Chapter 18 Caught in the act
Cecilia
My soul genuinely left my body the moment Alex stepped out behind the café and caught me standing there like a complete psychopath.
For one horrible second, all I could do was stare at him. Because there was absolutely no excuse for this. Not a single one. How was I going to tell him that I had followed him because…ughhhh
I groaned.
Alex folded his arms slowly across his chest while looking at me with narrowed eyes. “Have you been stalking me?”
Heat rushed violently to my face. “No.”
The answer came way too quickly and I knew that he already knew that it was a lie.
He narrowed his eyes at me. Great start, Cecilia.
“I mean…” I laughed nervously, which somehow made everything worse. “Not in a creepy way.”
“There’s a non-creepy version?”
“I can explain.”
“Please do.” he crossed his arms.
I let out a deep sigh. I couldn’t exactly tell him the truth. I opened my mouth, closed it and then opened it again.
“It’s not what it looks like.” I said finally.
Alex stared at me blankly. “You’re standing behind my workplace after secretly following me for over a week.”
When he phrased it like that, it sounded deeply concerning.
“I wasn’t secretly following you,” I argued weakly.
He looked genuinely offended by my intelligence. “Cecilia.”
“Okay maybe a little.”
“A little?” he raised an eyebrow.
I groaned quietly and covered my face with both hands. “This sounds bad.”
“Because it is bad.”
I peeked at him through my fingers. “I can explain.”
“You already said that.”
“And I meant it this time.”
Alex leaned against the brick wall beside the back door, his eyes not leaving mine.
The evening breeze shifted his dark hair slightly while warm light from inside the cafe glowed from behind him. He really looked attractive. I really would love to see him when he was working.
Wait, where the fuck did that thought come from?
“What exactly are you doing here?” he asked finally.
My brain scrambled desperately for something believable. Unfortunately, nothing believable existed.
“I was just…” I gestured vaguely around the alley like answers would magically appear there. “Walking?”
“In an alley behind my workplace?”
“Exercise?”
“This late in the afternoon while still in your uniform?”
I sighed dramatically. “Why are you interrogating me like this?”
“Because you’re acting insane.”
Fair.
Alex straightened slightly. “Have you seriously been following me?”
I looked away immediately. Silence was all the answer he needed.
He clenched his jaw. “Why?”
I closed my eyes tightly. The truth was that I didn’t even know anymore. At first, I had followed him because of the video. But somewhere between the first day and now, things changed. I became curious, then weirdly obsessed with figuring him out.
And now here I was standing behind his workplace while he looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Which honestly? Maybe I had.
“I don’t know,” I admitted quietly.
Alex scoffed softly in disbelief. “You don’t know?”
“I know how it sounds.”
“How exactly does it sound to you?”
I fidgeted with my skirt. “Bad.”
“Insane,” he corrected.
I rubbed my forehead tiredly. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What wasn’t?”
“This.” I gestured wildly between us. “Any of this. You weren’t supposed to see me.”
Alex stared at me for a long while and then he muttered something under his breath before looking at me again. His voice becoming low when he spoke again. “Why were you really following me?”
I hesitated and then the words slipped out before I could stop them. “I didn’t know.”
He frowned slightly. “Know what?”
“That you…” I swallowed awkwardly. “Worked here because you needed to.”
Suddenly, he looked furious. I had never seen such a look in his face. “Oh.”
My stomach dropped. “That’s not what I meant…”
“You thought this was funny?”
“No!”
He laughed bitterly and pushed himself away from the wall. “So what? You followed me here to mock me?”
“What? No!”
“To rub it in my face?”
I stared at him in horror. “No, Alex.”
“Or maybe record a video?” he continued coldly. “The whole school enjoy that one. Poor Alex Gomez working a dead end job after school to make ends meet.”
The accusation felt like a jab and I tightened my finger. “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No!” I stepped closer desperately. “I swear that’s not why I followed you.”
“Then why?” he snapped.
“I already told you!”
“You said you didn’t know.”
“Because I don’t anymore!” I was frustrated, wondering why this conversation was going so wrong.
Why did I suddenly care so much that he misunderstood me?
“I followed you the first day because I wanted to delete the video from your phone,” I admitted finally.
Alex blinked slowly and then he threw his head back and laughed. “That’s your excuse?”
“It’s not an excuse.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s true!”
“Cecilia,” he scoffed. “You vandalized my car because you didn’t get your way.”
I turned my gaze away. “I know.”
“You’ve spent years treating me like competition.”
“That’s not…”
“And now suddenly you’re secretly following me around?” He shook his head. “Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.”
He was right. We had spent years tearing each other apart, competing, fighting and mocking each other. That was who we were. Or at least who we were supposed to be.
So why did his disappointment suddenly feel unbearable?
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” I said quietly.
Alex looked away before speaking again. “You already did.”
My chest tightened painfully and for a moment, neither of us spoke. Cars moved faintly in the distance while muffled café music drifted through the back door.
Then I forced myself to ask the question that i had always wanted to ask. “Why were you nice to me?”
His eyes snapped back to mine immediately. “What?”
“At the party.” My voice came out smaller than I intended. “And after the fight. And when you took me home.”
Something flickered across his expression. It seemed like both confusion and annoyance. “You seriously think everything has ulterior motives, don’t you?”
I frowned slightly. “What?”
“You keep acting like basic human decency is some conspiracy.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
I struggled for the right words. “I just…” I looked away. “I didn’t understand why you suddenly cared.”
His expression hardened instantly. “This isn’t about you, Cecilia.”
“I never said it was.”
“You did though.” He gestured toward me frustratedly. “Everything always circles back to you somehow.”
I flinched.
Alex ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe I was just being nice,” he muttered. “Did you ever think about that?”
I stayed quiet.
“Learn that sometimes people are just decent human beings.” His voice turned colder. “And stop making everything about yourself.”
Ouch.
The sting behind my eyes started instantly.
I hated crying. I hated feeling weak and especially in front of him.
So I crossed my arms tightly and forced my expression to remain blank. “Fine.”
“Just… stop following me, okay?”
Something painful twisted in my chest. “I wasn’t trying to…”
“I mean it.” His tone softened slightly but somehow hurt worse because of it. “Don’t bother me anymore.”
Then he turned around and walked back inside the cafe, leaving me standing alone in the alley. How the hell did I manage to ruin every single thing I come in contact with?
With my parents, with Justin and now somehow with Alex too.
I wiped angrily at my eyes before getting into my car quickly. The drive home blurred together. Alex’s words replayed endlessly inside my head.
By the time I pulled into the driveway of my house, my chest hurt from trying not to cry.
I walked through the front doors of the huge mansion slowly. No voices greeted me, no sound, no smell of food from the kitchen.
Nothing.
Of course my parents weren’t home. Dad was probably buried in another work crisis. Mom was likely at some event or meeting pretending everything in our lives was perfect. And Gertrude must’ve taken the evening off to visit her sister. She mentioned that earlier.
So the entire house sat empty.
Usually I didn’t mind the silence. But tonight, it felt unbearable.
I dropped my bag near the staircase and stood there for a second, trying to breathe normally. But the second I looked around the giant living room, something inside me broke. Because suddenly the house didn’t feel luxurious anymore. It just felt lonely and big and quiet.
My vision blurred instantly.
“No,” I whispered to myself shakily.
I hated crying and I especially hated crying over boys. But before I could stop it, the tears began to slide down my face.