Exchange

Chapter 1

Ashley's POV
I looked both ways and no sign of Brandon anywhere, he already took off. I shook my head as I lightly grabbed his luggages and placed them in the living room of our new house. I felt something vibrate in my back pocket and slightly took my phone out.
'Noelia is Calling...' I read her name a bit confused and rapidly picked up the phone.
"Hey wassup?" I said, "Come outside!" She said giggling, "how do you already know where I live ??" I said confused laughing. I heard her trying to hush other's silently. "You shared your location with me yesterday for 24 hours remember ? Hurry up Ashley, my gasolina ain't finna hold for the whole day" she said rushing me. "Ight chill out I'll be right out" I responded back to her, I looked around for my mom and caught her attention. "Que quieres ahora Ashley estoy súper ocupada?" (What do you want now Ashley? I'm super busy) she says in an exhausted tone. I felt it in her voice. "Noelia esta alla fuera me voy a ir con ella para ir a buscar a Brandon por ahi, me das permiso para ir?" (Noelia is outside, I'm leaving with her to go see if we can find Brandon, do I have permission to go?) I gently asked. She looked at at me with an eyebrow raised and looked around the house. "Please?" I asked. "Si claro mi amor, no te demores el más tarde cuando le de la gana me llama para que lo valla a buscar" ( yes of course my love, don't take too much time, later on when he finally feels like it he'll call me to come pick him up) she said with a light smile. She kissed my forehead, I smiled and left out the door. "Que no se te olvidé te mandarle un texto a tu papá que te vas que sabes como es el" (don't forget to send your dad a text so that he knows you left you know how he is) my mom yells as I exited the door and completely ignored what she told me. I looked around for Noelia's 2019 Range Rover sport in gray until it finally caught my attention and I ran towards it like a little kid when they're given a happy meal from McDonald's. I open the door to the passenger seat and get in the car, "Ayee" we say in sync and do a handshake we've had since like summer 2018. She starts backing up her car leaving my neighborhood, " so you gon tell me where we going or ?" I say to her with a small chuckle. "Well since you asked were gonna go get a smoothie at the punch bowl and then we're heading to the movies, don't worry this ones on me but that's not the reason I brought you out" she says as she looks both sides of the road making a right turn. "Ight then wassup?" I ask softly. "Sooo... you know my bit's birthday is in 4 days so I HAD to get yo ass an early birthday present because I love you like that, its not big tho don't get your head up inna twist it's just some slight for now you know?" I smile. "Duu-de you didn't have-", "Happy Early Birthday!!" Kamrin and Ki say in sync popping up from hiding behind seats. "Less goo" Ki says hyped up. "My favorite brothers" I say grinning. They then hand me over a nude colored wrapped birthday box. " Well damn y'all went extra with the paper wrapping" I exclaimed seeing a lot of glitter and stickers along with little pictures. "The car at last made a stop at the punch bowl. Noelia went through the drive thru. She got herself a fruit punch smoothie, she got me a mango one, she got ki a pineapple one, and Kamrin a coconut shake. "Open it goofy" Noelia says as she hands over the shakes to everyone. "Okay, Okay" I say in excitement. Noelia put our shakes in the middle where you could put drinks in. I unwrap the box and slowly open it inside was a shirt from the rapper we listened to at coachella back when we met that made us make a connection, pictures of me and Noelia in 6th grade when it was the last day of school along with pictures we took at the fair. "Holy shit, how did you guys even-" I get cut off, "we just wanted to let you know that every moment we all spend together or not, the memories are cherished and forever remembered. Every little thing we do for each other counts" Ki points out. "Well damn... I'm truly speechless"
"Thank you really " I replied. "We were fighting over who was going to do the speech earlier and you know who's bitchass always wanna have the last word and small annoying comments" Noelia speaks out. She coughs and says Ki and coughed again to make it obvious it was him she was talking about. I let out a small laugh. "So in order for me to leave the house, I had to tell my mom we were gonna go look for Brandon" I said. "He's out again???" Noelia says in a loud tone with her eyes widened. I nodded, "he could be with nick? I'm not sure though because nick went to the beach with some friends and I know Brandon doesn't really like the beach like that" she claims. "I-" I was once again interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing. I put s finger up signaling for others to hold on and shush. Noelia then quickly turned the volume of the radio down and I have her a thumbs up gesture. "Ma? Que paso?" (Mom? What happened?" I ask a bit nervous. "Ya tu papa quiere que vallas para la casa YA" (your dad already wants you home) she says a bit angry. "Okay-o-Okay ya salí para allá" (Okay-o-Okay I'm on my way now) i said and hung up. "I'm so sorry Noelia but you need to get me back home.. like now, I think I'm in trouble for the most meaningless thing" I say running my fingers through my hair in frustration. She nods and tries to find a way to make a U-turn. "Is everything okay Jit?" Kamrin asks. "Yea no everything's fine just um, you know same old drills" I reply with a fake smile. My mom had always taught me since I was younger that there's certain things you Yelp besties and certain things you don't, because you never know if that one persons mask  falls off  and they try to use what you've told them in the past against you. No matter how kind they may be you never truly know people's true colors until you've seen them at their complete worst. On top of that I know Ki, Noelia and Kamrin already got so much on their plate... I just want to keep good vibes flowing. I wanna make sure no matter how bad their day might be that I could still somehow pull a smile out of them.
Because that's the person I am, I put others happiness in front of mine. Noelia finally made a stop  a couple houses away from mine. " thank you for everything guys, I'll text you guys later" I said with a big smile and grabbed the box in which had all the cute little things inside along with my drink. I heard Noelia shout 'no problem girly !' Before I shut the car door  along with Kamrin saying ' you already know what the fuck goin onn ' and I chuckled. Ki hadn't said anything, but it's all good. I started walking towards my house when I felt a heavy, warm hand grab my arm. "Hold up" the voice said, I turned around to see Ki and an instant smile grew on my face and It had been happening for a while and I don't know what's got me like this. I looked over at Noelia's car and saw Noelia and Kamrin telling Ki to hurry up. I found it funny. "I just wanted to say um.." he stutters. "I'm leaving yo ass if you don't hurry" Noelia shouted and I immediately started laughing. He shook his head and ran his fingers through his loose dark brown curls. "Just be safe, and text me any updates on your party" he said a bit unsure with a half smile patting the side of my shoulder. I nodded. "Yeah, yeah for sure". I responded. He lightly smiled and opened his arms. I looked at him a bit confused and gave into the warm pleasing hug. Me and the guys never really hugged each other like that. We always thought it was corny, and that it'd make things weird between us. We promised each other a while back to always have our boundaries and limits with each other. For neither of us to 'fall in love' as they said. Or it'd like fuck up the 'amazing' bond we have.
And ever since that day we've been living by that rule. 'ɴᴏ ᴅᴀᴛɪɴɢ ʙᴇsᴛ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅs, ᴏғғ ʟɪᴍɪᴛs'. The only times me and Noelia have ever hugged Kamrin and Ki are on special occasions because we're petty corny pieces of hot dogs. I zoned out for god knows how long, looking stupid in my best friends arms. He then toned his dimples and ran back to the car. I tilted my head slightly with a warm smile and waved goodbye. I started walking home again and eventually made it back home. I walked inside the house and heard my parents yelling from upstairs. I see Brandon coming out the kitchen with a Capri- sun. I furrowed my eyebrows, "Brandon where the fuck have you been my dude ??" I whisper yell. My dad then comes walking downstairs and sees me standing next to Brandon. Y donde estabas tu??" (And where were you?) my dad asks me in an angry tone.'he was alcoholic, I feared him. He's done brought so much shame to our family. Yet he's supposed to be the ceo of one of the most successful businesses currently running in Los Angeles. Sometimes I wonder if my mom truly loves him or if she is terrified of him, the looks both look the same. " I kms mom I was gonna go look for Brandon and I clearly found him" I say with a straight face pulling Brandon by his shirt next to me. "Smile dumbass" I whisper yell onto Brandon's ear and he does as told. "You didn't ask me for no damn permission to leave the house, Brandon was already here before you came. Try again." He responds to me. I stood still with no words coming to my head of what I could possibly say. "Me and your mom have talked about it an we're cancelling your party this year, your behavior lately hanging around these kids, Noelia and them. It's influencing you poorly" he says with no emotion. "You know how much this gathering means to me and my friends" I say angry. I didn't even look at Brandon in the face, I went walking heavy up the stairs to my room as tears filled my eyes.