Out Loud

Twenty Two

-Grayson-

We made it through the rest of the day relatively trouble free, the stunt Rex pulled at lunch kept Elliot at bay. Miranda and Lexi are convinced it's only going to make it worse, but I don't want to worry about that now. Who cares about tomorrow, when we have today.

The final bell of the day rang and everyone in the school was practically running to get home. I met up with the crew outside of the school and we started making our way to my van. Finally, the weekend had come and that meant planning at the Jenkins' for their "Spring Fling". Every year they threw a huge party to kick off spring break, the first one of the year is a big enough deal as it is, this "Spring Fling" is the true symbol of popularity. People from all over the city are desperate for invites to this party, there's a DJ, there's fireworks, and sometimes Lexi and Levi pull a few strings to get some real celebs to make an appearance. I could already hear kids in the halls talking about it. Security at the last party was already impossible to breach, the Jenkins' at least triple it for the Spring Fling.

Miranda took the drivers seat and I climbed into the back of the van with Eli, Lexi took shotgun, and Levi and Jamie took the seats in front of Eli and I. I clung to his arm and snuggled up to it, he smelled so good. His cologne smelt like, I don't know how to put it, a man with a touch of lavender. I think, it smelt like lavender to me. Maybe I was just imagining things. I saw Miranda give me a little wink in the mirror as I leaned in closer to Eli, I blushed and took another whiff of him. I still couldn't quite place the smell.

"It's lavender," he chuckled.

I blushed harder and let go of him. I'm not quite sure why I thought he wouldn't feel my little sniffles on him.

"Aw, it's ok. I don't mind," Eli laughed as he pulled me back into him. Levi turned around and looked at us, he smiled and then quickly turned away. I saw the look in his eyes, his heart had just shattered into a million pieces. I separated myself from Eli and just stared at the floor of the van, I felt awful. Levi had never hid the way he felt about me, even after we broke up. He kept trying and trying to win me back, or convince me that things would be different but I just never felt the spark. The feelings I had for him faded away shortly after we got together, sure I still care about him but I'm happier away from him. And now seeing the way he looked at me, watching his heart break again, I started to re-think being with Eli.

Eli shifted awkwardly in his seat, I could tell he wanted me to come back, but he didn't want to force me. I bit my lip and looked over at Levi, he must have felt my eyes settle on him because he looked at me too. His eyes were sad but there was a smile on his face, my phone went off a moment later. I slipped it out of my pocket and discreetly checked the screen.

Levi: I need to move on. I can't hold onto you forever. Do what makes you happy.

I smiled up at him and nodded. I now have Levi's blessing, which made me feel a bit better. He was still going to tear himself apart over this, but he'll move on eventually.

Miranda pulled us into the Jenkins' driveway and we all made our way inside. Lexi and Levi's parents were still on vacation and Rex wasn't home yet, which meant we'd get most of the afternoon to ourselves. Lexi led the way upstairs into her room. It was huge, she had her own master bathroom, a king sized bed, and the biggest window anyone had ever seen. She had decorated her room with pastel yellow and green accessories, the walls were a pale lemon, her bed sheets were a pastel green, everything screamed Lexi. She must of redone everything recently, the last time I was in here everything was pink and magenta.

"So," Lexi said as she sat down on her floor, "we need a game plan." Eli was marveling at her room, her TV, her huge bed, her desk, her bookshelf, anything and everything. Lexi's room was more than spacious, you could do about five cartwheels in a row and not run into anything. Even her computer matched her room motif.

"Hand me my laptop, I'll show you the invitation designs," Lexi said to Miranda as the rest of us joined her on the floor. We sat in a little circle while Lexi pulled up the invites. They were adorable, I could tell that she hand made them. Fancy swirls, pretty letters, a faded out flower in the background. Perfect for a Spring Fling.

"Now we just need to decide who to give them to," Miranda sighed.

"Well we can make a 'VIP list', and then Levi and I will just randomly distribute the others," Lexi replied and she closed her laptop.

"How many are we inviting this year?" Levi asked as he chewed his nail.

"Last year was about 200, I want to shoot for 300," Lexi replied with a nervous giggle.

"This is going to be a nightmare for Rex to plan," Levi laughed.

"We have the hard job, all he has to do is make sure people don't sneak in and kick out the assholes," Lexi chuckled.

"What's the budget this time?" Miranda asked as she pulled a notepad from her backpack. "Last year's was 1,000, but I want to get some new things this year," Lexi said as she bit her lip.

"200 for food, 350 for the DJ, 400 for alcohol, 50 for fireworks?" Miranda asked as she wrote down numbers on the pad.

"Well that's what it was last year, thank god we had some left over from the first party," Lexi said as she reopened her laptop.

"Why don't we scratch the DJ?" Jamie said, "spend that money on fireworks?"

"People will freak if we don't have a DJ, and getting a cheap one isn't a good idea," Levi replied, "we still have a bunch of left over fireworks, how big do you want the budget this year Lex?"

"Well," Lexi sucked in a breath, "I want to have a few celebrity friends appear and have them perform, and they'll want to be paid. So, what if we push it to 2,500?"

"If we scratch the DJ and get three performers, that'll be about 500 each," Levi said, "which leaves?"

"A thousand," Miranda replied as she wrote more numbers down on the pad.

"I'm really confused," Eli laughed awkwardly.

"We're just figuring out money stuff right now, y'all can help us in a minute," Levi replied as he moved closer to Miranda.

"400 for food, 400 for fireworks," Lexi said as she typed into her laptop, "we'll use the last of it to set up a stage in the backyard."

"I think we should do 200 for fireworks and 400 for the stage," Levi said as he turned to his sister, "it'll make the performers feel more important. Besides, we have plenty of unused fireworks from last time."

"Alright, write that down Miranda," Lexi said as she looked up from her screen.

"Got it, now let's decide everything else," Miranda laughed.

We spent the next hour and a half picking a theme, music choices, what kind of food, what kind of drinks. We eventually settled on three performers as well. Lexi and Levi were going to try and get Brianna Michaels, Jayden Foxx, and Mira Jacobs to show up. All three of them were widely popular singers, Brianna was a judge on some new singing competition show, Jayden was going on tour here shortly, and Mira has a new album debuting soon. This was all relevant of course, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people were going to be at this party. That just gave the performers a better opportunity to get people to buy into their stuff. Levi even suggested doing a raffle for tickets to Jayden's concert, or for Mira's album.

"We don't have room for that in the budget," Lexi said as she sent out the last email.

"When have we ever stayed on budget?" Levi laughed.

"He's got a point," Jamie replied with a chuckle.

"Fine, if you can get a bunch within a reasonable price," Lexi sighed.

"I'll haggle with them," Levi chuckled, "now all this planning has me starving, let's eat!"

"I second that!" Eli laughed.