The Lost Boys

Not My Only Reason

It had been a long night for Alexis. She had been tossing and turning all night, which made it hard to want to get up in the morning. She looked at the time, noting how late in the morning it was before pulling her pillow over her head and smothering herself slightly. Usually her parents made her get up early, just to make sure she was okay and hadn't done anything wrong after she went to bed. Since her sister had done so before, they wanted to make sure she wasn't following in her footsteps. It was a pleasant surprise to get to sleep in for once.

After neglecting to get out of bed for another ten minutes, she moved the pillow off her face and pulled her covers off. She quickly made her bed, as per her parents rule, and made her way down the stairs.

It was a weekday, and her parents would still be at work for another 4 hours at least. It super sucked to be stuck in the house during the summer. She was about to fix herself a bowl of cereal when she saw a note on the counter, presumably from her mom.

Dear Alexis,

Hope you enjoyed sleeping in. We decided since you had a fun time and listened to us last night, you could sleep in. Your father and I discussed the possibility of letting you go out tonight as well, so long as you do your chores. Be good today.

Love,

Mom

Alexis stood there, mouth open wide. She couldn't believe her luck. Two nights in a row? By herself? She reread it a few more times in order for it to finally sink in. She could go to the boardwalk again! There was so much of it she still had yet to see, and being able to go out any time before a week after the first time was a true miracle.

After putting down the note, she made it a point to run around the house in excitement before calming down. When she was properly calm, she made herself a bowl of cereal and plotted her day. She thought about what places she hoped to see, and others she neglected to go past yesterday. As she ate, the glimmer of the ocean caught her eye. She almost forgot how badly wanted to go to the beach, but knew it was going to be too dark to go by time she was let out.

As if on cue, the little devil in her mind started to convince her to go out during the day while her parents were out. She put up very little of a fight against it, and let herself be convinced. As long as she was back before her parents were, everything should be alright...

Alexis quickly finished her breakfast and cleaned her bowl. If she got her chores for the day done now, there was no way she would get caught. She quickly cleaned up what little of a mess her room was and straightened up the living room, then ran back up to her room to change. She changed into her favorite bright green crop top and a pair of high waisted shorts, and a simple pair of sandals she could wear in the sand and carry around.

When she was pleased with her look, she ran out of the house as quickly as possible. As she reached the boardwalk she saw that it was no different today than it was last night. Although the volume of weirdos had lessened, the boardwalk was still mainly comprised of them. She took a quick walk around the boardwalk before rushing down to the sandy waves of the beach.

Alexis hadn't been to the beach in over a year. Despite this being the whole reason she moved here, she never really went to the beach. After her sister met that boy, a lot of the free time she had was taken up by spying on her sister and that guy she'd met.

When she finally stepped onto the sand, she felt truly happy. It was warm as she dug her toes into the sand, remembering the feeling of every single grain of sand as it touched her skin. She was more than excited to be here, if there even was a feeling. She quickly ran to the edge of the water to feel it. It was just as she remembered it; cool, refreshing, and beautiful. She didn't want to get into the water too much, just embrace the rays of sunshine she had missed so badly.

It was then she felt a tap on her back. She looked around to see a Frisbee in the sand below her, the obvious culprit as to what had hit her.

"Hey!" a voice called out to her. She turned to see it was a handsome young boy, about her age. He had dark brown hair that was somewhat short and very unkempt, with warm-feeling gray eyes. He was wearing longish white shorts, and an unbuttoned striped pink and orange shirt. He wasn't wearing an undershirt, and so his bare chest and slight abs were easily visible.

'Oh no, he's hot,' she thought to herself. Her mouth sat open for a second as she picked up the Frisbee and stared at him.

"Hey," the boy said as he reached her, pretty out of breath.

"Hey," she stuttered slightly.

"My name is Jake, what's yours?"

"Alexis," she replied shyly. What was wrong with her?

"Well it's nice to meet you, Alexis." he smiled and held a hand out to her. "So, um, you from around here?"

"Well- um, well, sort of," she answered, her words stumbling over themselves as she spoke. She'd never felt so tongue-tied by a boy before, and his grey eyes pierced her outer shell quickly.

"Sort of?"

"Well, I moved here a year ago. But my parents thought that it would be better if I was forced to stay homebound," she told him

"Oh, no wonders you look familiar!" Jake said, confusing her greatly.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you before you disappeared last year!"

"Really?" she asked, no longer nervous; it was now confusion.

"Yeah! Didn't you have a sister with you? 'Cause I swear I saw someone that looked extremely like you, except maybe a bit taller."

"Yeah," she answered sadly, her memories coming back up a little. "She um, well she-"

"Disappeared?" he finished her sentence.

"Yeah," she muttered, looking away. This isn't how she wanted to go about meeting someone new. Her sister was still a hard subject.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay," she said quickly, cutting him off. "You didn't know."

He nodded and shrugged a little, then smiled a bit. It took her mind off it a little just to see him smile at her. "So uh, wanna hang out?"

Alexis smiled a little back and nodded. "Yeah, I'd like to."

She looked down at her hands and suddenly remembered the Frisbee in her hands. She blushed and handed it back to him, her nervousness returning. "Uh, here's this back by the way."

He laughed a little bit and grabbing it back from her. His fingers lightly brushed against hers, making her blush more. "Thanks. So what do you want to do?" he asked.

"Well, um… I don't exactly know, I just recently got my privilege to actually leave the house, "She admitted, slightly regretting it.

"Well we'll just stay here then," Jake said, holding out his hand. "It's a beautiful day. Why not stay here on the beautiful beach, on a beautiful day, with a beautiful girl."

He was totally hitting on her, but somehow she was okay with it. She had let down her guard with him so easily, but she could feel herself not regretting it one bit.

"Well, um sure," she said, taking his offered hand. They smiled as they walked hand-in-hand down the shoreline.

She stood there in front of the steps of her house, holding hands with Jake, the boy she just met. He seemed nice to her, and he acted like a gentleman the whole day. They hung out at the beach until she had to go home, kicking sand at each other, splashing water at each other's faces, and being close. They even played with the Frisbee a little bit. She couldn't think of a better day than this.

"It was really nice to meet you Jake," Alexis said, smiling happily.

"It was really nice to meet you too, Alexis," he said. She never got tired of him saying her name. "When are coming to the boardwalk again?"

"Later tonight," she told him, and blushed a little in embarrassment. "I technically shouldn't have been out, but I really wanted to go."

He smiled at her and squeezed her hands a little. "Well I'm glad I met you now so we could hang out later tonight. If that's okay with you, I mean."

She nodded eagerly and grinned, "Yeah, of course!"

"Awesome!" he grinned back. "Meet you by the beach later tonight?"

"We aren't going to spend some time in the freezing cold water are we?" she laughed.

"No," he laughed back. "It's just a meeting place."

"Okay! I should be back out by at least 7, so I'll meet you then. You better go before my parents get home."

"Okay," Jake said. He kissed her cheek and walked back to the boardwalk. She stood there for a few minutes in blissful happiness before going back inside to change and shower, so her parents wouldn't get suspicious. She cleaned up all the sand from her shoes and beach clothes just in time for her parents to get home.

"Hey guys!" Alexis greeted them, looking up from the decoy magazine she was only using to look nonchalant.

"Hi, Sweetie! How was your day?" her mom asked as she set down her purse and headed up toward their room

"Oh it was fun," she replied.

"What did you do all day? Sleep?" her father asked as took off his shoes and loosed his tie.

"No," she said. She had already thought up a lie. "I slept a little bit, but then I got up and watched T.V. for a bit. I got done watching as soon as you guys got home."

Her father smiled at her and kissed the top of her head in parental affection. She smiled back at him and set the magazine down on the table.

"Woah there squirt," he said, instantly making her nervous. "Looks like your hair is a little wet there."

She tried to act nonchalant, thinking up something on the spot due to her forgetfulness. "Oh yeah, I hadn't showered in a couple days so I thought I'd get one before you guys got home."

Her mother sighed and shook her head as she walked back down, dressed down from her work outfit and going straight to the kitchen to make dinner for the family. "I knew I should have reminded you yesterday to shower. At least you got one without us reminding you today."

Alexis nodded in agreement, but she wished her mom didn't have to act like she needed to remind her about everything she had to do. It's not like she was 10 years old, or Vanessa.

"You read my note though, right Alexis?" her mother asked as she got ingredients out for dinner.

"Yeah!" She answered, obviously excited. "I've already gotten all my chores done."

Her parents looked back at her, impressed. "Well I guess you can go then."

"Okay here's the deal though," her father said. "You can leave about 6, that way you can have dinner and spend some time with us. You can do whatever you want there, as long as you don't get into trouble, but you MUST come back before midnight. No exceptions."

She was astonished. Maybe her parents were finally getting over her sister's absence? Maybe they trusted her again? No matter what, they were letting her do things without all the needless protection.

"Thanks Dad!" She went over and hugged her parents before going into her room to change into a different outfit, yet again; although this time into a little bit warmer of an outfit for the nighttime. She was just so excited to get her life back. No more overprotective parents, all whatever she wanted...in a way. After changing, she went downstairs to eat and hang out with her family. She pretended to be the perfect daughter until they let her go free.

She was earlier than she told Jake she would be, so she decided she would walk around the boardwalk. Maybe even see those boys again. The Frog brothers? Something like that. Yeah, maybe she would talk to them for a bit.

She walked down the line of shops before actually finding the comic shop. She went in, and was surprised to see an older couple in there. They were just laying there next to a T.V. in the back, stoned or something. Maybe even dead? She pushed that thought from her mind and shrugged it off. It was probably just more of Santa Carla's resident weirdos. She walked over to see if any comics would spark her interests before the boys showed up, but before she could even see any of the titles the boys were back on her trail.

"So, you've come back huh?" Edgar (she hoped that was his name) asked.

"Yep," she said. "Glad to see me boys?"

"Not particularly," he said, earning a bit of a glare from her.

"We just want to know what you were talking about last night before you disappeared on us," the other boy, Alan, insisted.

"You still remember huh?" she asked.

"Clear as dawn."

She sighed, leaning against the counter and looking down at her worn down sneakers. "Well, my sister started hanging out with this dude. I don't know what he did to make her like him. He was an obvious punk-rocker dude and he rode a motorcycle, and hung out with a few other guys that looked just like him. I never liked him, I knew he was trouble from the start. After like a month of hanging out with him, she 'disappeared'." As she said that, she did physical air quotes and rolled her eyes. "Everyone thinks she just ran away with him, but I know they're wrong. If I told them, they would think I'm crazy, and I would be locked up more than I already am."

"Then why don't you tell us what really happened?" Alan asked. "We wouldn't tell anyone."

"How do I really know that I could trust you with something I couldn't even tell the police?" She asked them.

"If was as simple as 'running away', we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?" Edgar asked her, trying to make a point.

Alexis gave him an intimidating glare, which he was obviously happy to return. She tried to get off the topic of her sister, taking her back off the counter and walking around the shop again. "What can you tell me about your shop here?"

"Why would you want to know?" Edgar asked, not liking the change in subject.

She shrugged, "Just for the benefit of knowing, I guess."

"Well there was a diet frozen yogurt bar here, until we moved our shop here about the same time you sister disappeared," Alan told her. "We've been living in Santa Carla since we were born, and since this place was going out of business our parents decided to quit their jobs and start a comic shop here."

"But it's not like they actually work though," Edgar added. "They are always passed out and make us do it instead. Just showing up so they could still say they were actually doing something. Don't see how that works out though."

So that explained the couple behind the counter. She was right, they were stoned out of their fucking minds. They were pretty close to dead, though.

"I see," she said. "So you two pretty much just work here because of them?"

"Basically," Alan said, shrugging.

"How about your life?" Edgar asked very sarcastically. "What are your parents like?"

Alexis decided to ignore his sarcastic comment and inserted her own. "Overprotective, sheltered. That's all it's been since my sister disappeared, at least."

She shrugged and looked at the comics again, starting to regret her decision to come back.

"You know, we might have some information for you," Alan informed her, clearly trying to pull her back in.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She snapped, turning around to see them.

"You know that boy you were hanging out with earlier today?" Edgar asks.

"Yeah, what-" she started, but then caught on to them. "Wait, how do you know about him? I never said anything about him!"

"Well…" Alan said.

"We saw you on the beach cuddling with him," Edgar finished.

"You were SPYING on me?" she demanded.

"We just saw you while we were out on our lunch break," Edgar said, trying to defend them. "We were just wondering what you were doing out after all your dramatic, 'I'm not allowed out' spiel."

"So that gives you the right to SPY on me?" she asked, noticeably hurt. "And you guys want me to trust you?"

She walked out of the shop, not wanting to deal with their nonsense anymore.

Alan tried to clear it up, but it was too late. She was already gone, tears starting to form. She ran down the nearest stairs to the beach and hid next to them, falling down to her knees and hiding her face in her arms. Yeah it was a public area, and she really wasn't trying to hide herself, but openly admitting to spying on her was fucked up. Whatever friendship they had managed to form had vanished.

As she wiped away her tears, a figure came up to her. She didn't care who it was, as long as it wasn't one the stupid Frog Brothers.

A/N: Amazing! This is starting to become a comprehensible mess! Thank guys for rereading this dumb story. I'm going to be sure to keep working on this until I finish this. Who knows, maybe I'll get even BETTER at writing and rewrite it again for my own pleasure! Toodles for now.