Everything Short of Clarity
Disclaimer: I own nothing, got it?
Song Excerpt: The Fray, "Hundred"
Rating: Hard R, for sexual and adult themes, underage drinking, and drug use.
Word Count: 2628
Ships: Alex/Isabel. Kyle/Tess. CC/UC.
Summary: [AU. No Aliens.] How can you confess how you feel when not everything's out on the table?
Click to Enlarge
It's hard, I must confess.
I'm banking on the rest to clear away,
'Cause we have spoken everything.
Everything short of I love you.
Everyday, he watched her.
Not in the creepy, 'I want to know the specific scent of your shampoo stalker
kind of way', but in a manner that spoke strictly of polite curiosity.
During the school year, she made the same rounds everyday. In the mornings,
she’d head straight to her locker and take out her books for her morning classes
and drop off her afternoon texts. She’d check her make-up, slam the metal door
shut with a loud clank, and walk to her first hour class. She always made sure to
get to school with just enough time to do this short routine each morning, her
heels clicking rhythmically behind her.
This year, they happened to share half their schedule, and at all the perfect
times: first hour, fourth and fifth hour, and seventh hour. A little more than half,
but just one class together would’ve made Alex Whitman deliriously happy. He
was able to see her first thing in the morning, before and after lunch, and at the
end of the day. It was a plus that she never missed a day of school.
In the afternoons, Alex used to ride his bike home,
“Alex!” he heard a feminine voice call, “Anybody home in there?” she said,
playfully pretending to knock on his head.
“Yes, there is someone home, and he’d like it if you’d so kindly not knock the
furniture out of place,” he responded quite seriously, getting a laugh from her.
“Since this is our last day of summer, what do you want to do?”
“You know, I think I’d like to swim today,” she glanced over her shoulder at the
gleaming water of the pool behind her. She stood up and dusted her skirt off,
reaching a hand out to Alex. “Good idea?”
“You know, that does sound like a good idea,” Alex acquiesced, “because it’s
really hot today, and not having a dip in the pool would be stupid.” He pushed
himself up, with her help.
“That’s what I thought.” She smirked at him. “I’m going to go change. So I’ll see
you in five minutes, ten tops.” She crossed over to his back fence and opened
the gate, where he heard his gate close and hers open and shut.
There was one thing that held him back from revealing his feelings to her, and
that was the fact that Isabel Evans was his best friend.
Isabel lived across the alley, in a spacious, two-story house, with her mother,
father, and three brothers. She was the oldest of the children in her family, and
the most outgoing. The Evans were a very involved family in Roswell, with her
father being a very high profile divorce lawyer, with his own firm, and her
mother was an scrub nurse at Roswell Memorial, who spent her free time caring
for her children and volunteering. It was obvious to Alex that Isabel would
probably follow in similar footsteps to her mother, but it was still a bit too early
to call, as she was also quite stubborn and ambitious, like her father. Really
though, he could see her following in either of their career paths.
Realizing that he had yet to move from where he stood, Alex went into the
house to change into his swimming trunks. Looking at himself in the mirror, he
was still shocked at how much different he appeared, after having went to his
annual Baseball training camp this summer. At least, that’s what everyone
thought. Isabel had come jogging toward him at the airport when he had
arrived home a week ago, only to halt in her tracks and stare at him like a
slack-jawed yokel.
“Mr. Whitman! What have you done to yourself?” she had exclaimed, her dark
eyes sparkling and a few out-of-place strands falling wispily on her face.
In truth, he expected her reaction and couldn’t help but to pretend to see what
all the hubbub was about, seeing that his mother was giggling and that his
father seemed intrigued. So Alex had checked himself out.
“I don’t really see any difference,” Alex said, feigning innocence and turning
around. “I mean, yeah, I lost some weight, but nothing spectacular.” But he
knew he was lying. He had dropped almost fifteen pounds of baby fat at camp
and had grown another inch or so, making him 6’3” now, but he remembered
that his father had mentioned going through the same thing at around his age.
“Not that big of a deal,” he concluded.
Isabel scoffed then fiercely wrapped her arms around him. “Whatever you say,”
she had whispered in his ear, and had winked at him.
Making his way through the kitchen and to the Arcadia door, he noticed that
Isabel had come back and was laying her towel out on one of the deck chairs.
After she had set her things down, she squeezed a good amount of sunscreen
into her hands and began to apply it in a circular motion on her shoulder and
down her arm. He couldn’t help but to admire her physique as she did so, even
if it was just her back.
Alex had two favorite bathing suits that he liked seeing Isabel wear. One was
the current one she had on, which was a brown bikini that covered her just
enough for her mother to let her leave the house. It had a red flower on the left
breast of the top and small patch of flowers on the right hip on the bottom. His
other choice was a yellow and turquoise polka dot two-piece that she had
bought last summer on a dare given by her friends. She had kept the bikini
hidden from her mother and had brought it over to his house when he had
invited her over for a late night swim. The top had only had enough material to
cover her breasts’ nipples and areolas while the bottom was a g-string that had
jeweled accessories attaching the front of the swimsuit bottom to the back. Alex
had thanked the higher powers that he was already in the water when she had
shown off in it.
As long as she wore the brown swimsuit, Alex could keep his bodily functions in
control. Otherwise, he would quickly dive into the cool water to hide his tented
swimming trunks.
“You comin’ out?” Isabel yelled to him from outside, now lathering a generous
amount of sun block to her legs.
He slid open the door and gently slid it closed. “How can I come out with no
closets around?” he questioned, once again receiving a giggle and an eye roll
from her. “I see you chose the brown swimsuit today.” He came and sat on the
deck chair next to hers.
“My mom’s home,” she said, “so there was no way I was going to even get out
of my room with my other bikini. Though,” her eyes twinkled mischievously, “I
did want to wear it today.” She sucked in her bottom lip and pointedly gazed up
at him, stifling a laugh when she noticed how wide his eyes had grown.
“Really? Did we feel the need to give Alex a heart attack today?”
“Of course!” She hit him lightly on the arm. “It’s our last day! I haven’t done
anything risqué because you had to go and be off at Baseball camp for two
months, again!” She finished rubbing in the sunscreen and stretched, her top
lifting slightly.
Alex placed his attention somewhere else momentarily, as his mind had erased
itself of any coherent thoughts. Quickly recovering once she stopped stretching,
he responded, “So you did miss me?! That’s very sweet of you, because I
couldn’t have done anything risqué without you either,” he grinned, amused at
the idea of Isabel wanting to do something risqué. Then again, Isabel was much
bolder than he was, but not enough to really call her a risk-taker.
“Whatever,” she articulated, traipsing to the pool and dipping her toes into the
water. “Oh, it’s nice today.” She placed both her feet in and sat at the large
step at the deep end, swinging her feet under water. “So you never did tell me
what you got up to at that training thing of yours. Anything that might just
interest me?” she raised an eyebrow, hoping that he would not go into detail
about the Baseball part of it. She loved some sports; Baseball just wasn’t one of
them.
Reading her mind, he replied, “Well, since I know you hate Baseball, there’s not
much to say.” He shrugged his shoulders, and proceeded. “I saw most of the
same guys I saw last year, even stayed in the same cabin as two of the ones I
had in my cabin last year. Kyle Valenti hasn’t changed one bit.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” she interjected.
“Well, actually, no. There was one thing.” Isabel's eyebrows rose curiously. “He
has a steady girlfriend. Been going out with her for the past six months.”
“Who? Anyone from in town?” Isabel had known Kyle for a long time, and had
never known him to be quite so committed.
“Er, the girl that was in your French class last year. What was her name?” He
briefly contemplated on the girl’s name, and then snapped his fingers. “Tess!
Her name’s Tess.”
Isabel actually laughed out loud at this. “You’re kidding me, right?” When he
answered with nothing but an entertained glint in his eyes, her mouth fell open.
“Wow. That’s an interesting combination, but I can so totally see it.” Alex
nodded at this, and she went on. “She’s bubbly, but very cute. She’s also not an
airhead, which will be good for him. I used to worry what horrible damage those
cheerleaders at his school would wreak on him.” Again, Alex agreed. “Also, their
both short,” she bluntly added. “It works.”
Alex snorted at this. “That’s so awful, Is.”
“What! It’s true!” The pitch of her voice rose slightly. “Seriously? Kyle is one of
the shortest guys I know, and he dating all those tall cheerleaders just never
looked right. A petite, blonde Tess will make a wonderful difference! Add to the
fact that she’s not superficial, it’ll be therapeutic for Kyle.”
“You do make a good point.”
“Don’t I always?”
She couldn’t have been cheekier in her reply, but Alex was used to this. He
watched her dive into the water from the step, and come up from the middle of
the deep water. Her mouth was curved into a stunning smile, and she brought
her hands up to wipe the water off her face, her legs kicking furiously under
water to keep her afloat.
“Jump in, Alex,” she whined. “The water’s absolutely perfect.”
Feeling that the sun had beaten down on him enough, Alex stood up and shed
his white T-shirt and flip-flops, and dove in. He came up out of the water and
shook the water off himself, like a dog that had just been hosed off.
“It does feel nice today. Usually it’s too warm at this time of year.”
“Yeah,” Isabel answered softly, hiding beneath the diving board. “So
continue.”
Having forgotten that she had asked about camp, he said, “Oh, yeah. Anyway,
do you remember that Ramirez kid I bitched about last year?”
“Yeah, how could I forget? You wouldn’t shut up about him for weeks. ‘That
effing guy hit every one of my line drives. He just wouldn’t be struck out! He’s an
ass.’” She mocked her friend. “Sound familiar?”
“I do not sound like that.”
“Yes, you do. Now finish what you were going to say.”
“Anyway, so we had just finished warm-ups and split up into two teams.
As per usual, I’m pitcher, and Ramirez’s team was up to bat. When it’s his turn,
he comes up to the plate, smugly taps the bat on the inside of his shoe soles,
and smirked at me, like he’s saying that he’s better than me.” Alex paused and
dipped under the water to cool off. “Well, that doesn’t sit well with Alex
Whitman. I wanted to strike this asshole out, and I mustered all the strength I
could into those next three pitches, and to say I did is an
understatement.”
“What happened?” Isabel swum out from beneath the diving board toward Alex,
and swum past him, deciding to sit, half submerged, on the steps of the shallow
end.
“I struck the bastard out.”
“Careful, Alex, you’re beginning to sound like some of your macho jock friends,”
she warned.
“Well, I don’t like the guy. I can sound out of character once in a while, can’t
I?”
“No, you’re not allowed to.” She was staring curiously at her hand, cleaning her
nails with the nails of her other hand.
“And why not, might I ask?” He walked toward her, a devilish sparkle in his blue
eyes.
“Well – wait! Why are you looking at me like that?”
Seeing that Alex was advancing on her, she dove into the water and swam
toward the deep end, where Alex swum after her. When they both came up for
a breath, she splashed water in his face and continued to swim away from him,
coming up for breaths and to laugh. Eventually, Alex had caught up with her and
had her cornered under her favorite lounging spot, under the diving
board.
They were both out of breath, and Alex had his legs on either side of her,
keeping her penned in. Her breath was hot on his bare chest, and he had to
force himself to keep his vision on her own, as he breasts were bouncing
buoyantly in the water from her heavy breathing. Good thing she didn’t wear
her other swimsuit, he thought. Her brown eyes were glimmering
dangerously, and she struggled against his legs as she attempted to release
herself from his hold, not quite yet having recovered her breath to evade him
under the water.
“Uh-uh, Miss Evans, you will not escape me!” he smiled, licking his teeth.
“Oh, I will,” she said, proceeding to struggle. “I just need to catch my breath.”
“For a volleyball player, I would think that you would have done so already,” he
stated, bringing his legs in closer. He could feel her hips press into his
ankles.
“Swimming . . . more vigorous,” she simply replied, wrapping her arms around
the diving board to lift her up as best she could.
Unfortunately, for Alex, this gesture lifted her buxom breasts out of the water
and into his line of vision, where they continued to lightly bob from her
breathing. He could not take his eyes off of them, and before he knew it, not
only was his eyes left to stare, but his body left to react. His face paled when he
noticed that Isabel’s body had temporarily stiffened, and she stared at him with
reddened cheeks and her mouth somewhat agape.
“I hope that’s one of those toy pool sticks poking the inside of my thigh right
now.”
Alex was completely mortified.