Saving Lexi

Chapter 12

Happy Reading :)

"Come on in."

There was something about his smile that made my stomach twist.

Lydia grabbed my hand tightly and we followed Peter into the house.

I kept looking over my shoulder to see if Melvin was close behind but he wasn't. Peter led us through the living room to giant glass sliding doors. The entire time he had a smile on his face that did not feel like true smile, but something more sinister.

You could say I had grown more paranoid since the robbery, but I would just say my intuition was better

The backyard was huge, and even bigger was the giant pool in the middle of what looked like a grassy field.

"Lex! Lydia!" Ria shouted and flagged us down. Instant relief as we nearly sprinted towards our group of friends to get away from Pauls freaky brother.

Of course they were gathered around the snack table, and so we took our spots, shoveling doritos down our throats to catch up.

"Don't get too hungry, we're making burgers," Paul's voice came from behind us.

"Thanks for inviting us!" I said and hugged him.

"Yeah, thanks." Melvin's voice came out of nowhere and I almost jumped out of my skin.

I pulled back from Paul and there was Melvin, his arm slung over his girlfriend's shoulder. His eyes were narrowed at where Paul still had a hand on my back.

"Sure, man, it's a party." Paul said cheerfully, oblivious to what felt super obvious to me. Maybe I was just hyper aware of every one of his moods.

It seemed his girlfriend noticed it too because she said something, pulling his attention away from us.

"Tommy's here too," Paul said quietly to Lydia, whose eyes lit up. "He's in the pool."

"I think I'm ready to swim, how about you Lydia?"

"Yes!" She blurted.

"Ria, you coming?"

"Right behind you!" Ria said cheerily.

"I think I wanna swim too," Melvin said, clearly not trusting what we were up to.

"Melvy, I wanna tan, stay with me," his girlfriend begged.

"Fine."

We walked to the pool where there were several lounge chairs strewn about. While they got comfortable, Lydia, Ria, and I tossed our clothes on a chair and made our way to the pool.

We stood on the edge and eyed the cold water nervously.

"Lex, the waters too cold for you chickens, come help me barbecue!" Paul shouted from the grill and I seriously considered it.

The hairs on the back of my neck prickled and I heard, "Last one in's a rotten egg!"

And then we were in the water.

All three of us came up sputtering to see Melvin with a wicked grin on his face, standing over the edge.

"You asshole!" Lydia screamed.

Melvin's eyes widened, he'd never heard Lydia curse like that before.

"Screw you, Melvin!" I splashed water at him and he skittered back before pulling his shirt over his head, glaring at Paul, and sprinting forward. We ducked as he did a front flip over our heads and into the water.

He shot up out of the water hollering and smiling.

"Bravo, Melvin!" Paul marveled.

"5.5," Ria shrugged.