You took my heart, could I please have it back?

[36] You took my heart, could I please have it back?

Dedicated to liliancarmine, or Lily, because I know just how much you want Liz to be happy!(:

.:Recap:.

"You've gotten close to Alex," he observed. I bit my lip and shrugged, walking past him and making my way up the stairs. "And yet," he continued, as though I was still there, "the way you stared at James in that restaurant..."

I reached the top of the stairs, just as he said,

"So which is it?" I paused as he voiced the question that I had been asking myself.

"I don't know," I whispered glumly, then went to my room to play some guitar.

.:Story Start:.

The Christmas holidays seemed to drag on forever. My father and I went out to dinner again, but without the highlight of meeting James. The second time was far more productive than the first; we asked each other more questions about ourselves to know more. The topic of Alex and James came up a couple of times too, but I didn't tell him much.

Soon enough though, New Year had passed and it was back to school. I was dreading it; I would probably have to face Nicola again without Saskia to back me up. I would also have to spend more time with James because of the band, and although I knew this shouldn't be a good thing, I was looking forwards to it.

Dad took me to school on Monday morning and I bid him goodbye as I stepped out of the car. I went through the school gates, and as usual my gaze drifted over to the band and their group of friends.

I frowned - amongst those familiar faces was a girl I hadn't seen there before. She was standing sideways on to me so I couldn’t see her properly, but I was pretty sure she was new. Also, I noticed, a bitter taste coming to my mouth, she was chatting very amiably with Nicola.

Grimacing, I turned away and looked elsewhere. Nicola seemed to have gained another minion, and this one was undoubtedly the same as the rest, dumb and brutish, with maybe some female caveman features.

Then, as I was frowning at the thought of another Nicola-clone, I heard a voice shout,

"Lizzy!!"

I turned around in confusion as my name was shouted enthusiastically across the playground. I saw a figure running towards me, her blonde hair whipping behind her, a grin on her familiar face, her arms outstretched as if to give me a hug.

It was the new 'Nicola-clone' from earlier, but now I realised she wasn't so Nicola-ish and my eyes widened in recognition.

"Lily?!"

{~Alex POV~}

I yawned, stretching my cramped muscles which had been curled up for most of the night. Then I got up, went downstairs and prepared my breakfast. Sarah, who had presumably been up since some godforsaken time this morning, was sitting watching TV.

I made her jump before sitting down and eating my breakfast, and she pouted.

"My big sister wouldn't have done that," she whined at me, and it took me a moment to understand who she was talking about.

Sarah had sort of adopted Liz as her older sister. I didn't really know where this burst of affection came from, as she had only seen her a few times, all I knew was that she often took a liking to some people more than others. Rory Baker had been another example of this, albeit less obvious than Liz. Thinking about Rory reminded me of her sister, a subject I didn't really want to dwell on.

I'm sure she was a nice enough person, but on Christmas day she had been constantly flirting with me and getting on my nerves. At first I tried to be friendly without hinting anything, but she took it the wrong way and carried on.