30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Alex
The weight hits the machine louder than necessary but I couldn’t care less. Leaning down, I add another ten pounds to the resistance and then start my reps again, raising the bar above my head and lowering it down over and over.
I had spent the morning looking over Margot’s notes for the podcast, thinking about how I’d answer some of these questions. Usually we come up with a script during our Monday planning sessions but this week has been so fucked up that we have hardly been seeing eye to eye on anything, let alone the podcast.
I can admit that, right now, my heart isn’t really into this whole podcast thing but, no matter what the situation is with Margot and me, I won’t let her down. I made her a promise and I keep my promises.
As I finish my last rep, my thoughts wander to the events of last night. How could such an amazing date end up with me and Margot barely talking and her instead chatting it up with the enemy? She told me to talk to Kai, and I haven’t yet had the chance but I am going to see what he has to say. I don’t think Margot is naive enough to just blindly trust what Ryan was saying. There must’ve been some truth in his words that I need to uncover.
The weight drops again as Devon and Keith walk up to my machine. “We’re going to get lunch, you coming?”
“Nah,” I reply, wiping the sweat off my forehead with the bottom of my shirt. They nod as they walk toward the door. Even though we all drove together in Devon’s car, I opt to run home to finish my workout. I still need to blow off some steam.
Wiping down my equipment, I leave the gym, starting my jog toward home. It takes me fifteen minutes to get home and my head is still a jumbled mess as I walk through the door. I was happy to not see Kai when I came in. I know I need to talk to him but I just don’t think I’m ready for another fight. Not before I have to deal with this uncomfortable podcast taping with Margot.
I shower quickly and then get back in the car to pick her up.
Her bemused expression pulls a reluctant chuckle out of me as I drive up to her apartment. She walks to the car but doesn’t open the door. Margot just stares at me through the window, which I roll down.
“Getting in?”
Margot raises her eyes, clearly shocked at the sight in front of her. “I didn’t expect you to pick me up.”
“I always pick you up,” I reply matter-of-factly, turning back toward the dashboard. I have one hand on the steering wheel and one on the gear shift. What’s noticeably absent is the coffee I usually bring her. Which means my own afternoon pick-me-up was also skipped. I may be mad but I’m not cruel enough to get myself one and not her. So we both go without.
Margot hesitates outside the door, not knowing which path to take.
“Come on, I wasn’t going to leave you hanging,” I tilt my head over to her again, egging her into the car. She opens the door, finally, and I take off the minute it closes.
We ride in silence for the five minute drive to campus. Her window is still down, allowing her to take in the familiar sights while her long brown hair whips in the car, sending wafts of her signature scent in my direction. Something I didn’t think would be difficult to handle but I was proven wrong. The hand on the gear shift flexes with the desire to reach over and touch her leg. Caress the bare knee she has exposed through the slit in her long brown skirt. I grip the shift tighter.
Parking in my usual spot close to the media building, we walk to the door in the same silence and suddenly I can’t take it anymore.
“Look, I—”
“Listen, Alex—”
Margot and I speak at the same time, cutting each other off. I turn my palm out to offer her the floor to speak. We still haven’t gone inside the building but we clearly both had the same idea that we should clear the air before we do.
“I didn’t mean to stick my nose in your business last night. Ryan wanted to apologize to me about the other night…”
“Why do you need an apology from him?” I ask, not meaning to cut her off but needing to know the answer all of a sudden.
“I didn’t need anything from him. He seemed to need to say his piece more than I needed to hear it.” She sighs. “I didn’t expect him to tell me what he did but that’s why I stayed to talk to him for as long as I did.”
The only thing that can happen from here is that I need to talk to Kai. I’m still mad at Margot for not taking my side on the matter but that will all have to wait.
“Let’s just go get this done, yeah?”
Margot nods, swinging the door open enough for herself to walk through but hardly enough for me. Nice .
“Hey guys, wasn’t sure if you were gonna show up,” Nathan sat waiting for us at the soundboard. Margot greets him with a smile that is usually on reserve for me but not today. She drops her bag on the chair and takes off her jacket, revealing a white lace crop top that shows a sliver of her stomach.
“Let’s get this over with,” she says with a cheerfulness that doesn’t match the expression on her face. Without another word, she steps into the soundproof recording studio and takes her usual spot. Nathan spares a glance in my direction and I level him with a look like, this is going to be interesting.
When I meet Margot inside the studio, she’s already laid out the session notes for me. “I hope you had a chance to look at my email,” she says, without meeting my eyes.
“Yep, went through it this morning.”
“Good,” she says, leaning back in her seat. “Then this should be painless.” Ha.
Once I’m settled in, we both give Nathan a thumbs up as he silently counts us down from three on his fingers. The bright red recording button appears at the top of the wall and we’re off.
“Hello, folks and welcome back to another riveting episode of Ask Alex . As you already know, clearly, I am Alex, your host and resident question answerer and with me is my darling, lovely, beguiling, cohost, Margot.”
“Oh, please, don’t even try to butter me up, frat boy, we’ve got way too much on our agenda for all that,” Margot says with a smile but her teeth are gritted a little too much to be a pleasurable expression. “And on that note, let’s jump right in!”
Margot pulls up an index card where she wrote out the question. “This question comes from an avid listener named Kelly K. The question is, Alex, are you ready?”
“Yes, I am ready.”
“The question is: At what age is it deemed appropriate to lose your virginity? And then there’s a follow up of: What age did you lose your virginity, Alex Prescott?”
Margot places the card down on the table and crosses her hands on her lap, looking at me expectantly. I had anticipated this question, having looked at the script, but I didn’t anticipate how talking about sex with Margot would make me feel.
“Kelly, thank you for writing in,” I give Margot a pointed glance before looking back at the camera with my signature wink. “I think it’s important that you, first of all, and the person you’re with are of legal age. That being said, it’s definitely not appropriate to have sex before the age of seventeen. Eighteen in some states, make sure you look up the laws, okay folks?”
Margot rolls her eyes. “Very solid legal advice, counselor.”
I ignore her jab. “As for me personally, well…let’s just say I didn’t follow my own advice.” Raising my eyebrows suggestively at the camera before looking over at Margot.
She’s huffing out a breath before shuffling the deck to find her next question. Before she can pull one out, I place my hand on top of the stack. “Well, hold on, sunshine, I answered the question, now it’s your turn.”
“This isn’t Ask Alex and Margot, is it?”
“Fair is fair,” I shrug. “I’m sure the people want to know,” I continue, pointing toward the camera. I don’t miss the blush that forms on Margot’s cheeks. She’s looking down at her hands, not willing to meet my eyes.
With a huff, she looks up. “I haven’t,” she says simply before shuffling through the deck again. For my own personal sake, I want to dive deeper into that answer but I can tell she’s completely embarrassed by it so I choose to let it go instead. I do, however, pocket the conversation for a time when we aren’t fighting, which will be soon if I have my way about it.
“Next question,” Margot presses on, and I let her, the ice around my heart melting slowly with each minute we pass together. Margot asks me two more questions, one about my fitness regime, which was clearly sent in by a dude, and one about my advice on college majors, which I didn’t have a whole lot of.
“It’s come to that time, folks. Our last question,” I announce and I can already feel Margot start to relax a bit knowing the end of her time in the spotlight is near.
Margot picks up the index card, opens her mouth to speak, but then thinks better of it. Lowering her hand, Margot places the stack on the table and looks over at me instead. I don’t hide the confusion in my eyes.
“The final question, Alex Prescott, is: Who deserves your trust more? Your best friend or your significant other?”
I take in a breath. I know what she’s doing. She’s making the question relatable by using that term but I know she’s talking about what happened last night.
“Well, I think it depends on the situation. It also depends on how long you’ve known each person.”
Margot settles into her chair, content to hear me out.
“If you’ve been bros with your best friend for years and this significant other is a new situation, I’d say trust the best friend…If the roles were reversed, I’d say the opposite.”
As I start to think about it more, my mind starts to shift. “But what reason would your best friend have to lie to you? As shitty as it sounds, your significant other could have motive to make you believe something that’s not necessarily true.”
“Why would you be with someone that has ulterior motives?”
“Now, that’s a good question… but unfortunately, our time is up so we’ll have to leave it at that for now.” I can’t meet her eyes even though I can feel hers boring into the side of my head. “Until next week, ladies…and maybe one gentleman, based on that fitness question. This has been us.” I give the camera a salute and watch the recording button blink out in my peripheral vision.
Margot is out of her seat before I even have a chance to say anything. She pulls the door open, grabs her jacket, bag and leaves the studio without even a word to Nathan. Since my seat is farther from the door, it takes me a minute to get my long legs out of the small space and reach the door.
By the time I make it out of the building, she’s gone.
Kai is sitting at the kitchen table when I get home, and I take the opportunity to sort this out once and for all.
Pulling up the chair in front of him, I sit. Kai continues to shovel food into his mouth, effectively ignoring me.
“What’s going on, Kai?” He knows from my inflection that I’m not asking casually.
He finally meets my eyes, his mouth full. He, thankfully, swallows his food before continuing. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve been off, man, for a while now. Something’s not right.”
Kai remains silent. He has a split second to decide what to do. Is he going to tell me the truth or is he going to lie to my face? I keep talking before he can make a choice. “We’ve known each other a long time. And you know I have your back no matter what.”
Kai sighs, not meeting my eyes. “I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to pay for the final semester of school.”
I raise my eyebrows, taking in the very last thing I expected him to say. What does that have to do with Ryan and Margot?
“Your parents aren’t paying?”
Kai remains quiet.
“Why didn’t you tell me? You know I can help, I—”
Kai gets up, bringing his plate over to the sink and throwing it in. “I’m not a charity case.”
“What the fuck, man. It’s not charity. You’re my brother.” I follow him into the kitchen where he’s now gripping the sink, his knuckles white. “This is a drop in the bucket for my asshole father. He won’t even realize it’s missing.”
Kai sighs, meeting my eyes again. “I appreciate it, man. But it’s more than that.” I keep quiet, allowing him to talk when he’s ready. Kai turns around and leans against the sink, crossing his arms over his chest. “I got into some trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“The money-owing kind,” he says. “I used the tuition money my dad gave me to pay off some debts but it wasn’t enough.”
“Dude,” I sigh, not knowing what to say. My ass finds the top of the kitchen stool as I sink into it. “How much do you owe?”
“Let’s just say it’s a lot.”
“Who do you owe it to?”
Kai remains silent, answering the question without saying a word. It’s the Deltas. It has to be. Suddenly it all makes sense. Why Keith was jumped. Why Kai was upset about it enough to take his anger out on me, trying to push the blame on Ryan and Margot instead of himself. This is what Ryan told her last night.
Kai must see the spark of recognition in my eyes. “Don’t tell Keith, please, Alex.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard this man plead for anything in the four years I’ve known him. “I will handle this.”
“But you’re not handling it. It’s handling you.” I try not to sound judgmental but this whole thing is so fucked up, I don’t know what else to do. Fuck, Margot has every right in the world to be upset with me, especially after that my answer to that last podcast question. Once I’m finished up here, I vow to run over to her apartment and beg on my knees if I have to. None of this is her fault and yet she found herself in the middle of a shitstorm that I only made worse by thinking the worst of her.
Kai has his face in his hands. “I’ll figure it out.”
I sigh, raising from my stool to place my hand on his shoulder. “I’m here for you, man. Let me help.” Kai looks up, letting his hands fall, his red eyes finally meeting mine. And he nods.