The second novel in the Pieces series is another Slice of Life look into the life of Alex Harrison. Alex thought her life was coming together. After having her world shattered the year before, she was able to put the pieces of herself back together...
Fall Break meant a lot of unstructured time where our parents were at work and we were left to our own devices. Last year that hadn't been much of an issue. This year it was like a hormone bomb had gone off. Most of us were in grade ten or eleven as they called it here. I couldn't be certain but I was pretty sure we weren't all such horndogs last year.
It also meant planning for different parties. Annie and Landon Leighton were having one at the end of the week to celebrate their birthday. They were one set of twins in our group and were turning eighteen. I had been hanging out with Annie some in Theater so I was actually looking forward to it. Laura and Nina were the ones throwing the Halloween Party this year at the Flores'. They were spending a lot of time together talking about themes and decorations. Since Día de los Muertos was on November 1st and 2nd, Nina wanted to honor her family traditions with using that as the theme. Laura had been all for it. It was a big celebration in Texas so I was all for anything that reminded me of Dallas.
My birthday was in November, Elle's was in December, so I knew more parties were on the horizon for that. With so many people in our friend group, it seemed like there was always a reason to party.
Running with Scissors was playing this Friday so Tyler was spending a lot of the mornings at band practice. He told me he had a new song he was going to perform at the party. I hoped it was as good as the last one he wrote. That led me to third wheeling it with Elle and Aaron or even more awkwardly, hanging out with the two of them and Ari. We were the core four this time last year. Now I had a different branch to hang out with and it made it weird to have it just be the four of us.
In an attempt to not have that happen more than it had to, I texted Jensen and Cassie. They were both hung up with their respective boyfriends. I could see how hard it had to be for Ari, literally everyone in our group was paired up with someone. The only singletons left were Nina Flores and then the Twins Annie and Landon. The twins though made up their own pair so it wasn't like they were hurting for a companion. Nina hung out nonstop with Laura because Gavin was back in University leaving Laura needing a buddy.
That left Ari on his own third wheel island. I could see why he had kept Darcy around for so long. I would have wanted to prevent this outcome too. Ari was also a bit of a loner. The only people he ever hung out with were ones from our group. I wondered if I could convince him or get Elle to convince him to join a club or find a hobby where he could meet people. If he wasn't my ex I would have made more of an effort to include him in plans. As it stood, that just wasn't a viable option.
So I either third wheeled myself in the mornings, hung out at home alone, or went and watched Tyler practice. He made it clear though, that because of them practicing the new song, he would rather I not be there.
By Friday I was ready to hear this song already. I had to be patient. I went over to Elle's to get ready. Aaron was giving us a ride over to the party. The Leighton's/Stones had rented out one of the greenhouses at the Allan Gardens Conservatory. From what I had read online, it was supposed to be a gorgeous venue. The attire was cocktail which meant we actually had to dress up.
Elle went for a silver mini dress that had a plunging neckline. We had found it at a thrift store called Tribal Rhythm earlier this week. She said she felt like a disco ball but I assured her that she looked fabulous in it.
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