Because of You (Because of You 1)

"That's not how it happened," I told him. "Derek wanted me to keep the car from the beginning, but I didn't want to keep it if I wasn't with him, because I didn't feel right about it. We're not planning on breaking up again, but I figure if push comes to shove, I can always be mercenary and just keep the car," I said, flashing him a smile as I grabbed a pop out of the fridge and opened it up.

He half smiled, nodding at me as I took a seat across from him. "I see he spent the night again last night. Should I get him a change of address form or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "He doesn't spend the night that often."

"Often enough," he retorted. "You still have what I gave you, right?"

"Ugh, please. We barely see each other, we certainly don't time to have sex."

"I was your age once," he said in a tone that told me he couldn't be less convinced. "There's always time to have sex. You're too young to be getting pregnant, Nicole, so make sure you use them."

"Trust me, I'm not the one we have to worry about getting pregnant," I muttered. "I do have what you gave me, but as I said, there's no time anyway. Derek's working two jobs and I'm trying to keep us both up on our homework, so... it's just not a priority right now."

"At your age sex is always a priority."

"Not for us," I responded, taking a sip.

"And how does Derek feel about these... priorities?"

"He doesn't seem to have a problem with it at all," I said a bit impressively. "In fact, he's the one who told me to go to sleep last night."

One black eyebrow shot up. "Really?" he said suspiciously.

"Really," I verified.

He frowned slightly. "Be careful, Nikki."

That caused me to frown. "Be careful about what?"

"I know how guys think. I know you don't, you're very much like your mother in that way. Just because you don't think that way you don't realize... but men do cheat, Nicole, quite often. What they can't get from one woman, they can get from the next."

I almost laughed. "That is completely ridiculous. Derek is not cheating on me."

"I didn't say he was," he told me. "I'm just telling you to be careful. Your mother was completely oblivious, too trusting, and it ended up hurting her. The wool was so easily pulled over her eyes, and I don't want to see—"

"She wasn't oblivious, Alex," I said, feeling defensive. "My mother knew what you were like. She may not have told you, but she knew—"

"I'm not talking about me, Nicole."

I felt myself frowning. "You mean...?"

"Mike?" he supplied, offering a nod. "I'm sure you know Sarah got pregnant after he started seeing your mom."

I decided that would be a perfect time to stand up and head toward my room to change clothes. "Derek isn't like his father," I told Alex.

"She loved him, and when you love someone they can easily blind you."

I didn't want to hear that, so I shook my head. "Stop it. It's too weird. How can you just talk about her feelings for him like that when she had me with you?"

He smiled inanely. "Considering her lack of feelings for me, it really isn't so strange. She was too thoroughly in love with him to even see anyone else. I knew Jamie before and after Mike, and he changed her; she was never the same after him. She would have never allowed herself to love someone like that again, either. Your mother never loved me at all, actually, so why pretend—"

"You never loved her either," I fired back, feeling the need to defend her.

His smile disappeared, replaced by a less defined look. "All you know is what you read in those damn journals, Nicole. You don't know how I felt about her."

That sentence hung in the air for a moment, and I was about to ask him to expand on that, but we both heard a knock at the door.

Visibly releasing the somewhat heated moment, Alex slowly stood up, saying needlessly, "That'll be the pizza."