Devin's POV
I awoke slowly to the sound of faint snores coming from either side of me, the room I was in was shrouded by darkness. The only source of light illuminating the room was the slightly ajar door that led to the hallway. After I had taken a moment to recover from the fog of sleep I gently looked over to find that the source of the snoring was coming from Alexander's twin brothers who were tucked into my sides. Carefully extracting myself from their snuggles, I took a moment to shake off the numbness in my arms from the hours of being used as a pillow by the pair. It wasn't until I opened the door a crack wider, allowing light to reveal more of the room, that I noticed there was another person asleep in the room with us. On a bean bag chair behind where I had been sleeping, I saw Alexander curled up in a ball using his suit jacket as an impromptu blanket. His chestnut brown hair was tousled and his shoes had been haphazardly kicked off, leaving them laying on the floor on either side of the bean bag. His full lips were parted slightly, moving in and out gently to the rhythm of his breathing.
I'm being weird, I thought to myself. I quietly stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me lightly before pulling out my phone. I muttered a curse when I noticed that it was already seven o'clock. Janet and the other children had likely already been gone for a few hours. A loud growl from my stomach alerted me to just how hungry I was, Alexander and the twins likely hadn't eaten anything for a while either.
Heading upstairs into the kitchen of the silent house I considered trying to cook something myself, but accidentally burning down my house because I had no idea how to cook wasn't something I felt like dealing with. Ultimately I opted on getting some food delivered.
While I waited I thought it would be helpful to go over the interview requests that Alexander had mentioned earlier. The way these requests work is the interviewer sends a rough outline of the kind of questions they plan on asking whomever they'd like to interview. Much to my surprise, Alexander had already gone through all the interview requests, leaving a checkmark or and an 'X' on the top of the paper. On the bottom of the stack of papers, I found a single paper that he had labeled with a question mark. It was titled, 'The Real Devin Waters', and the questions weren't the usual, shallow, surface-level questions that I had come to expect from these interviews. The questions were more personal and philosophical in nature. I would've been lying if I said I wasn't a little intrigued.
Just as I had finished reading that last request I heard the doorbell ring. I replaced Alexander's question mark with a checkmark and placed a quick signature so he would know I had done it. I rushed to the door so the sound of the bell wouldn't wake up the sleeping boys downstairs, and thanked my security guard after he handed me the bag of food that I'd ordered. Placing the food down in the kitchen I retreated down the stairs and into the nap room that we had all been sleeping in. Alexander and the twins were all still asleep, but I couldn't just let the food get cold. I slowly crept up to the sleeping boy a gently shook his shoulders, not wanting him to awaken in a panic.
I watched as his ocean blue eyes fluttered open and slowly looked up at me. He opened his mouth to speak, but I pressed my finger to his lips and pointed over to the still sleeping children. He froze for a fraction of a second then nodded in response as he quietly got up, grabbed his shoes, and slipped out the door behind me.
"Sorry I fell asleep, I got all my work done and found you all already napping so I decided to join you," he said fixing his hair.
"No worries, I just woke up not too long ago myself. I ordered us some food since I'm sure you all didn't have dinner."
"Oh, thanks," he said smiling coyly, "what time is it anyway?"
"It's about seven-thirty, I can't believe we slept that long."
"Seven-thirty?" he whisper-yelled, "I should've been home two hours ago, the twins are probably starving!"
"That's why I ordered some food, you should wake up the twins before it gets cold though."
He nodded and turned back around, opening the door. I leaned against the door frame and watched him slink up to them and begin humming a song that I hadn't heard before. He slowly raised the volume of the tune he was humming and I noticed both the sleeping boys begin to stir.
"Hey boys, it's time to get up. We've slept all day."
"I don't wanna."
"Me either."
"Devin got us food," he said to them in a sing-song tone.
"I am a little hungry."
"Me too," the other responded, "You have to carry us though, Bubby."
"Come on then," Alexander said picking them up in either arm and trailing off up the stairs as I followed closely behind.
"I wasn't sure what you all liked, but I heard Alexander say he made you all breakfast so..." I said after we had gotten seated around the kitchen table. I opened a to-go box and showed them four full platters consisting of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and some toast. The twins let out an excited squeak and Alexander turned to me giving me a thankful look.
"We love it, thank you, Devin," Alexander told me, giving me a genuinely appreciative smile as the twins had already begun digging into their food.
I couldn't help but feel a little awkward under the sincerity of his gaze. I wasn't used to people being genuine. That's the worst part of making it in the entertainment industry. There are so many fake people who only want to use me to elevate themselves. Other than my parents and Allie, I hadn't really trusted anyone in years. I felt a smile tugging at my lips. For some reason, I felt like I could add Alexander to the list of people I trusted.
A buzzing noise snapped me out of my thoughts. Alexander was muttering something and looking down at his phone.
"Everything okay?" I asked him, noticing a small frown etch across his face.
"Not really, I told Kai he could meet me at my house after I got off work. I'm pretty sure he thinks I've gone and gotten myself killed," he laughed.
"Just tell him you fell asleep," I told him. Kai already doesn't like me, if he thinks I got Alexander hurt again he might just kill me in my sleep. He's got those crazy eyes that say murder isn't completely off the table.
"I did, he's wondering why I fell asleep here though."
"Why don't you have him come here instead? I can order some food for him too if he wants."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, totally," I replied being pretty sure that wasn't a good idea at all.
We finished eating and moved from the kitchen to the living room. Alexander got the twins settled by turning on some cartoons and I gave my gate guards a quick description of Kai so they would allow him in.
I settled down in the recliner beside the couch that the twins and Alexander were sat on. We chatted about work and the interview request I had decided to do. He was worried that the questions would be a little more personal than I was used to but I told him that was what piqued my interest in it in the first place.
It wasn't long after that we heard the doorbell ring.
"I'll get it," I said already moving towards the front door to let Kai in.
I opened the front door to find Kai looking a bit frazzled. He didn't say anything when we made eye contact and he awkwardly shifted on his feet.
"Uh, you wanna come in?"
"Sure?" he said as more of a question than an answer. I turned to the side letting him in and gestured him toward the living room.
"I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I just wanted to apologize to you too," I told him as we were walking to the living room.
"Don't worry about it," he said before he stopped and stared at me curiously, "why are you doing all this?"
"All what?" I asked genuinely confused by the question.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but it's unusual for an employer to allow his employee to sleep at his house and then buy him, his brothers, and his friend dinner. It's not a bad thing, just odd."
"It's simple really, I knew I was hungry and I figured they were too. And you're here because Alexander felt bad that he told you he would meet you at his house after dinner and then never showed."
"You're right, I'm the asshole now. Let's start over," Kai said sticking out his hand, "I'm Kai Dawson, nice to meet you."
"Devin Waters, likewise," I said shaking his hand and letting out a small laugh.
My attention was diverted when I saw the flash of a photo being taken from down the hall.
"Glad to see you two getting along," Alexander said as Kai and I rolled our eyes.
"Don't you dare post that photo anywhere!" Kai yelled running after Alexander as he let out a shockingly girly squeal and took off sprinting toward the living room.
"No running in the hallways kids!" I yelled at them, chuckling at the absurdity of the two.
I once again found myself smiling for no discernable reason. I could get used to this.
When I got back to the living room I found the twins holding Kai down by his arms and saw Alexander laughing so hard that it looked like he was having an asthmatic attack.
"Let me go you little demon spawns!" Kai yelled at the twins, feigning anger.
"You're just lucky Jeremiah doesn't have his bat with him right now or I wouldn't be the only one here with a bruised face," Alexander said, full-on ugly laughing now.
"Say sorry to Bubby," one of the twins ordered Kai. I still can't tell which twin is which yet.
"I didn't even do anything!"
"Say sorry!"
"Fine, I'm sorry!"
"I accept his apology, you can let him go now. Thank you for protecting me, boys."
The two jumped off Kai happily and ran over to Alexander giggling before they hopped on his lap. I heard Kai mumble something about 'little vermin', but I couldn't take my eyes off Alexander. His maniacal laughing from earlier was replaced with a more collected, toothy grin as he snuggled the twins in tightly to him. The crinkles beside his eyes, his impossibly long eyelashes, and his goofy smile framed his face so perfectly that it was like he was hand-crafted by the gods themselves. I hadn't even realized I had been staring until I heard a loud snap in my ear.
"Earth to popstar," I turned to see Kai eyeing me weirdly, "Where'd you go right then?"
"Sorry, just zoned out a bit."
Kai nodded at me but held the same questioning gaze as he had before.
"We should probably get going now," Alexander said starting to sit up.
"Nonsense. It's already after nine o'clock, you all can stay tonight and we can game for a few hours since most of us have already gotten some sleep anyway. When we do get tired I have plenty of guest rooms."
"Sleep-over! Yay!" the twins yelled together.
"Are you sure, Devin? I feel like we've intruded tonight," Alexander told me looking a little concerned.
"Not at all, this is the most fun I've had in a while, to be honest."
"Alright then, I'm down. Kai?"
"Depends. We gaming on Playstation or Xbox?"
"I have a few of each, so whatever system you wanna play on. I also have a few gaming PCs that are ready to go."
"I knew there was a reason I liked you!" Alexander yelled happily, leaving me momentarily breathless. I pulled myself together pretty quickly and plastered a confident smirk on my face just in time for him to turn towards me looking expectantly.
"What?" I questioned confused.
"Where are these PCs you speak of?"
"Oh, right haha," I laughed awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck, "Follow me."
Kai didn't look a bit fooled by my little charade judging from the look in his eyes. I just shrugged him off and led them all to the game room.
Hopefully Alexander is more oblivious than Kai because this could end up being a really awkward summer if he isn't.
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Quick author's note-
I usually don't like leaving these, but I'm worried that switching between Alex and Alexander depending on the point of view can be confusing, especially when it's outside of dialogue. If it is confusing, please leave me a comment here letting me know.
Also, feel free to throw any critiques you have at me. My goal is to become a better writer so don't go easy on me. I can take it. Hope you all are enjoying the story! Thanks!