alex :: all in good time

[MELODY JAQULINE SMITH]

OUTFIT

Melody had been avoiding this paper for way too long. She'd done her other work, been to class, practiced for hours and showered. But even that, along with meals, hadn't taken up her whole day. Melody got into loungey clothes and sat at her desk, her fingers moving along the keys. Every one in a while she got texts from Connor, interspersed with ones from the dean's second phone. Melody sighed. Her affair was getting hard to hide, and he seemed to be getting second thoughts sometimes, even if he wouldn't say it aloud. She knew Connor wasn't thrilled about him either. At least he'd agreed to take her to the dance, even though that left his girlfriend without a date. Not like things were serious with Madison, Connor never seemed to get to serious, and Madison was known for being a partier.

Melody sighed and set her phone back on her desk, turning on her itunes; Kesha singing softly as Melody tried to make intelligent sentences about church history.She bopped her head lightly to the music, murmuring the lyrics to herself when she heard the door to their room open. It was late, not too late, but late. Alex wasn't always back before bed check as it was.

Melody glanced up and saw Alex looked kind of blank, which was odd. "What's up with you?"

[MELODY JAQULINE SMITH]

Ordinarily, after spending an afternoon out doing absolutely anything that could have been stressful, Alex would have spent the evening gorging herself on greasy food and caffeine or otherwise keeping herself busy until after curfew. Following the rules was seriously over rated, and she made it her personal mission to break whatever rules she could on a very regular basis. Today was different, though. She'd expected meeting the family she wanted to babysit for to be a little on the stressful side. After all, she was seeking approval on some level, and that always led to stress. What she hadn't expected was for that meeting to leave her confused in a way she hadn't been for years.
A lot of times, people who are open and comfortable with their homosexuality before they reach adulthood say that they've known for years that something was "different" about them. Alex didn't necessarily know that she was different, but she had been plainly convinced of her attraction to women and of her lack of attraction toward men. She'd been an out lesbian for the last couple of years, and if anyone asked, she could confidently say she'd never really questioned that. Unlike some others, she'd never gone through a period of time where she thought maybe she was just confused or hadn't found the right guy yet. Until now, anyway.
From the moment she'd met him, Alex had understood that Oliver was an attractive man. She was not so wrapped up in her sexuality that she was unable to appreciate physical beauty in the opposite sex. But as the afternoon had progressed, she'd found herself feeling fluttery whenever he touched her, either on purpose or by accident. Her heart had taken on the habit of pounding so hard that she was sure he could hear it. In short, a couple of hours had revealed crush-like symptoms that were centered around a man. As this was an experience Alex had never had, she was both surprised and confused by the revelation, and she'd decided it was probably best to return to school where she could sort things out in private.
Since she spent so much time out of her room, Alex really had no idea what Melody's weekend habits were. She'd half expected the girl to be off with the boyfriend she kept insisting she didn't have. But, as luck would have it, when Alex most needed time to sort through her thoughts alone, Melody was both present and attentive. The moment Alex walked into the room, Melody seemed to sense that something was off, and she wasted no time asking about it. Given the fact that they'd never been particularly close, Alex was well within her rights to refuse to talk about it, but she figured maybe doing so would help her at least figure out what was going on. Closing the door and checking that it was locked, lest they be interrupted by someone who might have diarrhea of the mouth, Alex frowned at her roommate. "I'm gay, right?" she asked. It sounded weird coming out as a question, but it certainly felt right. If she was sure of nothing else, Alex was certainly sure that she was questioning.

____________

Melody had been expecting Alex to tell her nothing, or that she didn't want to talk about it, or to just leave. So far, that was what their relationship was. Melody didn't mind it, but for all that Alex could be a pain, Melody liked her spunk. If they stopped fighting long enough to see they were similar, they would probably be friends. That being said, Melody never expected it to happen, but the moment Alex spoke, Melody knew they were crossing into potential friends territory.

She turned in her chair to face Alex critically and said, "I figured you were, you check out my ass a lot." Melody said with a faint smile. They'd never discussed Alex's being gay, people knew it, people assumed it and Melody had never thought to ask directly--she didn't really care. "And you're cute, so if you were into guys, I would have walked in on you with one by now, because guys can't keep in in their pants." Melody said flatly, but she chuckled and shrugged.

The burning question though was, why? Why did it matter? They were so young anyway, and most people experimented in college or whatever, right? Maybe that was a rumor too. "Why?" Melody asked, but it almost sounded like a demand. Then a though dawned on her and she grinned. "Did you get hot for a guy?" She asked.