Chapter 8 : Sleepover/Party
It was hard to decide whether to call it a “sleepover” or a “party.” “Why?” you may ask. Well, to summarize it in brief, the boys would be staying until 10 PM, while us girls would have our gossip time for the night. Not that I enjoyed gossip, but who cares about that. A girl can indulge at times.
Anyway, the doorbell rang loudly, the sound ringing in our ears. I’d just turned evil on Alix, inviting the two guys she kind of liked... oh, but I didn’t have to be nice all the time. Plus, Alix deserved to get things cleared up. It was obvious she didn’t really like Lance that much but she liked Ben a lot more, so voila! A plan was formed.
The basic summary of my plan: Lily would come over, first. I would tell her that she should try to get Lance to like her, so he would get over Alix and whatnot, and Alix, seeing Lance and Lily, would immediately get over the ounce of “like” she had for Lance and become head over heels for Ben. Then, Alix and Ben’s relationship would rise and they would get to know each other. That would make everything better! And hopefully, maybe Lily would actually like Lance.
The first part of my plan went down the drain when I reached the door.
“Ummm,” a voice, belonging to a particular red head, muttered sheepishly, “I thought I was going to get lost so I left home earlier.”
I rolled my eyes, trying to improvise my plan. No ideas came to mind.
“Wow Ben!” I squeaked. “I just got my plan ready!”
He looked at me. “You had a plan?”
I stuck my tongue out at him, not knowing what to say.
“A plan for what?” he asked.
“Nothing!” I snapped hurriedly. He rolled his eyes, but didn’t push.
Then, the doorbell rang again while Lily waved from outside.
“Hi Lily!” I squealed before jumping over to hug her while Alix hugged too. Then Ben decided to join our hug. “Group hug!”
Lily giggled loudly, like usual, reminding me of Ellie, though her voice was lower. “Hi Reena! Alix! And...” she paused, waiting.
“Ben,” he said. She nodded and winked at Alix in approval. Alix rolled her eyes and stared at the ceiling. It seemed that Ben was oblivious to that exchange.
Ah-ha! Genius idea! “Hey Lily, can you bring your sleeping bag upstairs? I’ll go show you where to put it,” I started. Not only would I be able to tell Lily about the modified ‘plan’, but Alix and Ben would have some alone time!
Lily seemed to understand what I meant, because she replied, “Sure. I need to know where everything is, anyways. I haven’t been here in a long time.”
BINGO! I’m such a genius! I led Lily upstairs, and I heard Ben and Alix start up a conversation in the other room.
“Lily, when Lance comes over, I need you to talk to him. Please,” I begged.
“Um, why?” Lily arched an eyebrow.
“You see, Lance, uh, has a crush on Alix, and she doesn’t return his feelings. I know she already likes Ben, even though she’s only talked to him a couple times. She feels horrible about not being to make Lance happy, but she’s only a friend. And he feels crushed that she rejected him. So-”
“I get it,” Lily nodded. “You want me to help make peace. Well, I appreciate that, and I’ll help!” she smiled.
“Thanks so much!”
We stood in silence for a while. “Hey, do you want to go back downstairs? Or do you want to let them have some alone time?” We looked at each other and smiled secretly.
“Option B,” we chorused in unison, hi-fiving each other. Hey, hi-fiving wasn’t old, even though a lot of people opted to fist-bumps...
“Or you know what? Let’s spy on them!”
SPECIAL~~~Alix’s POV:
What did Reena do? How was I supposed to talk to Ben now? He was sitting right next to me. Oh, what to do? Even though on the outside I usually seemed levelheaded, my mind was reeling ...with panic. I couldn’t bear the growing silence any longer.
“So...” I started. “How old are you?”
“I’m eighteen, and in college,” he began. I was relieved that he had taken the hint to start talking. “I go to BU, and I’m majoring in psychology. It’s really interesting,”
Wow! Psychology seemed like such an interesting topic. “Really? Can you explain some basic principles to me?” We continued talking about psychology, and I learned about ways that the human mind decides as well as other fun facts. Really.
“Wow, we should talk sometime again!” I commented.
“We should,” agreed Ben. “So, do you still have my number?” he asked. I blushed. God, I hated that habit of mine.
“Um, I think it’s hidden somewhere, but I can find it, probably,” Psh. More like it was in my pocket right now.
“But you know, talking isn’t the only way to get to know each other,” he added abruptly. I saw a small glint in his eyes as he leaned a bit closer to me.
He closed the space between us and kissed me.
Then the front door opened.
Back to Reena’s POV:
‘Oh, yes!’ was almost immediately followed by ‘uh oh!’
Tell me, why did Lance have to choose to open the door two seconds later? Why couldn’t he have-I don’t know-dropped his phone on the sidewalk and ran back to pick it up, leaving the couple in peace? Of course, Alix and Ben couldn’t officially be a couple until December, the time of Alix’s eighteenth birthday.
Lily and I both had our mouths open at the scene, though no one saw us. We were peeking from a crack in the door near Alix and Ben. I can’t imagine how awkward it would be for the two of them, especially Alix, because she was the one who Lance was crushing on.
I don’t think Lance saw them kiss, but from the look on their faces (curse Alix’s annoying blushing habit!), I think he suspected it.
“Now would probably be a good time to step in,” I cued in Lily, who nervously came through the door.
No one noticed her, so she cleared her throat. Their eyes snapped on her.
“Um, hi Lance!” she greeted him enthusiastically. He looked at her and smiled.
Brownie points for Lily.
God, I sound like a journalist dissecting every little thing celebrities do. What was up with me? I decided it was finally time to step on the stage.
“Hi Lance! Let’s play Truth or Dare, now, guys!”
“OK! Let’s go to your basement...”
***
“Truth or dare, Alix?” I asked. She understood my question, but she was thinking for a while in silence.
“Dare,” she finally caved. Ugh. I was really bad at thinking of dares! I had so hoped that she would say ‘truth’. I thought for a moment.
“Ummm....steal Ben’s coke and then drink it?” I told her. She looked at me curiously.
“Reena, are you OK?” she asked.
“Yes, I am perfectly fine. You know I stink at dares. Now go, do your dare!” I told her. She sighed for a moment and made to sit back down, but when everyone was least suspecting it, she pounced on Ben’s arm and wrestled the Coke out of it, ignoring his pleas for letting the Coke go. Then, before he could do anything, she’d taken a sip and plopped back down next to me, bright red, though with only a faint basement light, you couldn’t really tell.
Well, I could tell.
Ben also seemed red, matching his red hair. Lance eyed their exchange and shrugged. I looked over at Lily. Even though I’d asked her to keep peace, she didn’t really seem to be doing anything. She looked intently at Lance, and I suddenly got the feeling she liked him.
Ohh, that would be good.
Lance seemed to notice her gaze also, and looked over at her.
“Umm...” was all he said.
She blushed and looked away from him, while Alix went on with the game of Truth or Dare.
“So, Lily, truth or dare?” she asked.
Lily thought for a moment. “Dare,” she finally said.
Alix looked around the room, her eyes rested on Lance, a smile creeping up her face, a smirk threatening to be exposed. When Lance caught this expression, he raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
She looked back at Lily. “Kiss Lance. On the lips.”
Lily sputtered, “What?!” Her face was bright red, like what Ben’s had been. She gave us a panicked look, and glanced at them. I followed her gaze. Ben and Lance seemed to be getting on pretty well, much better than the parking lot incident. Maybe Lance had already gotten over Alix.
She slowly climbed to her feet and both of them gave her a wary look. Ben grabbed hold of his coke a little tighter, while Lance looked from side to side for his.
When Lance least expected it, Lily pounced. Landing on top of him, she flushed further red but her lips smashed against Lance’s.
Before Lance could react, Lily had already ran off back to us girls and her face was flaming red like a tomato. Lance had turned red also, touching his lips with wide eyes. I sent Alix a sideways grin while she returned it with a roll of her eyes. Nice thank you, Alix, I thought to myself.
After playing for awhile longer, Lance getting dared to kiss Lily and them making out, Ben being dared to kiss Alix, and them making out, it was ten. As the boys left, both flushed, we waved and promised to all get together again.
***
Laying in our sleeping bags in the middle of Alix’s large living room, all the lights off, we whispered excitedly. Both Alix and Lily were happy, for they had boyfriends then. I sighed and snuggled deeper. Their prince charmings sure came fast, I thought to myself.
Staring at the dark ceiling, I thought of what I’d be like, once school started. When would we see Ben and Lily again?
Drifting off to sleep while excited whispers floated around me, I thought.
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A/N~Sorry for the long gap in between updates... I've been pretty busy with tests in school, piano stuff, and other stuff in general... yeah XD
Well, I hope you liked this chapter... I tried very hard...
Oh, dedicated to by buddy Alex because she's awesome and got my inspiration fueled up again by writing a little in the middle of the chapter. So, thanks Alex! (Who the character Alix is based off of) If you hadn't helped, I would still be suffering from writers' block and tryingt o figure out something new to write.
I've started to become obsessed with writing short stories, I've started writing some based off of some songs... I'll post them sometime soon (Another reason I wasn't writing this one much)
But it'll be okay! Because I have already written most of the next chapter! (I wrote it awhile ago, just I forgot about the wedding so I had to add in a bunch of stuff and rewrite and blah lol...)
Sorry for the very long and basically meaningless author's note... yeah.
Well anyway I hope you liked this chapter and sorry if they're any spelling/grammar errors... lol