Alec could make it confrontational if he wanted to. He'd picked fights for far lesser offenses that Cliff had done him - he'd probably picked those very same fights in front of Cliff at some point within the last two years. Confessing your undying love for a dude's girl while simultaneously calling that guy a dick who probably didn't deserve her was a pretty big offense. But confrontation would be seriously counter productive to his plan to woo Cliff. And it was a little difficult to confront a kid like Cliff. Kid looked like he was about to get hit by a semi, you just don't start shit with someone with that look on their face. It was bad form.
It'd probably be funny. But it was bad form.
Alec opened his mouth to make a casual comment about how Cliff looked about ready to shit himself when he got the same chill he always got when he copied a power. Except he also looked surprised, as his eyes flashed a golden yellow for a brief second. Because usually, his abilities got triggered - someone used a power on him, his body in some kind of need for self preservation copied that power and adapted it for him. Usually, contact alone wasn't enough to copy a power, unless he was concentrating - which he wasn't - or he was intimately familiar with the power - which again, he wasn't. "Ah, fuck me." Because superspeed wasn't really designed to be used on people. It was another power on the list of abilities he was positive he just couldn't copy, and he was starting to hate getting proven wrong by his own goddamn powers. It made him all that more aware of how little control he seemed to have over them, and since they were apart of himself - it meant he lacked control over himself.