he spat back at me. My head reared back in shock and fury began coursing through my veins. 

"He's not trying to fuck me, Ben. We haven't even kissed yet!" I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air exasperatingly.

"The key word being 'yet' there, Alex. He's just using you! Don't you realize that? Or are you too blinded by his good looks that you've lost all sense in your brain? " Ben went on, ignoring Rachel's question. "Can't you see how sick this is? Him dating one of his students, who is probably close to half his age!"

"We're not even dating! Nor will we ever date! Plus, Nathan is only 5 years older."

"Nathan?" Ben spat his name out like a foul tasting piece of molded bread.

Fuck me. Why? Why of all times do I decide to want to use his actual name now?

"You're already on a first name bases with him. It'll be no time before you're dating and no time before he fucks you over literally and figuratively."

"Ben, stop." Mia finally jumped into the conversation to try and stop Ben before he said anything he might regret. But I feared she was already too late. I felt a sense of foreshadowed hurt welling up inside of my body, tensing precociously before the storm actually hit.

"No. She needs to get this," he said with rage still fueling the fire in his eyes. "He will you use and he will dump you. It's they way older guys work, Alex."

"I know the way older guys work, Ben. Or have you forgotten about that entire defining section of my life?" I seethed at him. 

His anger buckled down for just a moment at my comment, realizing his wording. That moment of regret was soon washed away by the ever growing presence of wrath inside of Ben towards Nathan.

"No, I haven't forgotten, Alex. None of us have!" He gestured around the room to our two other friends who had been caught in the midst of our battle. "We were all here to witness how helpless and terrified you were. We all help put you back together after that whole thing. And I, for one, refuse to do it again."

And there it was. The knife wielded itself into my heart and twisted until every bit of tissue surrounding it was in tatters. His words rang through my mind over and over again like a sick record machine on repeat. 

He was done with me.

I had relied on him too heavily in these past years, relied on him and the other two in the room to keep my sanity afloat. And one of my life rafts had finally reached a breaking point.

I pushed the wave of hurt out of my mind and let the numbing anger take the reins. 

I stepped down off of the couch and tried my very best to ignore the stares of pity that I was receiving from my other two life rafts. Now my only two.

When my body reached where Ben stood, his tall, lanky frame blocking my way, I rammed my shoulder into his with all of the strength left in my worn out state. He stumbled back a foot or two, just enough for me to get past and stalk towards my bedroom. Just before I took those final steps into my safe haven, I spun back around and prepared my own verbal knife for striking.

"Don't worry. You don't have to be there for me anymore. I wouldn't want to burden you with any of my little unreasonable, unimportant issues that you are just apparently too high on your fucking horse to deal with. I'll leave you alone. You won't have to see or deal with me after today," Ben's frame slowly started to melt from his statuesque vexation and his eyes morphed back into the kind, caring ones that I had become accustomed to. 

Well, you know what they say in situations like these; too little too late.

"Besides, I know someone that I am certain cares about me more than you do. Maybe older guys really are the way to go." And there went my knife, sinking as deeply into him as his did to me I hoped.

With one last dead panned stare of contempt towards Ben, I turned on my heel, grabbed my purse, and marched right into my room, slamming the door for effect.

Once inside the confines of my room, the tight knot in my throat that I had been fighting the entire time finally started to break free as I made my way into the bathroom connected to my room. 

It didn't take long for the silent tears to start sliding down my cheeks and down my chin, slowly drenching my t-shirt. Keeping my breathing as silent as I possibly could for just a moment longer, I reached through the curtain for the shower knob to turn it on. The second that the rushing power of water sounded off the walls of the bathroom, I let loose.

My figure slumped back against the wall closest to the shower and slid down until my weight was no longer being supported by my legs and I had sunken down to the floor with my knees curled right up against my chest.

At last, the heavy sobs that I had been holding onto were released and echoed through the small room. This wasn't the hardest I had cried by any means, but it sure as hell wasn't a pretty cry.

The words of our arguments ran through my head as the tears continued to flow. I had never in the few years that I have known Ben, ever fought with him. I knew that he could be a real hot head when he was feeling passionate about something but never had that rage been directed towards me.

He was also speaking completely out of turn. I think that's what angered me the most. He doesn't know Nathan; not like I know him. He wasn't there this weekend to acknowledge all of the tender words that he had spoken to me, all of the soft caresses, and him coming to my rescue once again with Travis. He doesn't know the first thing about our relationship, or lack there of.

It was completely unfair of him to judge Nathan based on one thing that he had done, however mindbogglingly stupid that one thing was. There were several other things that he had done this weekend that Ben wouldn't even care to know of that would redeem him 20 times over in Ben's eyes. I know I was on the verge of attempted murder until he did a 180 and revealed a totally different side of himself to me. A more selfless, tender, loyal side that I had not been witness to before this weekend.

A buzzing sound pulled me from my lethal thoughts towards Ben and to my phone that was sitting in my purse which I had brought into the bathroom with me for some unknown reason.

 Wiping away some stray tears that were still escaping from my tear ducts, I reached a shaking arm out to drag my overly stuffed black purse towards me and set in on my lap. Pulling my phone out, I saw I had a text message.

So I've decided on what I want your payment to be due to losing our fateful bet. Interested?

- Nathan

Oh God, what? I thought we were letting the whole thing go. He hadn't brought it up in weeks! My chest began to clench anxiously at what he could possibly have in mind. My fingers ran over the letters on my phone timidly, tying out my response.

I thought we were done with the betting? Plus, you completed my end of the bet anyway...so doesn't that really count as a win on my part?

- Alex

His response was almost instantaneous.

Don't think you're going to get out of it that easily, minx. You told me you would do whatever I wanted. Told me to name my price. Well, I've decided on my bid. Don't tell me you're not up for the challenge?

- Nathan

My head fell back against the bathroom wall and a light smile formed on my lips. This man really knew how to get to me. Insulting my pride was a sure fire way to get me to do almost anything. I typed my response with a new found childish joy.

Now you know that's not true, professor. I love a good challenge. What's your offer?

- Alex

Moments passed as I waited for his answer. With my tears now subsided due to Nathan, I reached through the shower curtain once again but this time to turn the water off. I no longer needed my cries muffled by the sound of the rushing water.

My phone buzzed.

There she is ;) My offer is as follows: Lunch, with me, tomorrow. You name the place. No negotiations.

My eyebrows rose in shock at his forwardness. Tomorrow was one of those random holidays that came every so often and school was canceled for the day.  But couldn't we get caught? Would this be a date? Do I want it to be a date? So many questions pile drove through my mind until one thought stood out and rose above the others, and for a very spiteful, very selfish reason.

Ben would hate it. Plus it would only prove him right. He said I'm going to get hurt no matter what I do so might as well have fun while doing it, right? 

In my emotional and pessimistic state, that final notion is what prompted me to send this answer.

Done. See you tomorrow, Mr. McCoy ;)

Sorry for the long wait! :( Big stuff is coming up soon and I'm finding it hard to drive Alex's character exactly where I want her to go soooo that's my excuse for the lateness lol I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you ALL for your amazing support and your comments/votes make my day a thousand times better :) Next time, Alex's past will be revealed, or at least part of it lol Until next time, Lovelies!