10. The Nevea Problem
THE NEVEA PROBLEM
ALEXIA
I didn’t think I’d ever be meeting the Grayson Archer’s mother but here I am in front of a white two-story house that has rocking chairs and an outdoor sofa on the porch in Malibu.
I’m slightly trembling.
As a girl who has only had two boyfriends (both of which weren’t super serious relationships), only kissed three people, is still a virgin and has never met my boyfriend's parents, I don’t know what to do.
I’m also meeting the rest of The MorningStars, because they want to meet me. Oh, not to mention meeting his sister too! This is unreal.
It’s only my fourth day here!
“I want to warn you, Beatrix can be a little hard to get along with and doesn’t like many people,” Grayson tells me as we walk up to the house. Great, I'm meeting a sister like me. I’m that hard person to meet in the family. Stephan just talks, Mom sits back and observes, Dex talks too much and tries to get to know them, and Lia asks too many questions. Now I’m on the receiving end. Not happy to be here.
I take a deep breath and walk up to the porch.
Grayson waits for me to catch up to him and we walk up to the front door together. He opens the door with his key and walks inside, holding the door for me and closing it behind me.
“Mom! Bea!” he calls out. I follow him inside and close the door.
“In the kitchen!” his mom yells out.
“Gray, come to the kitchen we’re being fed!” Charlie yells.
“No, he’s being fed!” Kenan yells out.
“Stop yelling, you idiots,” I hear someone say, and I laugh a little. So far, everyone is pretty normal. That was a weird thought, of course they are normal. They are just regular people.
Who happen to be rich, famous rockstars.
Hearing all their voices a little panic rises in me. What if they hate me? Will I make things awkward? Will they think I’m ugly? I don’t even know why that matters but it does.
The foray has a small table on one side with a flower vase, a coat rack. The floors are white marble which just opens the space.
To the left is the living room, in front of me is a curved staircase and to the right is the kitchen. As we keep walking, I see there’s a grand piano beside the staircase. It looks to be a Steinway Grand Piano model B. It’s simply gorgeous. I would die to have one of those. “The piano is gorgeous,” I say.
“Thank you. My mother loves to play in the morning. She taught me,” he says, then goes silent. I look over at him, but he quickly looks away. He probably didn’t mean to tell me so much.
“That’s sweet,” I comment. I turn away and continue through the house and make our way to the kitchen.
The colors of the home are light blues, white, and a nice light green which is very pretty together. It makes the space seem open along with all the large windows, very open. As we turn into the kitchen, I say, “I love your mom’s house.”
“Thanks, I designed it,” Grayson replies and turns to the right into a small seating nook by the kitchen.
He designed it ? That’s surprising. And the fact he has good taste. I look to see the group standing around the circle-shaped table. “Hey, Mom,” Grayson says and hugs a woman with very long, dirty blonde hair, who is wearing an expensive-looking outfit with Chanel slip-on shoes and pearl earrings.
She’s a very pretty woman. He definitely gets his looks from his mother.
I take a deep breath and look around the room. They are all looking at me.
Deep breaths. I can do this.
I start to fiddle with my hands behind my back so no one can see as I work to calm my anxiety.
“Bee, Archie is here!” his mom calls out.
“Archie?” I ask him.
“It’s a nickname my sister came up with,” Grayson says.
“That’s adorable,” I say.
“Mom, this is Alexia,” Grayson says, introducing me.
“My best friend,” Charlie adds.
“She can barely stand you, like the rest of us,” Raven says and knocks him in the side of the head.
“Actually, I stand him just fine,” Scarlett says and kisses his cheek causing Charlie to smile. Cute.
I hear running behind me and someone runs in. “Archie!” a girl yells, and Grayson turns around, catching the girl in a hug. She is the same girl from that night his dad called me a whore; she looks about fourteen or fifteen years old and exactly like their mother. Grayson sits her down.
It’s honestly sweet he has this kind of relationship with his sister. I look away and catch Charlie watching, and then he mouths, “Fawning much?”
I dismiss his statement. I am not fawning over anyone. It’s just sweet.
“Who are you?” Beatrix asks in a snarky tone.
“Who are you?” I reply in the same tone.
“I asked first.”
“I asked second.” Beatrix eyes me.
“Bee, this is Alexia,” her mom says.
“You’re the sweepstakes girl,” Beatrix points out.
“Yeah,” I agree with her.
Beatrix continues to eye me up and down before turning away and going over to where the others are. “That went better than I thought?” Grayson says, walking over to his mom and I follow.
“Me too, Archie,” his mom says and pats his shoulder while walking behind him.
“I will see you kids later,” his mom says before leaving the kitchen.
“Will you guys still play me a song or songs before we leave?” Beatrix bats he eyes, leaning onto Kenan’s shoulder.
“A promise is a promise,” Kenan says.
“To the instruments!” Charlie declares, holding up a fork in the air. I’ve tried not to look over at Kenan this whole time because Nevea is hanging off his arm and I can’t look at her, she just makes me want to punch her. How could she do that to him?
“I got something for you all, especially Charlie.” Grayson’s mom comes back into the seating area bringing a plate of powdered fluffed dough.
“Oh my goodness, Loukoumades!” Charlie jumps up and runs to get the plate. “Alexia, this will be the best thing you ever place in your mouth,” Charlie says as he brings me one.
“What is it?” I ask, holding one in my hand.
“It’s a Greek powdered donut with honey and powdered sugar. These are strawberry flavored,” Grayson’s mom explains.
“Sounds really good,” I tell her and take a bite.
As I start to chew, the flavors really start to develop; it's a very bold flavor. You can certainly taste the strawberry, but the honey gives it a nice raw flavor and the sugar gives it sweetness. “This is amazing Mrs..” I trail off because I realize at this moment, I have no idea what to call her.
“Please, call me Zo?,” she tells me.
“This tastes amazing, Zo?,” I compliment her baking. It feels so weird calling a parent by their name.
“Okay, time for my music, bring the Loukoumades,” Beatrix says and grabs Grayson’s arm, pulling him.
Everyone starts to follow them, and I end up just standing here. “Coming?” I look beside me, seeing Shawn. I honestly didn’t notice he was here. He hasn't spoken once.
“Yeah, just taking it all in,” I say.
“Just relax; you’re cool,” he says, motioning for me to go before him. I go and he follows.
We walk through the sunken living room and enter into the backyard, which is massive with a seating space and a trampoline along with a large pool with a waterfall. Everyone is setting up the instruments across this bridge at the outdoor canopy. This is amazing. Well, we know what she does with all that alimony money.
I make my way across the bridge and sit in one of the chairs by Beatrix and Nevea while Shawn goes over to the rest of the band. I catch Beatrix out of the side of my eye, staring at me. “Is that my brother’s shirt?” she asks. I totally forgot I was wearing this.
“Uh, yeah,” I answer.
“Hmm,” Beatrix hums, turning away.
“Crazy fan,” Nevea whispers to herself.
It takes everything in me not to slap that cheating ass bitch because what the fuck is wrong with her. I’m a “crazy fan” for having this shirt on when she’s cheating on her long-term boyfriend. “At least I’m sending nudes to people I’m not dating,” I whisper to Nevea.
I lean back in my seat, leaving a completely shocked look on her face. Nevea gets up, going over to Kenan and grabbing him before laying a really heavy kiss on him. Grayson looks over at me and I just shrug.
“Are you ready!” Beatrix yells.
“Yep,” Charlie replies, and Nevea stops kissing Kenan to come back and sits down.
“Soon that will be Grayson,” she whispers to me. I don’t know why she’s telling me I don’t care.
I turn to the band and start paying attention as Charlie starts counting off the beat for them to play. This is a dream come true. I can’t believe I’m here right now. Am I fangirling? Yes! But that’s normal, right?
As Beatrix and I watch them play, Nevea scrolls through her phone, not paying much attention to anything they do, which isn’t very surprising considering she’s cheating. Of course to commemorate this moment forever, I record about a minute of the performance, mostly for myself and I send it to Faith so she can see it and freak out along with me. I need at least one person besides my mom to talk to about this who will get it. A smile creeps on my face as I watch, feeling the music in me.
Once they played about three songs, they decided to stop and start putting up the instruments and Beatrix went to talk to Grayson.
“Are any of the boys looking?” Nevea asks, leaning over to me. I don’t want to be a part of this.
“I need to ask Grayson something,” I state, getting up and going down the little steps and making my way over to where Grayson is. I make slight eye contact with Scarlett and wave to her to be nice which I’m regretting because she’s walking to me, so I stop.
“I can keep Beatrix distracted so you can talk to Gray,” Scarlett says to me. That’s really sweet.
“Oh, thanks,” I reply.
“Hey, Bea, we are almost done!” she calls out and Grayson looks over and tells Beatrix something. She says something back and walks off toward the house.
Okay, that was easy.
“Good luck.” She winks at me before walking away. What does she think will happen? I ignore that and I walk over to Grayson.
“Yes, Alexia?” he asks. His accent gives my name the perfect essence. His accent isn’t too strong, but it’s there, and I love the way it says my name.
“Nothing, I just needed to be away from Nevea,” I say, crossing my arms.
“Did you find anything out?” he asks.
“Yeah, she’s after you, I’m guessing,” I tell him.
“Yes, I know that captain obvious,” Grayson says.
“Fuck you and your sarcasm,” I reply.
“I bet you’d love to,” Grayson replies.
“Only in your dreams,” I tell him, rolling my eyes and then turning away. I feel a tight pull on my ponytail.
“You shouldn’t roll your eyes, it's rude,” I hear Grayson whisper in my ear before my ponytail is loosened again.
If I wasn’t so startled, I'd probably find that hot.