The storm was still going when Alex finally gave up on studying.
Rain tapped steadily against her bedroom windows while half-finished debate notes sat abandoned across the bed beside her.
She'd reread the sa paragraph six tis.
Nothing stayed in her head.
Mostly because Haley and Gael were in the next room.
And the walls in the Dunphy house were apparently made of paper.
Alex pressed her face briefly into the pillow with visible annoyance.
Not just because they were loud.
Also… non-stop.
Soft moans turned loud.
Muffled pleads.
The occasional shift of Haley's voice lower and warr in ways Alex had never really paid attention to before.
Unfortunately, once she noticed it—
she kept noticing it.
"This is psychological torture," she muttered to herself.
She tried music first.
Didn't work.
Then headphones.
Also didn't work.
Because now her brain kept filling in the silence anyway.
Alex sat up abruptly and shoved a hand through her hair.
This was ridiculous.
They were a couple.
Couples had sex.
None of this was shocking.
So why exactly was her heart beating faster every ti she heard Haley moan softly then loudly through the wall?
Another quiet sound drifted faintly through the room.
Then silence for a few seconds.
Then Haley moaning again—
Breathless this ti.
Alex physically froze.
Sothing unfamiliar twisted low in her stomach suddenly.
Not embarrassnt.
Definitely not disgust.
Just…
awareness.
Of them.
Of intimacy.
Of the fact that Haley sounded genuinely happy in a way Alex had never really thought about before.
That realization unsettled her more than the noises themselves.
Because for the first ti, Alex stopped thinking about Gael and Haley as:
her sister and her sister's boyfriend.
And started thinking about them as:
two people with an entire private relationship she wasn't part of.
An entire emotional and physical closeness existing right beside her every night.
The thought lingered uncomfortably.
Or maybe not uncomfortably.
That was worse.
Alex stood up abruptly and crossed toward the window, trying to ignore the warmth still lingering in her chest.
Rain streaked down the glass outside while thunder rolled softly in the distance.
Behind her, the house stayed quiet except for faint movent through the wall again.
Then Haley's voice drifted softly through the silence.
Not words.
Just tone.
Affectionate.
Intimate.
Alex closed her eyes briefly.
God.
This was new.
More like suddenly becoming aware of sothing she'd never fully looked at before:
how easy Haley and Gael were together,
how naturally close they'd beco,
how much space he already occupied inside the rhythm of their lives.
And maybe—
for the first ti—
Alex realized she wanted that kind of closeness too.
Sothing real.
Sothing hers.
The realization hit quietly enough that she almost missed it.
Then another muffled moan ca through the wall and Alex groaned into her hands.
"Great," she muttered.
"Now I'm having emotional developnt at one in the morning."
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