The Lost Boys

Not My Only Reason

It was 9:30 AM, and Alexis was just barely waking up. She was so groggy and tired from her lack of sleep. She kept waking up every 30 minutes, and then staying up for an hour. It was horrible. She was also surprised that her parents hadn't woken her up. They were usually on top of everything, including her sleeping hours. She had to be up and running by 8 o'clock every morning. It was super annoying. It had only happened because of her sister. This moment, like many others, she wanted wished that she either had her sister back, or was an only child from the beginning. That way she would never had felt any pain from her.

She came down the stairs and saw no one. She looked all over the house before finding a note from her mom on the kitchen counter.

Dear Alexis,

Sleep well last night? I heard you wake up a few times last night, so I decided to let you sleep in today. Hope you don't mind. If you can fix yourself breakfast, get ready, and clean up your room and the living room, your father and I decided we would let you out on the boardwalk again tonight since you were okay last night. Thank you for doing what we asked. Your father and I are out doing errands and won't be home until 4. Be good.

Love,

Mom

Alexis stood there, mouth open wide. She couldn't believe her luck. Her parents were finally leaving her alone for the first time since she accidentally broke one of her mother's prized vases. She wasn't trying to break it, it's like it decided to just break on its own. Anyways, she still couldn't believe what had happened. What was she going to do? Well, of course she was going to clean her room and everything. She was going to the boardwalk again! She was so excited! But what she was going to do after she cleaned her room and everything? She looked over the note a few times before deciding what to do.

A few times wasn't enough. She had to read it a million more times in order for it to finally sink in. Then it took a few more hundred before she finally decided what to do. She would go to the boardwalk again. Yeah, she was going to go later that night, but why not go now? Double trip! She would just have to be home before 4 o'clock. She smiled, and with her new for energy, quickly finished her chores and went off to the boardwalk.

It was 11:00 when she left. She would have finished earlier, but as she was a procrastinator, she took longer. Damn Procrastination. She thought. I could have been out here half an hour ago! Okay, maybe one hour ago, but still! As she reached the boardwalk she saw that it was no different today than it was last night. There was still weirdos out, just not as many. This time, since it was warmer and she did not waste her time looking at all the shops again like she did last night, she decided to go to the beach. Maybe not actually go into the water, but she would go. She looked around the beach, happy that she had finally made it back.

Alexis hadn't been to the beach in over a year. Even when her sister was still with them, despite this being the whole reason she moved here, she never really went to the beach. After she was able to actually leave the house, she went to the beach a few times before she had to use her time spying on her sister and the boy she had met there. She never trusted the boy, not even when he saved her from falling off the balcony in her sister's old room. That just made her even more suspicious of him.

When she finally stepped onto the sand, she felt truly happy. It was so 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 the water, it was just as she remembered it. Cool, refreshing, and beautiful. Then she felt someone brush next to her.

She turned to see it was a handsome young boy, about her age. He had dark brown hair that was somewhat short, with warm-feeling gray eyes. She was happy to see he was part of the few normal people around here.

"Hey," the boy said.

"Hey," Alexis said back.

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

"Alexis," she told him, somewhat shyly. Why was she acting so weird? Was she nervous? When was she ever nervous?

"Well it's nice to meet you, Alexis."

"It's nice to meet you too Jake," she said even more nervous than before. What's wrong with her? Why was she acting like this?

"So, um, you from around here?" his very voice was intoxicating her. A liquid pouring out of a bottle, or where ever the hell it came from, and onto the ground. There was even the sound of slashing, does that mean he was just as nervous as her?

"Well- um, well, sort of," was she stumbling over herself?

"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 said, very slowly regaining her confidence.

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

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you before you disappeared last year!"

"Really?" she was no longer nervous. In fact all the nervousness had been replaced with confusion.

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

"Yeah," she said sadly. "She um, well she-"

"Disappeared?" he finished her sentence.

"Yeah," she looked down, looking depressed.

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

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

"Yeah, well, would you like to spend some time with me?"

"Sure!" readily agreeing.

"Okay, so what do you want to do?" he asked.

"Well, um… I don't exactly know," Alexis told him truthfully. "I just recently got my privilege to actually leave the house."

"Well then! Why don't we 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. She usually didn't put up with this, but he was able to take off her outer armor in less than five minutes.

She started blushing, "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, he was very kind. Acted like a gentleman the whole day. They didn't do much except for hang out at the beach all day, kicking sand at each other, splashing water at each other's faces, and snuggling in the sand. It was great, she couldn't think of a better day than this.

"It was really nice to meet you Jake," Alexis told him, smiling.

"It was really nice to meet you too, Alexis," she never got tired of him saying her name. It was already almost four o'clock, how fast the day had gone by…

"So, when are coming to the boardwalk again?" he asked.

"Later tonight," she said. "I technically shouldn't have been out, but I really wanted to go back out."

"Well I'm glad you came out then. Well, since you can come back out later tonight, why don't you meet me at the beach 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 before going back inside to change. Just because it was lots of fun, doesn't mean it wasn't really messy. She was able to get dressed, and get rid of all the sand in her clothing, right before her parents got back.

"Hey Mom, hey Dad." Alexis said, trying not to act suspicious, which she wasn't the best at.

"Hi, Sweetie! How was your day?" asked her mom.

"Oh it was fun," she replied.

"What did you do all day? Sleep?" her father asked.

"No," she said. She had already thought up a lie to tell if her parents asked that. "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. Hey, can I still go to the boardwalk later?"

"Oh," her mom said. "Well I guess you were good all day. Nothing seems to have broken, is there anything broken?"

"Nope!" she said truthfully, probably her first truth she said since they got home. "Not a thing!"

"Well then, I guess you can," her mom said.

"Thanks mom!" she said to her parents. "Thanks dad!"

"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. Now you can stay there as long as you need to, but you MUST come back before midnight, no exceptions."

She was astonished. Maybe her parents were finally getting over her sister's absence and letting her do things without all the needless protection. "Thanks Dad!" she went over and hugged her parents before going into her room to lay on her bed. She was just so excited to get her life back. No more overprotective parents, all whatever she wanted. The rest of the day went on; she hung out with her parents and ate dinner before finally being able to leave.

She was earlier than she told Jake she would be, so she decided she would walk around the boardwalk. Maybe even see those boys, what were their names? Frog brothers? Oh yeah! Edgar and Alan Frog! Yeah, maybe she would talk to them. Ask them about their shop. Hopefully they would forget about the 'family accident' thing. Probably not, but it would be worth a shot.

She walked down the line of shops before actually finding the comic shop. She went in and this time, she was surprised to see that this time, there were an older couple in there. But they weren't looking for comics, they were just laying there next to a T.V. in the back. They looked like they were stoned or something, maybe even dead. Nah, she thought. Santa Carla may be the murder capital of the world, and those two may look like they are ready to kill something, but they wouldn't kill these people, let alone leave out their kill for all to see. Besides, by the look of their clothes, they must have been hippies. More to add of the weirdo list. She smiled at her thoughts. Her stupid, mean, thoughts. She walked over to look at the comics, to see if any would spark her interests before the boys would show up. Before she could even see any of the titles, the boys were back on her trail.

"So, you've come back huh?" the boy she thinks is Edgar asks.

"Yup," she says. "Glad to see me boys?"

"Not very much," Edgar tells her.

"We just want to know what you were talking about last night before you disappeared on us," the boy that must be Alan says.

"You still remember huh?" she says.

"Clear as dawn."

She sighed, "Well, my sister 'disappeared' last year, three months after we moved in. She started hanging out with this dude. I don't know what he did to make her like him, she wouldn't have hung out with those types of guys. He was an obvious punk-rocker dude, and he rode a motorcycle. He hung out with a bunch of other guys that dressed a lot like him. I never liked him, I knew he was trouble from the start. But for some reason she liked him. Then a month after she met and started hanging out with him, she disappeared. I know what really happened to her, but if I ever told anyone, everyone would think I was crazy."

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

"I don't know. I just- Well I just don't think I can yet."

"Why not?" Edgar asked.

"I, I don't know. I just can't," she said sighing. "Something inside me just won't let me."

"We understand," Alan said.

"Well, enough on that topic," she said, quickly changing it so it wasn't all on her. "Can you tell me about your shop here?"

"Why would you want to know?" Edgar asked. Man, was he always like this? Negative comment, after negative comment.

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

"Well then," Edgar said. "I guess we could tell you then."

"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 have been living in Santa Carla since we were born, but our shop was closer to downtown Santa Carla. In order for our parents to cut down on fuel cost and shit, so they found a place that was going out of business." She remembered that. The place was going out of business. She went there once before it was gone. Let's just say it wasn't a very good place and leave it at that.

"But it's not like they actually worked though," Edgar added. "They were always passed out and made 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 knew they weren't dead! But she was pretty close to her dead theory though.

"I see," she said. "So you two pretty much just work here because of them acting like they do huh?"

"Yup," Alan said.

"Nice," she said.

"Why don't we talk about your parents now?" Edgar asked. "Since you insist on talking about personal shit."

"Well, my parents are overprotective," she said. "Way, overprotective. They weren't like that before my sister disappeared; they were fun and friendly parents. They were a bit protective, because we weren't even allowed to leave the place until we had completely moved in, and that took two months. Then once we were actually given permission to leave, my sister goes and screws it up. Then that's when they got all overly protective of me. Afraid that I'll do something stupid like her. They didn't know that they were actually hanging out though. They just thought she just up and disappeared. We all knew she wouldn't have gone and runaway, she would have no reason and nowhere to go. So we all knew that she 'disappeared,'" rolling her eyes.

The boys looked at each other, then looked back at me. "What are you guys doing that for?"

"Well, we might have some information for you," Alan said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Alexis asked.

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

"Yeah, what- Wait," she said. "How do you know about him? I haven't even told you about him yet!"

"Well…" Alan said.

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

"You were SPYING on me?" she started yelling.

"Well, technically yes," Alan started.

"But we were just worrying about you! Wondering what you were doing!" Edgar said. "We saw you out there while we were on our lunch break."

"And that gives you the right to SPY on me?" she kept yelling. Before they could say anything said, "TO THINK I WAS STARTING TO TRUST YOU GUYS! YOU JERKS!" and walked out.

Alan was able to yell "Wait!", but it was too late. She was already out the door, tears streaming down her cheeks. She ran down the nearest stairs to the beach and hid next to them. She was crying her eyes out. Why would they do that? They had only known her for a day! And how much did they see? It's not like she got personal with Jake, but still! All she knew was that they were both a sons of a bitch!

As she was starting to near the end of 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 she didn't care who it was.

Ending here! Sorry, a bit of a cliffhanger isn't it? I don't know, I can't tell. And I even wrote the story! Can you tell it's a lot longer? I'm kinda proud of myself, the littlest of things excite me.

I felt like continuing this story, so I have. Thanks for reading! Staying up until 1 in the morning for it! But you probably don't even care… I don't really care either. I feel negative at the moment. Does it sound like it?

Speaking of negative how 'bout that Edgar! Negative comment after negative comment! It may sound like it, (well, at least to me it does) that Alan might like Alexis, but he doesn't. He's just the nicer older brother! He's going to be 16 like Alexis, and Edgar will be 15. And since Edgar is the meaner younger brother, he acts like the big head honcho! I probably sound completely stupid right now, but blame it on sleep deprivation. I really like staying up late, and sleeping all day... Unless it's a school night. Then I stay up late until 1 in the morning and get up at 6. xD

Once again thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!