11. Malibu Nights
MALIBU NIGHTS
GRAYSON
S he is hot, and it’s making me uncomfortable in the most turned-on way possible.
Not just that, but I liked seeing her smile as we played our songs and the way she looked in my shirt; I could just die right here because, God, she looked so good.
I'm not completely focused on her body. I love hearing her talk, so I keep asking her questions. I strangely like her personality. She's a sassy one, and it makes me want to choke her, but I’m growing to love being around her, and it’s only been four days!
Then her eyes, they are the most beautiful shade of golden brown I have ever seen. They look almost transparent in the Malibu sun.
I have a serious problem.
At this point, I’m completely fully obsessed.
We are all now sitting around the firepit as we wait for Bea to finish packing and talking to Mom. I’m sitting by Charlie, waiting. “Where’s Lexi?” Charlie asks.
“She’s right there,” Raven says, pointing to where Alexia is walking from the pool house. I’m guessing she went to the restroom. She takes a seat in the chair next to me and my stomach does a little flip.
I hate to admit that, even in my head.
Her ponytail is so mesmerizing; I really want to pull it again. It’s so curly and bouncy. I force myself to look away, snapping out of the trance.
“So, Alexia, what do you do back home? Like hobbies? Sports? Anything?” Scarlett asks.
“I’m in my college’s theater club, and I’m a cheerleader,” Alexia answers. So that’s how she was good at acting earlier.
“That’s cute, you wave pom poms around,” Charlie says, laughing.
“Actually, I’m an all-star cheerleader. It's much different and it’s outside of college,” she corrects.
“What’s it like?” Kenan asks, which causes Nevea to roll her eyes. Alexia begins looking around as if she is looking for something until she finds her phone. Alexia types something before holding the phone in the middle of us and everyone leans in to watch.
It’s a bunch of girls and even a few guys in white and teal tiny uniforms with sparkly bows on a blue mat with a sign that says ‘Majors’ behind them. The uniforms are sparkly and there's a teal C4 on them. There is tumbling, jumping and some very crazy baskets and stunts. The video lasts for about three minutes and then it goes black.
“What was that?” I ask.
“That’s my cheer team. The C4 Bombsquad,” Alexia tells me.
“You mean you can do that stuff in person?” Beatrix says.
“Well, not the stunts. I can only do a little without a group, but I can tumble for you,” Alexia says.
“Well, show us something,” Charlie says.
Alexia gets up and goes over to the grass patch and starts running, then does a roundoff into a back handspring and then a step out into some weird thing where she comes out looking like she's flying into a back tuck.
I’m impressed.
I don’t know how the fuck that’s even possible. Everyone claps for Alexia, and I’m honestly speechless.
“I’m done!” Beatrix shouts from the house.
“I guess that’s our cue,” Raven says.
“Food time!” Charlie says, jumping up.
“It’s always food with you,” Kenan says.
“Because food is the greatest pleasure,” Charlie replies.
Scarlett hits him across the head and says, “And having sex with me isn’t.” Which causes the rest of us to laugh.
“Of course not, beautiful.” Charlie grabs Scarlett’s hand and kisses her head.
“Let’s grab our things and go!” Raven declares.
“I’m going to put Bea’s bags in my car, then I have to grab a couple things,” I tell everyone as we go inside. I go to the front of the house and grab Bea’s suitcase and duffle bag and take them to my car. It doesn’t take long, and the others have already started to put their instruments in their cars.
Alexia hasn’t come out so she’s probably in the house, so I just go upstairs to my room to grab what I need to. The doors open and I see Alexia just looking around. She’s standing by my music set up by the window, where my guitar, piano and violin are.
This room is very different from my room at my dad’s. My room here feels more like me. It has carpet floors, cream walls with posters covering the walls everywhere, gray furniture, and a wooden bed with blue covers.
“I love this room,” Alexia says, briefly turning around to look at me. I guess she heard me come in.
“Thank you,” I reply, walking farther into my room. “How did you find my room?”
“I was in the restroom up here and saw the door cracked, I thought you were in here,” she states. Alexia wanders over to the dresser and picks up one of the guitar picks out of the mason jar I have. She sets the jar down and moves onto the tray of rings I have beside it. I walk closer to see which one she picks. She chooses the silver ring with my signature in 2D on top in black. She slides it onto her right pointer finger and admires it. It looks good on her.
“My mom got that for me after my first concert with Golden Star,” I tell her, randomly speaking after the silence.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I can take it off,” she rushes out after quickly turning and looking at it. She’s trying to pry it off her finger when I stop her.
“It’s fine. My signature looks good on you,” I tell her. For once, she doesn’t say anything smart, she just doesn’t reply. I turn on my heels and go over to my closet. At this house it’s just two black double doors with silver handles. My mom insisted I have a mirror on the door, so I do.
“Come on, the others are waiting for us,” I tell her.
“Right, wouldn't want to keep them waiting,” she says, leaving the room. I look around, trying to remember what I was supposed to get out of her, but I forgot so I just leave.
We choose to eat at The Dive. It’s one of our favorite places to eat in Malibu. It has a nice classic beach retro vibe, and the food is amazing.
As we wait for our food, they start to play “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid, and Charlie’s face lights up. Some of the other customers have already been up dancing on the dance floor, but others join as it comes on.
“We have to dance!” Charlie tells Scarlett.
“You must really like this song,” Alexia says.
“He loves this song,” Shawn says.
“Only because it’s one of the greatest songs ever,” Charlie says, standing up from his seat. “It’s time to salsa.” Charlie does a small cha-cha.
“You seem to really like dancing,” Alexia says.
“It’s one of my three hobbies,” Charlie says as Scarlett takes his hand, and he twirls her.
“Lexi, you must dance too.” Charlie holds out his hand for her. I watch to see what she does.
The answer is slightly twisting me inside. Alexia takes his hand after a few seconds and he glides out to the floor with them both, dancing perfectly. It’s the Cuban in him showing out right now. I can’t help but watch them because Alexia looks like she’s having fun. She doesn’t have a blank stare or scowl on her face.
I’m glad she’s having fun.
As the song ends, Charlie twirls them both out one last time and comes back to the table.
“Had fun?” Kenan asks.
“Of course, I always have fun with my boy,” Scarlett says and kisses Charlie’s cheek.
“It was fun,” Alexia says.
“Don’t flatter him too much. He’ll think you want to keep hanging out,” Raven says, smirking.
“I’m the life of the party. Everyone wants to hang out with me,” Charlie says, smiling.
“Are you staying at Dad’s?” Bea asks, tapping me.
“Not tonight, Bee,” I tell her. Her face falls slightly but I know she understands. I moved into The Fortress to get some sense of freedom, and I love staying there so I’ve been trying to limit staying at Dad’s house, but I stay there for her.
Once our food comes, we all eat as Bea tells us about her week at Mom’s house.
As I walk out of the restroom, Charlie yanks me to the side. “Are you crazy! You scared me, you little shit,” I whisper yell at him.
“Yeah, yeah, shut up, listen,” he says. I scowl at him but say nothing.
“So, I’m just vibing right holding Scars’ hand, and I kiss her on the cheek, but as I am, I feel a hand slip onto my upper thigh, and I look over to see the she-devil sipping her drink innocently. Then Kenan kisses her, and she squeezes my thigh before moving it,” Charlie explains while looking around to make sure no one is listening. I tell he’s kind of panicking by the sound of his voice.
“Well, that time period where she wasn’t doing anything is out the window,” I say.
“Why are you two idiots crouched outside the bathroom?” Raven asks, looking at us strangely.
“Just checking the view from down here,” Charlie says. “Yep, all clear down here, chief.”
“You two are weirdos but come on dumb and dumber, I have the best idea of how to spend our night,” Raven says, slipping her leather jacket back on. Raven’s style is very biker goth. Like tonight, she’s wearing holey loose jeans with fishnets under a crop top, a leather jacket, and leather boot heels that add at least five inches.
Me and Charlie move from our hiding spot and meet everyone at the front as they are walking out. Charlie catches up to Scarlett and wraps his arm around her and gives her a kiss on the head.
Mental eye roll. Fuck love.
“You know, I had the money to pay for my food,” Alexia whispers beside me.
“I’m a gentleman and no other girl was paying for theirs,” I reply.
“Raven,” Alexia states.
“Kenan covered her,” I correct her.
“Thank you but I got it next time,” Alexia says, as I open the door, and the night air hits us.
“You seem surprised I paid,” I say.
“That you somewhat have a heart, maybe.” She shrugs.
Raven walks us all outside and then presents her idea. It’s something we have all experienced before, except Alexia and Nevea. Nevea chooses to never participate because she doesn’t want to break a nail. We even got Zara to do it and she’s a goody-two-shoes. We’re gonna play random store games but in relay form.
“I’ll see you all back at The Fortress,” Shawn says, making his way to his car. We all know he’s going to see Zara before coming home. He’s totally whipped. I mean his lockscreen and home screen is a picture of her. He even still wears this multicolor beaded bracelet she made him when she was in ninth grade. It’s cute, I admit.
“How does it work?” Alexia asks.
“Basically, we choose something funny to wear because why do it in normal clothes then we spin a wheel to pick a store. It has to be like Walmart or Target, and we have a list of games we play,” Scarlett answers.
“The games include hide and seek, cart races, autograph an item, dodge ball, and picture hunt,” Charlie follows.
“As far as autographing an item we try to stick to our records, CDs, and stuff,” Raven tells her.
“Spin the wheel for outfits,” Nevea says, annoyed. Raven pulls out her phone, mumbling. Probably cursing and typing something in.
“I put in onesies, formal wear or Disney costumes,” Raven tells us. We wait a few seconds as the wheel spins then Raven announces the Disney costumes were chosen. We all go to our cars and head for our costume tour bus, which happens to be parked at The Fortress.
“Why do you guys have a tour bus just for costumes and why would it have these kinds of costumes?” Alexia asks.
“Child performances, visiting kids and stuff like that,” I answer.
We pull up to the big, white, modern-style house and drive around back to the RV garage and get out of our cars. Shawn unlocks the bus, and we all go looking around for what to wear.
I end up dressing as Eugene and Charlie is Prince Eric. Scarlett is Minnie Mouse in a red and white, fluffy, short dress and light up ears with red heels. Raven is Vidia from Tinkerbell with a purple dress and purple boots. Kenan is Hercules with the classic outfit most people wear and even includes the little headgear. Nevea is Meg. Beatrix is Silvermist from Tinkerbell, wearing a dark blue fading to a light blue long dress with white air forces and fairy wings, and Alexia is Tinkerbell in the cutest short green ruffle dress and fairy wings.
Damn, that’s a short dress. She does look angelic in it, and I can’t help but stare. I think she just made me like the character, although personally, I’ve always thought Tinkerbell was sort of a pain in the ass.
After changing, we end up at Target for the Relay Store Races.
Like always, first is cart races. We all grab a shopping cart and find a middle aisle that is empty and pair up. Nevea and Kenan, Scarlett and Raven, Me and Alexia and Charlie and Bea.
“Okay, get ready, set, go!” Beatrix calls, and we all run, then jump on the buggies, hoping to be the first at the end of the aisle. Alexia looks around at the others as we fly down the aisle, normally I'd be more focused on winning but right now all I see is her.
We end in second place, and I don’t even care.
Next is the secret sign, where we all separate for three minutes and have to quickly find an item and sign it and get back to the meeting point. The meeting point is electronics this time. We all start a timer at the same time and then go. I run to the music area this time. I’m not going all out of the box like last time. Last time, I signed the band shirts that were in store, and this time, I decided to sign an album. I snap a picture when I’m done and go back to electronics, seeing Alexia, Bea, Kenan, and Nevea already there.
“What did you sign?” I ask Alexia.
“CD cover not that it matters I’m not one of you, so I added The MorningStars in front of my name,” Alexia answers.
“And you guys?” I ask the rest of them.
“CD,” Kenan states.
“I signed a CD too,” Bea adds.
“I did nothing,” Nevea says and latches onto Kenan’s arm. I truly hate that she's here.
Like how do you tell one of your closest friends their girlfriend of years is cheating on them and trying to get with you and your other close friend? Lord, give me the answer.
Next is the picture hunt, where we get a list of four items we have to take a picture with all within eight minutes. I pair with Bea this time, so Alexia pairs with Charlie. The items are a broom, a wine glass, a toy car, and a stuffed animal. Me and Bea start with toys and then, the stuffed animal (we choose a giraffe), since those are in close proximity, then we run to the glass aisle. We aren’t very coordinated in this challenge; we kind of look like silly monkeys. We take the picture with the wine glass and finally the broom before getting back to the meeting point.
Sadly, Scarlett and Raven won but it’s okay, my favorite event is up next.
Finally, Hide and Seek.
This time, I am back with Alexia. “Go!” Raven shouts, maybe a little too loud. We all run in different directions, trying to split up and take an advantage from Raven. I pull Alexia to the toilet paper and paper towel aisle. “Why are we here?” she asks.
“Start taking them off the shelves and then get in,” I say.
“I asked you a question!” Alexia says behind me, not helping me move the toilet paper.
“And I told you to do something,” I say and continue what I’m doing. Alexia notices I’m not going to answer, and she starts to help. We work fast, taking them off, making a hole for us till we can fit, and then we pull them back in place and hide in the dark small space.
A very small space.
“This is cozy,” Alexia says. I can feel the fact that she rolled her eyes.
“And warm,” I add.
“Your cologne smells really good.”
“I can’t believe you complimented me,” I reply.
“I have the capacity not to be annoying sometimes,” Alexia informs me.
“That’s questionable, but thank you for the compliment,” I say.
“You’re welcome,” she whispers. I start to hear someone coming near us, so I place my hand over her mouth, knowing she’s about to talk.
It’s quiet, with low breathing being the only sound. Her hot breath on my hand, her lips against my cool flesh. It’s steaming in here. Suddenly, this space is smaller than it seems, hotter than hell, and I don’t think I mind being this close to her.
As much as I wished I could stay like this, the night ended with me dropping her off at the sweepstakes house and her running inside like a killer was chasing her.