ALANIS
I noticed the boy had a thick accent from overseas, which took me by surprise. "Yeah, today is my first day here. I live next door to the most loving siblings ever." I point towards Poppy and Liam.
The blonde haired boy lets out a giant laugh that is extremely heartwarming while doubling over. "Oh my god, she knows you both so well already."
"Shut up Ni." Liam says while smiling himself.
Oh so that is Niall. He has vividly wild blue eyes that look even more insane in the sunshine. His hair is a spiked and styled platinum blonde color. I notice he doesn't seem to have any visible tattoos, but is clad in a white loose tank top and blue shorts that have a small pattern on them. He is a good looking guy honestly.
While Niall and Liam aren't paying attention to me for the moment, I shift my eyes back and forth between Poppy and Niall and nod my head while discreetly giving her a thumbs up. I mouth, "he's cute" to her, which awards me a giant smile and her cheeks to turn rosy.
Niall quickly turns his attention back towards Poppy and I. "Hey Pops. How're you today?"
"Oh. I'm good. Like yeah. Like I'm good. Yeah. So like... how are you today Nialler?" Poppy was fidgeting with her hands while trying hard to look laid back. This girl is down bad for Niall I can already tell, it's pretty cute.
"Oh you know, just uh.. hanging out. It's a good day."
"Jesus could you two be more awkward." Liam groans out disrupting their conversation.
"Hey now Mate, it's young love blossomin' in front of yer' face." A new messy haired brunette boy throws his arm around Niall and spoke with a thick accent.
"Stop it!" Poppy whines. "Can all of you like... just shut up for once about something dang. Lou here, meet my friend." Poppy pulls me forward a little towards the brunette boy, "Lou, Alanis, Alanis, Lou."
"Like the singer?" Louis asks me.
I swear, I get asked that more than ANYTHING probably. Thanks mom and dad. Why couldn't I just be a Brittany or Danielle, something normal and lame.
"How do you even know who Alanis Morrissette is Louis? Are you going all top 40 on us now?" Liam asks knowing that I probably didn't wanna' repeat my name history again.
"Yes. Didn't you actually know, my totally fave band is Backstreets and Destiny's Child. Is that a problem to you?"
"It's Backstreet Boys you dummy. Nice try." Poppy pokes Louis in the chest as she corrects him.
"Same difference. Anyway, you guys here to talk music or to ride?" Louis changes the subject himself and turns around to walk away.
It took a whole of about five seconds before Niall looked down and saw my board, he yanked it out of my hands while shouting at me, "SHUT THE FUCK UP ALANIS. Where did you get this? Whose is it? Do you know how to ride? Can I ride your board? Is this your board? Where? I am... OH MY GOD."
"Slow down Ni, she can't even answer you at that rate." Liam tells him.
"Yeah uhm, it's mine. I saved up and bought it a while back. Uhh... I kinda' know how to ride I guess... What were the other questions?"
"Come on, don't hound her. Let's go dude. She will think you're a loser in time, you don't have to prove it right now." Liam starts dragging Niall away who had handed me my board again, probably the hardest thing for him to do given how much he seemed to be clinging to it while he held it.
I told Poppy I was going to hang back with her for a few, maybe go grab some boardwalk food, and just take in the vibe of the park before I started skating... to be honest I was nervous. I definitely know how to hold my own on a board, I've been skating since I was like 11... but I always get nervous in front of strangers.
Poppy loved the news of me spending time with her, and she accepted by first dragging me back onto the boardwalk where she found a food stand a few feet down. She grabbed us two sodas and heavily loaded up corn dogs. I had to talk her into not getting fries, cotton candy, and a funnel cake also. "We are two people Poppy, not the entire park, chill. We can grab more food before we leave, I promise."
"I just love food, what can I say!" Poppy laughs before taking a giant bite of her corndog and getting a bunch of condiment across her face.
"Oh my god, you are a total mess." I laugh while she tries to get a napkin to clean up. She succeeds about halfway before I just decide to yank away the napkin and wipe it all off myself.
"Wow, I think we just had a moment. Isn't this the moment we are supposed to stare into each others eyes and find out we are in love and screw the boys, running off into the sunset to be together?" She holds onto my wrist dramatically saying.
"Calm down jailbait. You aren't legal and aren't you with Niall?" I tease her.
Another giant bite, another mess. This time she succeeded to clean it though.
"Okay so here's the deal. Niall and I went to a school dance when I was a freshman right. The kid was so damn cute. The accent, the smile, the eyes, oh my god. Then he was just so funny. His laugh alone could cure cancer I think. Well I totally was like... that's the one."
"So you do love him?" I am sure my eyes grew in size but the story was cute and still surprising even though I was sure I already knew.
"EW. God no. Love at 17? No way. The one... like... the one." She says while making a hinting gesture towards her crotch again. "I let him take my V-Card." She whispers to me.
My face instantly flushed red, I was hoping I could blame it on the sun.... the heat... not me being embarrassed right?
"Oh shut up. No way. Bitch. You're like 20 you said right? How are you a virgin still!?" She yells at my face while bouncing on the heels of her feet in excitment.
"I'm still 19. But yeah, so like... my dad is really strict, I didn't really have people over. The dudes in my school sucked. I thought for a while maybe I like girls. Then like I realized that everyone in my school was gross. I don't know. It's kinda' a scary thing. People make it seem like such a big deal." I rattled off a list of reasons why.
"That's cute as hell. But like... please... I am begging you... you gotta' promise me something." Poppy's happy face dropped and it was replaced with something more serious.
"Yeah, of course what's up..." I normally wouldn't make a promise so soon to someone, but this seemed really important and I thought I knew where the conversation was going to go.
"Please promise me you won't... like... I mean I guess you could... but really please don't.... just don't lose it and give it up to-" I knew what she was going to say. OMG did she really think I would do that to her? I knew we just met but no way would I do that.
"Niall." I say at the same time she says "My brother."
We both stop and look at each other and she laughs. "Oh dude, if you wanna fuck Ni, I mean it'll sting, but oh well. We aren't a couple so I can't be mad. Plus he is cute so I get it. But no way. Nope. No fucking Liam. That's just gross. He is like... I mean... did you know he literally eats his cereal plain... no milk... like just outta' the box. That's some serial killer shit right there. Also he literally has the smelliest feet ever. Boys are so gross sometimes."
I couldn't help but laugh at everything Poppy admitted.
"Okay so, no Liam. No Niall, 'cause just... well no. I like you too much for that Pops." I tested out the nickname I heard everyone else calling her. She smiled at me, okay cool, that's a go ahead to use it I think. "So I guess Louis is the winner. Ding ding. Lou come ravage me!" I say while I pretend to dramatically go running back to the skatepark.
"Oh just wait, you also haven't met Mr. Moodybutt yet. Speaking of the devil, drama at two o'clock."
I turn to where Poppy mentioned and see a blonde haired girl arguing with a curly brown haired boy. Both of them looked absolutely pissed and ready to rip each others head off.
"Who is that?" I ask, not really sure if I wanted to know. They both looked fierce and mean... not really the people I would wanna hang out with.
"Eh, it's no one. Let's head out. Come on." Poppy's mood had shifted and I could tell, but I didn't totally get what happened to make it occur. Instead I followed her back to the skatepark.
I turned back only once to see the curly haired boy running his hands through his hair and tugging on the ends while still talking, meanwhile the blonde was now looking at me. She gave me a snarky looking smile that was laced with venom and hate before directing back towards the mess of curls and ignoring me.
Jerry Springer, hey, I have two new people that you apparently need to meet and it's Blondie and Curly from the Venice Beach Boardwalk. You are welcome for the tip.
***
After everyone had been skating and hanging for a few hours, I still hadn't gotten on my board. A few times the guys came to check that I was okay, which I told them I just wanted to spend time with Poppy and was tired from moving. Not a total lie, but I didn't want to say I was scared.
I never saw the couple from the boardwalk come here, but I didn't really think about it for long. I was instead focusing on everything else in front of me. Louis was an incredible skater, he had insane speed, which partially was due to his small frame I bet. He was the smallest of the guys, but still good looking. He also had more tattoos than the other guys, which were shown off the moment he took his shirt off. Not a bad sight.
Niall was definitely the least coordinated, he just had fun with it I could tell. He didn't fall much, but he stumbled a lot, and would mess up his tricks, but never enough to land on his ass. Liam would alternate between talking to friends and skating, he was the hardest to watch because of that.
"So I know we just met and all... but like... I mean since we are supposed to run away and everything in two days when I'm legal... do you like... wanna' be besties?" Poppy playfully says while bumping her body into mine in a swaying motion.
Poppy and I were both sitting in one of the bowls with our feet dangling, shoulder touching, and my board rested on my lap. I did let Niall use it and it seemed like Christmas to him, but he was nice to give it back right away, after only riding on it for about ten minutes. He said I made all his life dreams come true.
"I don't know... I have SO many other potentials that are literally lining up around the block... maybe you can take a number?" I joke to her while waving my hand around like everyone at the park was dying to take me up on the offer.
"Oh stop. Well here's the deal, I am asking 'cause like... I recently-ish kinda' ended things with my bff... so like... my birthday party is this weekend right... and like... I thought maybe you'd wanna come over and do hair and make up... maybe help me blow up balloons and stuff? Liam is gonna' grab alcohol and Niall is making a cake. But I told them I would decorate things myself. I wanna' do streamers and balloons."
"Dude! Yes! Of course. That would be super fun. Although.... my dad is coming home this weekend and he isn't keen on parties... so he might not like a party happening next door and especially one with alcohol that his underage daughter is attending. Fuck." I was now worried and if dad found out he probably wouldn't let me hang with Poppy at all, and deem her a bad influence.
"Oh we have that covered no worries. We aren't having the party at our place. My dad would DIE if we did that. We are going to one of the guys houses to have it. So what do you say? You can tell your parents we are having a sleepover at my house also, so that if we get home late they won't be upset. My dad is gone all weekend, so he won't care." Poppy has a solution for everything. I love it.
"Where is your dad? Wait where is your mom? Your parents weren't there today either. Damn, you are lucky."
"Well.. no. But thanks. Mom is six feet under, but dad is a pilot, so he is like 24/7 never home. We get him like six days a month to be honest. Liam and I just hang together usually. Hence why his friends are my friends and vice versa."
Poppy's confession was so abrupt it took me by surprise. Her mother is... dead?
"I'm so sorry Poppy."
"What for?" She finally looks at me and sees how somber my face is, "Oh shit. You mean about my mom? No it's totally fine! I'm like... like way more okay with things nowadays. Therapy and all that jazz." She waved her hand in front of her face like brushing it all off, "Mom died when I was seven, so I don't have a TON to go off of, but she had a brain tumor and ended up going to bed one night and then.... never woke up. She always complained about migraines and stuff like that, I didn't totally get it as a kid but like now I'm older and she was in pain and stuff so. ANYWAY, let's uhhhh.... let's not do this on day one of meeting. You're gonna' think I'm some trauma dump."
She lets out a small laugh, while I tried my best to not feel the need to hug her and hold her for the moment. I could never imagine losing a parent. Dad is a pain in my ass but wow, I couldn't fathom losing him. Mom, no way, I would spiral.
The rest of the time at the park Poppy and I instead talk about lighter things from music, arcade games, the best stores on the boardwalk, where to grab coffees, the only bars that don't card, and she even told me which parts of the beaches that allow dogs so that sometime I can take Domino.
Once Liam and Poppy decide we should head back, we all pile back in the car. Niall gave me a hug goodbye, while Louis gave me a small wave and a 'welcome to Cali'.
I spent the rest of the night hanging with mom and Domino, who were both excited that I came home early. Mom and I ate dinner and started watching her guilty pleasure movie, 'The Wedding Singer'.
So far, I like it here.
***Author's Note Below***
I cannot wait for some of the plans that involve this story!!! I hope you guys like it and get into it.... I know I am so ready to live my best 90's life all over again lol.
Don't forget to vote, comment, and let me know what you think so far!
-Thena