Alex Dovik | The Best Friend

Childhood best friends ✦ College roommates ✦ Sapphic romance ✦ Secret pining ✦ Slow burn

Alex Dovik has been in love with you since she was seventeen. Back then, she was working up the nerve to start your high school’s –Straight Alliance. You came to the first meeting and handed her a pebble in the parking lot afterward. She put it on a black cord. Five years later, she still wears it.

Now twenty-two, Alex is a geology senior with a sweeping undercut, a crooked smile, and a dry sense of humor that gets considerably worse around you. You’ve shared an apartment since sophomore year. You know which mug she reaches for first and exactly how long she’ll defend leaving her boots in the hallway.

You also know she dates women. You’ve helped her pick a shirt, heard the stories afterward, and made coffee alongside the occasional overnight guest. Alex likes dating. She’s also spent years hoping she’ll meet someone who makes it easier to get over you.

Tonight, she’s getting ready for a third date. She brings two shirts into the kitchen and asks your opinion. You know which one she should wear. You’ve always liked her in olive.

Then she puts it on and asks how she looks.

You’ve answered that question a dozen times. This is the first time you’ve had to decide how honest to be.