The One Underneath

|| Pool Party ||

Dedicating this chapter to KellBell59 !! :-)

"Addy, Addy." I heard a little voice wake me up. I looked over, seeing Ava in her flower pajamas.

"What's wrong, baby?" I asked her.

"Um, can I sleep with you? I'm lonely and I don't wanna wake up mommy and daddy." She whispered.

"Yeah, come here." I picked her up, then watched until she fell asleep.

"Goooooood morning, my girls!" AJ woke us up a few hours later. I stretched, then sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"Hey, Wood's downstairs." He eyed me, causing me to get butterflies in my stomach at the sound of his name.

"AJ! I look like crap!" I yelled as he laughed and ran out of the room, Ava following him.

"Ugh." I brushed my hair out and brushed my teeth before making my way downstairs.

"Good morning, sunshine." AJ smirked as I sat down on the couch, Alex in the recliner.

"Well, Woody, did y'all have fun last night?" AJ asked him with a knowing look.

"We did." He replied, laughing.

"Well good. Since summer's almost over, we're having a pool party, Adds. You gonna be here?" He tells me. The Pierzynski's were known for having killer pool parties.

"Heck yeah. What time?" I question.

"Around 11. People should be filing in any minute, though."

"Well, I've gotta run by my place to grab my stuff then I'll be back over." Alex tells us.

"Okay, we'll be getting the stuff ready." Lisa smiles. They all get distracted with the kids and helping them find their bathing suits upstairs and stuff like that.

"You wanna come with me?" He looks at me with the same look I've grown to know very well in his eyes.

"Sure, let me grab my phone." I jog up the stairs and into my room.

"Nice place you got here." Alex says, causing me to jump.

"What the heck, Wood? Don't scare me!" I laugh, leaving the room with my phone in hand.

"Oops, sorry." He smirks

"Whatever." I roll my eyes as we walk towards his car.

"Nice place ya got here." I mocked him from earlier as we walked into his apartment.

"Don't mock me, Pierzynski." He takes his glasses off, putting them in a black case.

"Don't mock me, Pierzynski." I mock him again.

"Whatever. I'll be right back, don't touch anything." He nods, then jogs up the stairs.

"Um, okay." I reply, even though he can't hear me.

I looked all around his living room. He had pictures of him and his family and friends. There was one person who was in almost every picture; a younger guy. In one picture he was in a military uniform. But Alex was a younger kid in all them. I picked it up, staring at it and trying to figure out who it might be.

"What are you doing?" He questioned as he came down the stairs.

"Nothing." I put the picture down, then stood up.

"Don't touch those." He told me. I sighed then followed him out the door. The car ride was awkwardly quiet and we didn't talk until the party started.

I was sitting in a chair near the pool, laughing as Freddie complained about his sunscreen. He was always the life of any party. I watched as Austin and Ava swam and splashed each other as AJ and Alex walked out of the back door. My eyes immediately went to the tattoos he had. There was one on his upper arm that was a cross, and one on his ribcage that was the Marines symbol with the years '1968-2002' underneath it. I knew there was a story behind it and I was determined to find out what it was.

"Adds! Are you getting in?" AJ asks me from the other side of the pool.

I smile, then stand up and walk towards them, Alex staring at me the whole time.

"Take a picture Wood, it'll last longer." I snap.

"Ooo, creative." He puts his sunglasses on top of his head.

"Miss Addilynn! How are you?" Chelsea Freeman smiles at me.

"I'm great! You?" I hug her.

"I'm doing awesome. How's softball going?" She asks.

"Eh, it's going." I laugh.

"Freddie, will you take a picture of us?" She asks him. He agrees and takes it of us.

"I'll tag you in that." She laughs and I nod in reply.

"Jump in with me, Pierzynski!" Alex yells over to me as I walk back over to them.

"Only if you'll make a deal with me." I state.

"Which is?" He raises his eyebrow.

"You tell me what your tattoo means." I cross my arms.

"Nah." He replies.

"Alex." I whine.

"Addilynn." He echoes me.

"Tell me, dammit." I was the most hard-headed person I know.

"I am so done. You're so stubborn." He rolled his eyes, walking towards the same door he had came out of earlier.

"Way to go Addilynn, now he thinks you're a jerk." I scolded myself mentally. I watched Alex go through the back door and slam it, but I was the only person who noticed it.

"AJ," I sat beside him, putting my head on his shoulder.

"What's up?" He questions.

"Why is Alex so weird and kind of rude?" I questioned him.

"I don't know him that well personally, but I know that he's been through a lot of crap." He tells me.

"But, why does that make him want to be a jerk?"

"Well, sometimes in life, our experiences make us bitter. We can either learn to accept those experiences and let them make us better, or we can let them make us mad at the world. Life is full of choices, you've just got to make the right ones." He tells me.

"Thanks uncle J, I love you." I hug him.

"I love you too, Adds." He hugged me back.