26. Alexia vs. Nevea
ALEXIA VS. NEVEA
GRAYSON
A lexia turns off her final favorite movie, Beetlejuice . I can’t believe I just spent the past three hours and thirty minutes watching these movies. They weren’t bad, especially The Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice but the romance one wasn’t my favorite. The main girl, Kat, I think her name was, reminded me of Alexia.
“So what did you think?” I ask her. I turn my head over to her and notice we’re pretty close, so I pull her onto my lap, placing my hands on her hips.
“I think I really like this position.”
“I meant what did you think of the movies?” Alexia pushes my shoulder.
“Oh, I loved them,” I say. Mostly because it will make her happy.
“I know that may not be fully true, but I'll take it.” She shrugs.
“Can I kiss you?” I ask, squeezing her hips and she shifts herself on top of me. God that felt good.
“That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”
“Yes, yes, it is.”
“You can kiss me.” As soon as she agrees my lips are on hers. I pull her in against me. I have to feel her. I need to. I feel her move her hips up closer and arms around my neck. I end up gripping her tighter in response since she ground against me. This causes her to do it again and again and I begin to start directing her hips on me. I glide my hands under her dress as she moans into my mouth.
Jesus, she’s hot. Her moans are like heavenly music to my ears. She grinds faster as I trace around the lacey line of her underwear. Alexia removes her hands from my shoulders and traces down my arms and under my shirt. As she trails, anywhere her hands touch becomes set on fire. She continues lightly pulling my shirt up as she goes. “Is this okay?” She pulls away to ask.
“Very,” I respond quickly before making my way to her neck and leaving kisses along there. I try to be careful not to leave any marks as I’m not sure how she would feel about that. As she releases herself into me, I slip my thumb under the thin garment and lightly trace her folds till I find her clit and lightly give it a rub.
Alexia tosses her head back at her feelings. “I’ve never felt that before,” she says. I smile against her neck loving that I’m the first and keep going.
“Gray! Gray! Gray! Gray! Gray!” Charlie yells as he barges in.
He would choose to rescue us now. “Oh my god. Oh no.” Alexia jumps off me, pulling down her dress.
“Relax, Grumpy, we’re not getting in trouble,” I tell her, preparing to stand up.
“Where are they?” I hear Scarlett say. Lord. I adjust myself, trying to hide the major boner I have right now, and stand up.
“In here,” I say, knowing they probably can’t hear us. So I knock on the glass too.
“Oh, they are trapped,” Scarlett says. She runs over and presses the unlock button and Alexia scurries out with all her items. I check behind her, making sure she didn’t leave anything before exiting the sound booth.
“Took you long enough,” I say.
“We’re sorry… We were busy.” Scarlett shrugs. That just means sex.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Alexia says.
“Oh, you’re good, Lexi Wexi. We are looking to head to Riot 21 before a party.” Charlie brushes off her apology and slings his arm around her.
“To Riot 21, then,” I say.
We all make our way to our respective cars and head to Riot 21. “That was really embarrassing,” Alexia says as I get into the driver's seat.
“How?” I don’t find it very embarrassing; we’re two people who like each other. I would think we would make out eventually.
“They caught us tongue deep in each other.” She clutches her bag to herself. She doesn’t really seem like the type of girl to get nervous because of those sorts of things. Up until this point. Well before the cabin she’s been very brave and open and bold.
What’s going on now?
“Alexia, you seem to be one of the boldest and sassiest people I know so there’s no way being caught in a little make out made you this scared,” I say. I hope I didn’t come off as rude, but I mean it has to be what people are thinking.
“I guess it’s not exactly the make out I’m worried about,” she says, drawing out the word exactly.
“Can I ask what it is?” I try to say this a bit more gently than my previous statement.
“Well… I—” She stops playing with her hands. “After what happened with my Uncle Griffin, I didn’t want anything with anyone. No touching, no hugs, no affection, no feelings, no nothing. Not even with my family.” She lets out a long breath.
“As time grew, I became more comfortable with myself and okay with romantic relationships, but nothing ever worked out and I ended being called a whore for being able to be romantic and I just stopped. Closing myself off. Now I think I will never be able to move on from that because if I do it’s horrible and I’m a whore. I’m scarred forever.”
“Alexia, that is not true. You are not a whore and it’s good you are able to move on. It means you are becoming okay with the trauma you went through,” I say, placing my hand on her thigh carefully.
“So you’re okay with my PTSD?” she asks.
“I am. I’m here for all parts of you, even the bad.” I smile at her.
“Thank you, Grayson. You are a real gentleman.” Alexia places her hand on mine.
“Only for you.”
I finally back out of the parking spot and start the drive to Riot 21. Alexia and I hold hands all the way there. It’s a comfortable, safe silence filling the car. I’m happy she shared her feelings with me. It does, however, make me want to open up and spill my guts to her. I haven’t decided if that’s good or bad.
I find Charlie's car in the Riot’s parking lot and slide into the space right across from him. “I still find it odd, it’s underground,” Alexia says.
“Last time you barely went inside,” I tell her, recalling when we came after the party at Golden Star. “Come on.”
I get out and let her out of the car and lock the doors behind us. I watch the cars before we carefully cross the street and head to the underground karaoke club that’s also somewhat a speakeasy and restaurant. Normally, we come at night, but I think Charlie just wants to do karaoke.
We enter inside the dimly lit entrance covered with black walls and old Hollywood posters that engulf you in a smell of wine and pine. Grabbing Alexia’s hand, I walk us down the gold-curved staircase that has hanging lights above and move photos of celebrities on the wall. As you go down, the place comes into view.
The stage at the front, tables everywhere for you to choose where to sit and a long-curved bar on the other side of the room. The whole place has low light, with black walls, photos on the walls, cheetah print here and there, and flowers on every table. “It feels illegal to be in here,” Alexia whispers over to me. I can only slightly chuckle at her statement because I thought the same thing at eighteen when Noah was first opening this place. I didn’t think I’d ever really hang out here or step foot in this place again but here I am.
Noah created this place to give people around our age a more grown-up place to hang out. After he got over his alcoholism, he wanted to still feel like people his age had places to go and hang out other than parties or places that seemed for kids, so he opened a few places around California. The main two being between Hollywood and Los Angeles. They serve no alcohol here, only mocktails.
“There they are.” Alexia points out Charlie and Scarlett who are sitting at a table that also has Kenan, Nevea, Raven, and Emerson at it. Alexia is not the one quickly pulling me over to the table where everyone is.
“Finally, I was getting bored without my besties,” Charlie says, making everyone look in our direction.
“Oh please, you were talking our heads off,” Raven scoffs.
“Maybe but still bored,” Charlie responds back. We take the two chairs left open for us and have a seat with everyone.
“Well, now your entertainment is here.” Alexia smiles.
“Oh, my song is up. Watch and be amazed.” Nevea winks at us, dropping off her coat she has hanging off her shoulders. I look over to the stage seeing her name lit in the lights meaning she’s next.
I bet she’s the reason we’re here and maybe Emmy. But I’m blaming her. “Alexia, why don’t you sign up?” Scarlett suggests.
“I couldn’t,” she responds.
“Why not?” I ask, leaning back in my chair.
“It’s just I’ve never sung in front of this many people before,” she answers.
“First time for everything,” Kenan speaks up.
“We can even play live for you, so you won’t have to be up there alone,” Scarlett suggests.
“Fine,” Alexia agrees, defeated.
“Great, think of a song,” Raven tells her. Alexia hums in response. This is slightly funny that such a stubborn person was convinced to do this. I’m not sure if any of us was paying attention to Nevea’s song, I can’t even tell you what song she sang.
I don’t care either.
“Is anyone ordering anything?” Raven asks.
“I’m getting boneless wings and a cherry coke,” Charlie says.
“Tater tots and Arnold Palmer,” Scarlett says.
“Just water,” I say.
“I’ll go put that in. Alexia, take your time?” Raven says.
The music ends, so that means Nevea is finally done with her song. “You did amazing, baby.” Kenan congratulates her as she comes back over. Nevea sequels clapping her hands.
“I know.” She flips her hair.
“No one is up next, that means you can go,” Charlie says.
“Who?” Nevea asks.
“I’m going,” Alexia says.
Nevea turns her gaze to Alexia looking her up and down. “Oh really?” she says, tilting her head.
“Yeah.” Alexia sits up straighter.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Show us what you got,” Nevea says, sounding as if she’s challenging Alexia, which she doesn’t seem to like because she takes off my jacket and marches up to the stage.
“Girl fight,” I hear Charlie mumble under his breath before standing up and going to the stage. Scarlett follows him up as well with a slight worried look on her face.
“You go up, I'll put the orders in,” Emerson tells Raven and they both leave the table.
Alexia starts what seems like a rock song and the title comes up on the side: Obsessed by Olivia Rodrigo. I’ve never heard of it but I’m excited to hear her sing it. I get comfortable in my chair and prepare for the show. It’s like all her nerves melt away as she grabs the mic and starts letting the words flow from her mouth. She’s a natural up there, completely putting it all into performing the song.
Jumping around, singing louder, and interacting with the others on stage. She’s a performer. She’s completely giving it all she’s got and it’s hypnotizing. “Your girl is pretty amazing,” Kenan says.
“I know, right,” I reply, still totally focused on her, not letting my eyes drift away from her body for even a second. Every turn her body makes under the lights, I can tell you when it happened.
Toward the end, she takes Scarlett’s guitar and plays the endnote herself while singing. A true rockstar move. The crowd cheers as the music ends and Alexia puts the mic back. Alexia shyly takes a bow and exits the stage with everyone else.
“I knew you had a little rockstar in there.” Charlie ruffles her hair.
“Hey! Watch the curls.” She swats his hands away.
“You were amazing,” Scarlett says.
“It wasn’t that great.” Alexia brushes it off.
“Are you kidding? You could take our jobs,” I say.
“You’re saying that’s because you like me,” she responds while putting my jacket back on.
“No, I mean it.” I smile.
Emerson comes back with everyone’s order, and we enjoy our meal or drinks before heading to the party at Leonardo’s house, the lead singer of The Chosen Ones.
The house is a very modern style with reds, blacks, and whites plastered all around. So many people are already here. Some I know and some I don’t.
“A real Hollywood celebrity party,” Alexia says, lowly. I assume she’s only speaking to herself. “Not as exciting as I expected.”
“These parties suck,” I say.
“No, they don’t. You are just a fun hater,” Scarlett says.
“They are crazy sometimes though,” Raven adds before they both walk away, dragging Charlie along.
“Let’s explore,” Alexia says, pulling me along. Alexia excuses her way through the crowd of people. Till we are just roaming a few empty halls or halls with only a couple people here and there. Alexia mostly admires the records and decor around his house. Leo has the entire Rocky Myers collection. That man is a legend in music history.
“Rocky Myers is one of my favorite musicians,” Alexia says in awe, looking at his poster on the wall.
“Mine too.”
“I would kill to have this collection.” She sighs.
“Come on, I'm thirsty.” She pulls me again, and I just follow. I note the fact she wants one of these collections. I could definitely buy her one.
As she gets herself a drink, in my sight lines as I talk to Noah, who ended up being here. He talks about how Emerson and he made cookies earlier today. I look over his shoulder and spot some blonde guy walking up to Alexia; I don’t mind it because who am I to assume, but then he starts giving her light touches on the arm, which is an absolute no for me.
“Excuse me,” I say to Noah and march over to them.
“There you are.” I walk over to her and I’m now blocking whoever this guy is she was talking to. I grab her face and pull her into a kiss. She doesn’t pull away, but instead, she smiles against my lips, causing my heart to race. The anger I was feeling seems to melt away as she kisses me back.
I pull away and rest my forehead on hers. “What was that for?” she asks, with a dream-like voice.
“I just really like you,” I tell her and kiss her head.
“I can’t believe Grayson Archer likes me!” she fake exaggerates.
“Believe it, Grumpy.”
Thankfully, we left the party soon after that guy tried to talk to Alexia. Now we are back home and I’m enjoying some time before I take Alexia home. When we came back, we found Zara and Shawn watching a movie and he claimed she was better company than us.
“When do you have to be home?” Charlie asks Zara.
“She is actually sleeping over,” Shawn says.
“What about your family?” Charlie says, confused.
“Gone out of town, my brother is at Dad’s,” Zara explains. So she’s being sneaky. This is new. I wonder how long it will last.
“Ouu, I thought you were a good girl,” Charlie says, shocked.
“Shawn is becoming a bad influence,” I add.
“No, I’m not. She is a good girl,” Shawn says and kisses her head.
“I’m a little nervous but Shawn says everything will be fine,” Zara says, blushing.
“Everything will be a blast,” I say.
“The game is set up!” Scarlett calls out and Alexia jumps up from beside me. They'd decided before leaving the party they wanted to come back and play on the Wii.
“What about a game?” Kenan asks walking in with Nevea.
“They are playing the Wii,” I state.
“I wanna play.” Nevea jumps up.
“Can I play?” Zara turns to Shawn.
“Of course, baby. Go ahead,” he says, releasing his arm from her.
While the girls play their game and Shawn watches, me, Kenan and Charlie go to the kitchen and get snacks. Getting snacks is a big job because everyone is so different and picky. Shawn, Zara, and sometimes Emerson has a thing about their food touching. Charlie likes him by what he would eat first.
They are weird like that.
I’m not that picky but they would say otherwise. The only thing I do is separate candy by color.
“Guys, you may wanna come in here!” Shawn yells from the living room. We all look around at each other before yelling fills the air and we run into the living room to see what the problem is.
Nevea and Alexia are both wearing boxing gloves, it looks like they were supposed to be playing the boxing game. Instead of playing the game, Alexia is on top of Nevea, punching her. Kenan is trying to pull Alexia off of Nevea but it’s not working. Alexia keeps finding a way to hit Nevea.
I walk over and yank her away, tossing Alexia over my shoulder. “You fucking bitch!” Nevea yells, standing up with Kenan holding her.
“At least I’m not a whore!” Alexia yells back with a slightly bloody nose.
I half don’t even want to know what started this fight as I carry Alexia up to my room, but I think it’s also funny and I wanna know how it started, I’m sure or at least hoping it was for a good reason, but I’m worried about what Neva will tell Kenan. God knows that girl is a liar.
I would have paid money to see that fight though.