Serenity Falls

Chapter 37

Ahhhh I am so sorry for the late upload! It was my birthday yesterday, and the day before I completely forgot... I'm really sorry! This chapter's a bit of a filler chapter - but take my word for it: THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL MAKE UP FOR IT. I PROMISE YOU. YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU WANT ;)

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"This is such a good idea," squealed Kayla, as she peered over Alyssa’s shoulder at the bright laptop screen.

"I know, right?" Alyssa smiled smugly. With a flick of the touch pad, she was scrolling through the entire collection of photos stored on her computer... thousands of them. With so much choice, they were guaranteed to find something they would be able to use.

"Oh my God, look at this one," Alyssa said, groaning. She flicked the screen onto an image of the three of them at a party about two years ago. They all had their arms around each other, Alyssa in the middle, and they were grinning stupidly at the camera.

"Look at my hair!" Kayla squealed, pointing at her un-straightened dirty blonde hair and screwing up her nose. "I can’t believe I looked like that!"

"Are you kidding? Look at Courtney," Alyssa said, a smile upon her face as she looked at the photo. Courtney was wearing close to no make-up and had a mouth full of braces.

Kayla’s eyes flicked across the picture and she couldn’t stop herself from laughing as she studied Courtney’s beaming face. "Oh God, that’s bad."

"You know, it’s something like this we need," Alyssa said, gesturing towards the photo onscreen. "Just... ten times more embarrassing. And preferably not with me in it."

"Hey, what about me?" Kayla pouted. "I don’t want to get laughed at either."

Alyssa shrugged, but she didn’t bother to respond. Her eyes were fixed on the screen as she scrolled through dozens more photos, each more embarrassing and laughable than the last. She sniggered as she paused on a few, but the smile on her face didn’t last for long. The onscreen photo was of her, but it was the other person in the photo that made her heart sink a little.

"Isn’t that your..."

"Yeah." Alyssa swallowed, silently willing tears not to form in her eyes. A part of her wanted to close the photo right away and completely erase it from her brain, but she couldn’t bring herself to tear her eyes away.

The photo was of Alyssa and her father about a year ago, just weeks before he had met Tiffani. They were at his birthday party – a formal event that had been held at his favourite country club. It had been one of the best days Alyssa could remember – she would never forget standing proudly beside him in her custom made designer dress, as he introduced her to every one of his important business clients.

But now that was Tiffani, and she barely saw her father.

She shook her head quickly, as if trying to remove the thoughts from her head. "Come on, we need to find something." Her fingers danced expertly across the touch pad as she scrolled some more, until she came across an album called 14th Birthday Party.

"Aha," Alyssa said, with a smile on her face as she opened the file. If she remembered correctly, this was the party where Courtney got drunk out of her head, ended up puking on the dance floor and had to be carried home by one of the jocks.

"I think we’ve found it," she said, shooting a smug look at Kayla as she clicked the print icon.

***

After school that day, Olivia rushed home as fast as she could.

She didn’t know why. She had over two hours until Ethan was coming to pick her up, and anyway, they were just hanging out. As friends, like he said. Why would it be anything else?

"Hello!" her father called as she came through the front door, throwing her school bag down on the sofa. She entered the still undecorated kitchen and grabbed a drink from the fridge.

"Hey," she said quietly.

"You’re not usually back at this time," he said, glancing at the clock. "Did they let you out early?"

"Something like that," she murmured, not mentioning the fact that she had walked home at nearly double her usual speed. "Uh... where’s Brad?"

"In his room, I think. Since he’s been stuck in bed, he’s had a lot of time to write some new songs... or whatever it is he does with that guitar of his."

"Oh, right," Olivia nodded, although she was not really interested. "Uh... I’ve got a lot of homework, so I’ll just head up to my room..."

She ascended the stairs quickly, not even taking the time to remove her school bag from the seat in the sitting room. Inside her room, she fell back onto her bed, staring desperately at her reflection in the mirror and silently willing an idea to come to her about what she was going to wear... or at least do with her hair.

This wasn’t a date, and yet the thought of Ethan arriving at her house in under two hours’ time made her heart flutter every time it entered her head. No, she told herself furiously. You are not going to fall for him. You are just friends, and nothing more. He said it himself.

And that was why she would barely allow herself to even look him in the eye – once she did, she knew that those eyes were a sea of green that she would definitely drown in. Those stupid, beautiful eyes.

Did she just call him beautiful?

Where were they even going? He hadn’t mentioned it at all – and how was that supposed to give her any aid in her choice of outfit? It would be bad to look underdressed, but even worse if she dressed up too much and they ended up in Taco Bell.

Oh, Ethan, she thought to herself. You have to make everything complicated for me, don’t you?

Alyssa would have the confidence just to call him up and demand to know where they were going. Why couldn’t she be more like that? On second thoughts, no. She would never like to be even remotely similar to the girl who had made her life such a mess.

Eventually, after she had decided on a ‘casual’ enough outfit and straightened her hair, all there was left to do was stare nervously at the clock as the hands got closer and closer to six.

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I know nothing much happened, just sit tight for the next chapter ;) Oh, and remember to vote if you liked it :D