Falling

Chapter 7: The Day Before

November 8th

The rest of the week passed by pretty normally, or at least as normal as it could be with everyone asking about the new kid with new eyes and a new person in our old group. So I guess not that normal.

November 8th was the Friday before the Saturday barbecue, and let me just say, I still was skeptical as to who exactly was coming over. Whenever I tried to get Axel to talk about his father, he dodged the question in a way that if I wasn't paying close attention (which, of course, I was) I never would have noticed. He did it with a certain skill and finesse, that it made me wonder if he had done it before.

He probably had.

At the end of school Friday, we all went over to mine and Austin's house, as we usually did for homework. But it was Friday, and everyone knows that on the weekends, homework is a Sunday problem.

We all dropped our things at the front door, only fixing it once when we remembered that if it wasn't orderly my mom would kill us. Olivia, Hunter, Austin, and I started heading to the kitchen, opening up drawers and cabinets looking for food. Axel stayed behind for some reason, his hand rubbing his neck. He looked like he wanted to tell us something but he was nervous like we wouldn't like what he said.

Being the only one who noticed, I reluctantly put down my food and walked over to him.

"What's wrong," I said, announcing my presence. He jumped, seemingly so lost in thought that he didn't see me coming.

"Jesus, girl!" He said, his hand covering his heart, "We need to get you a bell."

"Why," I said, "So the cat will notice me?" Confused, Axel looked over his shoulder, as gullible as ever.

"What cat?"

"Axel, the scaredy-cat," I replied, feeling triumphant that the joke worked out.

"Ha, ha very funny." There was a lull in the conversation, as I waited for him to answer a question he totally forgot.

"So...?" I said, willing him to fill in the blank and talk. A girl can only handle so much awkwardness you know.

"Oh right! Nothing's wrong, and I'm being serious. I just don't know how to say what I want to say. I'm not sure if it's too early in our friendship to ask or if you guys won't care or if I'll care too much and will be disappointed when you don't or..."

Unable to take his rambling much longer, I shook his shoulders, a steady stream of shh coming out of my mouth. I felt tingles in my hands from where we touched, but I couldn't tell if they were real, or if all those romance books were finally affecting me. "Calm, Axel. Calm. You've been our friend for a week now, don't you know us enough to know that won't happen?"

Axel seemed to contemplate his answer, and as he opened his mouth to respond, we heard a shriek behind us. We both turned to see what happened, and I would be lying if I say I was surprised to see the scene in front of me.

Olive was up on the kitchen table, a wooden spoon in her hand, which she was clutching against her chest for dear life as if it would save her. Austin was running around the kitchen, smacking a bowl on the floor as Olive frantically pointed places out to him from her safe spot on the table. Hunter, for his part, was on a counter and desperately clawing at the wall as if he could climb it, all the while screaming his heart out over the spider that had found its way into the house. Did I mention Hunter has arachnophobia?

Austin, grabbing the house keys after throwing his hands up in defeat said, "I give up! The spider wins! Let's just go to your house, Axel." He then turned to Olivia and batted his eyes saying, "Olive Oil, help me pry your brother off the wall, please?"