chapter fourteen!
"HOLY SHIT!" exclaimed Alex, backing up almost instinctively as a motorcycle pulled out in front of the duo as they approached the apartment complex. The two stumbled a bit, seeing as how they had to avoid being hit by the vehicle. Only a moment later, a few more motorcycles pulled out behind it, driving the opposite way. "What the hell was that?"
"I have no idea," answered Miguel. He'd calmed down a lot since he'd first shown up, seeing as how Alex was the voice of reason that made most of his doubts go away. "Nobody around here drives a motorcycle, do they?"
"Not that I know of," she responded. "Unless backflip guy made a few friends."
Miguel laughed, pulling her towards the complex. His smile dropped completely, though, only a moment or two later when he saw his Sensei's car in flames outside of his apartment. "Oh my god—"
"Is that Mr. Lawrence's car?" she asked, squinting at the sudden heat. Miguel nodded, grabbing is phone.
"I'm gonna call 911," he told her. "Then they'll hopefully send a firetruck."
"They kind of have to," she responds, looking at the car. "It's a fire, that's what they're for!"
Carmen can rushing out of her apartment, only seconds later. Miguel was still on the phone with the dispatcher, but she came running over to the pair nonetheless. She pulled the teenagers away from the car and towards the apartments, Miguel ending the phone call not long after.
"They're sending a firetruck."
━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━
It took Alex forever to fall asleep that night. Too much was running through her brain— who would've set Mr. Lawrence's car on fire? Was Sam cheating on Miguel, or was he just being paranoid? Seeing as how she couldn't fall asleep, she facetimed Casey; unloading the events of the past few hours onto her best friend, who listened intently. The two talked for what felt like the entire night, but ultimately fell asleep on facetime with each other— neither of them hanging up until they woke up the next morning.
"So you're going to miss the practice SAT's?" asked the blonde from the passenger seat of Noah's car. Casey had gotten her own car taken away because of how she stayed an entire week at some random boys' house without calling her parents once, leaving Noah to be her only ride. Alex was looking down at her phone from where she sat on her bed, shrugging at the two. Casey had set her phone up on the dash so Alex could see them both.
"Yeah, I kind of got to, ya'know?" she nodded. "Mom's got a important appointment today, and it's not like it's the real test, anyways."
"But it still kind of sucks that you have to do all of this. You're 16, remember?" reminded the girl. Noah couldn't help but nod in agreement. Peering over from the road and at the phone, he noticed the look of slight annoyance that flickered across his girlfriend's face.
"No, I completely forgot my age," retorts Alex, sarcastically. "But yeah, I know what you mean. But she's my mom, and I owe it to her to be there. It's my responsibility, whether or not I'm 16."
"Yeah, I know," whined Casey, sticking her tongue out at the phone childishly. "You and your stupid dumb morals."
━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━
"C'mon, eat something. It'll make you feel better," told Demetri to Miguel, the group sitting in a bench at a playground. The boy was still bummed out, even more so now since he'd talked to Sam at school— something Alex had missed due to her not being there. The group in mention was made up of Demetri, Casey, Aisha, Miguel, Hawk, Bert, Noah and Alex— with Hawk and Bert sparring behind the bench, Miguel, Aisha, and Demetri sitting on the bench, Casey fast asleep on the ground in front of the bench, and Noah and Alex running around the playground like little children.
"Hey, Miguel, Hawk!" called Alex from the highest set of money bars. "I told you I could make it through these!"
The three had made a bet— no money involved because they were all broke— that Alex (being the skinny, short, 5'0 teenager she is) couldn't make it across the highest monkey bars on the playground; which were about twice as tall as she was. Hawk looked up from where he was kicking Bert around and laughed, "You're only halfway there! Keep going!"
"Okie dokie," she called back, letting out a shaky laugh as she continued forward. Her arms burned, the few muscles she had being tired and getting ready to quit. Noah was waiting on the other side, cheering her on.
"I told you, I'm not hungry, man," responds Miguel.
"I still think that you're over reacting," Demetri tells him, Alex looking over from where she hung and nodding.
"I do too!"
"I'm not over reacting guys!" he told them, watching as Alex strained to move to the next bar. "I know what I saw."
"All right, so you saw her eating dinner with some chode," shrugged Hawk, as if it was nothing. He then proceeded to kick Bert in the face, making him fall to the ground. Alex gasped, her grip slipping for just a moment before she regained it.
"Bert, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good!" called the boy from the ground. "You're doing good on those money bars, by the way!"
"Aww thanks," she grinned over at him, before loosing her grip completely and falling to the ground. "Shit."
"It's probably her brother or something," continued Hawk, moving to lean on the bench next to Miguel. He then noticed Noah helping Alex up from the ground and snorted. "Ha! Told you you couldn't do it!"
Alex glared at the boy, walking back around and climbing up the ladder and proceeding to get back onto the bars. Hawk sighed, "Now, don't go falling on your ass again! You could break your arm or some shit!"
"Not gonna fall this time," she said confidently, making Hawk share a look with Aisha before shaking his head.
"No, dude," responds Miguel. "Brothers don't look at their sisters like that."
"Depends on what part of the country you're in," comments Demetri with a deadpanned look. Noah laughed from where he was standing, seemingly the only one who caught the comment. Casey shifted in her sleep, opening her eyes and squinting up at the sun.
"Oh my god, can someone turn off the sun?" she muttered as she covered her eyes. Hawk laughed, grabbing his hoodie from where it sat on the bench and threw it over her head. "Thank you."
"Look, I just don't want what happened to Sensei to happen to me," he told them. Alex grinned, seeing as how she only had one bar left to go.
"All right, so you go over to this kid and beat his ass so he doesn't have the chance," advised Hawk, making Alex look over at him in disbelief. They don't even know this kid, they can't beat him up!
Her thoughts apparently distracted her front her task at hand because she then slipped and fell. "Goddamnit!"
She groaned as Noah helped her up. Hawk peered back over to her, "Alex, don't you dare get back on those money bars."
"Too late for that," she squeaked out, her voice laced with pain from the muscle strain and the falling. She was already back up the ladder before anyone could say anything.
"Jesus Christ," muttered Hawk.
"Don't listen to Eli," tells Demetri to Miguel, shaking his head. Alex looks over at the same time Hawk does.
"It's Hawk," they correct in unison, everyone looking over at Alex in confusion. They understood why Hawk was correcting him, but why her?
"What? Names are like pronouns. It represents who they are and it's disrespectful to purposefully call them by the wrong one," she grunts out as she works her way through the bars.
"Yeah, whatever," Demetri tells the duo. "The fact is, Sam's given you no reason not to trust her."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Miguel muttered, although he didn't seemed very convinced. Demetri nodded along, like it was obvious that he was correct.
"Oh! That little bitch," cursed Aisha, making Alex slip. Thankfully, she caught herself last minute and was able to continue on. If she fell again, she'd probably end up getting hurt.
"What? Who's the bitch?" called Alex. Noah sighed and shook his head at the stares that she received for this. Here she was, a teenager, failing at the monkey bars and cursing loudly in front of groups of little children.
"You know that video I posted of me breaking that board?" she asked, making everyone nod. Casey groaned from where she laid.
"What are you guys doing up this late? Shouldn't you be asleep right now, jeez," she muttered as she buried her face deeper into Hawks hoodie. "Why does my pillow smell so good?"
"I don't even want to know how drunk she was last night," muttered Demetri, staring down at the blonde in slight disgust. "I haven't seen her this hungover since the day after 8th grade graduation."
"Yes!" shouted Alex, jumping up and down as her hopped off the ladder on the other end of the monkey bars. She grabbed Noah by his arms and spun him around before bringing him into a hug. "I did it! In your stupid faces!"
Alex paused, then looks down at her sleeping best friend, "8th grade graduation was a weird day."
"You can say that again," said Hawk, laughing loudly. Alex had moved to California at the beginning of 8th grade year— which was undoubtedly one of her favorite school years yet— and had graduated middle school with a kick.
"Anyways," Aisha continued, "Look at what Yasmine commented."
The group all crowded around, which was difficult seeing as how many of them there were (Casey laying asleep on the ground in front of them made it no easier to find a place to stand) and looked at the comment.
Impressive... can't believe the belt made it around your waist.
"Oh shit," cursed Miguel, Alex wincing at the insult from being him. Hawk tossed a pack of Band-Aids at her, motioning to the several scrapes and cuts she'd endured during her fails. She gave him a sarcastic grin as she sat down and began putting scobby-doo bandages on her arms and legs.
"I gotta do something," she told them, Alex's eyes widening as she stepped back with her hands up.
"No, no, no. You definitely don't— why don't you just block her or something?" she suggests, making Hawk roll her eyes at her.
"No, that's a pussy move," he told her, nudging her in the side. She pouts. "How about we kidnap her and have my boy Rico tattoo bitch on her face?"
Alex wasn't the only one giving him an incredulous look this time, with Demetri twisting around to squint up at him. "Calm down, Hawk."
"All right, I hear how you're saying it, and I don't like it," shot back Hawk, his voice filled with irritation. Alex stayed in the back, trying to stay as much out of this conversation as much as possible. Grabbing her backpack from where is rested against the bench, she pulled out a capri-sun and began sipping on it.
"Wait, wait, wait," stopped Aisha, holding her hand up as she showed her phone back to the group. Alex decided not to look, preferring not to be an accomplice in a possible crime, and laid down on the ground beside Casey. "I got a better idea."
"Yasmine's throwing a birthday party at the canyon?" asked Miguel.
"Not if we strike first," she mused. The group seemed satisfied by that, seeing as how smirks grew on everyone's face. It even seemed as if Casey was beginning to smirk on her sleep.
"Hell yeah," grinned Hawk, making Alex groan and look up and over at her boyfriend.
"Noah, don't you think that now would be a wonderful time to leave and get ready for our date?"
a/n: hope you enjoyed the chapter:)
~chloe