don't blame me | alex walter

three

Jules hadn't really spoken to Alex since she'd said what she had in the stables. There was something inside her that wanted to keep everybody a good distance away from her. Like an invisible pole where she was at one end and they were being pushed away with the other. She wasn't sure why.

"This your locker?" Alex questioned, but by the look on his face he immediately regretted it.

"No, I just like to break into other peoples and steal their textbooks." Jules quipped with a straight face.

He froze for a moment, unsure how to respond until he realised she was joking. Alex let out an awkward laugh before throwing a clumsy pointer finger towards some other lockers, "I'm right over there so... if you need anything..."

Jules noticed a book clutched in his hand, "What're you reading?"

"Oh, Fellowship of the Ring." Alex replied, "Do you know it?"

"Yeah, I haven't read it though." She said, rifling through her locker, not looking at him. But Alex was okay with that because at least she was talking to him, and he really liked that. "I've seen the movies."

"The books are so much better." He told her.

Jules turned her attention to Alex, "Really?"

He nodded, "Yeah. Do you wanna borrow it?"

"Sure, that'd be great." She readjusted her bag strap on her shoulder. Her eyes analysed the book in his hand. It's edges and cover were pristine, it looked well cared for, maybe even new. And the bookmark was jammed in halfway, "After you've finished with it."

"Oh, I've already read it." Alex said, he offered it to her, "Here."

Jules denied his offer, "No, you finish it first. No great story ends in the middle."

Alex was somewhat surprised by that quick spout of inspiration. It's like she had provided him with a dose of wisdom. The more he spoke to Jules, the more he liked her. He was starting to think she felt the same way, until she slammed her locker door shut and walked away with a simple monotone, "Bye."

━━━━━━ † ━━━━━━

Jules was sitting opposite Alex as everyone, bar Cole and Jackie, ate dinner around the Walter dining table. It was silent amongst them all. Only the sounds of cutlery on plates could be heard.

Apparently there had been a bet of some kind placed on Jackie. Jules was unsure what it was because all of the Walter boys were keeping silent. But she was even more concerned that her sister wasn't here right now, and neither was the misbehaved blonde named Cole.

Around four minutes later, a door opened and closed and Cole's voice appeared before he did, "Is there anything left? Cause I am starving."

He entered the room, grabbing at a chicken leg from the table. Jackie followed in after him and headed towards Jules, who was looking at her with concern in her eyes.

"Hey, you know you're supposed to call if you're running late, right?" George told his son, "I mean that's the whole reason you have a phone."

"Where have you guys been?" Katherine asked.

"We, uh, went to the watering hole." Cole said through a mouthful of chicken, "Lost track of time."