Chapter 4

Alex POV

I woke up around 5:30 the next morning. It was Sunday morning. The temperature outside was warm, so I opened my window a bit so I could hear the birds. I then realized what had happened last night with the new neighbors and I looked outside at their house. I figured they were all still sleeping.

I laid back down and eventually fell back asleep. I eventually woke up again around 8:00. I got up and had made some cereal for breakfast. I took my bowl of cereal and headed out to my screened in porch. The temperature was warm and it felt so good. Angel came out and sat on my lap.

I looked across the street at the new neighbors' house. Inside, I could see people walking around. No… They were running… I saw a man with brown hair, which I figured was the woman's husband, fling open the front door and dump a bucket of water out. The water was brown. What was going on? Well apparently now they had water. Just not drinkable water…

I finished my cereal and decided to go back to my room, since I couldn't see any more action going on across the street. I sat on my bed and opened up YouTube. I started watching some of R5's old YouTube videos. Rocky and Riker were at the beach doing their "Love Drunk" dance. Now I was watching Riker and Rydel do their "Everybody Talks" dance routine. Finally, I watched Riker jumping into his pool. Riker… Riker… Riker…

My mind snapped back into reality when I heard my parents get up. Ok, well it was more my dad screaming at the dog for trying to bite him.

A few hours later…

My parents decided to go out for a ride on their boat. They had just bought a new one a few weeks ago. My dad said that he was tired of the old boat being green. So he bought a blue one… We still had the green one, but my dad didn't want to use it. Sometimes I feel like he has a mental problem when stuff like this happens… I mean, he could have just painted the boat if it really bothered him that much. But, he and my mom decided to go for a boat ride. My mom packed them dinner, which I carried down to the beach for them, and they got into their nice BLUE boat, and took off.

I walked back up from the beach, looking over at the house across from mine. I couldn't see anything going on inside, but I thought I could hear voices.

I went inside, grabbed my tablet from my room and brought it out onto the screened in porch. I went on Facebook. I was sure Katelyn would be posting pictures from Cape Cod. Surprisingly, she hadn't texted me much. She must be having fun. She wasn't going to be back until Wednesday, so I figured she'd text me sooner or later. She didn't have the best relationship with her parents, kind of like me, so when she went on family vacations, she spent half of it texting me.

I finished looking at Katelyn's pictures from Cape Cod. They were pretty cool, and she looked like she was enjoying herself.

Now, I was trying to decide between 2 pictures of Riker to put as my new desktop picture when there was a knock at my door. I didn't even hear anyone walking over, I was so busy looking at pictures.

I got up and answered the door. There was a young boy, probably 12, standing there holding my phone book. He looked familiar. He kind of looked like Ryland, the youngest Lynch brother, but since he wasn't in R5, I didn't really know what he looked like.

"My mom sent me over to return your phone book," he said.

"Um, thanks. Is everything ok over there?" I asked.

"Um, kind of. We called a plumber last night and they said they fixed whatever was wrong. Everything seemed fine since we had running water. But when we woke up, our basement had water everywhere. The plumber had shown my dad how to turn the well on and off last night, so my dad turned the well off and we've been waiting all day for another plumber to get here," he said.

"So you don't have running water right now?"

"Nope."

"Well tell your mom that you guys are all welcome to come over here whenever you need to and use our bathrooms, showers, sinks, or whatever you guys need. Tell her it's really no trouble," I said.

"Ok. I'll tell her. Thanks," he said as he turned and walked back across the street.

I walked back out to the screened in porch and chose which picture of Riker I wanted as my background. He was wearing jeans, a blue hoodie, and his glasses. I loved when he wore his glasses. He looked even cuter with them. During an interview once, he had said that he doesn't like wearing them because he feels self-conscious about them. I thought he looked adorable…

I was looking up random facts about R5. Ellington's favorite color was green… Rydel's favorite perfume is pink sugar… Riker's birthday is November 8th… I knew that already though. He had just turned 18 a few months ago. I was 16, he was 18, at least we had a 0.0000001% chance of ever being together since our ages were at least a little bit close. Oh well…

I went back to looking up R5 facts after reheating some leftover pasta. After a little while, I got a text from my mom. She and my dad were apparently not coming home tonight and were going to be staying at my aunt's house. My aunt had a house on the same lake as us, so we would always go there by boat.

Whatever, though. Fine with me. I didn't have to get screamed at tonight. It was getting dark out and a little chilly. A packed up my stuff from the porch, and closed the sliding door so the cold air wouldn't come in. I went to my room and picked up my guitar. I had started playing last year. I didn't randomly just pick it up and be like "I'm going to learn the guitar for fun". No. I decided to learn it because Riker could play guitar. He specializes in bass guitar, but he knew how to play rhythm guitar too.

I looked up some chords to a Taylor Swift song I was learning, and started practicing. I was learning "You Belong with Me". I sounded pretty good. After practicing that song, I switched to one I already knew, "Crazy 4 U" by R5. Of course.

I switched back to Taylor Swift since it was almost perfect. Then, mid song, I heard a knock at my door…