Chapter 14: Open House

"Maman!" Ali called into the house when she stepped inside with Reggie. "You can take your shoes off, here." Ali pointed to the mat beside the door while she took her shoes off. Reggie quickly took his off as well. Reggie scanned the house and thought it was cozy and clean. The hardwood was a dark colour and the walls were white – it almost looked like something out of a magazine. The couches were either light brown of a dark chocolate colour and held coloured pillows on them. Pictures adorned the mantel above the fireplace in the living room to the right.

"Ali?" Reggie looked up and saw a young looking woman walk into the hallway from the kitchen. She wore a plain white blouse over her dark blue jeans. She had dark brown hair that had a light wave to it, but it was nowhere near as curly as Ali's hair. It was cut into a short bob that framed her face. Ali did have the same smile as her mother – large and happy. Reggie watched Ali's mother walk over to the pair and he realized where Ali had received her good looks from. "Who's this?" Ali's mother asked Ali the introduce Reggie to her.

"This is Reggie. Reggie, this is my mother, Mrs. Dubois." Ali introduced the pair. Reggie stuck out his hand and flashed a smile at Cecile.

"It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Dubois." Cecile shook the young boys hand and took in his good-looking face and large frame. She looked over at Ali and was very impressed with this boy she decided to bring home.

"Please, come in!" Cecile turned around and waved her hand, so the two teens would follow her. "I wish Ali would've told me you were coming over because then I would've made something." Cecile walked over to the fridge and opened the door, so the two teens could see it. "What would you like to drink? Orange Juice? Fruit Juice? Milk? Water?"

"I could just have a glass of water, Mrs. Dubois." Reggie answered.

"Of course!" Cecile grabbed a glass from the cupboard while Ali went to turn on the kettle. "Ali, make me one too, please?"

"Okay." Cecile brought the glass over to Reggie, who had taken a seat at the table, and sat across from him.

"I'm very pleased that Ali brought a friend home. I was beginning to worry that she didn't have any friends." Cecile told Reggie.

"Ali has friends. She just likes to keep to herself most of the time." Reggie explained. Ali rolled her eyes as she pulled out two mugs and placed a tea bag in each.

"I think the move has been hard on her, but I'm sure she'll adjust." Cecile said. The kettle boiled and Ali placed the hot water into the two mugs.

"Actually, I came here for a specific reason." Reggie began speaking. Cecile raised her hopes. She was hoping that he was going to tell her that they've been dating and that he wanted to introduce himself to her. "With everything going on with the black hood recently, I've offered to drive Ali to and form school."

"Really?" Cecile was shocked by this news. The young man in front of her was going to drive her daughter to keep her safe. "Please, let me give you gas money."

"Please don't. I'm doing this to help keep her safe. Everyone is taking precaution, but I just felt that, since Ali is new, then she should have someone looking out for her." Reggie explained.

"You are such a fine young man." Cecile looked over at Ali. "Why didn't you bring him home sooner?"

"He's just a friend, maman." Ali sighed as she took out the tea bags and placed some milk into both before bringing them to the table. Ali sat at the head of the table, so she was in the middle and could observe the two troublemakers who were getting along.

"I know, but I'm still happy he came in to introduce himself. You have such great manners, Reggie." Cecile complimented the boy in front of her. Reggie smiled.

"Thank you, my mother did raise me right." Reggie said.

"What else do you do, Reggie?" Cecile questioned.

"I'm on the football team at Riverdale." Reggie answered.

"Ali is a cheerleader, so I guess she'll be supporting you at your games." Cecile smiled at her daughter to see that she could care less about the whole ordeal.

"She will be. Our cheerleading team is great." Reggie added.

"I know. I used to be a Vixen. I can probably still recall some of our old cheers, but I bet they've been changed since then." Cecile laughed to herself.

"Things tend to change, maman." Ali said as she sipped her tea.

"Please excuse my daughter, she has quite the attitude." Cecile apologized to Reggie before sending Ali a warning look. Ali rolled her eyes as she continued to sip her tea.

"I actually enjoy it." Reggie piped in. Ali and Cecile both looked at Reggie with a confused expression. "Ali's different compared to all the other girls. She's a lot of fun to be around because of all her witty comments, so I wouldn't change anything about her attitude." Reggie defended. Ali and Cecile were both shocked by Reggie's statement. Ali couldn't believe that Reggie had said something that was completely unpredictable.

"Keep him as a friend." Cecile told Ali. Ali slammed her palm onto her forehead as she groaned.

"You're so embarrassing." Ali said. Reggie laughed as he witnessed the exchange. He was happy to see that she wasn't just attitude filled at school, but she was also like this at home as well.

"Why are you two hanging out with an old lady like myself? You two should go and do fun things!" Cecile clapped her hands together. "Ali, why don't you give Reggie a tour of the house?" Ali stared at her mother with a blank look until her mother said, "Emmenez-le en tournée." Ali sighed as she pushed her chair back and stood up from the table.

"Right then, let's go, Reggie." Reggie smiled at Cecile before getting up and following Ali around the house. The house had a very modern yet classy touch. There were fake flowers placed around the house, rugs were present in almost every room and the curtains were large and simple. If someone saw Ali walking around the house then they would say that she didn't match it with her leather jacket and badass attitude. However, Reggie felt that she was perfect in this house. He could picture her having a house similar to this when she got older.

As they made their way upstairs, Ali pointed out the bedrooms, the office and the washroom. When they finally reached Ali's room Reggie took it all in. The walls were a pastel blue that brightened up the room when the sun entered through the large window in front of them. She had a queen-sized bed that had the headrest up against the wall to the right of the door. She had a nightstand with a picture and an alarm. The closet was in the wall beside the door. On the left was a desk. There was a leather chair where she could sit and her laptop rested on the desk. Above the desk was a scratch map of the world. Reggie saw that a few countries had already been scratched – England, France, Spain and Italy. Beside the desk was a chest of drawers that had jewellery stands on top of it. Ali had so many necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets, so he wondered why she didn't wear all the other pretty jewellery that she owned. The last thing that he noticed was a bookshelf that was beside the window. It was basically full of so many different books of many different genres. Reggie didn't know that Ali enjoyed reading so much.

"What're you looking at?" Reggie finally looked at Ali again and he was so pleased he did. She was sitting on the edge of her bed while she faced him. The sun was shining through her window and hit half of her face. Only in the sunlight did he notice that her eyes were a dark chocolate brown and they weren't completely black. Her lips looked full and her skin looked so soft. Reggie just wanted to walk over to her and place a kiss on her lips while he cradled her face in his hands.

"You're room." Reggie answered as she walked over to her and sat down beside her.

"No shit, Sherlock." Ali nudged her elbow into Reggie's arm.

"It's really nice. I definitely didn't think your room would look like this."

"What did you think it'd look like?" Ali asked.

"Dark, skulls, heads on walls." Ali punched Reggie's arm and he laughed as he grabbed it. She didn't realize how nice his laugh was.

"You're a dick." She replied as she crossed her arms over her chest. Reggie wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave them a squeeze.

"You wouldn't have me any other way." Ali rolled her eyes at his comment. "Hey, who's this?" Reggie picked up the picture that was on Ali's bedside table. She looked at saw the picture of her family in the frame.

"My parents, me and my brothers." Ali pointed to each individual.

"I didn't know you had brothers." Reggie looked over at Ali. She didn't say anything. She just stared at the photo.

"Where are they?"

"They're not here." Ali's face dropped and so did Reggie's heart.

"Oh my God…I'm so sorry. I didn't know." Ali looked up at Reggie's face and saw the worry and concern that crossed over his features. She put two and two together before waving her hands in his face.

"Oh no, they're not dead! Jesus!" Reggie let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank God! You worried me for a second." Reggie awkwardly laughed as he placed the picture back onto the nightstand.

"They're still in England. I don't know if they're going to come here." Ali explained.

"Are they older or younger?" Reggie questioned.

"Older."

"So it looks like I'll need to impress them too." Reggie winked at Ali. She pushed him away and stood up form the bed.

"You're dumb. Anyways, don't you want to get going? Don't you have jock things to do?" Reggie stood up form his spot on the bed and stood in front of Ali.

"It's not very nice to kick someone out of your house, you know?" Reggie smirked at the girl in front of him.

"What're you going to do about it? Punish me?" Reggie smiled at the idea. Ali didn't know just how inviting that idea sounded to Reggie.

Emmenez-le en tournée = Take him on a tour

Oooooooooooo Now we're inside Ali's house...WHO KNEW THAT SHE HAD OLDER BROTHERS?! I wonder if they're going to make an appearance...