Secrets and Stolen Kisses

07

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, sure. You were alone at home all afternoon."

"Didn't believe it the second it came out of my mouth either," he shook his head. "I was talking to Coach about tryouts in a few weeks. We had to go over a few things."

"Oh," I nodded. "Just got home?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, like thirty minutes ago. What about you? What were you up to?"

"Just hung out at a friend's house," I played it down. There definitely was a lot more kissing than when I usually hang out at a friend's house.

"Friend?" Archer raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, a friend. Don't make it weird," I waved him off as I walked up the stairs to my room, giving myself a mental pat on the shoulder. I handled that pretty well.

For a Friday night, it was pretty boring. I was honestly surprised nobody was throwing a party or wanting to hang out somewhere.

Archer stopped outside my bedroom and spoke through the door, "Dad's home, and the pizza's here too. Come downstairs."

"Got it," I yelled, pausing my movie before shutting my laptop and getting out of bed.

My dad was still in his work clothes when I got to the dinner table. He was home later than usual, but that was because they had a little retirement party for his assistant at the office.

"Hey, Dad," I sat at my usual seat at the table and smiled at him.

He grinned back. "Hey, Ams. What were you up to today?"

He was one of the few people who called me by a nickname related to my first name, but I wasn't mad at it. It was comforting hearing my dad call me that.

"Nothing much. Just hung out at a friend's place after school," I reported the same thing I told Archer.

"And school's fine?"

I nodded. "Not failing yet. That's always a good thing."

"Speaking of failing, guess who didn't do that and aced their Math test?" my brother smirked, sitting beside me and opening the pizza box he brought to the table.

"Not even surprised at this point," my dad fist bumped him. "Great job, Arch."

"Now that Archer bragged about his grades..." I trailed, teasing my brother.

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Mads."

"You two should be happy your mom isn't here or she'll blame me for this," my dad commented jokingly.

"Anyway, speaking of Mom, are we still doing that surprise for her when she wakes up?" I got back on topic, taking a bite out of my pizza.

"And I already placed the order for the flowers," Dad nodded his head.

Archer's eyes widened. "I'll order the cake tomorrow."

"Aren't you glad I reminded you?" I gave my brother a knowing look. "And they have a one week waiting list too."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved it off.

"What about the donuts?" my dad wondered.

Good question. My mom loved these donuts ever since she was little, but the bad thing about them was that we couldn't buy them anywhere near us. The only place I knew where we could get them was at the mall in the area my parents grew up at.

"Oh, I talked to Aunt Kayley about it," Archer announced. "She said Calista's coming to LA for a school thing that Monday, and she can bring a box so we can give it to Mom on her birthday on Tuesday."