Chapter 8 – No it's not.
Alexa's POV
After Beck leaves I make my way back into the kitchen, already prepared for the foul mood of my sixteen year old brother. He seems to be stuck in his rebellious teen stage and I can't help but roll my eyes when I see he's still sulking about the fact he has to do the dishes.
"This is all your fault," he grumbles, scrubbing a plate in the sink with the brush and glaring at me.
"How is it?" I ask, raising an eyebrow as I pick up a towel and get to drying. "You threw the carrot at me, dude."
"Whatever," he says, still clearly pissed off. "It's still your fault."
Wow, what wonderful logic and reasoning.
Right then, mum walks back into the kitchen, most likely to check to see if we're actually doing the dishes.
"He seems nice," she eventually comments when she's satisfied with our work, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that she's not talking about Dylan. She's clearly trying to fish for more dirt on Beck... not that anyone in this town seems to have any to begin with. Beck is clearly a guy who likes to keep his story to himself and, surprisingly enough, he seems to be doing a good job of it so far... no thanks to my parents constant prying throughout dinner.
"Yeah, he's alright," I agree with a small shrug, opening the cupboard by my knees to put the clean plates away. "I don't really know all that much about him."
It's true, I don't... other than what my parents uncovered at dinner and the fact that he's clearly running from a broken heart, although my mother really doesn't need to know that part. What was her name...Lilly? Lucy? That's it. I'm pretty sure it was Lucy.
"How long is he staying for? He's got a job at the pub so he must be planning on staying a while, right?" she asks.
"I don't know," I reply. "He's staying for as long as he's staying for. I'm just happy I get to share the workload with him until Jenny gets back."
"Does Jenny know he's staying at her old place?" Dylan asks, passing the next plate to me.
"Yeah," I reply, quickly drying the plate and putting it in the cupboard.
I passed the idea over to my boss after Beck's first shift at the pub, and I told her that he seemed pretty switched on and knew what he was doing. She told me that she'd trust my judgement until she and Stuart get back and then she'll talk to Beck herself.
That's if he even sticks around for that long.
Once all the dishes are clean and put away, Dylan and I both split ways and leave the kitchen. Mum left a little while ago to join the others watching TV, and that seems to be where Dylan is headed as well, but I choose to just go upstairs to my room.
I'm tired and, right now, there's nothing more I want than some peace and quiet away from my family. I love them all to bits but they can be quite a handful sometimes.
After my shift this afternoon I spent the rest of the day entertaining the twins and
Layla. The three of them have an extreme obsession with my hair and I lost count of the amount of different hairstyles I ended up wearing today. I'm not going to lie... they all looked awful. Luckily, I managed to get my hair back to normal before Beck showed up.
Speaking of Beck and family, my mind wanders back to earlier when mum decided to pry too deep into his life. He'd said it was just him... meaning he's on his own. So he has no family? I wonder what happened there... did they disown him or something? Why? What could he have possibly done to warrant that? Or maybe that wasn't the case, at all... maybe something else happened.
I can feel my curiosity burning in my brain but, unlike Mason, I don't plan on going out and bluntly asking what the deal is with that. There are boundaries that even I can't cross and I know better than to even try.
Beck's not the kind of guy to just hand you all the answers, especially not about something as personal as his home life. I've only known the guy for a week and I already know that.
It's like earlier, right before he left, when I asked a question that he wasn't comfortable with. It wasn't even a question, really... more of a hint at a question... but he instantly shut down before I could even figure out what was happening. It was kind of unsettling to watch, I'm not going to lie, and it's clearly a skill he's mastered over the years.
I wonder why. I wonder what happened that was so extreme as to cause such a defence mechanism within him... because that's exactly what it is. A defence mechanism. I've seen similar reactions in others passing through town, but not quite to the same extent as Beck. They're all running from something, though, and Beck's no exception.
Just then my phone starts ringing, bringing me out of my thoughts as I fish it out of my back pocket and check to see whose calling.
It's Darcy.
"I'm going to kill him!" is the first thing she says after I answer and put the phone to my ear.
"Kill who?" I ask, surprised by how angry she sounds.
"Mitchell!"
Ah, shit.
"What's he done now?" I ask.
"He's only gone and gotten himself a job!" she informs me, making it seem like the scummiest thing he could've possibly ever done.
Um... what?
"Ugh, my God, the asshole!" I reply, unable to keep the amusement and confusion out of my voice. She soon picks up on it.
"Don't laugh! It's a job at Frankie's!" she tells me, wiping the smile off my face straight away.
Frankie's hotel? As in the same place that Darcy works at?
"Why the hell would he do that?" I ask.
"Because he wants to destroy me," she says sulkily. "Why can't he just stay out of my life?"
"Because he's an asshole," I say, this time completely serious.
What a wanker.
"I should quit."
"You shouldn't quit."
"Why not?"
"Because you've gotta stand your ground," I tell her. "Show him that he can't mess with you anymore and he'll soon go away."
"Why are guys such knobheads?" she asks with a sigh.
"I don't know, maybe it's in their DNA," I reply with a shrug, immediately transported back to thoughts of my runaway ex-asshole.
We're silent for a few seconds, both lost deep in our own thoughts, until she speaks back up again.
"Tell me something interesting," she demands, taking me off guard slightly by the sudden change of subject.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because if you don't take my mind off him then I'm going to walk over to his and punch him in the face," she answers honestly.
She's not joking, I can tell.
"Meh, I don't know. That sounds more fun. Can I join?" I ask with a laugh.
"Alex..." she whines before letting out a big sigh.
My friend is such a stresshead.
"Okay, okay," I agree, wracking my brains for something to tell her. "Well... we've finally gotten our fridge fixed."
Isn't it a wonderful life I lead... where a working fridge is the highlight of my day?
"Your dad got over his deal with Trevor, then?" she asks, sounding surprised by this. Not that I can blame her... dad's hatred for that guy runs deep.
"Ha! Has he hell," I reply with a short laugh, rolling my eyes. "No. The war is still ongoing."
"Oh, then how...? Please tell me your dad didn't fix it," she says. "I thought your mum told him he wasn't allowed to fix anything after his little DIY fail last time."
His little DIY fail being the time he tried to fix the plumbing in the bathroom. We were all woken up at three in the morning by the sound of running water, only to find the entire of the upstairs bathroom flooded. To this day, we still have no idea how he managed it. Let's just say it cost us a lot more to get the damage fixed than it would've just to call a plumber out in the first place. Mum was not happy.
"No, Beck took a look at it for us. Apparently it was a really easy job to fix it, it only took him a few minutes," I tell her.
A silence stretches between us on the line, to the point that I have to check to see if my phone has spontaneously hung up or something... they do that sometimes and it's really annoying. It hasn't, though.
"Hello?" I ask.
Has she accidentally muted herself? Again, it has been known to happen.
"You invited him home to meet your parents?" she asks eventually, and I can't help but roll my eyes.
"No. I invited him home to fix my fridge," I correct her.
"But your parents were there?"
"I guess."
"So that's basically the same thing!" she practically squeals, sounding way too excited for my liking.
Um... is it, though? Is it really?
No. No it's not.
"Okay," I say, rolling my eyes once again. "I'm hanging up now."
"Wait, wait," she says. "What happened after that?"
I sigh.
"He ate dinner and then he left," I inform her, already bracing myself for her response.
"He stayed for dinner?" she all but screeches down the phone at me. "Oh, my God, what did you eat? Whatever it was it's going to be served at your wedding."
Ah, crapsticks.
"Okay, so you're an idiot," I tell her flatly. "I hope you are aware of this fact."
"He stayed for dinner!" she replies, as if I didn't already know.
"I didn't invite him to stay, my mum did!" I tell her.
"Tomato potato," she replies, and I can't help but snort a laugh.
"I don't think that's how that saying goes, Darce," I say.
"Not important. He ate dinner. Was everyone there?"
I roll my eyes.
"Yes, it was a completely romantic dinner date with my parents and nine siblings," I say drily.
"Um, no need for the sarcasm, missy!" she says. "What did your family think of him?"
"I don't really know. I didn't exactly ask."
"You didn't ask?"
"Um... no?" I reply with a small shrug. "I don't really care what they think. My dad thanked him for fixing the fridge before he left, though, and he and Dylan seemed to get on well."
"You don't care if they approve or not?" she asks. "That's cute."
"You're officially delusional."
"But your dad approves anyway? That's great! I'm calling it now that Dylan's going to be the best man," she says seriously.
"Best man?"
"At your wedding!"
Jesus fucking Christ.
"You're crazy," I sigh.
The only response I get to that is an evil sounding laugh from her end.
"You love me," she eventually says.
"Right now that's debatable," I reply.
"Butthead," she calls me, and I can't help but laugh.
"Okay, I'm calling for a topic change," I announce, shaking my head.
"Just because you know I'm right," she says.
"About Beck or about me being a Butthead?" I ask.
"Both."
"Fuck off," I tell her with a laugh, shaking my head again.
My friend is such a moron sometimes, I swear.
"Nah, clearly you need me too much," she replies.
"What for?"
"Um... to set you up with Beck, obviously," she says, putting on her best 'duh' voice.
"Um... no, thanks," I reply, rolling my eyes and shaking my head. "Beck and I are just... friends."
I mean, are we even really friends, though? I've only known him for a week. He seems pretty cool, don't get me wrong, but I know next to nothing about the guy. Maybe he's some sort of serial killer or something. Let's not rule out that possibility just yet, you can never be too cautious.
"Well, I plan on changing that," she says.
"I'm really not interested in him like that, Darce," I tell her truthfully. Honestly, I'm not. "Besides, what happened to all guys being knobheads?"
"You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your Prince, Al," she tells me.
I roll my eyes.
No, thanks.
Jonah was the last lizard I'm going to kiss for a very long time... or amphibian, I guess... whatever. The point still stands. I'm done with assholes.
"I don't have a Prince," I say.
"Not yet."
"Not in this town."
"We'll see," is all she says.
Ugh.
After a few minutes more of talking, when I'm fully certain she's calmed down about Mitchell, I let her go and get back to doing absolutely nothing in my room. I'm tired but it's still too early to go to bed and so I just sit on my bed, thinking about the day's events.
I eventually decide to watch a film on my laptop but, before it's even halfway through, my eyes start to droop and I fall asleep.
(Hey guys!!! So, here's chapter 8! I'm not sure what to make of it to be honest. It was planned in my head better than it actually came out, I think, which is kind of annoying. Nonetheless, I hope y'all like it.
What are your thoughts on the characters so far? Characters other than Beck, I mean... cos who doesn't love him, am I right? Also, what do you guys think is going to happen next? I have most of it all planned out but I'm still making a few tweaks to the plan here and there so even I might surprise myself :')
So, yeah, It's late and I'm tired so I'm gonna keep this short. I hope you guys liked the chapter and are enjoying the story so far (even though we're not really that far into it yet, haha) and if you did/are then don't forget to Vote/Comment/Add/Follow, thanks!!! :D
Sorry for any mistakes, I'm sure you all know the drill on that by now :)
I'm not sure when the next update will be, hopefully within the next few days, but I'm not 100% sure on what's going to happen next or how I'm going to write it so I don't know. I mean, I know where I'm aiming for but I don't know how to get there quite yet, you get me? Anyways, my problem to deal with, not yours so no worries. I'll figure it out, I'm sure :)
Okay, so, until next time, byeee!!!)