Faking It

21:Faking It:21

Chapter 21

Alina

"Hey, we're going now, so just be ready for when we get back," River says as he maneuvers his way around me and to the front door with his jacket. "I'm going to go and get the car started and warmed up; the others will be coming out in just a few minutes." He pauses for a second at the door. "You'll be okay by yourself for forty minutes, right?"

I roll my eyes, with my hand on my hip, and nod.

He sighs, coming over and placing a quick kiss on my forehead. "I'm just looking out for you."

With that said, he goes out the garage to get the car going. It's a rather chilly day today, what with it almost entering December. Mrs. Simmons and mom rush out the door, while they're pulling on their jackets and shoes, giving me any form of temporary goodbye.

Sorita's the last to leave the house, seeing as both of our dads are at work right now. She glances up at me as she's leaving. "Hey, I just got a text from Nicole. Since the list was supposed to go up Monday, and the whole lockdown thing happened, she got a hold of all the numbers that she could and texted them the list of people and said to spread the word." She pauses for a second. "You and I made it."

I don't know whether to groan or to be excited. Cheerleading isn't really my thing. The only other time I'd done it was because of a deal with Blake, in the name of basketball. The only plus (major plus) is that Sorita would be right there next to me.

And well, you know, Aiden in his skin tight singlet.

I give her a nod, to show that I heard her, before suddenly running up to her. "Serena? Madison? Sophie?"

Sorita sighs. "Nah. But they'll be happy to hear that. Except maybe Sophie. Sophie's happy all the time, so she doesn't count." We suddenly hear a loud horn coming from the garage, and both glare at the closed door. "Fucking hell, Raft, calm your tits," she hisses, as she yanks the door open.

Basically, Aiden's finally coming back home. He's actually become pretty much like a local hero around here. In fact, I'm pretty certain that the only reason why this place and the hospital wasn't crawling with reporters this past week is because Mr. Simmons talked all about it on his talk show Tuesday and Thursday, and seeing as he's the father of the kid who took a bullet to save another kid, what he said was pretty credible.

Anyway, everyone else is going to pick him up (there's only so much room in one car). I'm here at home, making lasagna and also baking a cake. It's just a small little welcome home kind of thing.

"Pretty Girl, need some help?" is the first thing Jeremy says when he waltzes into the house through the front door.

I shake my head to him, crouching down so that I can see how the lasagna is doing in the over. I raise an eyebrow when I notice that he's come alone.

"They're coming, they're getting the things from the van," Jeremy says. "We brought balloons and streamers and the whole shebang."

I pull up my thumb, signaling that that's good. "Yo!" Tyler cries, promptly slamming open the door.

I wince when I hear the door hit the wall. I seriously hope that the wall doesn't have a dent.

"We bring party shit!" Tyler says, holding out an armful of streamers, plates, napkins, cups, still-need-to-be-blown balloons, and other essentials.

"We got together and pulled in a group gift, too," Madison adds, coming in tow. "We can put your name down on the card if you like."

I shake my head. Taken care of already.