Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

LANDON

We stay in silence for a few minutes while we eat. Then my dad leans back in his chair. "Well, my day was swell. Work wasn't too bad, I went out to eat for lunch instead of eating at the office."

"Oh. Really? Where did you go?" Mandy asks, looking highly interested.

"The Outback. I went with a few friends, too. We should go there sometime. They do have some delicious stake." says my dad as he takes a drink of his water. I look at Mandy who shrugs, not looking like she wasn't really interested anymore. I signed, looking down at my food. My phone vibrates and I try to ignore it, I'm getting a call.

But it vibrates again.

"Um, excuse me." I get up and go to my room quickly to answer it. It's Alice, just like I had figured.

"Hey." I answer the phone as I paced in my room after shutting the door.

"Hi! You love me, right?" She replies.

"Yes," I say slowly as I drag the word out. She never started a conversation like that.

"Okay. Well, Friday we are going to a party." She tells me quickly.

"Party?"

"Yeah! Isn't that great?!?" She sounds so excited, yet her voice is lower than usual.

"Wait, whose party is it?" She needed to explain more to me. I was getting confused.

"Sierra, of course, her house is huge and supposedly -- rumor has it -- she and her friends are throwing a party. Everyone's invited. She will announced it tomorrow in lunch, it'll be epic. We have to go, Landon." Sierra was a rich, beautiful nice girl who loved everyone and everything. No, she wasn't a cliché mean girl. She's actually pretty nice.

"My dad won't let me go to a party, you know that." I tell Alice. My dad would disagree one hundred percent that I can't go. At all. He'd be furious I'd even ask, honestly. "So I can't go. Maybe we could just do something else."

"I already have it all planned out." She gushed. "I can say I'm going to yours and you are going to mine. Simple! Then when the party is over we can go eat or something then later on head back to our houses after changing."

"I've seen a movie like that once..."

"And it worked, didn't it?"

"It did, yeah. But then they got caught, that was bad."

"Yeah, well. This isn't a movie, ok? We can do it, come on, this is a once in lifetime event. We needa live a little, anyways. Obsessing with school, boys, drama, et cetera. We need the break; we need to live a little. Even if we get caught, it would be worth it. We'd have fun, just you and me together at an amazing -- may I add, huge -- party.

I bit my lip, trying to contemplate whether or not if I should uphold this absurd plan of Alice's. I guess we did need a break and have a bit of fun. "How would we get there?" I ask.

"My car obviously." She informs me. "If we do get in trouble, I'll take the whole one hundred percent. Okay?"

I groan. "Fine.."

"Yay! Ohmigod, you don't know how much fun we will have, Landon! I love you."

"I love you too, Alice. Now are you sure it'll work out?"

"Yes, don't stress or worry. I have it covered."

"Okay, okay." I let out a sigh.

What have I gotten myself into? I push down the worry bubbling inside me and walk back downstairs to finish my dinner. Mandy and my dad were talking -- when I walked in, they immediately stopped.

Well then.

"Who was calling you?" Mandy, turning her cold eyes to look at me, asked.

"Alice. Why?"

"Just wondering. I mean, this is family time. To eat and discuss how our day has been, stories, and more. No interruptions." Mandy tells me. "I thought you knew the rules, dear."

I actually wanted to give her sarcasm and tell her off, but I bit my tongue and blurted out a 'sorry' instead.

"It's fine," by the look she was giving me, it wasn't, but in front of my dad she pretended it was. "Just not again, okay?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?" My dad pressed.

I wanted to hit my head against the wall. "Ma'am. Yes. Ma'am."

Mandy smiled -- my dad saw it as her being pleased -- but she really meant that she was satisfied with me surrendering to her. I gave her a stare back in return, hating how she made such anger boil inside me.

"Excuse me, I need to use the restroom." Mandy said and leaves the table.

"So," my dad says.

I shift in my seat, looking around. "So?"

"Are you finished with dinner?"

"Yes, dad."

"You barely touched your food, darling." he says, looking at my food.

"I did too." I say.

"Okay. Well, you can go to your room if you please."

I nod. "Thanks." I needed to breathe anyways, they were suffocating me.

Author's note:

Hello :) I hope everyone is doing okay.

How do you guys like the story so far? Honestly, do you like it?

What do you think will happen at the party? Will they get caught?

What do you think of Landon's step mom, Mandy?

That was a lot of questions O-O

Oh well.

Anyways, vote and/or comment and I hope you enjoyed it.

Xoxo
Talia