Chapter III

A few days later, I knew her name. It was Mitchie. We had even talked a few times whenever we were at our lockers or sometimes in class. She was actually the one who came to me first one day in the hallway when we left English class. Besides being incredibly hot, beautiful and smart, Mitchie was also really nice. But I had noticed that by then. Everybody always greeted her around school.

Her boyfriend, Nick, was also very nice, actually. It was a habit of his to go talk to Mitchie at her locker, so naturally I was going to meet him too.

Nick and Mitchie were pretty much the perfect couple, from what I've heard and noticed. They've been together since the end of freshman year, and are like the nicest people ever. They're very discrete and both of them are among the top ten students with the best grades in the entire school. Both their families have a lot of money, apparently. Besides, they're really attractive. It's as if the town had their own Brangelina.

I still envy him, though.

"Alex! Hi!" I turned around to see Lindsay. We had a few classes together and she's pretty much the closest thing I have to a friend here. "Are you leaving already?"

I shut my locker and turned around leaning against it so I was facing the red head in front of me. What are the odds of having two red head friends in two different cities?

"Yeah. I gotta take my little brothers to soccer practice."

"That's cute." She mocked. "So, have you heard about Friday's party?"

"Hey, Alex!" Mitchie's voice made its way into my ears and I counted to five before turning. I didn't want her to see my dumb smile.

"Hey, Mitchie. How's it going?"

"Fine. Hey, Lindsay!" She put some books inside and turned to us. "Have you guys heard about Miley's party on Friday?"

I looked at Lindsay as if asking if they were talking about the same thing.

"I was just about to tell Alex about it. You should come, Lex!"

"Definitely." Mitchie agreed shutting her own locker. "It'll be perfect for you to get to know some more people."

"Um... I guess. But I think I might have to babysit my brothers."

"Oh, come on!"

"Alex, look." I turned to face Mitchie and just then noticed she had her hair pulled up in a messy bun. She looked so hot. "If you want, Nick and I can come get you. We won't be leaving until eleven."

Alright. It had barely been two weeks since we started talking occasionally and she was already offering me a ride to some random party at the end of the week. It's been a few days since I started debating with myself wether Mitchie is Mother Teresa's reincarnation or just plain nice to anyone. It's like this girl never has a bad day and loves every single person in this cool. I'm new here and I already dislike some people. Her parents must feed her unicorns and freaking rainbows.

"It's alright, Mitchie. I can take my mom's car, I don't wanna bother you."

She rolled her eyes and placed her right hand on my left arm.

"I'm offering you. If it was gonna be a bother, I wouldn't have done it in the first place!"

"Yeah." Lindsay agreed. "Come on, Lex. Miley's parties are always so much fun! And besides, it's good that Mitch gives you a ride 'cause since it's your first party in town, you must get drunk."

I was getting uncomfortable. I liked drinking, but when I had my friends with me and we'd get wasted together. If anything happened, we'd be in deepshit, but we'd be together. Except for Lindsay, Mitchie, Caitlyn - Mitchie's best friend - and Nick, I don't know anybody here. If anything happened, I'd probably have to deal with it by myself. And knowing my luck, something always happened.

"Guys, can I get back to you? I'll talk to my parents. I promise I'll do my best to go." I smiled, thinking that would maybe convince them.

"Sure, it's okay." Mitchie said. "Do you have my number?" I shook my head and she teared a piece of paper from her notebook writing down her number. "Send me a text later so I can save yours."

"Will do." I smiled at her.

"Well, you already have mine. Besides, we have a bunch of classes together, so you better come if you don't want me to spam your phone with hate texts during class." I laughed and said goodbye to both of them.

Lindsay was going to watch her new boy toy's football practice and Mitchie was heading to her tutoring lessons. She was the tutor, obviously.

When I got home from taking the boys, Max and Justin, to their soccer practice, my mom was in the kitchen cooking dinner and hummimg to Cielito Lindo. I'd take a guess and say that's the only spanish song she knows every lyric to, since it's the only one I ever heard her sing. I think...

"Hey, ma..."

"Hi, darling. How was school?"

I sat by the kitchen counter and watched my mom walk around getting everything ready for dinner.

"It was alright. Though Mr. Hegel asked us to read Brave New World."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Mom... I got that book as a gift when I was eleven. I've read it over ten times. It's incredible, I love pretty much anything from Aldous Huxley, but I just can't read that book again."

"Unless you have memorized it, you will have to, sweetie."

"I'll ask Mr. Hegel if I can read another one... Maybe Eyeless in Gaza? I love that book."

"You could try, honey. But I don't think he would let you off the hook so easy. It's not fair to the other students." She put a bowl of salad on the table and called my brothers and my dad into the kitchen. "Go wash your hands, honey."

At around ten, I went downstairs looking for my parents, since I checked their bedroom and they weren't there. I walked down the hall and saw the light on in my dad's office, so I walked towards it. The door was half opened, so I didn't bother knocking. Which I instantly regreted at the sight of my mom sitting on the table and my dad standing between her legs while making out.

"Can't you wait until all of your kids are off to sleep?"

Though I faked an angry tone, my parents didn't seem to bother much as they finished their make out session with a quick peck and my mom hopped off the table and sat on the leather couch, tapping on it gesturing me to sit next to her.

"I've walked in on you doing a lot worse things, Alex. So don't even think about ranting your parents. We're married and healthy."

My dad left out a giggle as he went through some papers that were laying on his desk.

"Whatever. Listen, I wanted to ask you guys something." My mom nodded. "There's, um... This party on Friday that I've been invited to, but you guys are going out and I'll have to babysit the boys."

"So?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

Damn, why did my mom have to be so difficult?

"Well... I thought maybe y'all could let me go to the party and pay for a babysitter instead?" My mom scoffed at me, but before she could go any further, I talked again. "Look, it's just this once! I've been babysitting the boys for so many years, I rarely try to get out of it, unless it's something I really wanna do. Come on, please?" I put on my best puppy face and stared at them.

I saw both exchanging looks, trying to decide what to do. Finally, my mom sighed and looked back at me.

"Listen. It might be too late to find a babysitter now, but here's what we can do: your father and I could leave a bit earlier than we previously planned and come back before twelve. What do you think?"

"Do you think you guys could make it back at around eleven? I know it's a date night, but this girl offered me a ride and she said she's going at around that time."

My mom and dad exchanged a weird look this time.

"Lex?" It was my father. I turned to him. "Are you dating anyone?"

Oh, for fuck's sake. They're so predictable.

"No, guys. She's a friend! Besides, she has a boyfriend. Who's also gonna be in the car and at the party, so relax."

"Okay, good." My mom said letting out a reliefed sigh. "All that drama with Dakota that went down the past year was so exhausting. I'm not willing to get in any of that any time soon."

"Me neither!" My dad agreed without moving his eyes from the computer screen.

"Don't worry, okay? Dakota is gone. And I'm not gonna get into any of that ever again." I took a deep breath suddenly feeling tense just thinking about the whole situation with Dakota. "Anyway, do you guys think you can be back by eleven?"

"Sure, darling." My mom smiled and caressed my cheek. "I'm glad you're already making friends."

I smiled back and hugged both of them before going back upstairs.