ALEXIS MAXWELL
I am currently laying on my bed, covered with blankets just thinking about the events of today. My dad and stepmom were both in a car accident that ended with both them and the other driver dying. I immediately drowned in alcohol and OxyContin because that is what I had.
All of a sudden there is a bunch of banging and all five of my friends come piling into my dorm. "Come here, babe," Ariana says and wraps her arms around me. I just let her stay like that, not hugging her back but also not pushing her away from me.
"Why didn't you tell us that they died?" Amelia steps over to my bed and asks me. "I don't know. It was just an irrational decision. I wouldn't have done anything so stupid if I was thinking I wasn't this time." I say to everyone.
"I have about 6000 missed called from my step-brothers, I just can't face it to call them back though," I add on. "I texted them to tell them that I was still alive, but that is just about it." I finally finish. "They lost a parent too. Don't worry I'm sure that they will understand." Ariana concludes.
"I don't know, I just didn't think that this would ever happen. I was so young when my mom died that it's not like I knew what it was like to have a parent die." I say out loud to anyone that was listening.
"I grew up without parents with my uncle as you know. Getting over their deaths won't be easy but you'll be able to get through it, you have every single one of us to help you." Amelia says. I can feel that this is even making her upset.
—
After spending a few hours cuddling under my blankets talking with everyone I took a much-needed nap because of all the stress that I was dealing with today.
Waking up, I see that no one has moved from their spots besides Andrew, who is nowhere to be seen. I groan and rub the sleep out of my eyes. "Ok, guys get out of here for a little bit we are in desperate need of some girl chat," Ariana says and shoos Oliver and Xavier out of my room.
"Ok, damn, woman," Oliver says to his girlfriend as he walks out of the room.
"Were you really going to kill yourself?" Amelia asks me, looking down. "I wasn't. I honestly have no memory of taking all the OxyContin. I remember getting drunk to forget everything but that's it." I tell her, truthfully.
"Listen, I have all my family but you have us to help you get through it," Ariana repeats, for about the thousandth time. "Trust me, I know I just really want to get my mind off of everything that happened today for now," I tell her.
"That can be arranged" Ariana smirks. "Come in boys!" She yells and the guys come in with a bunch of food in their hands.
"Oh yeah just what I need to feel better about myself, a food baby" I laugh at her antics. "See now you understand my logic'' Ari says. Andrew sits down next to me on my bed and whispers to me "are you really okay, Lex?"
"It sucks and I don't know because they were my family. I don't know how I'm going to deal with this otherwise, but I'll get through it." I whisper back.
It's been a few hours since we had that last talk and we just finished watching our second movie. Andrew and I are laying with our backs against the headboard with my head on his shoulder. "Okay guys, what movie would you guys like to watch next?" Amelia asks us all.
"I don't know but I'm tired, so I am going to bed, so if you guys could go now?" I ask them with a yawn. "Yeah, sure, we will all get going now," Ariana says. "Wait, can I have my copy of your essay so I can start reviewing it?" Andrew asks me before he leaves.
"Yeah, sure, here it is" I hand a second copy of the paper to him. Everyone else is currently stepping out while I'm handing him the paper.
"Goodnight, Alexis-" he stops and lifts my chin to look at him with his pointer finger. He continues with "I don't care how little time I have known you for but I'm here for you and you will come to me if anything is wrong, alright?" He asks me. I nodded softly at him.
"Goodnight, Andrew I'll see you tomorrow," I say to him and he smiles back at me. "Come on get your ass out here!" I hear Ariana yell to him and once I lock the door I get into bed and switch off my table lamp.
—
I wake up to my phone ringing and pull it to my ear and answer with a groggy "Hello?"
"Were you still sleeping?" A voice that I now recognize as Andrew's answers. "Sorry, I'm just exhausted right now," I say to him. "It's okay, don't worry about it. Anyways I read through your essay and there was only one mistake with the basketball knowledge information." He says. I did better than I thought I would. With how fast I was writing down all of the information that he was telling me I thought it would be messed up.
"Damn, I did better than I thought I would, that's good," I say to him. "Honestly you looked very lost whenever I was talking about basketball so I was also expecting a lot worse," he says with a chuckle that makes me giggle.
"Can we meet up at the coffeehouse on campus and go through it? If you're good with it I can also tell you any problems with the actual essay if you would like." He says, hesitantly. "That would be great, that may be the final draft before I write the one that I am going to hand in," I say to him. This project is a lot easier than I was expecting it to be. It's already nearing October and I'm already done with it.
"Sounds great. When do you want to meet?" He asks me. "I'm getting ready to head over to hang out with the girls right now, then after that, we can meet. Tomorrow morning I'm flying out home so that I can be with my step-brothers for a few days until the funeral then a few days after that and then I'll be back. I think I won't be back until Friday." I tell him.
"Okay text me when you are-" he starts and stops all of a sudden. "Sorry about that. That idiot Oliver tripped over a chair. Anyways, where are you from anyway?" He asks me, making me realize we've never talked about where we are from.
"I'm actually from Manhattan," I tell him, surprising him. I can tell by the gasp that he lets out. Most people tell me that I don't seem like a big city girl to them. "Now that one surprised me. I'm from right here in San Diego." I'm surprised I've not heard that at some point. "Now that surprises me-" I mock him in a deep voice. "I'm kidding, that's cool. So you are from close to the school?" I clarify with him.
"About 15 minutes away, so yeah" he explains to me. "Sounds nice, being able to go home any night that you want to," I say, sounding a little sad. I try to control my emotions about this entire time, but there have been a few times when you can hear in my voice how horrible this truly has been for me.
"Yeah, it is nice. We have a family night once a month. With all my brothers, their girlfriends or wives, and the five kids." He tells me, enthusiastic. He then tells me about how on an old football team I would get made fun of constantly for loving my family but it's everything to me.
"That's awesome, we would always have dinner together when I was in New York with everyone. They still had them even when I was not there." I say, sounding a little distracted by my phone that was vibrating with Ariana telling me to get my ass outside.
"Sorry, Andrew, I have to go. Amelia and Ariana are here to pick me up." I tell him. "Alright, I'll see you in a little bit. Bye Alexis" he says and I reply with "Bye Andrew."
Hopping into the front seat of Ariana's car we head back to her apartment. "So, what's up with you and Andrew? Don't think that we didn't hear you talking to him after the rest of us left your dorm last night." She says while wiggling her eyebrows. "You mean us talking about a school assignment," I ask and she lets out a sigh.
"Girl, we have work for you to do." She says and lets out an exasperated sigh.
ANDREW DAVIS
Sitting in a booth at the on-campus coffeehouse, Java. I just finished editing Alexis' essay. Through the past few weeks even though we've only hung out a bunch of times alone, she has become a good friend.
I stand up and wave her over when I see her over. "Hey, thank you for this, I seriously doubt that you know how much I appreciate it," she says. "It's no big deal, but now you owe me a favor" I wink at her. "Ok." she shrugs. "I was just joking," I tell her, surprised that she didn't assume that.
"Ok so, the only basketball fact that you got messed up was for free throws the first shot is one point and the second throw is two points" I correct her writing. "Wait didn't I write that?" She asks, confused.
"No, you had it backward on here," I tell her. "Oh, I thought I already knew that one so I didn't even write that down." She explains to me.
"Ok, the rest of the paper is any spelling, grammar, or any errors like that" I point out some things circled and corrected that I did on her paper.
"Thanks so much, I'm going to head to my dorm to write the final copy, I wanted to have it done before I leave tomorrow. If you would like to come, you can but I need to get started on this." She tells me.
"Sure, I'll come. What time does your flight leave tomorrow though?" I ask. "It leaves at 10:38 so I would like to be there by 9:30," she tells me. "Okay so since as I have noticed you are not exactly a morning person" I tease her and she blushes crimson.
"So, I take it as you plan on finishing this entire thing tonight?" I ask her, seriously this time. "Yeah. I'm going to go and pack and then write this. Are you coming?" She questions.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" I shrug. We head out of there and I follow back to her dorm in her car. Pulling into a spot about three down from her I stand from my car and walk over to where she is leaning against hers.
"Ready to go?" She questions. "Yeah, let's get you started on the torture." I tease her. "Haha" she fake laughs, dryly, knowing I'm only messing with her.
"So, I'm just going to type this up, edit it then send it to my teachers." She says, sighing. "Wait, since you don't have a dance class since they're all dance who do you send it to?" I ask her, confused.
"We'll all my teachers get it and the grades get averaged together." She explains to me. "Oh yeah, that makes sense," I reply to her.
About three hours later, consisting of us just talking and her writing and editing, with an exasperated sigh she says "I'm done with this bullshit, done!"
"Is someone excited?" I ask her to get a shrug in response. "Yes, now I just need to pack and go to sleep." She says, happily.
"Ok, I think I'm going to head out so I'll see you soon," I tell her, giving her a side hug before walking out. "Bye, Andrew" she has before I hear the click of the door closing and locking.
—
Waking up the next morning with a groan I hop in the shower before putting on some black sweatpants with a black San Diego Aztec warriors hoodie. I head out to my car and start driving over to Alexis' dorm hall.
I knock on her door and wait for her to answer, and I see her open it up in leggings a giant hoodie, and slippers on her feet. "I take it that you are airport ready?" I ask her. "Yup, leaving now, why what's up?" She asks.
"Nothing, I just figured that I could be a good friend and give you a ride to the airport so that you don't go in debt by parking there" I smirk at her. "Okay that's fine, you can drive me there." She states hesitantly.
"Do you need help with your suitcase?" I ask her. "No, it's just the one and it rolls so I'll be fine." She tells me.
"Okay, so did you schedule a flight back yet?" I ask her. "Yes, it's on Friday night. It should be landing back here at around 11:49 it says." She states, looking at her ticket.
"Okay, did you want me to pick you up from the airport?" I ask her. "Yeah, of you can. I'll text you before we're landing." She says as we start walking out of her dorm room.
We get in my truck and put her bag in the backseat. "How are you feeling today?" I ask Alexis, who is zoned out looking out the car window. "Fine, I guess." She shrugs.
"You know what I mean, about everything," I say, trying to get her to open up a little. "I mean it hurts more than I thought it would, and I'm going to be in my home with my step-brothers who also lost a parent. Is it bad that I would rather stay here than go to the funeral?" She asks me.
"I don't think so" I start with, and she looks up at me a little shocked. "I think it's normal to not want to have to see them one last time, of course, there'll be pictures but you know what I mean." I finish off. She looks up at me a little surprised.
"What are you? A philosopher?" She asks, teasingly. We step out of the car once we arrive at the airport. "Alright see you Friday," she says to me after we talk for a few minutes standing by my car.
"Alright. See you then." I say sitting back in my car and pulling out of the parking lot, letting about 5 other cars fight for my spot.
About 20 minutes later I pull into my family's home. I walk in the front door and see my brothers and parents already sitting at the table, this tells me that I'm late.
"Where were you?" My mom asks, she must be the sweetest woman on the planet to everyone except family. "I was driving one of my friends to the airport," I tell her while kicking off my sneakers by the front door and walking over to her.
"Yeah, and who is this friend of yours?" Mom asks me in a teasing voice. "Ariana and Amelia's best friend. Her name is Alexis, we've been working on a project together for the past few weeks." I tell my very nosey family.
"School just started, why is she flying somewhere already?" One of my brothers, Ace asks me. "Her step-mom and dad died in a car accident, so she's going to spend the week with her step-siblings and going to the funeral," I tell them.
"Aww, that's so sad. Ready for dinner?" My mom asks me. "You know it," I say, smirking. Everyone knows that I hate cooking, and love my mom's delicious food so it's a win-win for me.
"Has SDSU settled on a graduation date yet?" My mom asks me. In my family, it is kind of a tradition for everyone to go to every graduation.
"So, I heard from Oliver and Ariana that you have a girlfriend?" My oldest brother, Alejandro asks me. "When did you even see them?" I ask him back.
"I was at a restaurant with Emma-" Emma is his wife, together they have three kids. "We saw them and talked for a few minutes and we found that out." He finished.
"I do not have a girlfriend, they're probably talking about Alexis. She's the one I just said we were doing a project." I explain to him. "I don't know, Ariana seemed adamant that you two were together," he says back to me. Meanwhile, our entire family is watching this interaction go down.
"I figured." He sighs, faking disappointment. "You are 21 years old when are you going to get a girlfriend?" He tsks at me. "I just can't right now. Plus, I can't even if I wanted to because then she would have to be introduced to you weirdos and that would probably make her run away." I tease my family.
My mom and dad both took their eyes at me, and my mom says "okay, so who's turn is it to host their Halloween party at the house this year?"
"Mine," I say. Every year we take turns on who gets to host a Halloween party. This year, since it is my last year in college it needs to be good. "Okay well since we can't do anything here anyway, we are just going to head to my parent's house this year," Dad says giving me a pointed look.
"You have 29 days until Halloween to plan, which includes planning how to clean your mess up.'' He says.