A/N: So, next chapter :) And this one's in Alex's POV.
I followed Dylan into the kitchen to see his parents, feeling, just as Marco had said, rather awkward. The kitchen was empty except for the two of them. I stood off to the side as Curly embraced both his parents in turn, listening to his father's playful jests about Dylan's long, unruly hair, and the younger Michalchuk's replies that at least his hair was still blonde.
"Alex! What are you doing here?" said Mrs. Michalchuk upon being released from her son's arms, obviously surprised to see me.
"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. M," I said, smiling warmly at my girlfriend's and fake boyfriend's parents.
"Uh, Mom, Dad…remember when you said to invite a nice friend-girl to be my 'date' tonight?" Dylan said cautiously. His parents just looked at him.
"Um, well… tada!" he grinned, gesturing toward me. I arched an eyebrow. Did he just say 'tada?'
His mother's eyebrows shot into her bangs. "But, I thought― you and Paige―"
I shrugged. "Tonight, she's pretending to be head over heels for Marco, and I'm―"
"Marco!?"
"Well, you wanted us to find dates," said Dylan. "So we just kind of…traded."
"Hmm. Well, it sounds logical to me," said Mr. Michalchuk. I almost laughed.
Mrs. M glared at him, then turned back to Dylan and me. "But isn't this weird for you? I didn't mean for you to invite each other's boyfriend and girlfriend."
"But this way, we know a lot about each other. We could pass for a real couple," Dylan explained.
Mrs. Michalchuk sighed. "Well, if it works, and it's not too weird…I'm sorry I asked you two this, anyway. It's just that Charlotte…"
"I know, Mom. I've heard it all before." Was it just me, or was there a trace of bitterness in Dylan's voice? I didn't have much time to ponder on it, however.
"Hey! Look who's here!" exclaimed a loud, booming voice. I glanced up to see that it belonged to a short, stumpy man with a thinning patch of blonde hair on the very top of his head. Great. Another Michalchuk.
"Uncle Ray," said Dylan, grinning. Ray clapped Dylan on the shoulder, laughing genially.
"How's my favorite nephew?" asked the older man.
"Still your only nephew," Dylan said, and I laughed. This immediately brought Uncle Ray's attention to me instead.
"And who's this lovely young lady?" I caught the teasing wink he gave Dylan, and tried not to roll my eyes. What would old Uncle Ray say if he knew that Dylan's real sweetheart was currently two rooms down, pretending to date my girlfriend?
"Uncle Ray, this my girlfriend Alex," said Curly. Ray grabbed my hand, shaking it thoroughly. Apparently, finger-crushing handshakes were a tradition in this family. When he released my hand, it was all I could do not to cradle my nearly broken fingers in my good hand.
"Well, you'll have to tell us all about yourself, Alex," said Uncle Ray. "And where's Paige? Is she still dating that, oh, what was his name? Twister? Is he here?"
"Spinner?" Dylan raised his eyebrows. "Uh, no. They broke up."
"Oh. Well, that's just as well. Last time he was here, he killed all our fish. To this day I don't know what he fed them, but…" Ray's voice trailed off, and he frowned, as though still bothered by the mystery.
"Yeah, that sounds like something Spinner would do," I said fairly. "But the person she's dating now is much cooler. Cute, dark hair, dark eyes…"
"Really? I'll have to meet this guy," said Ray. Guy? I don't think so. I was talking about me.
"Hey, Dylan, Daniel's been waiting for you to get here all day. He's upstairs, if you want to go see him," continued Ray.
"Sure," said Dylan, starting for the doorway on the other side of the kitchen. I followed reluctantly. He led us up a winding spiral staircase that opened up to a spacious second level. I was just wondering how long it would take us to search each of the rooms up here for the Michalchuk cousin, when a boy around Dylan's age emerged from one of the rooms midway down the hall on the left, closely trailed by a pretty, mini-skirt donning brunette.
"Hey, Dylan," he said, spotting us and grinning as he wandered over. "And…"
"Alex," I introduced myself, relieved to see that the younger generation of Michalchuks seemed to forego handshakes as greetings. "Dylan's girlfriend."
He smiled at me. "Hey. I'm Daniel. Dylan's cousin."
It was easy to miss the resemblance, if you didn't look for it. Daniel had light brown hair, in contrast to Dylan's blonde, and it sort of just hung there, falling into his cerulean eyes with no particular style to it; there wasn't a curl in sight. But he had the blue eyes, and the curve of his face looked like Paige's. The nose and mouth, though, closely resembled Dylan's. All in all, he wasn't bad looking. I wouldn't call him cute, exactly. Then again, my idea of cute tended to be blonder, rather more petite, and with boobs.
"And this is my girlfriend, Emily."
The girl, who, oddly, made me think of Amy with brown hair, nodded at us, smiling. "Hi."
"Hey."
"So, Dylan," said Daniel eagerly, "I wanted to show you this awesome game I got. My parents let me bring it and hook it up. The graphics are amazing…"
Daniel and Dylan departed for one of the rooms, and, with a glance at each other, Emily and I followed. Daniel led us into a small room with a rather tattered old couch, a TV, and a few wooden bookcases lining the walls. Daniel, Dylan, and I collapsed ungracefully on the couch, and Emily perched herself delicately on the arm.
Daniel had set up the game already, and grabbed a controller for each himself and Dylan off the floor, handing one to the blonde.
"Dude, you'll love this―"
Ten minutes later, Daniel was looking exasperated, and Dylan, simply furious. I rolled my eyes as I listened to them argue.
"Dude! You were supposed to get out of the way!"
"I'm trying!" replied Dylan through gritted teeth. "There's nowhere to go!"
Daniel gave a frustrated sigh. "You're losing the game for us. I spent two hours getting here."
Dylan looked ready to punch him. "Why don't you ask someone else to play, then?"
"I'll play," I volunteered. "Can I have that?" Without waiting for a reply, I snatched the controller from Dylan's hands.
"Hey!"
"Can it, Michalchuk, and watch a pro show you how it's done," I said, my tongue in between my teeth as I concentrated on the video game. This wasn't so hard. After years of hanging out and competing with Jay and his guy friends, I had become a video game master of sorts. I pulled a few complicated maneuvers, a small, self-satisfied grin beginning to form on my face, and the others just looked at me, obviously surprised.
"You play video games, Alex?" asked Daniel.
"Play them. Conquer them," I shrugged nonchalantly, dodging a laser and firing a solid round of bullets at my attacker. "My girlfriend says I spend way too much money on them."
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Dylan's shocked, fearful expression. Crap. Had I just said what I thought I said?
"Yeah, my best girlfriend says her little brother blew a two hundred dollar check just on games," said Emily matter-of-factly. Oh, good. They'd thought I meant girlfriend as in… oh good then. I was safe. I really had to be more careful about that, though.
"Well, you can take my place, Alex. I'm done," said Dylan. As if I'd even been planning on letting him have the controller back.
"Man, your girlfriend's better than you," laughed Daniel. "She just found the ammo package inside that crate."
"So?"
"So, you never even made it to that crate," explained Daniel. I glanced at Dylan, and snickered at the expression on his face.
"Don't worry, Curly, I'll train you in the art of alien military combat sometime," I promised, rolling behind a barrel as a barrage of bullets showered me and Daniel.
"Great," said Dylan, looking wholly unenthusiastic.
Forty-five minutes later, we emerged from the room, Daniel and I chatting eagerly, while Dylan and Emily followed behind us, looking bored.
"So, did you get Halo 3 yet?" he asked.
I grinned proudly. "The day it came out. You?"
"I wish. If only I had the cash…"
"Yeah, it cost a pretty penny, but it so worth it," I said excitedly. "Hey, did you get―"
I was cut off, however, by a voice shouting up the stairs. "Danny! Come down here!" I glanced at him, and he rolled his eyes.
"It's my mom. I'll be right back." He and Emily took off, leaving Dylan and I alone.
"Your cousin's pretty cool," I said matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, he's all r― what was that?" Dylan made a quick sweep of the hallway.
"What was what?"
"Someone said 'Dylan'…"
"Me!" a sharp whisper came from somewhere to our right. A small, dark head poked itself out a door.
"Marco?"
"Dylan, we've got a problem…" said Marco. "Can you come here?"
I rolled my eyes. I could guess what kind of "problem" Marco might have that he would need Dylan to solve. "I'll be leaving now."
I headed downstairs, planning on making another little stop in the kitchen to grab something to eat. I had just turned the corner into the room, when I nearly ran headlong into a brown-haired, blue-eyed something.
"Hey, have you seen a guy, around this tall, dark hair, really cute? I think his name's Mark, or something?" The girl, who, if I had to make my guess, was closely related to Daniel, seemed slightly breathless, and had an almost predatory gleam in her eye.
Suddenly, Marco's "problem" made a hell of a lot more sense.
"Um…nope." She hurried past me, and I wandered over to the counter, where the food had been laid out, choosing a couple of baby carrots from the veggi-dish, and coating them all in dip before popping them in my mouth.
"Alex?"
I turned around, my mouth full, my cheeks bulging, and smiled. Well, as best I could smile anyway, with my mouth crammed full of carrots.
I swallowed hard. "Hey, Paigey."
She grinned. "You know, for some reason, I cannot get used to the sight of you in a dress."
"You won't have to. After today, this thing is getting exorcised. Then burned."
Paige looked disappointed. "But you look so…"
"Ridiculous?" I offered.
"I was going to say beautiful."
I turned away, smiling despite myself. "We'll see."
I knew perfectly well what would end up happening. I'd try to get rid of it, she'd beg me not to. I'd insist, she'd "persuade" me to change my mind. I would. Then the stupid dress would be left hanging in the back of my closet for a year. Paige is a princess. She always gets her way.
"It really does look great on you. It shows off your figure," she continued with the flattery, coming over to pick a brownie from a plate. She may be an irritating little princess, but she's my irritating little princess.
"Hey, you wouldn't have happened to have seen Marco around anywhere, would you?" she asked, chewing the brownie thoughtfully.
"He's upstairs with Dylan. I think he's trying to avoid some girl that was looking for him," I said, leaning back against the counter.
Paige groaned. "Patricia? I knew she liked him!" she shrieked, making me wince.
"Volume, Paigey," I reminded her lightly. "What are you talking about?"
"Tell me something…was the girl, by any chance, around our age, curly brown hair, blue eyes…"
"Yeah…" I said slowly.
"That's my cousin," said Paige matter-of-factly. "Patricia. She was totally checking Marco out earlier. And right in front of me, too."
I cocked an eyebrow. "What, you'd rather her try and seduce your supposed 'boyfriend' behind your back?"
She ignored me. "She always does this! Every time she sees something I have, she wants it. If she knew I was dating you, she'd turn gay just to take you away from me, too," she said certainly.
I couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry. She's not my type."
"She does this kind of thing every time we're together. Once, when we were seven, I got a Barbie Dream Mansion for Christmas, and―"
I grinned. "Why can I see a seven-year-old you playing with Barbies so, so easily?"
"―and she was jealous because she'd just gotten the convertible. So she jumped on the house on purpose and told our parents she fell on it. She cried for half an hour, and everyone felt so sorry for her, they bought her an ice-cream."
"Still holding onto that grudge, huh?"
"Shut up," she snapped, and I popped another carrot into my mouth, grinning smugly.
"Seriously, Paige, instead of moaning to me about all this, you should be fighting fire with fire," I said when I had swallowed.
"What do you mean?" she asked slowly.
I shrugged. "Piss her off. Beat her at her own game."
"How?"
I grinned wickedly. "You are so lucky you have an evil genius for a girlfriend."