Because of You (Because of You 1)

He looked up at me, eyebrows raised. "Seriously?"

I nodded. "It was more controversial, it was more fun to defend. Chick-lit writers are not stupid, and they deserve as much respect as any other writer."

"Well, I'll take your word for it," he told me, covering his mouth to silence his yawn.

"You're tired," I stated inanely. "Do you want to do your math homework tonight or in the morning?"

"I'll start it tonight, see if I can finish it. If not, I will in the morning." He glanced back up at me, and saw me trying to stifle a yawn that time. "You go to sleep," he said.

"I feel bad though," I said, stifling the urge to yawn again. "We never get to see each other anymore."

"I know," he said, reaching over and brushing my hair behind my ears. "This is going to get easier," he told me.

"Are you sure?" I asked, glancing up at him.

He nodded. "It has to."

"It could get harder," I told him sensibly. "As much as I'm hoping it will get easier, a baby could also just make everything harder."

After a moment he nodded again. "You could be right. We're going to do this anyway, though."

"Even college?" I asked.

He nodded. "At least part-time. Maybe if I do go part-time, you could, too. It would be cheaper to go part-time, and if you could find something you wanted to do that only requires an associate's degree..."

I thought about telling him that I had been considering going to school full-time with him, but I decided not to. Instead I just nodded a little and said, "Yeah, maybe..."

"Well, get some sleep. I'm going to finish up my homework, and then I'll join you. Alex isn't going to mind me staying the night, is he?"

I smiled. "Just make sure you bang on the wall and make some loud noises, make him really happy."

"No, I'd like to live to see morning. Thanks anyway."

"Anytime," I said, closing Sense and Sensibility, placing it on the floor next to my bed and snuggling down into my blankets as Derek opened up his math book.

The following day I might have been able to spend an hour with Derek, but I had to work and by the time I got off he would be working. After closing up, he would have to go home and do his homework, then it would be time for bed, so there was no point in trying to see each other.

By the time I got home from work, Alex was home.

"Hey, stranger," he greeted, opening up the fridge.

"Hey," I said, taking the smelly Wendy's hat off my head.

"Pizza will be here in a few minutes. You might want to change clothes though." He wrinkled up his nose. "You smell like..." He sniffed.

"Processed meat? Oil? Sweat? French fries?" I supplied.

He nodded, opening a can of beer. "Some kind of combination, yeah. Why do you still work there?" he asked, grinning lazily.

"Ugh, I don't know. I was going to leave, but I couldn't because I didn't have transportation. Now that I have my car back though, I really should try to get a job somewhere else."

"Well, before you do that you might want to make sure you're still going to have the transportation," he advised.

We had never formally discussed Derek and me splitting up or getting back together. All Alex really knew was one day Derek wasn't allowed to step foot on property within 50 feet of me, and the next day I was bringing him into my room. He hadn't questioned me, so I figured he probably shrugged it off as young love.

"Well, Derek and I are back together, so I do have my car now," I said vaguely.

"Yeah, this week," he allowed. "But what about next week when you guys get into a fight again and he takes the car back?"