Glee: To the Next Level (the second book in the Glee series)

Chapter 45: One End and Two Beginnings

"What do you want?" Amity asked as she walked into the auditorium the next day, having been asked to meet up with Alex before school.

"Whoa, what's with the hostility?" he asked jokingly. She rolled her eyes so he said, "I see you're back to your old clothes." She had only kept the hair, minus Sugar's sparkly headband.

"I feel more me like this," she shrugged. "Is that what you called me here for? To criticize my outfit?"

"First of all," he said. "I wasn't criticizing, I was complimenting. Secondly, I thought we should talk about your birthday."

"Great," said Amity. "Because I've been thinking about it a lot and I don't think I chose the right song to express how I felt."

He sighed, sitting back as the music began. 

["The Moment I Knew" by Taylor Swift.]

Amity: You should've been there. Should've burst through the door, with that 'baby I'm right here' smile. And it would've felt like a million little shining stars had just aligned. And I would've been so happy.

She continued to sing the song, trying hard to keep a straight face and not cry in front of him, not give him that satisfaction as Bree had warned. But it was hard, especially when she reached the end.

Amity: You called me later, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't make it." And I said, "I'm sorry too." And that was the moment I knew...

Amity was surprised when, at the end of her song, Alex smiled.

"You're cute," he said. 

"What?" she responded, sick to her stomach. "Oh my gosh, they were all right about you."

"They?" he asked. "You know what, it doesn't even matter. I have a perfectly good reason for why I didn't show up to your party. Now, you can either listen to what everyone else is saying. Or... You can hear me out."

***

"We need to talk," said Kitty as she approached John at lunch. He was sitting with some of his old friends, none of whose names Kitty had ever bothered to learn, and looked up at her with about twenty questions in his expression.

The one he actually asked was, "Right now? I'm kind of busy."

"It's important," she said, crossing her arms. The other guys looked away, obviously with not-so-nice opinions about their friend's girlfriend, as John sighed and stood.

"See you guys later," he told them. 

"Yeah, maybe at graduation or my wedding," one of them muttered as they walked away.

"That one is such a jerk," Kitty hissed when they were alone. 

"That one?" John repeated. "He has a name. It's Milton."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said Kitty. "Ok. So you've had some time to think about it, right?"

"Think about what?" he asked.

"What we talked about at the party," she reminded him.

"I didn't know there was more to discuss," he said. "We broke up and that's that."

"We didn't break up," Kitty said, crossing her arms. "We are taking a break to see if we are going to break up."

"No..." John told her. "Kitty, it was a definite, concrete break up."

"So that's it then?" she asked him. "You're giving up?"

"I'm just trying to be realistic," he said. "All we do is fight these days and we both know we aren't headed in the same direction and--"