No Strings Attached

Chapter Eleven

By the time they reached Adele's home, it was late and everybody was extremely tired. Alex had a key so as opposed to waking her mother up, she decided to just let her and the others in and get settled in. "Wait a minute, so where's Jason gonna sleep?" Alexis stopped walking towards her bedroom and turned back around towards Alex and Jason. Mya and Chris had already found their room and Jonathan had already entered Alexis', bidding Alex a goodnight.

"What is it with you and these questions, Alexis? Go to sleep." She whispered, opening her door and letting Jason in, she didn't miss the look of anger that flashed over Alexis' eyes when she saw Jason go in.

"What am I missing here? You guys hated each other in high school and now you're together?" She harshly whispered, not wanting to wake anyone up. Alex crossed over the space between them.

"We're not together, we're just sex buddies. Now that you know, step the hell out of my business. Goodnight, Lexis." With a sarcastic smile, Alex went into her room and shut the door. She kicked off her shoes and stepped into her en suite bathroom. "Jason! Don't finish all the hot water, please, I want to shower after you." Just as she was taking off her jewelry in front of the vanity mirror, the shower curtain was yanked open, revealing a smirking Jason in all his glory.

"You know they say sharing a shower saves a lot of water." She chuckled and walked out of the bathroom.

"Just hurry up, man!" Once he had finished, Alex then stepped into the shower. She loved her bathroom. This was where she'd just be able to sit and think for the longest periods of time. As the steaming bullets pierced her skin, she sighed. She knew exactly why Alexis was bothered so much by Jason being with her. Although she would never admit it, she still loved Jason. It was expected though. He was her first love and they hadn't broken up on the best of terms. Well, to be honest, their break up was mainly Alex's fault and that had been a build up to what finally caused the sisters' feud to begin. Up until then, they'd been the best of friends. Always there for each other, always had each others' backs.

But then that all fell apart. Because of Jason. Alex chuckled at the situation. The guy who'd caused her and her sisters' rift was the same guy she'd been sleeping with for the past two days in order to get over Jonathan.

Jonathan. She pushed her hair back and sighed as she thought about him. Although the entire break up was over 2 months ago, she still couldn't let him go. She wanted to. She wanted to so bad. She wanted to just be able to say to his face 'I don't love you anymore' but she knew she couldn't. He hated the fact that he was such an amazing guy! That made it even harder to stop loving him. She then asked herself a question: if Jonathan were to ask her back, what would she say?

No.

Plain and simple. She would say no because if he cheated on her once, with her own sister, what's stopping him from doing it again? She smiled to herself. She was on the road to forgetting him. Slowly but surely. It would take time but she knew she was going to get there. She reached for a towel, turned everything off and wrapped it around herself. Just as she reached for the lotion, she heard moans in the next room. The male grunts definitely sounded like Jonathan's and she could only guess that the female moans belonged to Alexis. "Bitch!" She mouthed with tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Yes, she was on the road to letting go of Jonathan but it was still too soon to be hearing him making love to her sister. She grabbed her lotion and made her way out of the bathroom, stepping over Jason who was doing his push up reps and sitting on the edge of the bed, where she began to apply.

Jason noticed that she'd sniff every 15 seconds, but said nothing about it. He too had heard the faint sounds of lovemaking. He watched her as she quickly changed into a pair of shorts and a vest and slid under the covers quietly. He turned off the lights and slipped in, facing the other way from her. He knew she was about to cry but he didn't know what to say. They weren't friends. They weren't a couple. They just had sex in common. He shut his eyes, knowing he'd come to regret the words coming out of his mouth. "He's a dick, Alex. You deserve much better than that so don't waste your tears on him... Or her for that matter." He heard her sniff again and he continued. "If you want, we could always make our own sounds just to piss them off." The moment he heard her laugh, he smiled.

"Goodnight Jason."

"Goodnight Flatty."

When Jason awoke the next morning, he turned and found that there was nobody there. He got up and went to search for Alex in the bathroom, but there was no one there so he decided to take a shower himself. 20 minutes later, he was freshened up and ready to start his day. Usually, he would've gone for a morning run, but once he'd checked the time and seen 9:55, he realised it was too late. He heard voices coming from downstairs and he decided to go see what was going on. He remembered the layout of the house pretty well from back when he was seeing Alexis so he followed the sounds until he ended up in the kitchen, where he saw Mya, Chris and Alex all seated around the table with another woman he vaguely recognised.

"Jason Tremaine Arden! Look at you!" The woman exclaimed, getting up from the table and pulling him into an embrace. When she pulled back he instantly remembered her, but it looked almost as if she hadn't aged since the last time he saw her.

"Ms Armstrong, you're looking good! Its nice to see you after so long." He said, making her blush and everyone else at the table roll their eyes.

"Oh don't make me blush, Jason and you know to call me Adele. You have truly turned out to be a handsome man, now explain to me why I haven't seen you in so long and yet your brother comes every year." He opened his mouth to speak, "and the fact that his girlfriend is my daughters' best friend is not an excuse." He shut his mouth again and gave her a sheepish look. She laughed again, and returned to her seat, Jason getting the seat next to Alex.

"Ma, I know you told me it was hot, but damn! It's only morning and I feel like I'm roasting in here." Jason finally noticed what she was wearing. She was dressed simply but looked the furthest thing from plain in just denim shorts and a white tee. Mya had on a powder red halter summer dress with spaghetti straps and both had on sandals.

"I know and then in a few hours this place is going to be packed with people." Mya said, fanning herself with her hand.

"Oh you'll get used to it within a few hours. Now, what I want to know is where did Jason sleep because last time I checked, this house only has 4 bedrooms." She raised an eyebrow and looked around the circle. "Mya and Chris share one, Alexis and Jonathan are now in one and Alex..." She trailed off just as Alex looked away from her mother, not wanting to tell her what was going on between herself and Jason. Her mother would never understand.

"MA!" They heard Alexis yell as Adele stood up to hug her other daughter. Jonathan waved to everybody else as he waited for the two ladies to finish. They finally pulled away and there was another awkward silence as Adele stood in front of Jonathan.

"You know why I'm not welcoming you back in with open arms. I don't approve of this relationship." Alexis was about to argue back but Adele raised her arm. "No, Alexis. I have been waiting to say this ever since Alex called me telling me what had happened. You both went about this the wrong way. Going behind Alexandra's back was not the way to do it. Now, if you truly do love one another, then go ahead, be together but know that I'm not a supporter of you guys."

"But mom, it's not our fault that-." Adele looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"Not your fault? Well then whose fault is it?" Alex stood up, knowing exactly what she was trying to say.

"Don't even try to blame this shit on me, Alexis! You knew how much I loved Jonathan. You knew how much I'd fault myself all the time in relationships but you still went and pulled this shit. I know we don't like each other but you could've told me you had feelings for my man. You should have fought those feelings! But no, because of the little bitch you are, you went behind my back!" She turned her gaze onto Jonathan. "Don't be surprised if she just 'fell in love' with you to spite me. She's done worse things." Without another word, Alex turned to leave the house. "I'm gonna go get the ice for today. Sorry for ruining the morning everybody." Everyone jumped as soon as they heard the bang of the door. Adele shook her head at Alexis, who looked ready to kill, and Jonathan, who looked upset.

"I got it, don't worry." Murmured Mya as she ran after her best friend.

"Who's hungry?" Chris asked, trying to calm the situation. Everyone just gave him a pointed look and walked away into seperate parts of the house.