Beyond Her Exterior

Chapter 34: Hiding

Saturday morning I woke up around eight am and continuously anticipated noon to come when I always actually allowed to talk on the phone with my friends. Don't get me wrong, I've been sneaking around texting Gabe and calling him every night all week, and nobody has figured it out – well besides Cora. We talk just about every night before I call him about what's going on back at home. She's mature for her age, and she's promised me she wouldn't tell her parents, so I talk to her.

Just like I've talked to her about my crush on Grayson. She wants to meet him really bad so she can decide if he's worthy of me. But if anything it should be whether I'm worthy of someone like him.

I'm still dying to have one on one time with him so he can finally talk to me about the conversation he told me was for another day. I wanted to talk so desperately about it so I can know more about his life. So far, all I know is he lives with his Mom and little brother. His mom is always busy which is why I haven't met her and his little brother – whom I've haven't met yet either is always at his Christian's house since they are cousins. From what Grayson has told me, his Dad left but he never went into details. I just really want to learn more about him.

After taking a shower, I purposely put on Grayson's navy blue t shirt and a pair of jeans and headed downstairs to the living room to play Barbies with Suzy. She's got comfortable being in the home, although she'll come into my room at night a few times crying saying she misses her Mom. I have no idea what happened with her Mom, but I try my hardest to comfort her the best I can.

"Hey Suz." I smiled, picking my Barbie. Her and Cora were already playing so I joined in with them for awhile until Kimberly called us into the kitchen for lunch. She made sandwiches and chips so we went to the dining room to eat. As we ate, she ended up mentioning she has a video chat with my friends already and they are waiting for me to give them a call.

The minute she said that I practically flew into the office where the computer was at and pressed call on it. They answered it immediatly and I nearly screamed in excitement when I seen them all beside eachother in Gabe's living room. "Hiiiii!!!" I screamed.

Gabe, Joseph, Bianca, Daisy, and Grayson sat on the couch while Madison, Caleb, Dean, Austin, Brett and Lindsay all sat on chairs behind the couch. Seeing the eleven them together made my heart wrench. This was my family, and that's where I belonged.

"Nice shirt." Grayson spoke up, causing me to smile as I looked down at my shirt. Of course it's nice, it's yours. What'd you expect? "It looks better on me though. I'll be taking that back when you come home."

"Doubt it Alec." I teased him. "How are you guys?"

Everyone gave me the same basic response, saying that they are doing just fine, and mentioned how much they missed me, and I told them I missed them too. "How's school? I heard you go to Meadowlane now." Brett snickered, disgusted by the thought of Meadowlane. He hated this school, more specifically a boy that goes here. I've seen his face already and we've made eye contact a few times – I know he rememebers me, and I know he knows where I'm from which is why he's avoided me.

Marshall Connor is popular in Meadowlane, but really unpopular in Westbrooke. He showed up at one of Luis' parties last year with a bunch of his friends and caused chaos to the point where fights were breaking out left and right. This all started with him trying to get at Lindsay – who immediatly turned him down. Brett got angry at Marshall and Marshall swung at him causing them to fight. Marshall's friends tried to jump Brett so our friends got in and everyone was just fighting, I remember it all clearly.

"That's my girl bro. Respect that." Brett said to the brown headed boy in front of us. We were all in Luis' backyard playing spin the bottle when Lindsay went to the bathroom and came back saying some dude was trying to get at her. To my surprise he followed her back to where we were and continued to get at her. Brett immediately took stance and claimed his girlfriend.