Alice
“Is it possible to be happy and repulsed at the same time?” Zoey asked with a teasing smile.
I grinned at her. “I suppose.”
“Oh my gosh,” She laughed as we walked down the hallway of the school towards our English class the next day. “You’re like, glowing or something.”
“Maybe.” I giggled. After I kissed Lance, we kissed for a really long time until Zoey interrupted us by knocking on the door and demand that I go into her room and tell her everything, and so I did. After that, we went to my house and spent the night there before coming to school this morning with my driver, Jarrod.
“Are you making your thingy public?” Zoey asked curiously.
“I assume so,” I told her. “I mean, he asked me to go to the garden party with him.” Zoey’s parents were having a “garden party” as a goodbye kind of thing for Lance, and last night, he called me once I was at my house with Zoey to ask me if I wanted to go with him, which is kind of a huge deal because it’s public and the party’s going to be covered by the press. Which means yes, our relationship will be covered by the press.
“Tomorrow?”
I nodded. “Yeah, tomorrow. The one at your house.”
“Our parents are going to have a fit.” Zoey said, rolling her eyes.
I shrugged. “So is my dad, but oh well, right? We’ll deal with it.”
“That’s the spirit.” Zoey laughed as we walked into our English class.
“You should get a date.” I chirped.
“Yeah, right.” Zoey scoffed. “Where?”
“There’s like, fifteen guys in this class.” I told her. “Ask one of them.”
She shook her head like I was crazy, and she had the right to, that idea was pretty ridiculous. “Never.”
I smirked at her. “Well, I have an idea then.”
Zoey sighed heavily right before the bell rang and class started. Mr. Gerald was our English teacher, and he was pretty nice but his homework was intense. At least, that’s what he told us yesterday. Which is fine, I suppose, I don’t really mind homework all too much.
“Today,” Mr. Gerald announced. “We’re going to partner up with somebody that’s not sitting beside you.”
“Oh, that’s just great.” I muttered, looking over at Zoey to see that she also wasn’t too happy about this already.
“Just have a conversation about your thoughts on Hamlet, you should have read that last year.” Mr. Gerald continued. “That’s all you’re doing today, so go ahead and get started, find a partner.”
I knew that me and Zoey could have been partners- being the Bowman and Chase girls, none of the teachers yelled at us for anything, but we didn’t like that. Like I said, getting the same schedule is really the only thing we abuse our power for. So we follow the rules, even if we didn’t have to or particularly want to in this case.
I also knew that we would have to do all the work in finding partners because everyone is too afraid to come up to us and ask to be our partners.
We shared an eye roll before standing up and scanning the room. A lot of people already had partners, since they weren’t sitting by all of their friends, and there were a few awkward people lingering around the room, waiting for somebody to come up to them.
“Oh, him. The guy you bumped into yesterday.” Zoey pointed to a blonde kid who was sitting alone. I didn’t see him yesterday, but I guess he’s in this class too.
“Okay, what about you?” I asked her.
She pointed to a girl that was sitting near the blonde boy. We nodded at each other and then walked over to the two, when they saw us approaching their faces turned into ones of shock.
“Partners?” I asked the blonde boy nonchalantly.
“Oh, um, yeah, sure.” He muttered in shock.
“How about you, do you have a partner?” Zoey asked the girl nicely.
“No.” The girl squeaked, looking like she was about to pee herself.
“We don’t bite.” Zoey laughed, sitting in the desk beside the scared girl as I sat down in the seat in front of the blonde boy, turning it around to face him.
“I’m Alice.” I chirped. It’s a great ice breaker.
“Yeah, I know.” The blonde boy chuckled.
I sighed heavily. “That was my way of asking you what your name is.”
“Oh.” He said quickly. “Jason.”
“Okay, cool. So, Hamlet.”
“We don’t really have to talk about it.” Jason told me. “You probably didn’t even read it.”
“Excuse me?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“Well, did you?”
“You have to read Hamlet to pass junior year English.” I told him dryly. Was he stupid or something?
“Well, yeah but I just figured that…” He trailed off.
“You just figured that I buy my grades?” I asked with raised eyebrows. His face reddened and he looked almost as afraid as Zoey’s partner. “Well, I don’t.”
“Okay.” He appeased. “Sorry.”
“Whatever.” I muttered. I didn’t like this kid already, even though he’s just like everybody here, they all just assume things about us that just aren’t true. Just because we have money doesn’t mean we buy our way through life. “So, Hamlet,”
Forty five minutes later, Jason was looking at me with widened eyes and a dropped jaw.
“What?” I frowned.
“Oh, nothing.” He blinked as if he just realized that he was gaping at me. “You’re just really smart.”
“Not really, but I’ll take the compliment. Thanks, I guess.” I muttered, seeing that was about to ring, so I pushed my pencil into my bag and stood up, turning the table back around.
The girl that Zoey was working with didn’t seem scared anymore as they said their goodbyes just as the bell rang. I stood with Zoey at the back of the class and waited for everyone else to file out of the room before going out ourselves so that we weren’t in the clutter of people fighting their way out the door.
“How’d it go?” Zoey asked me.
“Well, I started talking about the philosophy behind the story and he looked at me like I was a monkey doing the Macarena.” I mumbled.
Zoey laughed as we walked down the hallway towards calculus. “You can’t just start discussing relativism and existentialism with these people, they think you’re as dumb as you look and it just freaks them out.”
“I look dumb?”
“Blonde, you look blonde.” She chuckled.
“Oh, please.” I mumbled. “We all know that blondes have more fun.”
“Yeah, right.” Zoey scoffed as we stepped into the calculus class room.
At lunch, we sat out in the courtyard again. I didn’t get lunch because they had salmon and I’m not a fan of seafood. Zoey didn’t eat either, but it was only because she wasn’t hungry.
“So, about this date situation…” I trailed off with a smile.
Zoey rolled her eyes at me. “I don’t need a date for my brother’s going away party.”
“Okay.” I giggled, waiting for her to cave.
“I am not a third wheel.” She finally blurted after a few moments of silence. “Fine, you win. Get me a date.”
I grinned at her and we stood up from the bench that we were sitting at, walking inside to the cafeteria.
“What are you doing to do?” Zoey asked me cautiously.
“I’m going to embarrass the shit outta you.” I chuckled, standing on one of the chairs of the cafeteria, gaining almost everybody’s attention immediately. “Excuse me!” I called, just for an added measure.
That got everybody’s attention and the cafeteria was now silent. Zoey is lucky I love her, because this attention was not enjoyable.
“Thank you.” I chirped with a friendly smile at the busying silent cafeteria. “Now, who knows who Lance Chase is?” All hands shot up into the air, I don’t even know why I asked that. “Okay, yeah that was a stupid question. Anyway, tomorrow, the Chase family is throwing a going away garden party type of thing,”
“Alice, I’m going to murder you.” Zoey growled, standing next to the chair that I was standing on.
I smiled widely and ignored her as I continued to speak. “And Zoey needs a date. It’s tomorrow at six, so if you want to go just come ask her, we’ll be out in the courtyard. Okay, thank you for your time.” I stepped off of the chair carefully, considering I was wearing baby blue suede six inch heels. They weren’t the most comfortable things, but they matched my pastel floral skinny jeans.
“That was probably the worst idea you’ve ever had.” Zoey mumbled as we walked back out of the cafeteria as the whole room watched us in silence, probably in shock.
“And by that, I think you mean ‘that was genius, thank you so much, Alice!’ then I couldn’t agree more.” I said smugly.
“They think I’m desperate now!” Zoey wailed as we sat back down on our bench outside. There were other people eating outside, but they kept their distance from us.
“Please,” I scoffed. “You’re Zoey Chase, you can’t be desperate.” I said, using a falsetto squeaky voice.
“Right.” She sighed. “That’s not going to work, you know. Nobody is just going to walk up to me and be like, ‘hey, can I be your date?’ if anybody wanted to ask me out, they would have done it way before now. And my outfit doesn’t exactly say friendly.” That was true, she was wearing simple Marc Jacobs skinny jeans with black combat boots and a gray sweater with black letters that spelled out “I hate you” on the front.
“But now they know that you’ll say yes.” I countered.
“Okay, just because somebody asks does not mean that I’ll say yes. I have standards.”
“Oh, yeah like Brad Prescott?” I laughed, referring to the college kid that she hooked up with last month. He was a super jerk, and he wasn’t even cute.
“I was wasted.” Zoey defended. “And it’s not like you did any better with that red headed guy in October.”
“Oh, that was forever ago.” I laughed. There was a guy in October of last year that I hooked up with, and he was just… all around gross. “And I, too, was wasted.”
Just then, the bell rang, so we stood up from our bench and walked back into the school to go to government.
The rest of the classes went by slowly, but thankfully, we get to go home early since we have free period last period and since it’s too early in the year to be studying for anything, they just let us go home.
“What’s up with you?” I asked Zoey when I saw that she had a weird look on her face, she almost looked dazed.
“It worked.” She mumbled in awe.
“What worked?” I asked.
“Somebody asked me to the garden party.” She nearly whispered as we walked down the hallway.
“Well, duh, I told you the plan was genius. So who is he? Is he cute?”
Zoey smiled softly. “His name is Danny, in my creative writing class. And he’s very cute.”
“Good, I can’t wait to meet him.” I grinned.
“I called James, so he’s on his way.” Zoey changed the subject randomly as we walked out the door, along with the other forty-ish seniors who also had a free period eighth period and weren’t sticking around.
“Lance said that he’s picking us up, though.” I frowned in confusion. “He texted me at lunch.”
“Yeah, he’s picking you up.” She told me. “Like I said, I’m not a third wheel, I’m going to give you your couple time and I’ll see you at the house.” Couple… man, that word still felt foreign, but good. It was really, really good. Maybe I was still sleeping and this was still a dream, but it’s one really amazing dream.
“Yours?”
“Sure.” Zoey responded. We stood on the sidewalk, waiting for our rides and when I saw Lance’s yellow Hummer pull up to the curb, I hugged Zoey a goodbye after I offered to wait with her until James got there but she turned me down, so I hurried to the Hummer and hopped into the passenger seat.
“Where’s Zoey?” Lance asked.
“She had James pick her up, she didn’t want to be a ‘third wheel’ I guess.” I replied, looking over at him with a small smile. He’s such a pretty person.
“Good.” Lance muttered, leaning across the center console and pressing his lips to mine. It took me by surprise, but I kissed him back because kissing him just felt so great. It felt so surreal, too, like I was just floating on some cloud. His lips were so soft as they moved against mine, he was such a good kisser.
Honk! Somebody honked at us from behind us on the road.
“I think we’re holding up traffic.” I whispered against his lips.
“I guess we should go.” He muttered.
“I think that’s a good idea.” I said, finally sitting up in my seat and flattening out my white tee-shirt that read “we are young” on the front.
Lance let out a long sigh but finally started driving again, but drove with his left hand so that he could use his right hand to lace his fingers through mine. It felt really, really nice to hold his hand.
“So are you ready for the party tomorrow?” Lance asked.
“I will be once I pick out my dress.” I chuckled. “We’re doing that tonight.”
“I hope you mean ‘we’ as in you and Zoey, because I really don’t want to do that.”
I laughed. “Yes, ‘we’ as in me and Zoey, I wouldn’t force you through that.”
“Good.” Lance chuckled softly. “Don’t you think you’re cutting it close with choosing your dress, though? I mean, aren’t you supposed to get those like weeks in advance?”
“Do I look like I plan ahead?” I asked with raised eyebrows. “No way.”
“Okay then.” He laughed. “Do you think we’ll make front pages?”
I nodded. “Unfortunately.”
“Ouch.” Lance gasped, pretending to have his feelings hurt.
“Oh, shut up, you know that’s not what I meant. Just being on the front page, it creeps me out.” I admitted.
“Yeah, I know.” He sighed. “The wonderful life of unwanted fame.”
“At least you’re getting away.” I told him with a half-smile.
“Iraq isn’t the most ideal place, either.” Lance mumbled.
“Maybe someday we’ll get out.” I said quietly. “Maybe we can move to… I don’t know, Kentucky or something.”
“Why Kentucky?” Lance laughed.
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but we can just live in Kentucky, me, you, Zoey, we’ll just get out of this place and find something better.”
“It sounds so easy when you say it like that.” He muttered.
“I know.” I chuckled. “I wish it was that easy.”
We pulled up to the gate and Lance spoke into the speaker to get the gate to open and then we drove inside, parking in the huge garage.
“Zoey’s already in there.” Lance told me, motioning towards the black SUV that James drives.
“Yeah, I can see that.” I chuckled, unbuckling my seatbelt.
“Well, we could go inside,” Lance continued as he pulled the keys out of the ignition, keeping my hand in his so that I didn’t leave the car. “Or we could just stay here for a little longer.”
I swallowed a dry lump in my throat. “W-what do you want to stay in here for?”
He smirked and I knew what he was thinking, I really didn’t even have to ask, he just makes me stupid. Without saying anything, he leaned closer to me and this time, I leaned in towards him until our lips met in the center. I know we didn’t have too much time before Zoey called me wanting to know where we were, so I sped up the kiss a little faster. In return, he slipped his tongue through my weak lips and I opened my mouth to grant him entrance.
His hand gripped the side of my jean clad thigh and pulled me closer to him until the only thing that was keeping us apart was the stupid middle console that I just kind of wanted to rip out of the car at that moment.
“Zoey’s gunna start to worry.” Lance mumbled, breaking the heated kiss.
I leaned back, trying to catch my breath and nodded. “I suppose we should stop then.”
“Yeah.” He muttered, quickly getting out of the car. I grabbed my bag and followed suit as we walked into the house with my hand in his. I stared at our joined hands in amazement. Our hands molded together like some cheesy novel and it felt so great.
“What are you looking at?” Lance asked curiously as we walked up the set of stairs towards his room. I figured I’d just walk him to his room and then go on to Zoey’s to pick out our dresses for tomorrow.
“Huh? Oh, um n-nothing.” I muttered.
He gave me an “I don’t believe you” kind of look.
I sighed and continued down the hallway to his room, but I didn’t go inside, we just stood in the hallway. “I just never thought that I’d be able to do this.” I said, motioning towards our entwined hands. “It’s kinda crazy.”
Lance smirked- I’ve noticed that he’s been doing that a lot lately and I’m not complaining, he has a hot smirk- and softly pushed my shoulder so that my back was against the wall. “That’s because you’re hopelessly clueless.” He said, pressing his body against mine and placing a soft kiss on my lips.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded lightly.
He chuckled and his warm breath fanned across my lips and chin. “It means that maybe if you opened your eyes just a little more, you would have noticed a long time ago that I’ve been pathetically in love with you since I was fourteen.”
“Well, Mr. Hypocrite, if you opened your eyes just a little more, maybe you would have noticed a long time ago that I’ve been pathetically in love with you since I was thirteen.” I mimicked him with a small blush.
“Okay, touché, I guess we’ll both just be pathetically in love with each other.” He mumbled, kissing my lips again.
“I guess so.” I squeaked, somehow finding the strength inside of me to push away from Lance. “But right now, I have to go dress hunting with Zoey, who is probably furious by now, so I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
He pulled me to him for one last kiss before I started slowly walking away from him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ali.”
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Dedicated to Mille_ because she's just so amazing and a really gorgeous writer, and I finally remembered to make the dedication :P
Thanks for reading and Zoey's POV of this will be posted in chapter 10, so you'll be able to see her side too (:
Thank you so much for reading!! <3