Nate sat reclined in a large brown leather chair with an open book laying on his stomach. His head was tilted back and his eyes were closed. He listened as the grand father clock ticked. Peaceful. It was dark outside. Though it was only eight in the evening, he felt like going to bed soon. He liked how quiet it was. He hadn't been able to get this much quietness ever since Alexis moved in. He didn't know where she was and he didn't really care right now. He simply enjoyed the lack of noise.
And then he heard the door slam. "NATE!" His peace and quiet atmosphere was shattered. "I invited some people over." She was at the front door and yet he could hear her loud and clear with the thick library door closed as if she were standing right next to him. The library door opened in a minute with Alexis bursting through. "Nate, did you hear me?" Her hair was ruffled from running to the library; but, he thought she still looked pretty. Nate nodded affirmation. "Then, why didn't you come when I called?" Nate shrugged, then put his book aside to follow her downstairs.
When he got down there, the lights were set on dim and a group of people were sitting in the living room on the beige suede couches. He nodded to everyone sitting on the couches and the floor. He sat beside Alexis who had taken a seat already. Looking around the living room, he didn't really recognize anybody. He whispered quietly to Alexis, "Who are these people?"
Alexis burst out in hoarse laughter at hearing what someone had said and while everybody else was laughing, she harshly whispered at Nate, "You should know these people. They're my friends and it's rude to forget who they are." Nate nodded. To the rest of the room Alexis said in a louder volume, "Who's up for drinks!" All of her friends shouted "ehh!" in unison as Alexis went to the kitchen to grab a bunch of booze.
Nate tried to act cool; but, he couldn't stop himself from just looking around the room nervously. He drinks; but, he's not much of a heavy drinker. He hangs out with people; but, he's not much of a socializer. He hates passing judgment; but, these people were dirty and nasty looking. They looked like druggies that she made friends with in the basement of a club. Well, for the most part they looked like that. Some of them were just grungy. He could deal with grungy; but, he didn't like to deal with possible eternal pot heads. Then proof was pulled out of a pocket. One of the guys sitting on the floor leaning on a corner of the coffee table with long knotty hair pulled some skins and herbs out of his ratty messenger bag. Alexis came back hugging several bottles of alcohol close to her body. "Ahh, yes! Good thinking, Jeremy. You definitely hit the jack pot!" A few of her pals laughed at the double entendre.
About half an hour into the group's fun when they were pretty much all stoned, Nate got up and left the living room. He grabbed his coat on his way out of the house. Shutting the back door behind him, he walked around the patio. The sky above was dark with twinkly stars. The house was far out enough away from the city that the light pollution from NYC didn't affect their view of the stars. Shoving his hands into his pockets, Nate sighed and looked up at the sky. The moon was bright and full. Pulling his hand out of his pocket, balling it into a fist and sticking out his thumb, he covered the moon. "The moon is the same size where you are." His fist dropped to his side and he shook his head. Alex made him watch too many Nicholas Sparks movies. He took a seat on a stone bench by some plants. His hand slipped into his pocket to pull out his phone. Flipping through the contacts he stopped at 'Allie', then clicked 'End'.
Closing his eyes, Nate set his phone down on his lap and mentally commanded for his phone to ring saying that Alex was calling him or at least texting him. "Just ring, phone. Just ring!" Nate let out the breath he was holding and decided to take a ride to Shane's.
Once Nate got to Shane's house, he ran to the door and knocked quickly. Mitchie opened the door with a surprised facial expression. For a few seconds, Nate and Mitch stood staring at each other. Well, more like Mitchie stood gawking at Nate who stood in front of her sheepishly. Finally, Nate cleared his throat and ended the silence, "Hey Mitch, can I come in?"
Snapping her out of her trance, "Oh yes, of course! Come in." As she said this she moved aside to let Nate enter the house. Nate could hear the TV on in the living room. He followed the noise as Mitchie followed him. Shane was on the couch laughing at some stupid commercial that had just passed his back toward Nate. "Shane, hon, your brother's here." Shane looked up.
"Oh hey, little bro!" Shane got up and jumped over the back of the couch. "To what do we owe this lovely appearance from the young Gray?" Nate shrugged and moved away from Shane to sit on the couch where Shane previously sat. Shane's face twisted, "What? What's wrong, Nate?" Shane and Mitchie hurried to sit on either side of Nate.
Mitchie poked him, "Spill, Nate. Now."
Nate sighed and readjusted his body with his arms crossed across his chest, "Nothing, I just miss familiarity. Is that so bad?"
Mitchie folded her hands in her lap, "What do you mean familiarity? Is there something you're possibly hiding from?"
Nate shook his head and Shane continued, "What do you think is missing from your life? Do you think you can replace it or do you think perhaps what you're missing is in your life but you're just over-looking it?" Shane really dug in and marked each question with the tip of his index finger.
"Umm, no." Nate shook his head again. "Thanks, guys; but, I already tried this once—the whole relationship therapy didn't work out for me all too well the first time. Yeah, so can we just—"
"Nate, shut up, silly!" Mitchie slapped Nate's leg and giggled, "We're not trying to give you therapy and psychoanalyze your thoughts and such. We just want to know. That's all. Also, have you talked to Alex recently? I haven't really talked to her, lately. Is she at the house?"
Shane sighed. "Alright, Mitch, give it a rest." Shane stood up and walked over to the TV. He rummaged around looking for something and finally, he stuck in a DVD. Shane sat back down next to Nate as the movie started.
It was 3 in the morning and though Shane offered Nate a bed at his house, Nate declined and returned home to his girlfriend, Alexis. When he arrived, he got more than he was hoping for. Inside there was a smoky haze of smelly fumes. He heard Alexis giggling. He went to the living room where he left the gang. Almost everybody left but the living room was a mess. The sight before him just fired him up. Alexis was slouched on the couch with one of her grungy guy friends strewn on her whispering something in her ear causing her to giggle every now and then. Nate threw his keys on the counter making a clank noise. Alexis was startled by the noise pushing off her friend. She stood up and looked at Nate with an anguished expression. His heart was beating miles per minute and he felt so much anger inside of him, he thought he was going to explode. He never had to deal with anything like this when he was with Alex.
Nate walked into his house from the garage throwing the keys onto the counter and his jacket on the back of a breakfast table chair. He was slowly walking to the stairs when he passed by the hallway where Alex spent her last week in New York. He stopped in front of the dark hallway when he heard a few grunting noises. It had been a week since Nate had caught Alexis in a compromising position with her friend. She had been tiptoeing on eggshells around him since then. Nevertheless, she still invited her friends over to drink and smoke. His house was starting to smell like a dirty downtown apartment of a drug dealer. Nate instinctively followed the noise and his eyebrows scrunched together. The grunting noises became louder and he moved faster. He opened the door that he thought the noises were behind in haste. From what he saw, he didn't know what to think. Alexis was in one of his wife-beaters and her boxer shorts her bed head hair even more rustled that usual. That same grungy guy friend was in the room as well. He was on the other side of the room but his lumberjack plaid shirt was off and thrown on the floor. Alexis stood closest to the door and from being startled by Nate her hands flew in front of her clasped together like an innocent school girl. Nate looked from Alexis to the guy—who he couldn't remember the name of—and back at Alexis. He shook his head and retreated, walking away with purpose.
Alexis chased after him, "No! Wait, Nate. You don't understand." Finally, she caught up to him and grabbed his arms turning him around.
As he spun around, Nate felt the anger bubbling and he thought he might have done something drastic if he didn't let off some steam. Using a lot of voice and from his chest, Nate shouted, "What?" in Alexis' face.
She flinched but continued, "We weren't doing anything wrong, Nate."
Nate couldn't wait any longer. He just had to interject, "What was it that you weren't doing? If you knew that what you were doing looked wrong, then why'd you do it?" Nate was breathing hard trying to calm himself.
Alexis hesitated and with reluctance she added, "Jeremy just came over to help me move some stuff around. It was no big deal. If you love me, then you should trust me." Nate shook his head roughly; he couldn't believe she was playing the if-you-love-me card. "Nate, please. Calm down. I invited some people over and I don't think they'll feel welcome if you are so tense. Just relax." Nate pulled out of her grip and walked to the kitchen grabbing a bottle of whiskey and glass tumbler. Alexis stood in the hallway rubbing her hands together anxiously. After a few minutes of watching Nate, she went back to Jeremy.
Nate sat at the breakfast table waiting for Alexis' friends to arrive. He passed the time by drinking a little. Pre-party he reasoned. He had either become numb or he wasn't paying much attention but the burn of the alcohol wasn't scorching his throat. It was eerily quiet as he sat there. He could hear the refrigerator humming and the clock ticking. He listened for the tiniest sounds. He felt the silence was muting his hearing until he heard a rapping at the door. The signal that the party was starting. A group of people started to pour into his house once Alexis opened the door. She had changed into skin-tight black jeans, and high heels. They all bypassed Nate at the kitchen table to get to the living room and yet none of them stopped to say 'hi' until a couple hovered close by and then broke the silence.
"Hey, Nate." Nate spun to look at the source of the greeting. It was Mitchie. Upon seeing the questioning look on his face, Mitchie continued, "Alexis invited us over tonight. This should be fun so come on. Let's go sit with everybody." Mitchie grabbed his hand and pulled him to the living room following Shane. Everybody was already set cozy. Alexis saved a seat next to herself for Nate and Jeremy sat on the other side of the room. Nate couldn't help but look for him. He wanted to make sure Jeremy was far away from his girl. Once he sat down, he placed a territorial arm around Alexis as if saying 'She's mine.' Mitchie took a seat on the other side of Alexis.
In her raspy voice, Alexis began, "Alright, everybody. Tonight's about the fun we're going to have and we're just going to forget about all of our problems for a little. So let's start drinking!" One of Alexis' friends with the handlebar mustache pulled out an Altoids tin. Nate could only suspect that there was weed inside. Glass tumblers were passed around the circle. Alexis passed around the first bottle of alcohol. Once everybody had a cup in their hands, they toasted to living life and everybody took a swig of their drink. Nate was a bit hesitant; but after seeing everybody else, he thought 'Why the hell not?' and he didn't take a swig of his drink; he downed it. Alexis got up to get the music started and from there, everything seemed more relaxed. Nate was already a little buzzed from before and the fumes of the weed were making the room hazy. Next thing Nate saw was Shane getting up and leaving the circle.
When Alexis came back, she had shot glasses and some vodka. Alexis screamed over the music, "Truth or Dare, sluts! Here are the rules," she set down the glasses in front of everybody on the coffee table and started filling them up, "if you chicken out, you'll be giving up a piece of clothing." She smiled wickedly, "I guess it's a bad thing I forgot to wear more layers." She finished filling up the glasses and set the bottle down. "Alright, drink up everybody!" They all reached in to grab their little shot glass and threw the liquid down their throats.
After a while, Shane came back in to find Nate acting like a fool with an empty vodka bottle in his hand. Mitchie was dancing around half naked on top of the coffee table with Alexis by her side. Alexis' guy friends were ogling the two and the girls danced around the table below them. Shane thought it best to take care of Nate before he took care of Mitchie. She didn't seem as smashed as his little brother. Shane grabbed the bottle out of Nate's iron fist grasp and placed it onto the floor hoping nobody would step on it. Nate was fighting back with Shane but eventually stopped. "Nate, we're going to take you to bed now, okay?" Nate started to talk.
"Shane, I think I might have had a little too much to drink." Nate enunciated every word the best he could. With Nate leaning on Shane for support the began to walk up the stairs. "I don't think I've ever gotten this drunk before, Shane." Shane nodded his head. "Y'know..." Nate stopped for a second. "Alex won't be in my room when we get there." Nate kept going after thinking for a little. Finally, Shane got Nate into his room and into his bed. Shane was about to leave but Nate pulled him back, "Shane, Allie went to Cali. She went to go see LC, y'know, from the Hills. They're going to party at Les Deux with Ms. Piggy from the Muppets. I always hated those puppets." Shane shook his head; his brother was talking nonsense. Nate pulled the comforter up closer to his chin and started to snuggle his eyes falling close. "She left me, Shane. If I wanted to go streaking right now, she wouldn't be there to stand by me or tell me to stop." Nate pulled his legs up and laid in fetal position, "Shane, she's not here for me anymore. Those stupid Muppets took her." Then Nate finished and went to sleep. Shane stood there for awhile thinking about what Nate just said. Most of it was rubbish; but, some of it was probably not supposed to be heard by anybody.
Shane sat on Mitchie's bed reading an issue of Cosmo magazine. He was paying close attention to the skin care section when Mitchie spoke from the bathroom, "Shane, we're going over to Nate's tonight. Alexis is having a house warming party."
Shane pulled his attention away from the Cosmopolitan, "What? Nate's lived in that house for years now. Why do they need to have a house warming party?"
From inside the bathroom, Mitchie answered his question while she did her makeup, "Alexis just moved in. She wants to invite everybody over for a gathering at her house and then we'll just chill with the usual people. It's just going to be really chill."
Shane scrunched his eyebrows together, "By chill, you mean dope and crap right?" Mitchie let out a sound of affirmation while she was putting on some eyeliner. "Can you just not go for one night? You've been over there for like every night of the week already." Shane didn't get an answer so he continued, "Can we just do something together by ourselves somewhere where Alexis isn't? Just like old times."
Shane heard Mitchie set down some makeup brushes onto the counter before she came out of the bathroom her makeup half done. "No, Shane. We need to go. Alexis moved in and that's huge plus it'll be fun. Jeremy's bringing a bong." She went back into the bathroom but when she thought Shane was going to start back up with talking she came back out of the bathroom.
"Why do you want to go so much?"
"I just told you, Shane, we need to go for moral support."
"And because of the drugs that will be available at the party and all of the booze." Shane was starting to get tense and he knew that she was going to try to defend herself.
"No, Shane. It's for moral support." Her voice began to raise, "And so what if I like to get drunk every once in awhile? Or if I like to get high every now and then? It's totally and completely fine. Alexis does it every night and Nate doesn't care. He's cool about it. Why can't you be more like your brother?" Mitchie was fuming.
"What is wrong with you, Mitchie?" Shane began to become defensive of himself yet very offensive to Mitchie. "You use to look down on that kind of stuff. You use to shake your head every time you saw Alexis get drunk or get high and now you're just like her. And I bet Nate does care. You're just too drunk or high to see it when you're over there. I've let you go hang out with Alexis all the time and now I'd like to spend some time with my fiancee alone. Is that too much to ask for?"
"You know what, Shane. If you think I've changed so much maybe I'm not the right girl for you anymore. Maybe we just need to relax for a little bit. If being your fiancee means I don't have a life anymore, then I don't want to be your fiancee anymore. I don't ever remember you being this possessive when we were just dating. Maybe it's better to be your girlfriend."
xoxo
Okay, so finally I finished this chapter :)
I lied. I said I was going to move those review replies to my profile but I'm just going to leave them here. But just in case for those people who don't want to read them again (if you read my first update this week) then just skip the unbolded part after this and start reading when the bold picks back up :)
to Jsixnsiw: I'm sorry but I don't think I quite understand what you meant to say in your review. What do you mean by I can't wait any longer? Is it the ending? Is it the amount of time I take to update? I'm trying the best I can. I kind of doubt you'll see this since you said you're done reading my story. Anyways, thanks for reading and enjoying as much as you read of my story.
to UGotStyle: Thanks! I'm glad you love the story :) And per your request, I tried to write something up so I could post it within four to five days. It's not quite finished yet; but, I think it's enough to make a chapter or at least a snippet of a chapter. Umm, I don't want to give anything away; but, yeah there's a surprise for Alex something along the lines that you guessed/suggested. Not all of it but the first part.
to 1234: Thanks :) From certain readers, they really gave me some input that I couldn't deny were some amazing comments and it really opened my eyes to see that I did need to add a little more of Nate's side while Alex was away in Cali. For Justin, I didn't mean that he was going to be bad or whatever. I was just curious to see what you guys thought of him. Like do you like him? Do you think he's not acting like a real brother? Do you want to see more of him? Something like that :)
I will be replying to the other reviewers very soon. So what do you guys think? Off with Alexis' head?
Oh and shout outs to unperfectt, liveinlove95, and L_is_for_Left. :) Thanks for reading and reviewing, I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter!