Poison Apple

Under Pressure

 After finding out about Emma being Brian's secret girlfriend all along,  Alexi threw herself into her relationship with Jonah. If he wasn't available, she'd busy herself with any new hobby she could think of to keep her thoughts away from how she had been duped. How had she missed the signs? She had just gone through the very same thing with Brian while they were dating. This is what she got for wallowing in her own self-pity for too long.

Every time she had a moment to herself she felt as though they were watching her every move. She knew they didn't have the time in their busy "couple schedule" to even think about her but it didn't stop her from feeling as though she would bump into them constantly on the Island. Her solution to that worst-case scenario was to learn how to skateboard. If she passed them on the grounds now, they'd just be a blur in her surroundings. Not only that, but the wind in her hair and the speed of the board made her feel freer than she had been in a while.

Although, once the initial adrenaline wore off, she was back to thinking about Brian, Emma and how she had been in a love triangle and had no idea when or how it had all started. She never thought that she would feel anything for anyone (let alone Brian) after getting involved with too-perfect-to-be-true Jonah, but here she was moping around the island on a skateboard, mooning over the man she lost her virginity to. Who, let's face it, was a boy when it happened.

Had he told Emma what the reason was for his sudden break up with Alexi? Or was he trying to hide the fact that their relationship had even happened? She just couldn't believe that he had chosen Emma so soon after coming back to the island for good. Was this a ploy to make Alexi jealous? Did he want her to beg for him? It wasn't going to happen. She had Jonah now and she was pretty sure that he loved her...

The only problem with that was how much space Brian was taking up in her brain. Their unity never had any closure. She wondered if she'd always feel like there was a Brian sized hole in her heart. She knew that she had taken advantage of him, fought with him and even gave him a hard time once in a while but that didn't warrant a break up between them. He had had a long fuse when it came to her because no matter how bitchy she could get, he was so used to it by Kate's way of living that it didn't make him bat an eye.

She had been willing to apologize for all of that, he had never given her the chance to. Now she, and everyone else on the island knew why that was. Had Emma pounced on him the moment he got off the boat? Or did they wait until the next day? Thinking back to when Brian got back to the island, she recalled a conversation she had with Kate about how she was forcing her brother and Emma to paint the cottages before they all moved in. Alexi had already begun the early stages of depression and was ignoring Kate. She hadn't thought it had been such a threat at the time. She never thought it could be a threat at all if she was being honest.

Brian was just so secretive and mysterious. Keeping to himself and not letting anyone close to him. Emma was bubbly, friendly and loved being out in the open. She wasn't the type of girl to keep a boyfriend, let alone anything going on in her life, a secret from her best friend. Madison was from LA, the capital of gossip. Surely, if she had told Madison, the whole park would've known...there were so many facts and assumptions swimming through her mind that she wasn't sure what was real and what was a fabrication.

She was too blinded by the fact that her ex-boyfriend was now dating her ex-best friend. Of course, she hadn't told either one of them about each other. They probably both knew the truth by then, anyway. Brian wasn't her first secret relationship, Emma was. Alexi and Emma had always been best friends, since the first day they had met. For the same reasons she and Brian had kept their relationship status a secret, she did the same for Emma. Emma was forbidden territory according to Kate's social class agenda. Alexi would see Emma whenever Kate got bored of her and dismissed her from sight.

Their friendship was one of those Aurelia Island secrets that not even Richard knew the truth to and he was like Santa Claus when it came to his Island. He knew when you'd been naughty and when you'd been nice. It was as though he had eyes and ears everywhere. It was, she was sure, how he always knew when Kate was up to something. She really wondered why her other former best friend hadn't given up breaking her Father's rules already. It all seemed like such a waste of time to Alexi.

It was Kate, of course, that had ended up ruining their secret without even knowing that there was one. When her Mother walked out and she started treating Alexi poorly, Emma had told her that that was when she should walk away and forget about Kate once and for all. Everything just happened so quickly and before Alexi knew it, she was moving into the Foster manor to help her oldest friend through a tough time and Emma was moving on without Alexi. She hadn't looked back once, either. Although, they were still civil towards one another as though nothing ever happened.

Alexi wasn't sure how to deal with Emma now that she knew the truth about her being with Brian. Instead, she decided to avoid the situation altogether. Since the surprise party, Alexi checked in early to work and changed in her break room. She spent as little time as possible with the other girls, showing face time with Kate only. She just didn't want to deal with any awkward moments that might arise.

Thinking she'd had enough thinking that day, Alexi made a spontaneous decision to head to the manor and see if she could get out of Richard where Jonah worked in the park. Then she'd surprise her boyfriend and get him to ditch work early as he had gotten her to do on the very first day they met. They would recreate the date they had that night. It was still early enough to do two round trips on the ship with plenty of time to sleep off their drunken states before work the next morning.

With a firm destination in mind, Alexi's board sped faster and faster through Aurelia Island's main road, into the park with the Snow White fountain and straight towards the Foster's front gate. As soon as they were reachable, Alexi grabbed hold of one of the bars on the cast iron fence. As she almost crashed head first into the rest of the bars, she silently cursed herself for not learning how to break when she was at high speed.

She jumped off her brand new skateboard that she had a picture of Sleeping Beauty placed on the bottom of. After bringing it home, Alexi defaced the picture to make her look demonic. It was supposed to bring a little anarchy into her little world. Instead, it just made her feel like a teenager defying her parents. Not exactly what she was going for. She was determined to learn tricks so she could eventually scratch the picture off from the wear and tear of abusing the board.

Feeling a tad bit self-conscience, Alexi looked around her to make sure no one had seen her crash and burn into her boss' gate. Realizing she was being silly, she pushed open the gate and walked up the iconic front path she knew so well. Just as she closed the gate behind her, a flash of a familiar brown, tweed jacket caught her eye from the back gate. Jonah. He was already at the manor. She wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of bothering Richard, after all. She was glad for that. She wasn't exactly sure Richard would've told her. He was a nice man and usually complied with Alexi's requests but this was a matter of privacy.

Even though she spent practically every day with Jonah, their relationship wasn't that serious. They both knew that they could walk away at any moment. He didn't know that she had dated the owner's son and she hadn't found out what part of the park he worked in. Jonah actually seemed kind of secretive about his park position. Whenever she brought up work, he steered clear of the conversation by telling her that they didn't get to spend much time together and they shouldn't spend it speaking about work. She always let it go because she knew he was right.

Keeping their flimsy relationship terms in mind, Alexi allowed him to get ahead of her so she could pretend to bump into him and not look like a stalker. She wondered when her life became a slew of secrets. It wasn't that she wanted the whole world to know about her life but it also didn't mean that she should be sneaking around all the time, either. She wished she could just scream out Jonah's name and let him know that she was right behind him. So close, yet so out of reach.

Feeling more at home at the manor than she did at her Mother's condo on the other side of the park, Alexi ditched her skateboard by the back door and strolled right into the house. She waved hello to the chef as she walked through the kitchen, stealing a freshly baked brownie from the counter. The chef just nodded and smiled widely. Alexi had always been the golden child amongst the staff. She was pretty sure it was because she was the only one who tolerated and could handle everything Kate had to offer.

Due to her sweet tooth, Jonah had disappeared out of sight. There was only one place he could go, Richard's office. She headed straight there while taking tiny bites of the brownie. She knew it would be part of the No-no food group Kate had placed "non-discreetly" inside the rulebook each girl received on their first day. Alexi was doing just fine in the weight department and decided to ignore the diet completely. She'd never had any problem gaining weight before, she wasn't about to start watching what she ate now.

When she came to Richard's office door, it was slightly ajar. Not wanting to eavesdrop, she sat down on one of the big, plush, crushed velvet chairs in the seating area right outside. The waiting room was barely used but Meredith still exchanged the old magazines for new magazines every month. It was the only place in all of Aurelia Island where gossip magazines were found. Kate overlooked them because she never cared to look in the waiting room of her Father's office wing, she always just stormed into the room. No matter what her Father was in the middle of. Alexi liked to believe that Richard had the magazines brought to the waiting area so he could nonchalantly read up on his family's public life.

Aurelia Island in hot water? The headline screamed from the cover of the magazine on top of the fanned out pile. She had assumed that word about the bankruptcy would eventually be aired in the press, but it didn't seem real until that moment. There was a picture of the castle Emma and Tom worked in and around every day but there were bars superimposed into every window of the beautiful building.

She suddenly didn't feel like hanging out with Jonah. She didn't want to see anybody. She just wanted to go back to bed and sleep until the bankruptcy situation was done and over with. She searched through the rest of the magazines, grabbing everything that mentioned Aurelia Island in them and stuffing them under her arm before stalking out of the manor. She certainly hoped that Richard had finished reading them this month.