𝚂𝚄𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚄𝙽𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 ✩ ɢʀᴜɴɢᴇ

𝚡𝚡. 𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚒

"...and it's just so awkward! Imagine you and Layne having a fight. Wouldn't that be weird?" Alex made a funny gesture with her egg roll before taking a bite of it. She was at Jerry and Layne's, sharing a dinner of Chinese takeout with Jerry, her eyes flickering to the window every ten seconds to see if Layne's car had pulled in.

"Yeah, it would. Stop waving that around, all the green shit will fall out," Jerry said.

Alex made a sour face and stuffed the rest into her mouth. "Shut up. Give me advice."

"Alright, fine. Yeah, I have some advice for you. Don't wave your food around like that."

"I hate you," Alex groaned. "I'm being serious, Jer, this whole thing just fucking sucks. I can't even enjoy this meal. And Chinese food is my favorite. I'm actually so upset over this whole thing with Charlie that I can't even enjoy my favorite food."

"Fine, give me a second. Well...have you and Charlie ever fought before?"

"Not like this. We've just argued. And the arguments never last for longer than a day and they're never over stuff that even matters."

"Damn. I didn't even know what I was gonna say if you told me you guys fought all the time, but this is even harder to try to think of an answer for."

Alex blinked and dropped her head, hitting it hard against the table. "Wow. I mean that. Wow."

Jerry laughed and poked the top of her head. "You have to talk to her, dummy. Tell her you're sorry or something."

"But I'm not sorry! I didn't even do anything wrong," Alex exclaimed, not lifting her head.

"Then why are you the one trying to figure out how to make things better?"

"I don't...I didn't come here to be subjected to this mind game."

"It's not a mind game, Lex." Alex picked her head up at the nickname and crossed her arms, looking down at the food on the table. "But I don't really know what's going on anyway. I think you should just talk to her."

Alex sighed. "Fine, I'll try. So, what time is Layne supposed to come home? Because I know Charlie's gonna be with him and I kinda wanna leave before that." She saw the way he was staring at her and added, "don't give me that look. I'll talk to her eventually, I just need time to think about what I'm gonna say."

"Thought so. He said he'd be back at around ten," Jerry said with a shrug, opening the box of fried rice. "You have time. Try to enjoy this shit--it's your favorite, after all."

✩✩✩

March brought with it nothing but slightly warmer weather and a whole lot of complaints about how fast time was flying. Too much was going on. Temple Of The Dog's album was about to hit the shelves. Matt had finally asked Jo to be his girlfriend (and she'd accepted, of course). Charlie and Alex were still in some kind of freeze-out, but it had evolved into an actual but still very sneaky and unspoken fight, in which each did things she knew would piss the other off. They hid keys, stole favorite desserts, swiped loose change, broke small belongings, made sure to never leave leftovers, separated their clothes so neither could borrow even though Charlie loved Alex's Beatles shirts and Alex could never tire of wearing Charlie's green-and-black hoodie, and more. They both hated such pettiness and had always considered that kind of thing beneath them, but neither was ready to actually talk about it.