Haven

Chapter Fifteen

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The whole birthday party scenario was obviously my worst nightmare, but with Alex going through some severe guilt (deservedly) I had to just suck it up. It turned out he invited my sister and Madison over to just have dinner and chill out for the day.

Apparently Ella'a foster parents just dropped her off and we're coming back for her that evening which I knew would have a knock on effect to the course of the day. Mainly due to the fact that she was whacky, and her version of normal was us getting into trouble. The problem with that being, I had no intention of causing trouble because now my actions had real consequences.

While Ella was calm for the few minutes it took me to greet the guests and ignore the fact that Alex had also invited friends of his own (literally one friend I'm being dramatic) and was day drinking. While his focus was off me, my sisters wasn't as she watched me like a hawk as if I was planning something. Which I fucking wasn't!

Madison sensed the tension between me and Jasmine, and decided to attempt to distract us both by asking all kinds of things that Jazz was more than willing to tell her. In the time I was distracted by the two boring adults, I took my eye off Ella and only threw it back on her as she snuck a bottle of vodka from the table into her bag.

I immediately looked over to Alex who luckily wasn't watching, and back to Maddie and Jazz who also were distracted by each other and then back to Ella who was flashing me her winner smile as she sat back on the stool. I narrowed my eyes on her, wondering what was actually wrong with her brain.

I decided to buy us time to fix the situation, walking around the island and standing next to her. "Ella put it back now, they'll notice it's gone you can't take things that are in plain sight!" I hiss to her, watching everyone around me as I berate my idiotic friend.

She rolls her eyes. "Do these people look like they're going to be bothered about a bottle of Grey Goose?" She retorts, clearly not bothered by the situation. "Don't you wanna have some fun?" She gives me her puppy dog eyes, and I sigh. I'm gonna have to appease her some way.

"Okay, just put the bottle back and I'll come up with a better plan." She looks doubtful and I roll my eyes at her. "Alex has a booze fridge through there, I can get us something less conspicuous." I promise her, then walking away to let her fix her mess.

So Ella did as I told her and put the vodka back, and luckily doesn't attract Alex's attention. I look around the room, my eyes landing on an empty bottle of water on the table. I grab it and stand to go to the booze fridge, right after checking to make sure nobody looks like they'll be heading for a refill.

"I need some water." I throw it out there, seeing Madison smile my way. What an idiot, I think to myself as I walk through to the utility room, to the booze fridge. I knock the door shut enough that they can't see me and grab the first thing I see, a bottle of vodka and pour some of it into the water bottle before grabbing a new bottle of water and filling the vodka back up.

Alex looks up when I return to the kitchen and my heart almost stops, could he be on to me? I nod in his direction, trying to appear as non sus as possible. He just smiles as I sit back in my seat and goes back to his business.
So I simply place the 'water' bottle on the table and give Ella a pointed look.

Jazz, as usual, throws a spanner in the works by reaching out to grab the bottle.
"Jay, throw me that water I'm so thirsty." I scowl, shaking my head.
"Get your own!" I argue, quietly trying not to attract Alex's attention. He'll see through this situation in a heartbeat.