It's okay.

Chapter 18

"Good morning birthday girl." Jake said as he looked at a sleeping Vanny whose hair looked like a rat lived in it. "Jake? What r u doing?" Vanny asked in a sleepy voice as she sat up in bed and looked at what Jake was holding. It was a cupcake that had icing In The shape of a V on it. "How did you even know?" Vanny said through a little giggle. Clara popped out from behind Jake and said. "I told him...DUH!" Clara was wearing a Princess night gown and a tiara and she was holding a wand with a star at the top of it, she started waving the wand around and singing "hApPy BiRtHdAY tOoOooO yoUUiIuIuU" in a funny deep voice And then left the room. Jake smiled and then looked back at Vanny. "I love that kid." He said as he sat next to her. "Who wouldn't?" Vanny said while getting out of bed. "hey,hey! What r u doing?" Jake asked grabbing her hand to stop her from getting up. "Getting ready to go? What are you doing??" Vanny asked. "It's your birthday, today there will be no school for you." Jake said and then held out the cupcake. "I'm not 6 years old. I go to school on my birthday and I'm not gonna eat a cupcake for breakfast." Vanny said and then started to walk to the bathroom. Jake got up really fast and grabbed Vannys waist and spun her around. "Oh you're eating the cupcake." He said. "No I'm not." Vanny said back and then started to walk away again. "Cmonnnn." Jake said in a whiny little voice. Vanny turned around and looked at him then Jake threw the cupcake at her and it hit her in the face. She wiped it off her eyes and death stared him. "You did not just do that." Jake laughed and then Vanny started charging towards him and he started running. Vanny chased him all the way downstairs screaming "IM GONNA KILL U!" Clara was sitting at the island in the kitchen and they rushed passed her. "HOW DARE YOU PLAY TAG WITHOUT ME!" Clara screamed and then started chasing them to. Vanny chased Jake all the way back into the kitchen and then stopped. "I won." Jake said and then smirked. "Sure u did..." Vanny said right before she grabbed a cupcake off of the counter and chucked it at him. Jake started laughing and then stuck his finger in the icing and tasted it . "How did you not wanna eat this for breakfast? It's delicious." Jake said then grabbed a towel and started wiping his face off. Clara ran into the kitchen. "Awww we're done playing already??" She said while climbing onto the bar stool. Vanny laughed and said "we weren't playing...we were having war." "I love war." Clara said and then smiled. They all started laughing and then Vanny broke it up. "Okay...that's enough fun for today. We have school." "Awwwww" Jake and Clara said in unison. Vanny shook her head and smiled and then walked upstairs.

After school Jake and Vanny dropped Clara off at the babysitters house and then started driving home. "This date better be worth leaving Clara." Vanny said while she looked over at Jake who was driving the car and smiling. "Oh yeah.,.it will be worth it." Jake said while laughing. "What? Why are you laughing? Are you lying about something? " Vanny said. "What!? I would never lie!" Jake said super suspiciously. Vanny just looked at him. He was being weird but Vanny kinda thought it was cute and at the same time she was kinda angry but that's always how Vanny is. She's basically always angry about something. When they arrived at Jake's house there were cars all in the parking lot and Vanny started laughing. "You DID not!" She screamed with a big genuine smile on her face. "I sure did." Jake said while he looked at her and smiled. They got out of the car and Vanny hugged him. "Thank you!" She whispered in his ear then She let go and walked inside. Once she went through the door half the kids from her school were walking around, talking, and dancing through the house. She smelt beer and heard annoyingly bad music. "Hey everybody!" Vanny said as she walked into the kitchen where a bunch of kids were trying to open a keg. They all started talking to her saying "happy birthday." And "looking hot." Vanny wasn't used to kids talking to her or even acknowledging she was there, but now they were. She knew it was because of Jake, but she didn't know that she had already won over the whole school just by "dating" Jake. The party went on for awhile and Vanny was acctually having fun then everybody decided to play 7 minutes in heaven. They all sat in a circle and Hannah (a Cheerleader who was pretty popular) sat in the middle with an empty, glass, coke bottle and spun it around. It landed on Dillon (a senior who had a SUPER high body count😭) a few kids laughed and then Hannah spun it again. It landed on McKenna (yk who that is.) Dillon smirked and looked at jake. Jake and McKenna had started dating in freshman year and they were pretty serious but then Jake broke up with her and a week later was obsessed with Vanny. So now McKenna hated both of them and wanted to get back at jake, so getting paired up with Dillon (one of Jake's best friends) was perfect. One of the guys shoved Dillon and McKenna into the closet and locked it. "Start the timer!" The guy said, then a girl grabbed out her phone and started the timer. For a few minutes no one could hear anything then they started to hear moans and whispers. They all bursted out laughing. Jake got up and knocked on the door. "You guys better hurry it up in there." He said with a chuckle. The timer went off and Jake unlocked the door. McKenna came out with her shirt on inside out and dillon followed her out, shirtless because he didn't even have the decency to get dressed again..."alright. Hope you guys had fun..." said Hannah before grabbing the bottle to spin again. Then another kid shouted. "It sounded like it!😏" they all laughed and then Hannah spun the bottle. It landed on....vanny. Vanny imminently stood up and said. "Yeah, no thanks!" "Cmonnn" one of the girls said while pulling vanny back down. Vanny rolled her eyes then Hannah spun the bottle again. It landed on an open space in the circle that was in line with the front door. "Well I guess we have to spin again." Hannah said right before Alex walked through the door. Evreyone looked up and stared at him. "Uhm...hi guys?" Alex said as he shut the door behind him. "The bottle landed on him!" Marge said from the corner. "Who said that?!" Jake said. "Erm...me!" Marge said as she speedily ran on her short little legs over to him. "Oh...okay...." Jake said in a disgusted tone. Alex just stood awkwardly by the door with a gift in his hand. Vanny stood up and walked over to him. "Hey! Sorry, everyone's a couple drinks in so they're all acting a little...funky. I didn't know you were coming." Vanny said then grabbed the gift in his hands and sat it on the table. "Oh yeah...I thought i'd stop by and say happy birthday. So...happy birthday!" Alex said then started to walk out the door. "Wait! You can stay. you know...if you want." Vanny said while she grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "Oh..sure I guess I can stay for a little." He said then Vanny dragged him over to the circle. "Vanny and Alex. You have 7 minutes in heaven!" Hannah said with a giggle. "WAIT! Who said he was even playing?!" Jake said after standing up. "Well I mean he's here...and it landed on him...those are the rules." McKenna said from the right side of the circle with Dillon's arm around her. "It's fine let's just say that round didn't count." Vanny said and then Dillon got up. "Rules are rules." He said then started pushing Vanny and Alex to the closet. "Bro. It's just a game." Alex said tying to push back. "Whatever." Dillon said then pushed them into the dark closet and locked the door. Vanny sat down. "Well this is weird..." Vanny said while squinting to try to find Alex. "It doesn't have to be...I mean we're friends we can just talk." Alex said. "We can't even see eachother." Vanny said with a little laugh. Then Alex turned on his phone flash light and said. "Yeah we can." Vanny laughed. "So how is it...staying with Jake?" Alex asked. "It's pretty nice acctually. He's so nice to Clara and Clara loves him even tho she would never admit it." Vanny said with a little chuckle. "Do you?" Alex asked looking into her eyes. "Do I what?" Vanny asked back. "Love him?" Alex asked. The conversation went quiet and Vanny looked away. A few minutes passed and then Vanny answered. "No." Alex felt so much relief when she said that. "Oh." Alex said happily. he tried to sound normal when he said it but anyone could tell that he cared so much. Vanny started laughing. "What?" Alex said while laughing to. "Nothing its just...life's crazy!" She said while still laughing. "I would've never thought that at 16 I would be living with some dude with my little sister and my mom would be dying and that I would've been brave enough to run away from my dad...like try to tell me that's not CRAZY!?" She was still laughing which made Alex laugh. After they finally quit laughing Vanny started to stand up. She grabbed onto Alex's arm to help her stand up and accidentally made his sleeve slide up. She felt the huge scars Then looked at him. "Alex....what happend? " she said starring him dead in the eyes. Alex grabbed her hand and moved it off his arm and rolled his sleeve back down. "Nothing. It's nothing" he said angrily then tryed to change the subject. "The timer has to be up by now." He said. "Alex...tell me..." vanny said grabbing his hand and pulling him closer. "It's nothing...please just...I don't wanna talk about it..," Alex said as he pulled away. "ALEX! Have you been hurting yourself?!" Vanny yelled as she tugged him back. "STOP VANNY!" He yelled. "ANSWER THE QUESTION!" she screamed back with tears in her eyes. "STOP VANNY! WHY DO YOU CARE!? IM NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND OR YOUR PROBLEM! WERE BARLEY EVEN FRIENDS! SO STOP...JUST STOP. he screamed then opened the closet door, grabbed his jacket, and left. Evreyone looked up and watched him leave. Vanny stood in the closet alone with one tear rolling down her face. Her mind started racing...what does she feel?....what does she think?....what does she know?.....who does she love? Why is this happening? Why? Why? Why? She starts hyperventilating and slides down the wall. There are only two words in her mind now...It's okay...it's okay....its okay...it's okay...she knows it's not okay but she needs it to be. she needs an off switch right now, But she doesn't have one....turn it off....turn it off....turn it off turn it off turn it off turnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnit...OFF.