Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

BATES

Jonas, who was devouring the Oreos said, "Me either," in a muffled voice with the cookies in his mouth, making his voice not so clear. When I looked back over at the girls, Cece had her arms crossed and was looking at Alice who seemed to be talking.

I didn't get to ask Landon what the three of them were talking about because the bell rang and we had to hurry and get to class.

•••

"Hey handsome," said Landon at the end of the day while we waited outside. She was waiting for her ride and I was waiting for her, to say bye and go get Emmy.

"Hey gorgeous," I cheekily replied. She smiled and hugged me.

"You should come over to my house for a bit," she mumbled, her hands grasping my jacket. "I wanna cuddle, eat food, and make out."

I grinned, kissing the top of her head. "As tempting as that sounds, I can't right now," she made a sound of protest, "but I might later. Once I get home and make sure mom and Andrew are home so Emmy won't be home alone I'll head over."

"Okay," she pulled back and was smiling. I love her smile, she looked so cute and adorable and it kinda make a little weight in my chest to lift and my lips twitch into a smile.

"Oh, yeah, I never had time to really ask...But what did Cece wanna talk about with you and Alice?"

Landon's smile disappeared. "Oh, that. Not much, really." She looked away. "Look, there's my ride. I gotta go, bye." I furrowed my eyebrows, but caught up to her. She turned and looked at me.

"Wait, what was all that about?" I asked her. I didn't want her to be upset and not talk to me.

"What was what about?" She asked, knowing exactly what I meant.

"You, Alice, and Cece," I said.

She sighed loudly. "Cece was just...wanting to be friends with Alice and I again.."

"Again?"

"In middle school," she explained. "We were friends for a whole. Then Cece stopped hanging out with us. She just started hating us and we stopped being friends."

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

She shrugged, "I didn't think it was a big of a deal because it was already settled: Cece wasn't friends with us. So why make a big deal of it? You two were okay friends. I didn't want to hurt it just because of the past."

We both heard a honk. Landon and I looked to see Mandy shooting daggers at us, impatient. "Look, I gotta go-" I pressed my lips to her, a passionate kiss. She was red in the face once she pulled away and left.

•••

Emmy and I made our way home quickly. My mom and Andrew were seated on the couch, smoking and drinking. Once our mom say my sister and I, she smiled, "My babies are home! How was school?"

Emmy and I ignored her and went to the table in the kitchen. "Excuse me?" Andrew said loudly, "Your mother was talking to you two. Don't be disrespectful."

"School was great, mom," I answered in a bored, flat tone.

"You're gonna let your kids talk to you like that?" fumed Andrew. He walked in and look at us. "You two should be more polite to your mother! She has raised you and cared for you," actually she didn't, "and with you two acting like that..." He trailed off. I didn't even look up from my homework. Emmy was doing her homework which was write three new vocabulary words five times.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" He snapped. From the sound of his voice, we both looked up.

"What?" I said, not in the mood for them.