by Lilly Purdon
“The Spencer’s are hosting an anniversary dinner, and I know Rose’s parents are invited, so she’ll probably be there too.”
I shook my head at my mom. “Rose doesn't do social stuff.”
“But she wasn't home all last night,” my mom tilted her head to the side. “Cleo called me asking if I had seen Rosaline. I told her we hadn’t seen her around recently. She just called me again to update me that Rosie was at a party!”
I was shocked. First things first. “You talked to Cleo?”
“Yes, just this morning. She grounded Rose for talking back, but Rose snuck out. I guess she's finally becoming a teenager, huh Jim?” my mom nudged my dad. “Just two weeks ago Rose started acting up!”
My dad nodded in agreement. “That girl has been good for too long,” he chuckled. “Remember when she made herself throw up in elementary because she forgot her homework?” That memory was still fresh in my mind. It made me crack a little smile.
We were in 3rd grade and the teenager assigned us a page of math homework. Rose forgot to do it so she forced herself to throw up so she would get sent home before math. She told me and my parents about it because she said she felt guilty.
“You like her, don't you?” my mom asked with a smile on her face.
“What? No,” I denied a little too quickly. Grins appeared on my parent's faces.
“You do,” they said at the same time.
“Mom, dad-”
“There's no point in denying it, it's so obvious!” my mom said before I could finish my sentence. “It’s only natural. You’ve been best friends your entire lives.”
“It’s complicated,” I ran a hand through my hair. I was starting to get a headache from the entire thing.
“How complicated could it be? You've been best friends since forever! All you have to do is tell her how you feel.”
“Mom, it's a lot more complicated than that!” I groaned while throwing my head back.
“How? Tell us how? All you have to do is grow a pair and go up there and confront her.”
“Did you just tell our son to grow a pair?” my dad asked.
“Yes, you've got a problem?” my mom snapped.
“No, not at all. I was about to agree with you!” My dad kissed my mom's ass.
“Mom, it's not just that-”
“Give me one good reason why you can't man up and go talk to her.” My mom folded her arms over her chest.
“She's got a guy,” I replied, staring her straight in the eye.
My mom's mouth formed an 'O' shape. She kept opening and closing her mouth like she was about to say something, but nothing came out. She looked like a fish out of the water. “Y-you didn't tell me.”
“Well, I just did,” I said getting up. “Now if you don't mind, I'm going back upstairs to re-think my life.”
“Son, is there anyone else you may be interested in?”
“We found a used condom in the trash,” my dad had to add.
I turned to my dad. “Could you be any more awkward?”
“Yes, if I were to ask you which gender you had intercourse with,” my dad replied with a shrug. My parents were too open sometimes...”"Now answer my question, do you like anyone else besides from Rose. Don't forget, I once was a teenage guy. And when I was obsessed with someone, I always had a backup plan and someone on the side.”
“She’s not a backup plan, but yeah, I do kind of like someone else.”
“She?” my mom turned to my dad, “he’s not gay or bisexual?!”
Thankfully, dad ignored mom. “Why don’t you ask her out?”
“Because I just broke up with her.”
“Smooth move son, smooth move,” my dad said sarcastically.
“Thanks,” I replied with the same amount of sarcasm.
“Who’s the other girl?”
I shrugged.
“Listen, pretty much everyone's invited to this dinner. So chances are both of the girls will be there. At least fix things with one of them.” My dad gave me advice.
I sighed in defeat. He was right, “fine.”
“Good, now go weep for the remaining hours,” he shooed me away.
“And I thought I was better at this stuff,” my mother smirked at my dad.
I got up quickly to get away from my parents. They were way too nosy for my liking.
~*~
----Dustin's P.O.V----
Trent's place was trashed Halloween night. Someone spray painted his family's piano which had been passed on generation after generation. He was so getting his butt whooped. Poor guy was screwed. At least scattered drunk people no longer decorated the place. Over a week later, we were still helping him repair the shit that was broken. What great friends we were.
“Yo Dustin! Someone's calling you!” Trent called from the kitchen.
I got up from picking up pieces of broken glass and ran to the kitchen. On the way, I tripped on Ricky who was attempting to take shirtless selfies on the ground. Trent handed me the phone. I was a little worried when I saw it was my mom. “Hey mom,” I greeted.
“What color of ties do you and Justin want?” she asked, not bother to greet me.
“Blue and what are the ties for?”
“For Axel's step dad's anniversary dinner of course. I told you last month, did you forget?”
I face palmed myself. To be fair, a lot had happened within the last month. “Sorry, I’ve been a bit busy.”
My mom sighed on the phone. “It's okay, just be home by five and tell your brother that. You don't want to be late.” And with that, she hung up on me.
“What does mom want?” Justin asked, walking into the room.
It was clear why she preferred to deal with me, “she asked for tie colors.”
“I hope you told her green.”
I smirked.
“Fuck you, I look like shit in blue.”
I nudged him, “we’re identical twins, and I think we look pretty good in blue.”
“Your fashion sense sucks.”
I just shook my head.
“What are the ties for?”
“We’re going to Axel’s parent’s anniversary dinner tonight, and we have to be home by five.”
“Since when?”
“Apparently she told us last month.”
That seemed to remind him. He swore, “I hate suits.”
“At least we have that in common.”
Suddenly, Trent's phone rang. He picked up and starting saying a lot of okay's. “Yeah dad, bye!” he hung up and looked up at us. “Me three, I guess we're all going tonight, huh?”
“I don't want to go! I don't give a fuck about Axel's parents!” Ricky yelled from outside of the kitchen. “I'm not going,” he said in a firm voice. But a few seconds later he gave up. “Fine I'll go with you! Bye!” He came storming in the kitchen pissed off.
“So I guess everyone's invited, huh?” Justin nudged me in the ribs while laughing.
“I have a feeling shit’s gonna’ go down!” Trent said dramatically.
~*~
Chapter 40 BEFORE THE CLIMAX
----Rose's P.O.V----
“Laptop.”
“Check,” Axel replied.
“Thumb drive?”
“Check.”
“Rope.”
“Got that.”
“Banana peels.”
“Check.”
“Rotten eggs.”
“Tick that.”
“Baking soda and vinegar.”
“Double check.”
“Camera, phone, blindfolds, and rotten pickles.”
“Four yeses.”
“Rotten food.”
“Check, but why do we need so much rotten stuff?” he suddenly asked, looking up from all the expired food items. “We’ve got tomatoes, eggs, onions…” he scrunched up his face in disgust.
“So it'll smell,” I replied. I looked down at the list again, “got all the paint?”
“Even purple, which I despise.”
&
nbsp; “Water balloons?”
He held the package up. The guy was pretty organized when it came to sabotaging.
“Extra clothes, trust me- we’ll need extra clothes.”
“All packed, even brought extra panties for you,” he winked. I reached out and smacked his arm.
“We're trying to be serious here, remember? If we want to ruin this, we’ve got to take this seriously.”
“But what’s the fun in that? Plus, it’s hard.”
“That’s what she said,” one of the twins sang as he walked into my house.
I turned to Axel and narrowed my eyes at him. "Did you lock the door?"
He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“You guys are planning something big, huh?” the twin stuck his nose in our business.
“Which thing are you, the goody two shoes, or the fuckboy?” Axel asked.
“Guess,” he smiled showing his right dimple.
“Justin, what are you doing here?” I greeted.
He grunted, “Dustin shouldn’t have told you.” He threw his head back.
“Good job, Flower.” Axel ruffled my hair, making me smack his hand away. “You're so adorable,” he chuckled.
“God, I'm going to throw up!” Justin gagged.
“Shut up asshole, you're not supposed to be here anyway.” Axel glared at the twin.
“So what are you doing here?”
“I came here to see what you two were up to,” he shrugged in reply.
Axel narrowed his eyes at him making him throw his hands up in the air.
“Okay fine, maybe I also came here to talk.”
“Talk about what?” Axel clearly didn’t want him present.
“Her little friend Kasay who's been causing drama lately.” he He turned to me and raised his eyebrows at me. “Heard Dustin likes her,” he stated.
“No shit,” Axel said.
“Shut up and let me talk to your girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” I asked. The word felt foreign in my mouth.
“We're not exactly official… yet.” Axel tugged at his shirt collar, obviously uncomfortable with the situation we were in.
“But you two were acting all lovey-dovey...” Justin trailed off looking confused.
“That's why I said the word yet, fucktard.”
Justin turned to me. “Why is your bitch so rude?” he asked me innocently.
“He’s not my-”
“I’m not her-”
“There's no point in denying it. You two are obviously in love with each other.” He cut the both of us off mid sentence. We sat there in awkward silence for a while, before Axel decided to speak.
“Get out,” he growled dangerously.
“Dude, I was just stating the truth-”
“Get out!” he growled a little louder this time.
“Fine! Be an asshole and don't admit it,” Justin huffed before leaving.
I stayed silent, not knowing what to say.
Maybe he got mad because he hated being accused of loving a nerd.
I felt my heart drop.
Why would a sexy bad boy fall in love with a nerd?
Sure, maybe he could like a nerd like me, but he wouldn't fall in love with one.
Axel sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Now's not the right time to talk about that kind of stuff.”
I stayed quiet, not wanting to end up saying something I would regret.
“Are you mad at me?” he asked in a quiet voice.
Was I mad at him?
I shook my head in reply, but he saw I wasn’t okay.
“Can you at least reply so I know you're really not mad at me?”
I was mad, I was upset. “I'm not mad,” I replied in a small voice.
Suddenly, he got up, walked over to me, and pulled me into a bone crushing hug. “I know exactly what you're thinking,” he mumbled in my ear. “I don’t want you to think that, because I do like you. It’s just...” he was lost for words.
“Just what?”
He stayed quiet for a moment, before letting me go, “… it’s soon to say it.”
Was it? I was fully ready to admit to it. “I-it's too soon?”
He was internally battling with himself. “Do you even know what love is?”
I was taken aback by the question. “Of course I do.”
He waited for me to continue.
“Love is when you put someone first. It’s when a smile on their face makes your day… it’s when their presence calms and/or excites you… I could go on forever, but that’s my idea of love.”
He seemed to be digesting what I had just said. I couldn’t see the emotion in his eyes. “Let’s worry about that later,” he looked up with a smirk, “we’ve got plans tonight.”
How was he able to switch moods so quickly?
~*~
I wonder how my hair felt about getting switched back and forth from blonde to brunette.
“You done yet?” Axel banged on the door. The guy was pretty impatient.
“Almost,” I replied, drying off my hair which was now dark brown.
I had decided it was best if I colored my hair to the dinner so that most people wouldn't recognize it, and so that my step mother would have trouble finding me. He hadn’t even thought of that and called me clever for thinking of it.
“You take forever,” he whined from the other side of the door.
“You shouldn't be the one to talk, Mr. I-Text-In-The-Bathroom!” I shot back.
“That was only one time…”
“And this is only a onetime thing. I usually don't take this long to get ready.”
“Need any help in there? I'll happily come in to help you,” he said in a suggestive tone.
Knowing that he probably had his ear on the other side of the door listening for my reaction, I smacked the door where I thought his ear would be making him groan out in pain on the other side of the door. I’d like to say I knew him pretty well.
