In Love With Alex Brightman

chapter thirty two

After we finished eating at Applebee's, we quickly made our way back to the Winter Garden. Kerry led us—along with the conversation—to the dressing room hallway. Leslie eventually caught up and walked with us. I was glad to have another distraction, and one more person to make sure I wasn't alone with Alex again.

Kerry, Leslie, and I strolled side by side as we talked, Alex kind of lingered behind. I expected him to wander off a different direction, but he stayed right on our tail.

"I'll meet up with you guys later?" Leslie asked, opening up her dressing room door as we arrived at hers first.

"Yeah," I nodded, giving her a quick wave, before heading to my own room with Kerry. Alex continued to stay quiet behind us, which bothered me a bit. It was weird to not be on speaking terms with him, especially when I had so many random things to talk about. It was always a problem to stop a conversation between Alex and I. We could talk for hours. And I wasn't as mad at him anymore, I just wanted him to fix his side of the problem.

When I opened my dressing room door and Kerry walked past me to enter, I turned back around to look at Alex, but was immediately met with a slammed door. I flinched at the sudden action, almost jumping from the loud noise. I huffed and followed Kerry into my room.

"Is Alex okay? He's been acting weird ever since I came back from the bathroom at Applebee's. Did something happen?" Kerry asked me, making herself comfortable on my couch. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. "Something did happen, did it?" I glanced at her, and not attempting to speak, I nodded slowly. I felt the corner of my eyes water and my lip slightly quivered.

I quickly looked down at my hands and shook my head. "I'm sorry," I apologized for my sudden mood change.

"Come here, don't apologize," Kerry awed, standing up and engulfing me in an embrace as we met in the middle. "It's okay to cry, Sarah. I'm here to listen."

I nodded in her chest, sniffling slightly, before mumbling, "I hate this." I adjusted to lay my head on Kerry's shoulder, looking towards my window. The bright afternoon sun brought natural light into the room.

"Hate what?" Kerry asked me. She pushed herself back far enough to have a good look at my face.

With a slight hesitation, I scrunch my nose and answered her, ashamedly. "I lied, Kerry. We aren't okay. We were never okay." She looked surprised by my words, blinking confusingly.

"What do you mean?"

I followed Kerry to my couch so we could sit down. Her hands were quick to grab mine before I started talking. "When you came into my room this morning and mentioned Katie to Alex and I, we still never talked about her. We planned on talking about her after rehearsals at his apartment," I explained. Kerry's hand slapped sharply to her forehead as she closed her eyes.

"Oh my god, Sarah. I didn't know. I shouldn't have said that," she scolded herself.

I quickly squeezed our hands to comfort her. "No, it's okay—"

"It's not."

"Kerry, you didn't know, that's all. I should've given you a heads up," I assured her. "This isn't your fault." I could tell she was still upset at herself. Finally, she nodded slightly with a guilty expression plastered on her face.

"So, what's going on now?" She asked me.

I explained to Kerry the argument Alex and I had when she left my dressing room earlier that day. Then, I told her about the text Alex received from Katie, and what we said when I went to his room to return his phone.

She was surprised when I said he was yelling. I had to agree, it caught me off guard too.

"I couldn't be around him, so when I saw him sitting with you guys in the house, I had to sit somewhere else."