with a smile like that

Chapter 6- Alex's POV

My eyes fluttered open and I yawned. I sat up and looked around, as my eyes made their way to the window. I looked outside, and I noticed it looked a lot sunnier than it did yesterday. I reached for my phone on the bedside table and typed in my password. I pulled up the weather app and saw the temperature was going to be 83 degrees today. Yesterday was overcast so it was a bit colder, allowing me to wear a thin sweater and jeans. I pulled the covers off of me and stepped out of bed. I walked to the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans shorts with lace detail, a white peplum shirt I had recently bought, and grabbed a pair of light blue sunglasses. I snapped on a white battery charging case onto my iphone after quickly getting dressed. I walked out the room and into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and stared at myself in the mirror. I was deciding between straightening my hair or keeping it in waves. I decided on leaving it for today, so I walked back to my room. I saw Jade's mom so I smiled, and she smiled back. I walked into my room and grabbed my white lace toms.

•

I looked up from my phone after about 30 minutes of sitting on the couch with Max. Jade had her hair in her typical high bun, but she also had a blue bow in it. She was wearing a white tank that had yellow Popsicles on it. I laughed in my head at the thought of her going from wearing all black yesterday, to a bright outfit today. She also had on a pair of light acid wash jean shorts, green vans, and a pair of black sunglasses. "So I thought I'd take you to tour LA a little," she said to me with a smile. "Okay, I'm ready when you are," I responded while getting up. We walked out the door and into the garage to get in her jeep once again. We drove off and went down a road I've been on. "Why are we going this way?" I asked her, confused as we passed a bunch of houses. "Keaton asked me if he could come, so we're picking him up. Is that fine?" It made sense, these large houses were the ones I admired last night. I nodded as we pulled into the Strombergs' driveway.

Jade honked the horn and Keaton came out the door dressed in black shorts, a white shirt with a design on it that happened to say Los Angeles, a pair of dark vans, a pair of sunglasses resting on his head, and his navy lifeproof enclosed phone in his hand. He smiled and waved at us as the door opened again. I looked confused as to why Wesley would be walking out, but I assumed he wanted to come as well. He had a black Yums SnapBack, black vans, khaki shorts, and a faded red, green, and blue striped pocket tank. He didn't acknowledge us until he climbed in the backseat with Keaton. He coughed a few times. "Ready for LA?" He asked. "If you're sick, get out," Jade glared at him. "I'm not sick, chill," he said while laughing a little bit.

I looked over at Keaton and he was on his phone, playing with his lip ring. He put his phone down and looked out the window. I turned to Wes and he was staring at me. He smiled when our eyes met and I turned away embarrassed. Why was he staring at me? Little creep, I thought to myself. I closed my eyes for ride and slowly fell asleep.

•

I felt my arm hit something so I woke up looking around. "Get up, we're here," I head Jade say. I wiped my eyes and started looking for my phone. I found it on the middle console and I opened it to text my mom about how much fun I'm having and that I'm okay. The camera app was open, and I saw there had been pictures taken. I looked at them and I should've known that Wesley and Keaton would blow my phone up with stupid selfies. "Thanksss," I said rolling out the last letter and rolling my eyes. The two boys started giggling like little girls which made a small smile appear on my face.

We stepped out of the car and onto the sidewalk. I looked around and it was stunning; the weather was perfectly warm and the surroundings in general were beautiful. "So what do you wanna see first?" Keaton asked. "Let's just walk around I guess and if I see something interesting you can tell me about it," I told him. He nodded and we began walking to the left. I looked around the whole time, admiring the beauty of this city. I heard humming coming from close by so I turned around. It was louder as I leaned towards Wes. "Are you humming?" I asked him. "Yes?" I don't know why this surprised me, lots of people hum. "I can sing if you like," he said winking at me. "Sure, let's hear it," I said. He was obviously thrown off by my reply so he looked at me for a second. "Yo, Keaton, wanna sing?" He asked. "Yeah, sure." They could both sing? They started singing Hotel California.

It was a little weird just walking down the sidewalk of LA listening to them sing, but it was alright. I had seen much weirder things today. I looked to my side quickly when I heard another voice. It was Jade and she was singing. And she was great. "Wait, you sing?!" I asked her with a huge smile. She blushed and responded, "Yeah, not much or anything." "Well you're good," I told her. After a few more minutes of singing different songs, we all stopped walking. "Hungry?" Jade asked all of us. "Yeah I could go for some food," I said as the two boys nodded.

We ended up walking into a restaurant that I didn't see a sign for. It looked like a burger shack or something from the decor inside. "How many?" The man standing behind the podium asked. "5," Keaton answered. I looked at him confused and he smiled. "One of our friends is coming," I nodded and we continued walking down a few rows until we got to an empty booth with seats big enough for three people per side. We took our usual seats and a waitress came by to take our drink orders. Each of us ordered, Wesley getting a Dr. Pepper, Jade getting a lemonade, Keaton getting a coke, and I got a water. Keaton also told the waitress that the person, who's name I still don't know, will have a coke as well. We waited for their friend to come by and I noticed everyone was looking at their menus. Wesley nudged me, "Still don't like menus?" he sarcastically asked while laughing. I ignored him and picked up my menu, reading through the selection of food.

I heard somebody say something so I looked up. This must be their friend because he was smiling at us. He had brown hair that went up, he was tall, had slightly tanned skin, and brown eyes. "I'm Tyler, and you are?" He asked looking at me. "I'm Alex. I just moved here," I smiled back at him. "Oh! Duh, I could've guessed that," he said while shaking his head laughing at himself. "You can sit on either side," Keaton said. Tyler looked between the spots beside Jade and I and decided to sit with Jade. "Hey Jade switch spots with Keaton," he told her. She did what he said and sat against the wall while Keaton went to the middle.

•

While we ate, I had found out a lot about Tyler. He has two sisters, one named Ally and the other is Jessi. There was also some other stuff I couldn't remember but didn't bother asking again. He was cool, definitely a friend I could keep. I also noticed other little things, like how Jade doesn't like cheese, and how Keaton scraped the ketchup off his burger. Wesley dips his fries in his drink. It's weird what little things you can notice just by eating with somebody.

After touring the city a little more, and learning new things, we made our way back to the car. Tyler gave me a hug as well as Jade and said his goodbyes to Keaton and Wesley. We hopped in the car and my eyes felt heavy. It was only 4 so I don't know why I was so tired. I still wasn't used to the time difference, but I'm better than I had been the first night. Jade turned on the radio and started talking with Wesley about the boardwalk or something near the beach. I was only halfway listening so I'm not sure what she was saying. At this point, Wesley was asleep, Keaton was on his phone, Jade was still driving, and I was looking around.