Here's your next chapter, my readers! I hope you enjoy it! Read ahead!

Alex sighed as he watched the white clouds float through the sky. He hadn't relaxed like this in ages. He hadn't been able to relax like this since… England… with Jack… He felt tears start to well up in his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away. He didn't want anyone to see him looking this weak.

Alice looked over at the blonde boy relaxing on the grass not too far from where the group of friends was sitting. He was handsome, with a slightly darker shade of hair than herself and larger muscles than all the boys in the group put together… including Andy, who worked out regularly.

Ashley smirked at her friend, who was still watching Alex. "Got your eyes on someone new, Alice?"

Alice span back quickly, meeting Andy's glare. "What? No! He just…" She looked back over at the blonde boy. "He looks lonely…"

Andy rolled his eyes. "The stupid moron can be alone for all I care."

All the girls glared at him. "You're a moron!"

Alice resisted the urge to slap him repeatedly around the face. "I can't believe you said that! You're such a jerk, Andy!"

Andy just stared at her. "You're always telling me to say what I feel, so I decided to say how I feel."

"You decided to do that now?" Alice demanded. "You moron!"

"That was pretty harsh, Andy," Jon pointed out. "Maybe you should chill with him."

"Chill?" Andy asked incredulously. "He's literally just walked into our house, taken over my room and stolen my family!" he sneered.

"Well, maybe if you paid more attention to it rather than going out with your friends all the time he wouldn't be 'stealing' it," Terry said. "At least I appreciate mine!"

Andy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, pulling pranks on your sisters and constantly avoiding doing housework is a sure way of showing your love."

Alex sighed and looked over when he heard loud voices traveling over. He rolled his eyes. He could never get any peace when that Andy boy was around. Like earlier, when he pestered him about that flashback…

He frowned. The people the flashback were… vaguely familiar now… He could remember Sabina, though her relation to him was still quite blurry. Those other men though… he definitely knew who they were. Well, at least vaguely. That man in the coat, he recognized.

Why wasn't he in jail? How was he not arrested? He obviously escaped… but how? And… and why? What is he getting out here that he's obviously not getting in jail? He could get more in jail… right?

Alex closed his eyes as he attempted to think, a frown growing on his forehead. What's going on? What am I missing?

When he heard more shouting, he sighed and sat up, opening his eyes. "Stupid kids," he muttered as he drew his knees up to his chest and continued to think, although he wasn't sure how he was meant to think with all of that noise going on…

Alice sighed as the boys continued to argue. They're so noisy… and inconsiderate… She glared at Andy. Especially him… no good jerk… "Hey!"

The boys shut up and turned to look at her. "Yeah, what?"

"I don't think arguing is going to help anything," Alice pointed out. She moved to sit in a kneeling position. "If we want to help him, we should invite him over here to hang out with us."

Andy shook his head. "No."

Alice shrugged and stood up. "Well, I'm going to do it if no one else will."

"Alice…"

She headed over to where Alex sat alone.

"Alice! Come back here!" Andy sighed and stood up. "Come on, Al…" He followed her over to Alex.

Alice sat down on the grass beside Alex and pulled her knees up to her chest, as Alex had done. She smiled at him. "Hi!"

Alex looked at her warily. "Uh… hi?"

She held out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Alice, pleased to meet you!"

Alex shook her hand out of respect. His eyes widened when he heard her name. "You're Alice, Andy's girlfriend?"

Alice nodded.

He gave her a small smile. "I'm Alex, and the pleasure is all mine."

Alice smiled. "I love your accent! You're British?"

Alex nodded. "I was brought up in London."

"Which part of London?"

"Chelsea."

"Oooh, posh."

Andy frowned when he saw Alex starting a conversation with Alice and sighed. Now he's stealing my friends too. He walked over to where they sat on the grass.

Alice looked up when she realized there was someone standing above them and sighed. "Andy, what are you doing?"

"I was just wondering when you would come back over," Andy said, shrugging slightly.

"I'm not a baby, Andy," Alice replied. "I can take care of myself. And I'm having a very civil conversation with Alex."

Andy raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Well, why doesn't he come over and have a very civil conversation with the rest of us?"

"Because you didn't want him to."

Andy flinched slightly. "That's not true!"

Alex smirked. "Then why did you tell me to sit all the way over here when we arrived at the park?"

"Shut up!"

Alice and Alex were both smirking. "You're fun to annoy," they said at the same time.

Andy just stared at them. "Don't tell me you're twins. Please don't tell me you're twins."

"We're twins."

Andy face palmed. "Now you're just messing with me."

"We know."

"You know what, why don't you just come and sit with us?" Andy sighed, knowing it was the only way to get Alice to shut up.

Alice smiled triumphantly at her boyfriend before turning to Alex. "Yeah, why don't you come and sit with us?"

Andy mimicked her behind her back, smirking slightly when he heard Alex snort from amusement.

Alex nodded. "Uh, I guess I'll be alright with it… if Andy is…"

Andy raised an eyebrow. "When did you care?"

Alex shrugged.

Alice smiled. "Then come on!" She pulled the blonde boy to his feet as she stood up and dragged him over to where the rest of the group sat, leaving Andy to trudge along behind them.

Alex looked slightly bewildered as he was dragged along – it had been ages since he had someone even touch him like that, and he'd had to try very hard to repress the need to attack Alice once she's grabbed his arm. Of course, he'd jumped, but he'd hoped no one had spotted it. He quietly observed each member of the group as Alice brother them to a stop.

Alice turned to Alex. "Alex, let's introduce you to our friends." She smiled at him before pointing to the tall boy with long black hair and dark eyes that was lying back on the grass, "Derek." She moved on to the girl sitting up beside him reading a magazine, with dark brown hair and blue eyes, "Kate." She then pointed at the boy with light brown hair and green eyes sitting next to her, reading a book, "Peter." She pointed at a black girl sitting beside him, seemingly on her phone, "Ashley." Finally, she pointed at the two boys with blonde hair and green eyes that seemed to be playing rock, paper, scissors, "The one with longer hair is Terry, and the one with shorter hair is Jon."

Alex nodded as he quickly stored all of this information. Boy, this is a lot to learn…

"Cut him some slack," Andy said as he sat down. "He's recovering from a concussion."

Alex stared at him, slightly shocked that he'd even bothered to learn that piece of information. "How did you…?"

"Tony told me."

"Okay…"

"Sit down," Ashley said absentmindedly.

Alex raised an eyebrow at her before sitting on the grass. "Okay… now what?"

"What should we play?" Kate asked the group in general as she continued to flick through her magazine.

"Truth or dare!" Terry and Jon exclaimed suddenly, looking up from their game. "We should play that!"

Ashley looked up from her phone. "Seriously? With you two? Nuh-uh."

Alex looked around the group. Everyone in this group had a significantly different personality, although they all had something in common. Two faces flashed in his mind when he heard Peter's name – one of a man with red hair and blue eyes smiling at him, and another of the same man with a pale face and unseeing eyes. The second face scared him slightly. Where have I seen that before…?

"Awww, come on, Ash…" Derek whined, sitting up properly. "It'll be fun with those two. It always is."

"And we can see how daring Alex is," the twins grinned.

Alex just raised an eyebrow, unfazed. Somehow, those two were very similar to someone he already knew back in England… Tom… "I guess I could consider myself pretty daring…"

Terry raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He looked up. "Hang from one of the branches of that tree."

Alex sighed and stood up before climbing up into the tree. "Which branch?" he called down.

Jon smirked. "Go higher!"

Alex climbed a little higher in the tree. "This one?" He pointed to a branch.

"Higher!"

Andy watched with amusement on his face as Jon and Terry got Alex to climb higher and higher into the tree, ignoring the glares that the girls were sending them.

Alex sighed when he reached the top of the tree. "Is this high enough?" he yelled down.

"Yeah!" Jon and Terry called back as they got out their phones to take pictures.

Alex looked down and took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing…" he muttered as he hung upside down on one of the branches. The branches up there, he realized, were much thinner than those lower down, meaning that his weight alone would've been able to snap a branch. These branches are as thin as twigs… he looked up, which was actually down, and realized that the twin boys were in fact taking photos and videoing him. He cursed quietly. Now everyone could find him on the internet. He hadn't wanted to be this famous. "Can I come down now?" he asked.

"Just a little longer…" Jon called out.

Alex frowned. "You aren't going to ditch me up here, are you?"

Andy frowned. He knew he was a jerk, but… "Why would we do that?"

"Because…" Alex didn't know how to finish that sentence. So what if I've been in this position before? So what if last time it happened, I was ditched and I fell out of the tree?

Alice frowned. "It's happened before, right?"

Alex sighed. "Can I come down, now?"

Terry grinned. "Yeah, dude!"

Alex smiled and climbed down to tree, landing on the grass in a crouched position. "How was that?"

"That was so daring!" Jon exclaimed.

"Even Andy didn't do that!" Terry explained with a grin on his face.

Andy scowled. Okay, so he hadn't been stupid enough to climb that tree and hang upside down from the top branch, mainly because his parents were overseas and if anything happened to him he'd get in big trouble for it. But he did almost every other dare – even that one that nearly got him into trouble with the cops!

"Well, maybe Andy values his life more than others," Alice said, sending small glares at the twins.

The two boys just grinned. "Sure he does…"

"When someone dates someone like you, they'd have to value their life," Derek muttered, earning a punch to the gut from Kate.

Alice glared at him. "I'm not that bad."

"I think you're pretty cool," Alex muttered.

Alice smiled at him. "Thanks."

Andy sighed. "So are we gonna play Truth or Dare or what?"

Jon grinned. "So, Andy, Truth or Dare?"

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