A/N: Picture to the side by littleivy_

*****

Tyson POV

Why had I come here again?

It was Monday evening and right after work I’d gone to the train station to say goodbye to Devon.

Again: why?

Even though I now though he was a cool guy, we still weren’t friends. So how come when Alex asked me today at school to join her in sending Devon off I’d agreed?

Perhaps I was curious as to why she wanted me to tag along.

“Or maybe you just wanted to spend more time with her,” a little voice in my head suggested.

I sighed.

Yeah, that could also be the reason why I was here.

“So, Tyson…” Devon smiled alluringly at me. “Do I get a kiss goodbye?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Maybe next time,” I responded sarcastically.

“Are you sure? Because…” He took a step closer to me and whispered huskily: “Anytime you want to try something new, you just give me a call!” He winked before stepping back. “And you little menace,” he hugged Alex, making her smile, “don’t forget to call! And if you happen to take pictures of our boy here with less clothing on, please do share!”

“I’m not in the habit of posing for pictures, Devon,” I responded instead of the girl.

“Who said anything about you posing? She could always sneak up on you under the shower.” He licked his lips and smirked. “Oh, man, what I wouldn’t give to see you under the shower.”

“He does look good all wet,” Alex intervened, grinning wickedly, no doubt referring to the time we were handcuffed to each other and fell into Joey’s pool. She gazed towards the large clock that was on the station wall and her smile disappeared. “You should probably get on the train, Dev; it’s going to leave any minute now.”

“Yeah, I should.” The guy gave her one more hug before approaching the machine. “On second thought…”

He turned one-eighty and rushed to me. Before I realized what was going on he placed his lips over mine, his beard grazing my skin, his hands gripping my face so I couldn’t move away. Only a moment later he let go of me, leaving me to gape dumbly at him while some of the nearby people wolf-whistled at us while others shook their heads disapprovingly.

“It would’ve been a shame to leave without a kiss goodbye,” he stated and without another word he got on his train.

I turned to Alex too stunned to actually say something, my situation seeming surreal. I vaguely registered her telling the guy to say hi to his sister for her as I touched my lips gingerly. Devon had just kissed me… I just got kissed by a guy!

The girl looked at me with an amused expression.

“He kissed me!” I managed to finally utter.

“Yeah, I saw. So?”

“And you don’t mind?”

“What? Seeing one hot guy kiss another?” The brunette smirked. “I’ll be having such good dreams tonight!”

She actually fantasized about seeing me with another guy?

I shook my head.

Will I ever accept her sexuality? What if we were to get together and she wanted a threesome or something? I was an old fashioned guy: when people were together it should be just the two of them.

“Oh, come on, Ty! I was just kidding.” I raised an eyebrow at her “Well, mostly just kidding,” she admitted sheepishly. “Want to go get something to eat?”

“Yeah… Sure,” I agreed just as Devon’s train departed and another one arrived.

*****

We’d spent quite a pleasant evening, eating at the same restaurant we’d ordered from last Friday. I was getting really good with the chopsticks: I’d dropped my food only twice tonight and I considered that an achievement. If Devon was here, he’d probably make a joke that I deserved a treat for learning so quickly; the treat being a kiss from him of course. And speaking of Devon…

Once I got over the initial shock of a guy resting his lips on mine, I’d realized I’d made too big of a deal out of it. So what that he was a male? He knew I didn’t swing that way so he wasn’t serious about it and was just jesting. I knew I didn’t like guys and one kiss wouldn’t change that; it meant nothing to me. Once I’d came to that conclusion, I felt much better and Alex and I started joking around and talking about all sorts of things including Angel and Bella. Apparently it wasn’t working out between them and even though they both had had a good time, there would be no second date.

“Angel said she was a nice girl but she talked a bit too much.” I grimaced. “That has got to be the understatement of the year if you ask me. Does that girl ever shut up?”

“Nope; her speech is one endless sentence,” Alex replied, zipping up her light jacket as we had just walked out of the Chinese restaurant which happened to be a short distance from her apartment.

“Exactly what I though!” I exclaimed, nodding my head. “And then there’s the ‘like’.”

“Oh, God, her every third word is ‘like’; it drives me insane!” The brunette laughed. “But Angel got one thing right though: Bells is a nice girl… As long as you stuff something in her mouth,” she added as an afterthought.

“I was tempted to stuff one of the cups in there.”

“Hey, those cups are awesome; don’t risk breaking them!”

“You’ve been to that place?”

“Yeah. I heard it’s got interesting décor but… Don’t you think it’s too stuffy? I mean, the furniture is nice but if you place it in a mansion, not a small café.”

“Again, exactly what I thought!” I remarked and we smiled at each other.

“Well, I guess we are not that different,” she noted.

We had slowly walked to her apartment and it was time for her to go up. I didn’t want that though; I wanted to have Alex for myself at least a bit longer.

“So how come Bella doesn’t like Angel?” I questioned, so that the girl wouldn’t leave.

The brunette giggled.

“She said he was a nice guy but he was way too quiet.”

I laughed as well.

“So…” She bit her lip and looked up at me through her eyelashes.

God, she had such beautiful eyes!

“So,” I repeated still stalling.

She took a deep breath and shot out:

“When Devon was here and before you found out he’s gay, were you jealous?”

This was it. I knew this was the moment when my answer would decide the faith of our relationship. If I said no now, I’d probably never tell Alex how much I liked and wanted her and then I’d lose her for good.

But what if I said yes?

If I did that and she turned me down, that would be the end of our friendship.

But if I did that and she didn’t turn me down, then what?

Would we get together?

Would we stay together?

Would we be happy?

For how long?

I didn’t know the answers to any of those questions but I knew that I had to give it a shot, I just had to, or I’d regret it for the rest of my life.

“Yes, I was jealous,” I admitted reluctantly, doubting it was the right thing to do.

“Good!” She grinned at me, lifting herself on her fingertips and tried to kiss me.

“Wow! Alex, no!”

“No?” She gave me a quizzical look. “But you said that you were jealous. Don’t you want me?”

“Yeah, I do, but…” I sighed. How was I going to explain this to her? How was I to tell her that the very thought of getting close to anyone terrified me? That yes, I was that badly messed up and yet I wanted her even though I was scared that she’d hurt me like no other could?

“I don’t want a one night stand. I don’t want the occasional hook up. What I want is… Alex, I want something more. I want to know that you are going to be with me and just with me, that you’re not going to go pick up another stripper or… or meet someone in a bar and take them home or…”

“So you want to be excusive? To date?”

Oh-oh! Date? That sounded… engaging. And in a very frightening way.

What was wrong with me? I wanted her to commit more than anything but I was afraid to do the same?

“Can’t we just be exclusive without the dating part?” I asked hopefully.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know… Give it a trial period or something…”

Man, did I feel stupid! And her laughing at me as she heard my words did not help either.

“So what do you want, Ty? Make out now, see how things are going?”

“I just don’t want to put a label on it. It sounds too…” Restraining, votive, dooming… “Umm, too formal?”

“So you want to keep it casual but be exclusive?” She looked confused as she asked me.

“Not exactly but yeah?”

“Boy, don’t you sound sure of yourself!” She sneered.

“I’m not good with dating, okay? I’m not good with anything that has to do with feelings and long-term relationships.”

She sighed.

“I guess we could postpone labeling it,” she agreed with a smirk, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I might need some more convincing though.”

I smiled, looking in her eyes. I couldn’t believe this was happening! Here we finally were, just the two of us, her hands around my neck, mine wrapped around her small waist.

“Well, then I guess I should get to work on that,” I said before we kissed.

It wasn’t how I’d imagined it. In my dreams and the fantasies I’d had about her, Alex would always tease me. There would be this animalistic passion between us, a sense that we just had to take all of one another. But now her lips moved softly on top of mine. I hugged her tighter, enjoying how comfortable and secure I felt around her; how all my worries about us were slowly melting away… Perhaps commitment wasn’t such a bad thing after all…

Someone cleared their throat nearby but we paid no attention to them and didn’t stop. In fact, as Alex heard the noise she groaned and pulled me closer. I inwardly smiled: she didn’t want this to stop, she just wanted me.

“That’s my girl you’re kissing,” a strongly accented male voice stated calmly.

“What the hell is he talking about?” I thought annoyed at the interruption, sure that there was some mistake. But then I realized Alex had frozen in her spot. She was no longer responding to my kiss, her arms fell to her sides and as she moved away from me I noticed fear and confusion in her brown eyes.

I turned around, wondering who the tall, blond foreign guy was. He looked at us with a bored expression to his pale green eyes, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his designer blue jeans.

“Hello, Alexandra,” he greeted the girl in front of me with the same lazy tone he’d used before.

“Stefan?”

*****

A/N: So the ex-boyfriend came for a visit and he seems to think he still has a claim on our Alex. Now won’t she just love that!