Everything Short of Clarity
Disclaimer: I own nothing, got it?
Song Excerpt: Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
Rating: Hard R, for sexual and adult themes, underage drinking, and drug use.
Word Count: 2671
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?
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Alex and Isabel sat outside of the pool in companionable, though somewhat
awkward, silence, drying off. Alex had retreated to the shallow end of the pool
after his erection had prodded Isabel’s thigh, and sulked, and she had
continued to swim, leaving Alex to wallow. She knew Alex all too well, and that
when he embarrassed himself in such a capacity, that he preferred not to
discuss it. After fifteen minutes of self-pity and analysis, Alex had drifted to the
deep end again and continued to swim with Isabel for another hour, with no
mention at all of what happened. They had discussed things ranging from sports
to their hopes for their senior year. The water had eventually got too warm and
was tantamount to bath water, so they had got out.
Taking her hair brush from her bag, Isabel stroked it through her hair, watching
the wet strands untangle. From next to her, she heard Alex sigh. Having had
enough, she said, “Oh, quit it, will you? So you had an erection? It
happens.”
“Just because ‘it happens’, doesn’t make it any less embarrassing,” he replied,
patting his legs dry. A beat later he added, “I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven. Not that I feel you have anything to apologize for,” she said,
gazing up to see that he was finally making eye contact with her again. “You’re
lucky we didn’t invite anyone else over. Believe me, worse things have
happened.”
“Name one,” he countered.
She maneuvered in her chair to get more comfortable, and then asked, “Did I
ever tell you what happened at Vicky Delaney’s party last year? You were doing
something important that day, so you couldn’t go.”
“I don’t believe you ever told me. I only heard from Sean that there were too
many idiots, too little alcohol and just enough pot to last him through the night.
Of course, you know Sean. He’s vague as hell.”
“I still find it odd that you’re so buddy-buddy with Sean, but can barely
remember his sister’s name,” Isabel observed.
Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Sean and Tess only moved here a couple years
ago. I don’t know his family well. It’s not like we’re that ‘buddy-buddy’,
as you so kindly put it. The guy infuriates me, I’ll admit that, but his off the wall
comments about the world and politics just kill me. Seriously, who
would’ve of thought a guy who casually smokes the MJ and drinks his own body
fluid in alcohol could be so politically driven and comedic?” Again, he made a
gesture with his shoulders and then made a rotating motion with his hand for
her to finish telling the story.
“Intriguing,” she said, a skeptical expression crossing her youthful features. “So
anyway, I was standing by her pool, talking to Courtney and Liz about the up
and coming season when Malamoot,” his name rolled off her tongue like
she had just swallowed a sour-tasting bug, “waltzed over, ego and all, gracing
us with his self-absorption and alcohol breath.”
Alex nodded. In junior high, Isabel had dated the guy for three months, and
called it quits. She had commented that Malamoot primped more than she did,
and that was a little too scary for her to digest. Then high school came around
and Malamoot’s already inflated ego had folded over on itself a couple times and
was now ten times the size it used to be. The only reason he hadn’t died from
Ego-it is was that, when living up to his three-pronged sports reputation, that
being Football, Basketball, and Baseball, the coaches would tear him a new one
for even one wrong word. Alex had always found a grim satisfaction at having
this knowledge, especially when the coach was yelling at Malamoot to pay
attention or to run the track until he felt the need to focus his efforts on the ball
rather than the girls on the Softball team.
“Fun,” Alex shortly commented in reply to her last statement.
“So he puts his arm around my shoulder, and I pick up his hand and throw it
away from me. I’m like, ‘What do you want?’ and he responds with this sleazy
remark about picking up ‘where we left off’ and ‘heading inside to get
reacquainted.’ That, of course, did not bowl over well with me, and I then say,
‘Really? Would that be the part where I knee you in the groin and push you into
the pool?’”
“Oh, my God, you didn’t?” An incredulous look was on Alex’s face, his eyes
shining with amusement. “Bet you showed him . . .”
“I did, but unfortunately, he showed me, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you remember that swimsuit I had last year that tied in the back on the
top and on the sides on the bottom? The white, yellow, and green one?”
“Yeah, I remember,” he said truthfully, glancing down for a moment, not really
wanting to think about swimsuits after the incident earlier.
Isabel glanced at the ground for a moment then slowly lifted her head. Then
said, “I hadn’t realized it, but after I had thrown his hand from my shoulder, he
had put it on my back,” and shuddered at the thought of Malamoot touching
her. “When I pushed him into the pool, he snatched the strings of my top and
had pulled them out of their tie.”
Alex stared, horror-struck.
“Yeah, I swear, it seemed like half the school was there to debut the unveiling
of my double-Ds.” She laughed distastefully at the memory, and then added,
“So really, Alex, thank your higher power that it was just you and I swimming
today. Seriously, if Sean or Kyle had been here, you would have never lived it
down.”
Alex concurred, and actually smiled. “As per usual, you’re right. I assume your
teammates were not happy about this?” he questioned, since he fully knew
Courtney Banks and Liz Parker would not take lightly to their captain being
de-topped.
“Yeah, I seriously could have kissed those two that day. You know, Courtney is
such a bitch toward most, yet can be like your best friend.” Isabel stood up from
where she sat and began to walk the outer edge of the pool. “So there was this
guy at the party who had a digital camera and took a picture at the very
moment my top popped off. So Courtney, being the über aggressive girl she is,
takes the guy by the hair, grabs his camera, and throws it and him into the
water. Liz, on the other hand, picked my top off the ground and hastily helped
me put it back on.”
“I told you that Liz was a good pick for the team,” Alex remarked, getting up
and walking to the Arcadia door. “You hungry?” he asked, sliding the door
open.
“Yeah,” she said, jogging inside and sliding the door behind her. “Liz was the
first Freshman Varsity player Roswell High has had in a couple years,” Isabel
said, changing back the subject. “She’s an excellent player, albeit a bit shy.
From what I heard from Max, she’s also the smartest girl in her class.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Have you met her father, Jeff Parker?” Alex asked,
taking out some bread and lunch meats from the refrigerator, “A bit eccentric,
especially since he only minored in mathematics and went into hospitality
instead, but damn if he isn’t mathematical genius. He’s pretty good at guitar, as
well.”
He placed the food in his arms on the counter and took out four slices of wheat
bread from the loaf, handing two to Isabel. Whilst making their sandwiches they
discussed the properties of genius and insanity, and how closely related the
two were in most cases. Alex stated that masterminds and anyone who
possessed an IQ of 160 and higher were more likely to do something rash and
crazy than any ‘normal’ person, but tended to make some brilliant discovery out
of it.
“Or it will just fall on their head, effecting said person to obsess and become
paranoid that the apple fell because of this berserk concept called ‘gravity,’”
Isabel suggested in response, making air quotes. She then walked over to the
‘frige and snatched a bag of chips from on top of it.
“So you’re saying that Newton was bit touched in the head?” Alex took a bite of
his sandwich, looking pointedly at Isabel.
“No,” she shook her head, “I’m saying that without little Johnny Appleseed, he
would have never fallen paranoid and discovered gravity.”
“So you’re saying that when the apple fell that his genius came to life by
insanity, rather than the other way around?”
“Yes,” she said, all ready exasperated by their conversation. “Quit pointing out
the obvious, will you?”
“That’s the second time today you’ve ask me to quit something,” he said quite
seriously, evoking a rather nasty look from her. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop all ready,”
he surrendered. “And just what, might I ask, are you doing?” He pulled a face at
what she was putting on her sandwich.
Isabel had taken a bag of plain Lays potato chips from above the refrigerator
and had begun to place some on her bologna sandwich. She then replaced the
top piece of bread, and took a bite. With her mouth full of sandwich, she told
him to shut up.
“You know that’s disgusting, right? They say guys are gross with food, but I
have seen more girls put crazy things on their food, like potato chips on
a bologna sandwich, than guys having a ring of Buffalo wing sauce slobbered
around their mouths and down their shirts.”
“Again,” she said, having swallowed this time, “shut up.”
Alex put his hands up in the air, forfeiting to her power. “Very ladylike, Is. They
are going to praise that majestic quality when you become a
debutante.”
“Yes, and they are going to bow down to me and make alters of me,” she
supplied with the utmost of sarcasm.
Finding that it was a losing battle, he inquired, “Speaking of which, when does
that debutante thing start anyway?”
“Second Monday of September,” she answered. “I have it every Monday night,
after Volleyball practice. Really sucks, because I’m at school from 7:30 until 5:00,
then I have to run home, shower and change, and be at the church the
meetings are held by 7:00, and I’m there for two hours. Then I get to go home,
do homework and go straight to bed.”
“Uh, when do you eat in there?” Alex attempted to do the math.
“I’m not sure, somewhere between running home and being at church.”
“So you eat in the shower then?” He received a slap on the arm from her.
“Anyway, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking about going home and playing FFX.”
Alex rolled his eyes. In any down time that Isabel had from her hectic schedule
and social life, she would either play Final Fantasy or watch her Sailor Moon
DVDs. She’d been playing Final Fantasy since she could hold a game controller.
When she entered high school, she had to cut it out, but now that it was her
senior year, and she knew her homework load would not be quite as
demanding, she gave in and bought Final Fantasy X, and was addicted to the
franchise again.
When it came to television, Isabel and Alex shared a love of anime and
crime/detective shows, and used to watch Toonami on Cartoon Network
together every afternoon and CSI every Thursday, before extracurricular
activities had taken over her life. Alex missed watching their shows with her, but
recorded whatever he could when he had the time.
His social life was nowhere near anything like Isabel’s. Yes, he had friends and
acquaintances, especially since his parents had pushed him to go for Baseball in
high school rather than sticking to little league in the summers, but his schedule
would never quite be as busy as his best friend’s. He knew that he wouldn’t be
able to handle it, and he always admired that Isabel was able to keep so well
adjusted in light of having little to no leisure time.
With Isabel’s and his parents’ encouragement, he had got involved in a few
clubs and became ‘the guy that everyone knows’. He was a very well-liked and
considerate, and the person that everyone just enjoyed being around. He was
invited to parties constantly, though only went to a select few, and what he
thought would be the most awful experience of his life had turned out to not be
quite so bad. It was an odd feeling, coming out of the shell he had made for
himself in junior high, to becoming ‘the all-around guy’. Not only that, but in his
high school Baseball career, he was known as the ‘Prodigal Pitcher;’ a nickname
that had come out of a newspaper article written about him in his sophomore
year. His coaches often fantasized about scouts roving the area and seeing him
play, that he would have his career set by the time he was twenty-two. Add to
the fact that his grades were stellar and he made time to give back to his
community, he was a shoe in.
“Alex? Are you spacing again?” Isabel quizzed, shaking his shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m here. I was just thinking.”
“About what?” she asked.
He didn’t answer right away, but took time to gaze upon her. Her skin was
lightly tanned from spending a summer swimming and doing outside community
service. Her hair was messy, and long, strands ending right above her navel. As
much as she hated it, she still had some baby fat, mainly in her face, but Alex
had always heard that it took women longer to lose it than men.
“Nothing important,” he finally said.
“Okay then, I’ll see you in first hour tomorrow.” She hugged him and kissed his
cheek. “That thing from earlier today, don’t’ worry about it. I won’t tell
anyone.”
As Alex watched her gather her things and leave, and he wondered briefly if he
heard some preoccupation in her voice, like she was contemplating on
something else when she had spoken. Shaking the thought away, he locked his
back gate and headed back inside the house, where he checked the
time.
“Three o’clock,” Alex read, surveying in his mind what exactly he could be doing.
A grin crept on his face and he ran into the living room and set up his
Playstation II. Jumping onto the couch, he played Halo until his parents got
home from work.
That night Isabel tiptoed to her bedroom, having stayed up playing Final
Fantasy longer than she had intended, but was satisfied at her progression in
the game and had finally decided to head to bed. Closing the door gently behind
her, she changed into her pajamas and brushed her hair then settled beneath
her covers.
She had left Alex’s with her head filled with questions and speculations of what
had happened earlier that day, not that she really needed to question it, but
his, er, reaction to her had surprised her, if truth be told. She had even
felt slightly aroused by it, and was grateful that Alex hadn’t paid any attention
to her breasts; otherwise, things may have headed to places she did not want
to imagine going with her best friend.
Whoa, she thought, not wanting to believe that she and Alex would ever
do such a thing. Is he sexually attracted to me? she questioned. I
mean, obviously, it’s not a bad thing, per se, but . . . have – is this the first time
he’s you know . . . ?
Isabel growled in frustration, not really sure what she was attempting to piece
together in her own head. Feeling a migraine on the horizon, she turned over
onto her side and emptied her head of anything difficult, wanting to ease herself
into a deep slumber.
You and me, have seen everything to see,
From Bangkok to Calgary,
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down.
The time for sleep is now.