The Party Scene

Interlude

I woke up the next morning with a smile on my face as the sun began to seep through the gaps of my curtains. I took my phone off my bedside table to check the time, and it was 6 A.M. and I sighed, realising there was not much point in me trying to get back to sleep so I got up and started getting ready. After showering and getting changed, I went downstairs and made myself some cereal while I heard my mom get ready upstairs. She came down, surprised to see me awake and turned on the radio and Marroon Five's 'This Love' came on and I began to hum to it while finishing my breakfast and heading upstairs to dry my hair and do my make up. I decided to stick with my normal routine and not make too much of an effort for Alex today, seen as we'd been going out for less than 12 hours and although I had time, I couldn't really be bothered to make more of an effort for our last day of school before Christmas break. Seen as I was ready for school half an hour earlier than usual, I decided to head across the street to Alex's with all my stuff and make sure he'd done the last part of the project last night after I left, so I said goodbye to Mom and headed out the front door.

I knocked on the door lightly, trying not to irritate anyone because it was still pretty early. Isobel opened the door and smiled, welcoming me into the house and informing me that Alex was in the shower and I could wait for him down here or up in his room. I thought about it for a while, before deciding I would wait up in his room so I could see what work he'd done last night and compile all our stuff together, and she laughed before heading to the kitchen to make them breakfast.

I went up to his room a the top of the stairs, slowly opening the door and walking in, sighing at the state of his bed. I shook my head and tried to straighten it out, before looking over at his desk and seeing the project complete and putting it all together in my bag and then something caught my eye under the papers. I shifted the magazines out the way and found a picture of Alex and I that I hadn't known had been taken, where we were at our spot in the harbour that I thought no one knew about and in the picture we were sitting side by side, our backs to the camera and looking out to the water. I picked up the picture and turned it over to see if I could tell who'd taken it, and sure enough I recognised Zack's writing and it said "Saw you guys while I was at the harbour the other day, couldn't help but take this. You two look pretty cute together." There was a date underneath of 11/26/04, so Alex had just broken up with Kennedy the head of the year book committee after about a week and wanted to talk to me about how he liked her, just not enough.

I smiled and put the picture back down on the sheets of writing, then I realised that they were lyrics. I began to read the first few lines.

"Inquisitive and thoughtful,

She was the challenge he'd been waiting for

A reminder that creativity runs deep, like secrets

Dark eyed dreamers - they were a dangerous pair

"Q" next to "U", scribbled out on paper

They stop

They go

They're done

Go back to the place we knew before

Retrace our steps to the basement door

I'll ask you if the rain still makes you smile

Like so much time that we spent in the fall

Put color in our cheeks while the air turned cold..."

I was reading this as Alex walked in in just a towel, both of us shocked by the other and Alex almost dropped the towel, making me laugh. He looked at what was in my hand, and I quickly tried to put it all back mumbling apologies when he came over, pulling me into him and kissing me softly. I gasped, and he took that oppertunity to slip his tongue into my mouth before caressing my lips with it and stepping back. Both of us went red and I excused myself, waiting outside his door so he could get ready. After a few minutes, he opened his door and invited me back in, so I nodded and followed him, keeping my head down as he went over to his desk and tidied it up slightly and I sat on his bed, tapping my fingers together before he came and sat next to me, taking my hands in his and pulling me into him for another kiss.

We kissed a few more times before we went down hand-in-hand with our school bags and Alex grabbed a piece of toast before waving goodbye to his parents as I did the same. The nodded and chuckled as we left to go to his car, and like the gentleman Alex is, he opened the door for me before going around to the drivers side and hopping in. We put our bags on the back seat and Alex put the mixtape on and we drove to go and pick Jack up. Alex stopped outside the Barakat residence honking before turning to me and kissing me quickly and taking my hand in his, making me smile and butterflies start up again in my stomach. Jack jumped in and dumped his bag with ours, but before Alex and I could separate our hands, he looked down at them wide-eyed with a grin on his face. "Something you guys wanna tell me?" We both blushed, and Alex looked at Jack through the rearview mirror. "Shut up man." Before we all began to laugh, but after a few minutes it all calmed down and Jack ended his enquiry with "Don't mess this one up." Nudging Alex in the arm before putting his seatbelt on and we drove to school.

The butterflies got worse the closer we got to school, so by the time we got there it felt like my stomach was doing summersaults. Alex found somewhere to park and Jack jumped out immediately, running over to Rian and Grieco while Alex got out and grabbed his bag, before leaning down into the car and looking at me confused. "Are you alright?" I looked at him and nodded, taking a deep breath before slowly getting out and closing the door. I walked to the back of the car where Alex handed me my bag, "Are you sure you're alright?" He asked, looking worried as I clutched my stomach with one hand. I looked up into his deep brown eyes, and suddenly my worries began to melt away. "Yeah, I think it's just the last of term stuff." I half-lied. He smiled and took my hand from my stomach and putting it in his and bringing it up to his lips and kissing it. "Let's go." He whispered with a cheeky grin on his face, and I couldn't help but laugh at his mischievious behaviour as we walked up to the school, still hand in hand.

As we walked down the corridors, I could see some of Alex's ex's glaring, but I chose not to care and the smile on my face showed that. Every few steps, Alex would squeeze my hand, making me giggle quietly and I would squeeze back. We walked into homeroom as the bell went and dropped hands, heading over to our desks and sitting down while Mrs. Dales took the register. The next bell went and we headed off the English, not holding hands as Alex followed closely behind me, whispering the lyrics I'd read this morning in my ear before taking my by the waist for a split second and kissing my neck.

The day was pretty relaxed, and we ended up watching films in most of our lessons, all of them tying in loosely with the lesson. After handing our Shakespeare projects in, we watched some Romeo and Juliet which Alex kepttrying to distract me by mimicking Romeo. By the time lunch came, everyone wanted to go home to start Christmas break -and some did- but me and the guys endured the afternoon of free periods before saying our goodbyes for the vacation, as everyone but Alex and I were heading to other states to spend the holiday with their extended families.

We dropped Jack home, being careful as ice had started to form on the roads because of the rainfall at lunch, and it was already getting dark, but instead of going straight back to our street,  Alex turned into a dead end road and cut the engine. I looked at him confused before he turned to look at me smiling "I've loved today, and I think it was because I was able to tell people you were my girlfirend. I know it's very early days for us, but I already feel this is different to any other girl I've been with..." He said before trailing off and looking off into the rapid darkness. I leant over and kissed him on the cheek, before putting my head on his shoulder as we watched the first snow of the season slowly fall. I could tell that this holiday was going to be one I'd remember.