Xander eventually headed to his room and closed the door before plunking down on his bed and folded himself up. "You're seriously setting a record for yourself for longest sulk."
Alec sniffed in annoyance as he tried to coil the braided rope around the circle and sew it. It was an awkward process. "Not you, too."
“I just think you’re going too far with this,” Xander said, sitting cross-legged on his bed.
“Says the absolute king of sulking and pitching fits,” Alec said, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, come on, my things were never like this,” Xander complained. “You literally picked a fight with Ba over something you know he’s sore about, and it's not even a bad thing or unreasonable. It’s not that hard to maintain decent grades and have a life. I proved that.”
“I think that maybe you should mind your own fights and let me have mine,” Alec stated. “It might be a stupid fight, but it’s mine. Not yours. Besides, it’s not just grades.”
Xander huffed and shifted his position. “I just don’t get what you’re hoping to accomplish with this. What’s the end goal?”
“My end goal is to prove that I know what I’m doing and I’m not just squandering my opportunities,” Alec stated, stabbing his needle hard into the fabric.
“By squandering your opportunities by not turning in any work?” Xander asked blandly.
“By showing him how it could be instead of what it is,” Alec said. He tied off his thread and cut his needle loose before storing it away safely. “He doesn’t trust me to know what I’m doing even after telling me not to worry, I’ve got it. He wants me to trust myself and the process, but when I do, he gets upset with me for not doing what he wants me to do, which is not what I want to do, which is what he told me to do. I’ve been doing all my work, and I’ll turn it in at the end of this week. Next week, we go back to business as usual. I’m still learning all the stuff, I’m not losing out.”
Xander scrunched up his face as he tried to follow that logic. “Alright,” he said at last. “That makes no sense to me, none whatsoever, but if that’s what you want to do, I guess I can’t stop you. I just wish you’d make up with Ba. He’s beating himself over this.”
“Ba beats himself up no matter what I do or say, anyway, even when I’m trying to get along, so we lose in both directions,” Alec said flatly. “I just want him, this one time, to let me win this. To see I do have a plan. I never have a plan. I have one this time, and I want him to let me have it.”
Xander grunted. He doubted it would be this one time. Alec had gotten a bug in his head, and he wasn’t letting go, so Xander would just let this madness run its course and hope they all made it out on the other side.
Alec’s phone chimed, but it wasn’t near Alec. Alec looked around, puzzled, and peered under a few items. It chimed again, and this time he could pinpoint the sound as coming from the pile of torn fabric strips creeping steadily toward Xander’s bed. “That’s probably Becky. She said she’d text me the details of the next school play. I wanted to see if I could help out with the makeup. Could you grab that for me?”
“Dude. This is getting out of hand,” Xander growled, un-curling and standing up so he could dig under the fabric and reach the phone.
“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad. Just kick it more toward my side and you’ll be fine,” Alec assured him, focused on trying to thread in some new strips to his braid.
“I’m expecting some kind of science project to be growing under your bed,” Xander said. He located the phone and swiped the screen open. The text was from Becky, but the text app was already open to Alec’s last contact. Xander did not mean to read the text. He meant to open Becky’s text to Alec, read it to him, and then toss him the phone, something he’d done many times before. Automatically, his eyes skimmed the words presented before him, and he read a text not meant for him. He froze, his thumb hovering over the back button to take him to the right text thread. He re-read the text.
I know it’s not traditional, but I want to take you out on a date this time! My turn, my treat. How does Tuesday or Wednesday sound? There’s a nice little Mexican place that has live music sometimes at any time of the week. We might get lucky.
Date? This time? Turns? Who was talking about dates? Xander glanced at the name. Emma. Without thinking, lost in his confusion, he scrolled up, scanning a few other texts. This wasn’t an isolated incident. The conversations were familiar, almost intimate at time, flirty, awkward… everything you’d expect to find between teen partners exploring their first relationship. There were also an insane amount of emojis. Xander stopped at one from Alec to Emma.
I like holding your hand. I like hugging you as more than just a friend. I’d even like to maybe kiss you, but doing it in public is scary. I don’t know why.
Emma had responded: So, it’s not just because you haven’t told your brother?
No, it’s not that. I do mean to tell him, I just know he’ll be mad so I’m bracing myself. I don’t like doing it in public because I’m shy.
That’s so cute! Don’t worry. I understand. My mother would never let me out of the house if I ran around making out with-
“Hello? Was that Becky? What are you doing?” Alec asked, jolting Xander out of his shocked reading.
Xander looked up from the phone, holding it like it was about to catch fire.
Alec glanced from Xander to the phone and back. The penny dropped. His eyes widened, his face paling. “What are you reading?” he asked quietly.
Xander turned the phone to face Alec. “You’ve been dating a girl. Emma. You’ve been going out with her. It wasn’t drama club meetings or school friends. It was a girl.”
Alec dropped his rug and held out his hand for the phone. “What are you doing reading my private texts?”
Xander threw the phone to Alec’s bed. “Because you asked me to, you idiot! You left your phone open to the one with Emma!”
“That’s still no excuse,” Alec gasped, scrambling for his phone.
“When were you going to tell me?” Xander demanded furiously, raising his voice slightly. “When were you going to tell me about you and Emma?”
“Soon,” Alec promised, not quite looking at Xander. “I knew you’d react like this, so I didn’t want to!”
“I’m acting like this because you’ve been lying to me!” Xander shouted.
“I didn’t tell you because you’d get mad at me!” Alec yelled back, shoving things out of his way so he could stand.
“Yeah? You’re sure? You didn’t give me a chance to prove otherwise, did you?” Xander shot back. “You should have just told me!”
Alec scoffed. “What, like how you tell the truth about why you won’t do Judo tournaments?"
“That’s different and you know it!”
“Is it? It’s still lying! I’ve seen what you’re like after just regular class! You can’t stand the touching! You do it because you need the anger outlet, but then you come home and scrub until you’re red! And you’re worse after tournaments! But you don’t tell anyone! How’s that any different? My secret’s not hurting anyone, but yours is hurting you!”
“That’s not the same at all! I’m dealing with it! I’m learning! I’m building tolerance! Yours is just a straight-up pointless lie!” Xander accused. “I’m not scared of telling people, I just think it’s not their business!”
“And maybe who I date isn’t your business! But that’s not why you do it!” Alec jabbed a finger at Xander. “You don’t tell because you’re afraid that Mama and Ba will make you stop because it’s hurting you! I don’t say anything because, guess what, I think that just maybe you know what you’re doing!”
Xander snorted scoffingly. “Really? That’s why you don’t say anything? And you really think those two scenarios are even remotely related? No. You’re just trying to get the attention off of yourself and the fact that you lied to me! Me! It’s one thing to avoid telling me and even hide it, but to outright lie?”
“Well, what else was I supposed to do?” Alec demanded.
“Oh, gee, I don’t know,” Xander said sarcastically, “maybe think of someone other than yourself for five seconds?”
“What are you talking about, all I was doing was thinking about you and how upset you’d feel!” Alec protested. “How betrayed you’d feel!”
“As betrayed as being lied to?” Xander demanded. He shook his head. “No, stop making excuses for yourself. You didn’t tell me because you didn’t want to feel bad. That’s not a big deal! Not nearly as big as lying to me.” He turned to pace, and his foot caught on the fabric pieces, making him stumble. He swore and kicked the pile, sending part of it flying. “You’re just plain selfish!”
“Stop that!” Alec yelped, rushing to try to save the flying bits of fabric. “I had that partially sorted!”
“Why should I care? You clearly don’t care about me!” Xander shouted, kicking group of broken mobiles and sending them in a tangled tumble toward Alec’s bed.
“Stop!” Alec shrieked, diving to grab them. “This is my stuff! Mine! Leave it alone!” He half crouched over it, trying pointlessly to shield it. “This isn’t for you!”
Xander aimed a kick at a pile of folded shirts. “This is my space that you refuse to stay out of! I have asked and asked and asked you to keep your trash on your side!”
“It’s not trash!”
“But you won’t! Because your trash is worth more to you than the feelings of others! Your feelings are all that matter! How you feel, how other people react to you, it’s all about you! I can’t breathe in this room! I can’t think! This is supposed to be our room, but I’m just a footnote!”
“Leave it alone!” Alec demanded, nearly sobbing. “Leave me alone! Get out! Stop it!”
“Fine!” Xander snarled. He grabbed his coat and kicked an old pillow out of his way as he stalked toward the bedroom. “You sit here by yourself with your stuff and your girlfriend and your lies and you have fun being all about you!” He shoved the bedroom door open and stormed out, heading downstairs.
Alec half fell onto the floor, gripping random items in his hands, sobbing.
