The Third Wheel: Easy To Ignore

 by Jen

Rated PG-13

Summary: It's an out-of-this-world romance. Alex's best friend Jolie is in
love with him. Alex is in love with Isabel. Can Jolie make Alex really see
her?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You and the moon are a beautiful sight to me

The stars in your eyes make it really hard to see you

A night in the sun is all I really want

You and me with the best of both for once

Night breaks; my heart could not ache anymore

Am I that easy to ignore?

You let your song blow right through me

Your mighty intellect makes it mighty hard to see

Will there come a time for me to be

More to you, more to me

Night breaks; my heart could not ache anymore

Am I that easy to ignore?



~Sixpence None the Richer-- Easy To Ignore



Jolie Nichols flipped to a blank page in her journal and picked up a pen.
She wasn't really much for writing down stuff in a diary or anything, but her
friend Liz Parker always told her it was a good way to express feelings. I'm
definitely having feelings. I just don't know how to express them, she
mused.


Dear Journal....Diary....my conscience, whatever,

Liz told me this was a good idea. I'm not so sure. Here's the story. I am
totally crazy. Insane. Loco, as Maria says. I'm kinda starting to have
feelings. For Alex. Alex Whitman. We used to play Battleship together in his
basement. He always sunk my battleships and pulled on my hair. I remember
when I first met him. He was just this sad little kid, and some bully had
just ruined his model of a solar system. So I had to help him pick up the
pieces. Since then, we've seen eachother through the hard stuff-my parents'
divorce, the death of his Grandpa Jake last year. We've shared secrets,
Oreos, even the chicken pox. He's the only one who gets me. Am I supposed to
be feeling like this?

Jolie put down the pen and stared at her writing. She and Alex Whitman had
been best friends since the first grade. Nine years, and I have to bring
this up now, she thought. The painfully obvious fact that I'm in love with
Alex, that is. And he doesn't even look at me.

"Hey, kid," Alex said with a smile. Jolie twisted around, her heart beating
loudly in her chest. Can your heart beat itself to death? she thought.

"Oh....hey, Alex," she managed to say, fixing her curly blonde hair. "What's
up?"

"Nothing. You ready to go?" Alex asked.

"Um...yeah, I'm ready," Jolie mumbled, grabbing her keys and following him
out of the room. As they drove, Jolie couldn't help but stare at him. Eyes
on the road, Jolie, she reminded herself. Eyes on the...adorable, smart,
funny Alex Whitman. No! Keep your eyes on the road.

"What time does the movie start?" she asked, not really caring. You just
want to hear him talk, a voice in her head nagged her. You're pathetic.

"Movie?" Alex repeated. "What movie?" "The Next Best Thing," Jolie said
absently, forcing herself not to stare into his eyes. "We were going to see
that, remember? You wanted to see it."

"Oh....yeah," Alex said distantly. "I was thinking we could just go to the
Crashdown Cafe."

"Um, okay," Jolie muttered. "Isabel gonna be there? You know, there's
probably laws against stalking in Roswell."

"We're not stalking her," Alex said sourly. "We're just going to the
Crashdown. And she might be there. So what? She's there, she's not there. It
doesn't matter."

"Of course it doesn't," Jolie said with a smile, although her heart was
sinking faster than Leonardo and the Titanic. He wanted Isabel to be
there.

As they pulled up to the Crashdown, Alex's gaze immediately shifted to see
if Max's broken-down Jeep was parked outside the diner.

"She's here," he said softly, smiling at Jolie.

"So," Jolie said with a forced smile. "Are you going to get out?"

"Give me a minute," Alex said, inhaling deeply and waving his hands around.
Jolie rolled her eyes.

"God, you've been around Maria too long. You want to sniff some cypress oil
too? I think I have some in my purse." Alex glared at her.

"Very funny." They walked into the cafe, Alex's head doing a double-take as
he noticed Isabel near the window. "Oh my god," he whispered.

"You know, I was supposed to go over to my mom's stupid boyfriend's house.
He wanted to set me up with his roommate's son," Jolie mused. "It'd be more
fun than this."

"What?" Alex asked. Jolie groaned.

"Forget it. Good, Michael's here. You can make conversation with him and
ogle Isabel at the same time."

"Bite me," Alex snapped. "Don't talk to him, either."

"I don't even know him!" Jolie laughed. "Calm down, Romeo." Alex glared at
her.

"Thanks for the support, Jol," he snapped. "Here goes nothing."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"God, what are they doing here?" Isabel muttered, noticing Jolie and Alex
enter the Crashdown. "Does that Jolie girl follow him everywhere?"

"Hey, Isabel," Alex said quietly. Isabel ignored him. Jolie decided to
initiate the conversation.

"Isabel did you finish your project for biology? I mean, you're no Madame
Curie. I thought you'd have a hard time with it. Alex could probably help
you," she said sweetly.

"Oh, really?" Isabel challenged, glaring at the pretty blonde.

"Yeah," Alex said brightly. "I'd help you."

"Alex is brilliant," Jolie added. Beat that, Blondie.

"By the way, Jolie, I love your shirt. What color is that?" Isabel asked,
folding her hands and smiling at the brunette.

"Oh, it's violet," Jolie said, shooting her best toothpaste-ad smile back at
her. "I got it at the Gap."

"It looks more like plum," Isabel says innocently. "I didn't know you were
colorblind."

Jolie gritted her teeth. Two points for the blonde, she thought. Michael
laughed, which turned into a coughing spasm as he caught Jolie's eye. Jolie
had actually never liked Michael Guerin. She'd always thought he was too
cocky, like he felt was better than everybody else. Like inside that brooding
bad-boy exterior was just a total wuss.

"I'm not," she managed to say, feeling her cheeks burn red. "We can't all
look like we belong on a runway in Paris, you know. And what's with the pouty
red lips? You look like you're trying to coerce someone into picking you up
off the side of the highway."

Michael bit his lip to keep from laughing. Isabel glared at him, giving
Jolie a strange sense of satisfaction.

"Anyway, where's Max?" Alex asked, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, he's working," Isabel responded, dipping her french fry in some tabasco
sauce. Gross, Jolie thought, wrinkling her nose. But Alex didn't seem to
mind.

"At the UFO center?" she asked. "I've been in there a few times, looking for
a job, but the owner seems really strange. The whole alien paranoia thing is
amazing, isn't it?" Isabel played nervously with the straw in her Diet Coke.

"You know, if I asked him, Max would talk to someone about getting you a
job," Michael spoke up. "They're looking for more people." Isabel elbowed
him.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "The last thing we need is more people
burning with curiosity!"

"Isabel, she's okay," Michael whispered. "I can see it." Isabel rubbed her
temples.

"Do you have to crowd me, Jolie? It's already packed in here," she snapped.
Jolie glanced around at the table; Michael was digging into his food, Alex
was glaring at her.

"Okay, that's my cue," Jolie said with a smile. "I'll see you later,
Whitman. Bye Dizzy...I mean, Isabel. It was nice seeing you, Michael."

"You, too," Michael said, swallowing a mouthful of fries. "So, I'm gonna
leave too," Alex said, getting to his feet. "See you guys later."

"Bye, Alex," Isabel called, but he ignored her.

"Jolie!" Alex called, running out of the Crashdown. "Jolie!" She twisted
around to face him.

"What do you want? I'm sorry, but if you drag me along to stalk Isabel Evans
one more time, I will maim you. Did you hear the way she treated me? Like I
was just some moron along for the ride. You should have stuck up for me,
Alex."

"Her? What's up with you, Jolie? Isabel's never done anything bad to you and
you can't even be civil to her for one night," Alex snapped.

Jolie stared at him in disbelief. "I was defending myself! She made a fool
out of me in there. And I had to do something about it, because you were just
standing there with your hands in your pockets like an ass!" she retorted.

"So you're pissed off," Alex says slowly, as if she was three year old.
"Because I'm not bowing down to kiss your feet anymore. What do you want me
to do?"

"Nothing!" Jolie exclaimed, frustrated. "And I'm not going to listen to you
bitch and moan about Isabel anymore unless you actually do something about
it!"

"Well, did you have to be so mean? Isabel probably hates me now," Alex said
glumly.

"Well, they didn't look like they wanted us there!" Jolie snapped. "You had
to go blather about your dumb bio project. So it's your fault now if Isabel
thinks you're a complete spaz. I'm leaving."

"No you're not," Alex said in his pathetic little whiny voice that annoyed
the hell out of Jolie. "How am I gonna get home?"

"I don't know," Jolie snapped, unlocking the door to her car. "Walk."

Alex glared at her. "Fine. See ya later."

Kiss me out of the bearded barley

Lightly beside the green green grass

Swing swing, swing the spinning step

You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress

As Jolie sat alone in her car, she felt an overwhelming sense of betrayal.
It was totally obvious; Alex was infatuated with Isabel.

Jolie didn't understand it; Isabel didn't even know Alex. On the other hand,
Jolie knew everything about him; his birthday, his favorite food, the fact
that he cried when they saw The Deep End of the Ocean, and threatened
bodily harm on Jolie if she told anybody.

He knew the same about her; her love of cheesy 80s movies, and how she had
to sleep with the lights on for a month after she saw E.T. for the first
time when she was four. But now...now, she was just the best friend, the
sidekick, the....ugh, the third wheel.

And she missed him. The two of them had been inseparable since Jolie could
remember, and now they'd started drifting apart.

Why, she thought. What's making me feel like this? Am I really in love
with him, or is this whole thing just a stupid crush? Jolie leaned back in
her seat and glanced up at the pitch black Roswell sky, as if looking for
answers.

What do I want, she wondered. I want Isabel Evans to leave me alone, I
want Alex to love me......I don't know what I want.

Tears started tugging at the corner of her eyes. Why was she crying? She
never cried. But somehow, she couldn't help it. She just slumped down in her
seat and cried softly.

Kiss me beneath the milky twilight

Lead me out on the moonlit floor

Lift your open hand

Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance

Silver moon's sparkling

So kiss me

~Sixpence None The Richer--Kiss Me

To be Continued.....