.three.
*recap of previous chapter*
It was some time into the night when VD told her he needed to go because he was going to get ready for his shift at the university. Alex had finished her slice of cake and was tempted to go have another. With her strict sports diet, she wasn't allowed to have many sweets and this was the perfect excuse to eat as much as she wanted.
She sat up on the bed just as she heard a knock on the bedroom door. Alex straightened out her dress and walked over to the door, pulling it open. She almost immediately wanted to close it again when she saw who was on the other side.
"Your brother said you were here." Servando told her a bit nervously. "How are you doing? You look great." He added after she remained silent for over an awkward minute.
Alex didn't know what to say to him. All of her feelings came flooding back, along with all the memories of their long relationship which was now over. Though this time they were no longer as intensified or even painful. Seeing him again was like a bucket of cold water falling on her head, soaking her from head to toe. Alex had been happy with Servando, and she had loved him, but there was something different now.
Though it was probable it would go nowhere, she had someone new in her life.
-
Alex suddenly felt sick to her stomach, seeing Servando there, trying to make casual conversation with her like he hadn't been the one to end their relationship. She had been the only one trying, and now he wanted to show up and pretend they were the best of friends? That wasn't something Alex thought she would be able to assimilate for the time being.
Taking a deep breath to steady her fast racing emotions, she asked him, "Why are you here, Servando?"
He looked to her with a puzzled expression on his face, as though her question had taken him by surprise. "What do you mean what am I doing here?" He wondered. "Its your brother's birthday party. He and I are childhood friends. Why wouldn't I come?"
To spare my feelings, she thought, but she would never say it aloud because she didn't want him to know that it still hurt.
He had broken up with her when she was still madly in love with him ever since they were children, of course it still hurt Alex. But her pride would never let her admit it. Servando seemed to be completely unaffected by their break up while she was trying to put herself back together brick by brick. Her conversations with Van Daniel were what made her healing process speed up of the late. He always had the most interesting things to talk about and she liked the fact that he was so hard working.
"And I wanted to see you too." He admitted to her after a moment. "I wanted to see how you were holding up."
She nodded, biting back her tears. "I'm doing just fine."
"That's good." He said awkwardly and left her alone once again. Alex shut the door behind him and knew that for the remainder of her brother's birthday party, she would not be leaving the safety of that bedroom. Not as long as Servando was there, acting totally normal while she was still hurting.
-
By the third week since the two had met, they had moved on to texting rather than sending each other messages on instagram. Alex thought about telling her friend the truth several times, but every time she tried she ended up cowering out of it. How could she tell him that she wasn't the one he was looking at in his instagram pictures? Alex had been using her younger brother Ander's photographs to pose as a man on that social media account, so that other male football fans would take her seriously. According to her account, her name was Alex Smith and she played for Portland Timbers' second division team of the MLS.
