More Than Just a Summer Job

Chapter Twelve

This morning, I woke up with a major headache. I still couldn't erase yesterday from my mind. Remembering that moment when Wayne suddenly turned bad and hit Alex made my heart beat faster and made me wonder about Alex. What could have possibly happened to him?

Today, I was really not up for work. Everyone would be quiet and there would just be a long, awkward silence between all of us. I thought we were all friends but it seemed as if that wasn't true anymore. I wished I could go back in time to figure out what exactly caused this madness.

"Sweetie, you're looking pretty down today. What's wrong?" Lisa asked in concern as she sat on my bed beside me. I decided to just tell her the truth. I knew I could trust Lisa to not repeat my words in front of other people.

"There was a fight between Wayne and Alex yesterday," I said. As soon as I said it, I felt stupid. So what if there was a fight between Alex and Wayne? Lisa would think it had nothing to do with me!

"Keep going...I don't know where you're going with this"

"Well, I was going to leave Wayne's house because Christina kind of needed to pick me up, but Wayne grabbed my hand and stopped me from going outside. Then Alex kind of shouted at him to let go of me and then this huge fight erupted between them. I went to stop them because, as you know, I just can't stand fights, but Wayne punched me on the side of my head. And then he kept punching Alex. And then I don't know...I have no idea why I even care"

"Lauren?" Lisa asked after a while.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Do you like Alex? 'Cause I think you like him...A LOT!" Lisa laughed. How was this funny?

"Ha...ha...very funny," I replied sarcastically.

"Ok, but on a serious note, I think you do care about him quite a lot. Why don't you call him and see if he's okay?" Lisa suggested. She was right. I actually did kind of care about Alex a lot.

*

"Hello?" his familiar, sweet voice filled the telephone as he picked up. I couldn't believe he had actually picked up his phone!

"Hi Alex! How are you?" I decided to keep the conversation short and simple just in case he didn't like me anymore like he used to.

"I'm alright, and you?"

"I'm fine. I was just worried about you because yesterday...well, you know what happened," I just couldn't blurt out the word "fight" anymore. It was too horrible to even think about the fight from yesterday.

"Oh, just a few bruises here and there. It's really not a big deal, Lauren". I could tell he didn't want me to continue talking about this because he brushed it off like a piece of dandruff; like it wasn't a big deal. I knew he had more injuries than just a few bruises.

"Oh, that's great to hear. So...what are you up to right now?"

"I was just playing video games before but now I'm talking to you"

"Right, oops, bad timing! I guess I should never interrupt a guy when he's playing video games!"

"Haha, that's okay Lauren! So, what are you up to?"

"Not much...hey, oh my gosh, aren't we supposed to be at work?!" I panicked as I looked at the time. It was already 10:48am and it was too late to go to work now. I was screwed. What if I got fired? But then Alex would also get fired because he wasn't at work either, which would be nice because then I'm not the only one.

"To be honest with you, Laur...I'm pretty badly injured. I don't think anyone should see the state I'm in right now. And, I should ask the same for you. Why aren't you at work?"

"Why did you lie to me before?"

"I don't know. Maybe because I don't want anyone to worry about me. It's not like you would care anyways, right?"

"What do you mean? Alex, of course I care about you! I need to come and see you right now!"

"You don't want to"

"I DO want to! Alex, I can't let you stay at home by yourself when you're badly injured. Something bad could happen ANY time! Like what if you needed to get a glass of water and while you were walking to the sink, you fell and died?"

"HAHAHA Lauren, you're too funny! I swear, you come up with the best theories ever! Theories that won't even happen. The worst that could happen to me right now is that I get injured again. See? No big deal"

"Fine, I over-exaggerated a little but I still need to see you!"

"Mum's home, gotta go!" and with that, Alex hung up. I was pretty disappointed. I really thought he would be happy with the idea of me coming over to his house. But then again, I couldn't just be like "Hey, I'm coming over to your house, if you want me there or not!". I had to give him some privacy.

*

"Lunch is ready! Come downstairs before it's gone!" I heard Amy call out. I didn't think they'd realised that I was still here and not at work.

"Coming!" I called out, a little too quietly. I ran down to the stairs and, to my surprise, nobody said nothing.

"I'm not serving this time. Lauren, you serve," Amy ordered.

"Fine," I replied as I rolled my eyes. Amy just couldn't be bothered doing anything!

"Wait Lauren, I was supposed to drive you to work today. Why didn't you tell me?! Get ready, because I'm driving you RIGHT NOW!" Christina shouted.

"Oh, oops," I lied. "It's too late to go now. Guess I'll have to miss it today".

"What's wrong with you, Lauren? You've been acting way too weird for my liking!"

"Sorry, I can't please everyone in this world". Now where on Earth did THAT come from? I usually never said things like that.

"Lauren, go to your room. I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour. Take your food with you, too!" Christina ordered. I knew I was going to get into trouble.

"Wait...why is...?" Lisa wondered aloud as she stared at me going back up the stairs with my food.

"Leave her alone. I've punished her," I heard Christina say as I went into my room. My life was such a mess at this moment. First the unexpected fight, then Alex hanging up on me really quickly, and now Christina punishing me? God, please help me. Nothing is going the way I planned this summer.

I heard the door of my bedroom squeaking as it opened. It was Christina. I didn't know what to expect. Nothing like this ever happened to me. I was always the responsible one in the band but, these days, I was turning into a rebel; turning into someone I once never thought of myself to become.

"Lauren. We need to talk. Tell me everything that's going on in your life. It is after all, my duty to make sure you're safe and happy". I didn't know whether I should tell Christina literally everything. First of all, she didn't need to know about the letter. She would probably think I was already dating Alex and I knew that she didn't want me to make the same mistake as she did. She previously dated another guy before Nick came into her life and things didn't turn out very well. He wasn't at all that caring but Christina still kept close to him.

I decided to just spill the beans to Christina. She could help me through all of this because she was pretty good at giving advice; even better than Lisa, in my opinion.

*

I felt like I was reliving my past as I told Christina everything that happened to me in the past few days. She was very understanding and I decided to also tell her about the letter.

"He's really desperate for you," Christina said after a while.

"He is," I agreed.

*

After our one-on-one chat, Christina decided to have a mini pool party in the backyard because we had just received a new pool.

"POOL PARTY!!! Let's go!"

"Wooo! Been a long time since I've hit the pool!"

"Oh my gosh, when did we get a new POOL?!"

"Hooollllyyyy coooowwww!"