Charms or Banjos?

Chapter 20

After a few months had passed, Jessica and Alex were on their first real sleepover. The pair of them had been invited to house sit with Paige over the weekend and the young couple had been very excited. The three of them were going out for dinner at the restaurant where Paige worked and Jessica had a plan to make Alex go absolutely crazy. A few weeks ago, Jessica found out that Alex has a thing for girls who wore glasses, and a thing for summer dresses. So once she found out that Paige was taking them out for dinner, a plan hatched in her head. She was going to wear her white dress, Alex's favourite one with the blue light glasses Paige got her on their most recent lunch date. She had obviously told her best friend the plan and she was more than in on it. So as Friday night came around, Paige picked Jessica up on her way home from college with her dad and took her back to her house to gather her things for the weekend. "He is gonna go so feral babe." Paige said as she packed her makeup and clothes into a bag. "I know, but it's a good idea, no?" Jessica said, focused on her phone as Alex texted her saying that he was about to leave to get to Paige's. "Oh, for real. My poor brother isn't going to know what hit him." Paige replied, giggling towards the end. The two continued to talk about random things as Paige packed, until they heard a familiar voice downstairs. "What's up crip, the girls upstairs?" Alex asked Rosie as he stepped through the door. The girls couldn't hear Rosie's response however, as Alex started running up the stairs like a small elephant. But despite his loud arrival, Jessica's face lit up when he walked into Paige's room and she jumped up, flinging her whole body at her boyfriend with complete faith that he'd catch her if she fell. "Hey." Jessica said to him. "Hello." Alex replied, amused at her greeting. The two shared a brief kiss before Alex sat on the floor, pulling Jessica into his lap and holding her by the waist. "I hope you two know I am not going to be third wheeling this whole time, right?" Paige joked as she leaned back against the wall. "Ha, ha. You're so funny Paige." Alex answered, pulling his phone from his pocket. "When are you guys leaving, I'm going out with my friends once I drop you guys off." Sam said as he walked into the room. "Now. Come on guys, get your shit together." Paige said, standing up and grabbing her bag.

A few hours later, the three teenagers were sitting in the restaurant, talking about what they're gonna do when they get back to the house. "I brought my switch, so mario?" Jessica suggests. "YES!" Alex and Paige said simultaneously. One of the waitresses came over to their table and took their orders before talking to Paige about the Sunday bookings for that week. "Yeah, no I looked a few minutes ago and it's already so full. I think Beth is coming in to help 'cause there ain't no way you can do that on your own babe." She said. "Oh God, I was really hoping it'd be a quiet one this week. But tell Beth I say thanks if she does decide to come and help out." Paige answered, sneaking a look at Alex and Jessica who were leaning on each other, watching TikToks on their phones. "Anyway, i'm gonna go put your food through, chef did say the wait would be like an hour but you know what he's like." The waitress said before walking away, leaving Alex, Paige and Jessica alone at the table again. "I just hope you know Jess that the only reason I invited Alex after your parents said yes was because they wouldn't let you guys have a sleepover, I didn't do it so I would be third wheeling all night." Paige joked when she turned around to find Alex peppering kisses all over Jessica's face. "I know and I love you for that." Jessica replied, gently pushing Alex's face away from hers, resulting in a very dramatic pout from the boy.

Shortly after, their food arrived and Alex looked at Jessica's food with a comedic expression. "I think I made the wrong choice." He said, looking between his and Jessica's plates. Paige just stared at the burger in front of her. Alex had ordered the sirloin steak, medium well with chips, while Jessica ordered the lasagne and Paige had the donner burger. "Sucks for you then doesn't it. I told you that Chef's lasagne is to die for, but did you listen, no." Paige said with no sympathy whatsoever. "Babe, can I please have some more mint yoghurt?" She continued when she saw the waitress from earlier, Maryanne, walk past. "Sure, anything else guys?" She asked Alex and Jessica. "Can I just get a medium pepsi max please?" Jessica asked. Maryanne nodded and turned to Alex, "I'll just have the same as Jess please." He said, looking down at his plate. Maryanne walked off and the three of them got stuck in. Paige audibly groaned when she took the first bite of her burger, Chef had really made a good decision to add this to the main menu. Jessica had a similar reaction when she tried some of her lasagne but poor Alex just found that his steak, whilst it was amazing, didn't quite hit the spot. "Can I try some please?" He asked Jessica meekly. "Of course my love." She replied, handing Alex her fork for him to try some. "MMMMM." Alex said once he had tried it. Jessica jokingly pulled her plate away and said, "No more though, it's mine."

After dinner, the three teenagers made their way out to the car park where Sam was waiting for them to take them back to the house. "Don't tell mum, but I got you guys some drinks." Sam said, pulling two bottles of rum, a bottle of vodka and some WKD out of a bag in the passenger footwell. "Thanks Sam, any mixers other than the WKD in there?" Paige asked, pulling the bag onto her lap and finding some food in there too. "Pepsi and lemonade in the boot." He answered, reversing out of the space and driving out of the car park. The whole way home, the three of them were singing along to the music Sam had on and when Love Story came on, Alex and Jessica stared at each other as they sang along.

"In one, come on Alex." Paige cheered as she got her ball in one of his cups. The pair were playing beer pong while Jessica was sat on the sofa with Hannah, talking about random stuff. Alex groaned but picked up the cup, took out the ping pong ball and drank the strange concoction. Being British teenagers, Alex and Paige had both decided to put suicide shots in the cups rather than some cider or something. There was a mixture of rum, vodka, WKD and some whiskey brought by Jessica in the cups and it was revolting. However, lucky for Paige, Alex was a terrible shot. "That was vile." Alex said, taking a swig of his normal drink to take the taste out of his mouth. "Don't sweat it little brother, you've only got one left." Paige said, waiting for Alex to throw the next shot. This time he finally got one in and Paige, without protest drank the cup in one go, slamming it back down on the table and giving Alex a look. "That is how you do it when you're not a pussy." she said, landing her final shot in Alex's last cup before cheering in victory. "Come on guys, let's play Mario Kart." Jessica said as she finished setting up the TV.

After one too many rounds of Mario Kart, the four teenagers went to bed, Hannah and Paige agreed to sleep on the sofas so that Alex and Jessica could have the bed but not before Paige gave Alex the whole 'keep your hands to yourself' talk. So they didn't do anything, just cuddled up next to each other, sharing kisses and holding one another until they fell asleep. The last thought Jessica had before she fell asleep was, "Nothing is better than this, I wish I could stay in this moment forever."

The sound of her alarm startled her awake. "Jess, get up you've got school." Louise said, opening the curtains in her room and tapping her shoulder. Groggily, she looked at her phone, waiting for a good morning text from Alex. But before she messaged him, she saw the date: December 15th. Paige's birthday. But that couldn't be true. Just yesterday it had been April. Not knowing what was happening, she got dressed and made her way downstairs for breakfast. Everything was exactly the same as it had been when she woke up on Paige's birthday before. Confused, she sent a voice note to Paige, asking her about what happened before she woke up. It couldn't have all been a dream, no way. It was too real.