The rest of the week blurred by, filled with Alec's witty remarks, cocky hair-flips, and haughty grins, Kayla's perpetual glare, Brooke's bubbliness, my family patronizing me teasingly over falling for a mortal, and my own excitement about the party. Which is tonight.
I tap my pencil against my desk impatiently. I'm in my Anthropogoly class, a class that studies humanity. Behavioral patterns, social connections, origins. It's sort of like my own inside joke – a not very funny one, though. But you have to admit, an immortal taking a class to study humans? That's a smidge funny. Okay, half-immortal right now technically. But soon-to-be, full-immortal.
The bell dings, and I am out of there first. Finally, I'm free! I haven't talked to Alec all day since I got trapped again at lunch, but I'm hoping to see him after school or something. Even if I don't, I can still text him now, which I have been doing a little too much of lately.
"Avoiding me today, Cullen?" Alec somehow locates me through the swarm of bodies.
"I could ask you the same thing, de Luca." I smile up at him as he slings his arm over my shoulder, a gesture that he has recently started doing more and more often.
"I've been looking for you actually. I was just wondering, do you happen to have a princess costume by any chance?" He says casually.
"Uhm, I have a few elaborate dresses, but not any actual get-ups. Why?" I ask warily.
"Alissia's party is princess-themed. Her friends are dressing up at my house, but she wants everyone else to be dressed up too.. It's okay if you don't, though." He shrugs.
"Like I said, no actual get ups, but a few dresses that I'm sure any princess would be proud of. My sister is a shopaholic." I laugh, knowing that "a few" is quite a bit of an understatement.
"Wear one." he urges, and I realize the crowds have mostly dissipated and we are getting dangerously close to my family in the parking lot. Of course they see Alec and I together plenty of times, but I don't want him to feel like he needs to walk me down to them. That would be awkward for all of us.
I stop abruptly, knowing that as soon as we round the corner of this building it's a straight path down to my family and not wanting to take a chance. He stops with me, not even looking confused, just doing whatever I do. "Does it matter how elaborate?" I ask, more just to wrap this conversation up than actual curiosity.
"Yes. Make sure it is very elaborate. Alissia will like that." He grins fondly. "And thanks again for doing this. I know it might not be the ideal way to spend your Friday evening."
"I can't think of anything better than dressing up like a princess and hanging out with a clan of six-year-old's." I smile at him and he smiles back just as brightly.
"I guess I'll see you tonight then." He runs one hand through his hair.
"Later, Alec." I begin to walk off, but, big shocker, he grabs my wrist and pulls me back.
He leans down low, lips just a half millimeter from my cheek as he whispers, "Wear purple. It looks good on you." Then his lips ever so lightly brush against my cheek, leaving a trail of heat in their wake. My breath hitches in my throat. "Bye, Carlie." he pulls back and grins, then jogs off in the opposite direction. My legs feel like rubber as I stumble to the car, blocking out the scene while trying not to make it obvious I'm hiding something.
Alec texted me details a few days ago, including his address and the times. It starts at five, and is a slumber party which means I can leave whenever. It is four o'clock right now, time for me to start getting ready.
I rummage through my closet, throwing every purple dress I have out on my bed, and Alice also thinks purple is my color so I have quite a few. I debate with myself whether I should go for a sleek look (clingier fabric, backless, shimmery, low-cuts, etcetera) or a more formal look (ruffles, classic cuts, designs, jewels, etcetera) and quickly decide for the more formal. It's the most elaborate, and the most princess-y.
Through process of elimination, I find the perfect dress. I put it on, admiring the fit of it in my full-length mirror. When you think of a princess at a ball, this dress could easily pop into your imagination. It is a rich violet-color with a tight, strapless bodice that has intricate white designs on it that almost look like vines. It puffs out around my hips as any classic princess gown would. The billowy fabric ruffles to the floor with clusters of diamonds scattered about. It is absolutely perfect and molds to the contours of my body amazingly.
I pull half of my rust-colored ringlets up, pinning them with diamond pins on the back of my head. The bottom half is left alone, swirling downwards to my waist. I put on black eyeliner on the top and bottom rims of my eyes and add a bit of light brown eyeshadow. I curl my eyelashes and brush on mascara.
I return to my large, walk-in closet going to the section in the back entirely dedicated to jewelery. I have such a large collection it couldn't fit in my bathroom. I fasten on a pearl bracelet and matching, thin pearl necklace and put in pearl earrings. I put on a tiara made of mostly diamonds with a few pearls and amethyst. I strap on a pair of silver heels that are completely concealed by my long dress.
I feel absolutely perfect as I walk downstairs. Rose is driving me to Alec's house (only a week until I get my license!). I walk in the kitchen, smelling her cherry-like scent in there. My whole family happens to be in there. Emmett lets loose a low whistle as I walk in and Alice gasps, jumping from where she sat on the counter to come observe me more closely. I guess it comes as a bit of a shock to her that I am capable of decently dressing myself.
"You look gorgeous, Nes, but perhaps you might have gone a little overboard if you're just going to a party.." Emmett speaks what everyone was obviously thinking.
"It's a princess party. You're suppose to dress like a princess." I inform them with a small smile.
"Well you certainly look like one." Mom says, coming closer to observe. "You're absolutely beautiful, Renesmee." she smiles at me, half-sad and half-proud. I'm growing up too fast for her.
"Thanks, Mommy." I don't usually call her Mommy, I haven't since I was a little girl, and it makes her butterscotch eyes light up happily.
Rose drives me to Alec's house, which is surprisingly only about five minutes from mine. Even a human could walk there easily. The house is large, made mostly of brick, with tons of beautiful flowers that Esme I'm sure would enjoy. I thank Rose and then maneuver my way out of the car in this dress. I shuffle up to Alec's front door, butterflies filling my stomach rapidly. I rap lightly and the door opens almost immediately.
Alec stands there, looking dashing. He is dressed just as formal as I am in a navy-blue suit with golden shoulder plates that have gold strings hanging off, two rows of golden buttons going vertically up the front of his suit, crimson-red cuffs, white gloves, a pastel-blue sash, and shiny black shoes.
"You look amazing." He breathes, scanning me from head to toe.
"You don't look half-bad yourself." I smile, battling off the blush creeping onto my cheeks. He grins at me, then ushers me inside. The inside of his house is mostly hardwood with ivory furnishings and walls in shades of pastel.
I am about ten minutes late, so most of the girls are already here. They're all sitting around a table in the dining room that Alec leads me to, munching on slices of pizza from Disney Princess plates and drinking Sprite, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Pepsi out of Disney Princess cups. They're all still dressed in casual clothes, and I remember Alec saying they are going to get dressed here. I do a quick head count and see there are six of them. That's going to be interesting.
Their loud chatter cuts off as Alec and I walk in. They stare up at me, wide-eyed and slightly startled. That's how everyone is when they first encounter an immortal even if they don't know it. It's flustering from what I can tell of human reactions. Alec, completely oblivious, directs me over to a woman in an elegant gown that isn't as formal as mine with dark brown, verging on black, hair dark brown eyes, and cinnamon-toned skin.
"Carlie, this is my mother. Mom, this is my friend Carlie." Alec introduces us.
"It's wonderful to meet you, Ms. de Luca." I smile warmly at her, holding out a hand.
"Oh, call me Arianna. And it's great to finally meet you also. Alec talks about you so much I feel like I already know you!" She laughs, ignoring my hand and hugging me instead. From the corner of my eye I watch Alec's face turn a bright crimson.
"Mom!" He cries.
"Hm? Don't be embarrassed, tesoro. She is gorgeous, practically flawless!" Arianna gushes, pulling me back my shoulders and giving me a once over.
"Thank you." I laugh. I know a small bit of Italian, enough to know that tesoro means darling, dear, treasure, pet, honey, things like that. It has a lot of definitions.
A young girl with very pale skin, thin golden waves, and eyes nearly identical to Brooke's suddenly appears next to Alec. She tugs on his navy coat, and he leans down. She whispers quietly in his ear, but my advanced ears pick up on it, "Is that a real princess?"
Alec's eyes flash up to mine, and I try to make my face seem confused like I don't know what she said. He grins at me. "Yeah, she is." He tells the girl, then stands back up. "Carlie, this is my little sister, Alissia. Alissia, this is my friend, Carlie." Alec makes the introductions again. That surprises me. They look nothing alike.
I kneel down in front of her, pulling on all my charisma to try to make a good impression, smiling as kindly as I can. "Hi, Alissia. Happy birthday."
"Thank you." She says in a sweet soprano, smiling back at me and revealing several missing teeth.
"Six is a very big year, you know. It's when you start becoming a grown up." I tell her.
"I want to grow up to be a princess like you." She tells me eagerly.
"Oh, honey, I'm not-" I start, but Alec suddenly jerks me up by my arm.
"I told her you are," He whispers in my ear, "and I think it'll make her think I'm pretty cool if I have connections to the princesses." He grins at me cherubically. I roll my eyes and am about to kneel back down to her but I then realize she has vanished and returned to her seat to finish eating.
"I don't think you have to worry about what she thinks of you. I can tell you're practically her idol just by the way she looks at you." I tell him.
"She has good taste." He shrugs arrogantly. He takes me around, introducing me to his aunt Alexandria who looks nearly identical to his mother and her husband Vincenzo. Then I meet his other aunt who has short chocolate-brown hair and almond-shaped nearly-black eyes and doesn't look much older than us and her husband Peter who has sandy-blonde hair and hazel eyes and their newborn child named Gregory, the first non-Italian names I've heard of this family. I meet a few more aunts and uncles, most looking extremely Italian with not-so-Italian spouses. I can't find similarities between Alec, Alissia, and the rest of their family anywhere.
After about ten minutes, it's time for the girls to get dressed. They all squeal and run up the stairs, obviously already knowing exactly where they're going. "Carlie, would you mind helping out upstairs? Nikki and I have to set up for face painting." Arianna asks, placing one hand on my shoulder.
"No problem." I smile at her and she smiles back gratefully before hurrying away. Edith, Arianna's brother's wife, and Florence, Arianna's husband's sister, are already heading upstairs. I smile at Alec and then lift my dress up and make my way up the stairs.
I find the girls in a chaotic frenzy in what looks like a guest bedroom upstairs. Edith and Florence are already looking flustered and desperate, hurrying from girl to girl trying to help them find a dress their size out of the dozens of dresses already scattered across the room. It is such a mess in here it is dizzying.
Two girls are fighting over a Snow White dress, one girl is attempting to put on cherry-red lipstick and failing miserably, another girl is struggling to get her shirt off, Alissia is crying and gasping for breath because a pink pair of plastic dress shoes has broken, Edith is hurrying through the dresses trying to find the right size for a larger girl, and Florence has hurried into the bathroom to get a wet wash cloth to wipe off the failed lipstick-attempt. I see a few girls eying the make up stash hungrily, and I know things are about to get twice as messy.
I raise two fingers to my mouth and release an ear-splitting whistle. Everyone freezes, wide-eyes flashing up to my face.
"Girls," I start off, walking into the room, "this is no way princesses should behave! You look like a pack of wolves!" I walk over to the squirming girl and pull her shirt off for her. "How about everyone sits down and let us find appropriate dresses for you guys instead of you all fighting over them." I smile at the two girls both with the Snow White dress still in their small hands. They smile back sheepishly and drop the dress. All the girls go and sit in a line on the bed.
"Now don't you all look like well-mannered little princesses?" I smile at all of them.
"How many younger siblings do you have?" Edith asks me with a laugh.
"None. I have six older siblings. I've picked up their techniques." I grin. The three of us get to work finding dresses for all the girls.
I am putting a blue Sleeping Beauty dress on one girl and she asks, "What's your name?"
"My name is Carlie, what's yours?" I zip up the dress in the back.
"Reese. Are you a real princess?" She asks, misty-eyed.
"Oh. Um, well.." I don't know what to tell her.
"She is, she is!" Alissia bounces up and down from the bed. "My big brother Alec brought her here! He talks about her all the time. They're in love."
"Oh, no, no," I start but all the girls gasp.
"Are you guys going to get married?"
"Will that make him a prince?"
"Have you two kissed?"
"Where's your castle at?"
The questions tumble out rapidly and Edith and Florence watch in amusement. "Woah, woah, girls." I laugh. "Alec and I are just friends." I assure them.
"That's not what he says.." Alissia sings.
"What does he say?" I ask with a nervous laugh.
"He told Mommy you're the most amazing girl he has ever met." She giggles. I blush bright pink.
"That's enough, girls. Alec and Carlie are not getting married any time soon, I promise you that. Now come on, let's do your make up." Edith laughs.
We had a pretty good system going. Florence and Edith did make up, and I did hair. Rose has taught me all the best styles. I had a brush, a comb, bows, headbands, clips, bobby pins, and varying sizes of hair ties to work with. I did the best I could on every one of them, making sure no two looked alike, and I did a fair good job if I do say so myself.
It took a good half hour for it all. Edith, Florence, and I usher them all downstairs where a crafts station and a face painting station has been set up. Arianna explains to the girls they're going to be making their own tiaras out of paper tiara cut-outs, sequins, and glue. As they're doing that, each one will be called up to get a face painting of their choice which Alexandria is administering.
"Took you long enough." Alec says, meeting me at the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh, hush up." I roll my eyes, a very bad habit of mine. "You know, Alissia doesn't look anything like you.. She's actually cute." I tease, watching Alissia run back and forth between the ends of the crafts table, trying to create the perfect crown. She slows down after a few laps, sitting down in a chair, looking weary. She begins gasping for air. Arianna rushes over, something in her hand that I can't see. I want to ask if she's okay, but he is watching her also and doesn't do anything. Maybe she has asthma.
"Ha-ha, you kill me." He rolls his eyes also, then shrugs and says, "We were adopted."
"W-what?" I stutter glancing up at him with wide eyes.
"What? It's no big deal. You were adopted too, right?" He tilts his head slightly to the side.
"well, y-yeah, I just didn't know you were.." I gulp, feeling wretched. I'm not adopted. I have both my parents, and he has even seen them before. He just didn't know it.
"Not many people do. My parents died in a fire when I was one, and Arianna and my father adopted me and changed my name to Alexander. Alissia's parents died in a car crash on the way home from the hospital when she was just born. Her name was actually Gretel, but since she didn't even know it, my parents just changed it to Alissia; they like A names and Italian names. She doesn't know she's adopted though. We're waiting until she is older." He explains.
"Oh, God, Alec, I'm so sorry." I gasp. He begins walking and I stick to his side though I'm not sure where we are going.
"It's okay. And I'm sure your story isn't exactly a jolly tale either." He hints subtly and I realize it's my time to spill it.
"My father died of this rare disease before I was born and my mother died giving birth to me.. That's the worst part of it all. Her death being, in a way, my fault.. I never even met her, yet she had to die so I could live.. Edward and I lived with my grandmother for about six years before her death which was when we entered foster care. It took two years for Carlisle and Esme to find us." I make it up on the spot, and surprisingly he didn't call me out on my lie. I guess he thought that is something any normal person would never lie about, and it would be pretty rude to call me a liar after that. Hey, it is kind of true though.. A little.. My father technically died of the Spanish influenza long before I was born and my mother died by giving birth to me.
The guilt of my mother dying while giving birth to me is a real emotion in me. I have loved her since I was just a fetus, and it's so tough knowing that she had to forfeit humanity so a monster-child could roam the earth, whether she wanted immortality or not. It's still my fault.
"Do you know much about your birth parents?" He asks as we enter the first room by the front door that I assume is the living room considering the sofas and chairs and plasma screen hanging on the wall.
"Yeah, my grandma showed me photos and told us stories. I have my mother's eyes and my father's hair. My mother was quiet and sweet and creative while my father was really smart and chivalrous and responsible. They are- were great." I tell him with a smile.
"It's always the perfect families that get ruined, isn't it?" He smiles coldly.
"My family is perfect now. I love every single one of my siblings, and I adore my parents." I muse around the living room, taking it in.
"Your sister is in my Spanish class. Alice, isn't it? She's almost too pretty. It's crazy. Very smart too. Always gets all the right answers." He tells me in an uninterested fashion. I can't help but feel a petty pang of jealousy when he calls Ali beautiful.
"Yeah, Alice is pretty incredible. Is this your father?" I ask him, staring at a photograph hanging on the wall. I think it is at the Grand Canyon. Alissia, Alec, and Arianna stand, Arianna's arms around a tall, muscular guy with short black hair and deep-set, rich brown eyes who has Alissia sitting on his shoulder. The sun beats down on them and behind them stretches out rust-colored boulders and rocks in that unique pattern.
"His name is Vincent." Alec says as he walks over to stand beside me.
"Where is he?" I wonder.
"He was deployed to Afghanistan over the summer."
"Oh my God." I gasp.
"You overreact to things," Alec chuckles, "it's really not that big of a deal. I miss him like crazy and I worry about him, but he is doing it for our country. I'm proud of him. I want to join the army when I get older. After college though. That way I can come back and just jump right into my career."
"What career?" I ask, turning to face him.
"I want to work in crime. A detective or police officer."
"That's actually really fitting for you." I smile, thinking of how easily he knows when I'm lying and how he has such a pure heart and obviously he is very physically fit.
"We should dance." He says abruptly.
"Er, what?"
"Damn, I just screwed that up." He shakes his head then quickly goes over to a radio resting on a ledge above the fireplace, turns it on, and finds a track. The music of "Once Upon a Dream" that comes from the Sleeping Beauty movie begins to play. He walks back over to me, holding out one white-gloved hand.
"May I have this dance, princess?" he asks with a small smile.
"Of course." I bite my lip while smiling back, placing my hand in his. He pulls me in, placing one hand on my waist as I place one on his shoulder and locking our other hands together. We start up dancing, and I imagine the dance looks much like it did with Princess Aurora and Prince Philip in the movie at the end.
Thankfully, the living room is large and there is room to move about. He leads me around, our steps light. He releases the arm around my waist and I twist out and then back in. I stare up into those sparkly green eyes of his, and for a moment, I wish he was immortal. I wish he could be a hybrid like me, or even a vampire. I wish he would exist forever, just like me, and we could be together.
I shake that out of my head quickly. I love being immortal, all the possibilities it opens up, but I definitely see the perks of humanity. Alec doesn't deserve to have those taken away from him. No one does. The option of humanity has never been available to me, therefore I am content with immortality. But for a human to come into this.. For Alec to be brought into this.. Just the idea makes me feel guilty and sick to my stomach.
He stops the dancing and we are both breathing hard, from the intensity of it, not the actual dancing itself. He begins to lean down, and I freeze, not sure if I want this or not. Well, of course I want it, but I'm not sure if it's right. It feels right, but an immortal and mortal together is very wrong.
His sweet breath fans across my face, engulfing my senses. His lips are a millimeter away from mine, and my eyes begin to close as my arms wrap around his neck, when a chorus of giggles erupts from the other side of the room. Alec and I jump apart and a scarlet blush rises to my cheeks as I see six little girls laughing across the room and four women looking ashamed at being caught spying and three men looking very proud.
"Are you serious?" Alec growls, fists clenching. I laugh nervously and awkwardly, smoothing down my dress.
"Sorry, tesoro. We couldn't resist." Arianna says bashfully.
"Can't I get a little damn privacy?" Alec snarls angrily.
"Alexander!" Arianna gasps.
"Alec, calm down." I whisper, placing my hand gingerly on his upper arm.
He sighs and relaxes, looking up his mother shamefully and saying, "Sorry, Mom."
We all quickly forget the incident (well, everyone else does and I pretend to) while the little girls play many other activities. They danced and sang karaoke and did scavenger hunts and ran around being crazy, Alissia not as much as the others because she seemed to be a little sick or maybe in some kind of pain.
I envy them. I have never had a party like this. For all my birthdays past, there were hundreds of colorful balloons that covered every inch of the ceiling in the entire house, a huge cake that only Jake and I would eat, dozens of expensive presents, and my whole family. No friends, if you don't count Jake, who is more like family. What friends could I possibly invite?
Which is why it took me by surprise when Alec asked when my birthday was and I told him September 10th and he said, "Oh, that's next week! You weren't going to tell anyone were you? And then make me feel all guilty when I didn't get you anything. Are you having a party?"
I stopped for a moment, thinking over the question. Am I having a party? I wonder if Mom and Dad would let me.. With our money and Alice's skill, I could throw the best party Hoquiam has ever seen... And I now have friends to invite...
"I didn't tell you because you don't need to get me anything. And I'm not sure yet."
"I don't need to, but I want to. And you should, we don't have a lot of parties here and it gets sort of boring. Well, boring for everyone else. Me, I get to go to parties for royalty with a princess on my arm." He grins.
Alissia, hearing what he said, looks up at him hopefully and says, "Me?"
"Of course. Who else, beautiful?" Alec picks her up, throwing her slightly in the air while still not letting go of her. She laughs and hugs him. I watch the scene affectionately until I feel a tap on my arm.
I turn to find Alec's cousin, Leo, who I think Alec mentioned is seventeen. He has been sitting quietly in the corner this whole time absorbed with his phone. He looks somewhat like Alec though they aren't related biologically, but his black hair is thinner and limper and his eyes are a light chestnut-brown with amber flecks, which is still very beautiful. He is also a little paler and nearly an inch taller.
"Hi, my name is Leo, I'm Alec's cousin." He says, his voice nearly as hypnotically charming as Alec's, but his smile has nothing on Alec's. It's pretty and all, but it lacks Alec's easy-going look and charm.
"I'm Carlie, his friend from school." I smile back at him, a little confused on why he is approaching me.
"How old are you again?" He asks curiously.
"I'll be sixteen on Wednesday."
"Really? You look around eighteen." He tells me, which is a rather big compliment for me. Technically, I'm only six. Same age as the little girls over there dripping chocolate syrup all over themselves as they try to make their own hot fudge sundaes. Age is a touchy subject around my family because my parents still think of me as being six.
Conversation starts up with us, and I learn he is in the senior class at our school. I've never seen him around before. He is a nice guy, though not nearly as amusing or funny as Alec. We talked for nearly ten whole minutes before Alec showed up.
"Leo, your mom needs you upstairs." Alec tells him.
"Dude, my mom is right there." He points to a tall dark-haired woman cleaning up one of the girl's mess.
"Okay.. Well, I need you upstairs. So I can lock you in the attic." Alec says in all seriousness.
"Why? Because I talked to your girlfriend?"
"She's just my friend." Alec scowls at him and I have a small pang of hurt in my stomach.
"So you were going to lock me in a cold, pitch-black room because I talked to your friend..?" Leo asks in confusion.
"Because you were flirting with my friend." Alec corrects.
"Oh, so you wish she was your girlfriend?" Leo grins deviously, looking more like Alec than he has this whole time.
"What I wish is none of your business. Now get out of here." Alec growls menacingly, glaring viciously, frightening even me a little when I could snap his neck with a twitch of my hand. Leo raises his hands in surrender and walks off.
"We were just talking." I tell Alec as soon as he is gone. "You didn't need to get all possessive and controlling like that." Even though it did make me feel loved and special and important to you..
"Calm down, Carls. I only did it because I love youuuu." He grins endearingly. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if that was the actual truth. If Alec really did man up and run off his larger, older cousin because he loves me. I throw that thought away and smile back at Alec.
"Of course you did. Come on, it's cake time." I grab him by the wrist like he so often grabs me, tugging him over to the dining room table where there is a cake sitting in the middle. It is shaped like a castle, made of pink icing with purple borders and in purple in the middle it says, "Happy Birthday, Princess Alissia!" There is a plastic tiara on it along with clusters of sparkly sprinkles in a few random places. It is gorgeous, and I almost wish they didn't have to cut it up.
We sing happy birthday to Alissia and she blows out six candles with cameras flashing. I help pass out the cake, which is half-vanilla, half-chocolate. Being a typical teenage girl, I take a chocolate piece for myself. Alec takes vanilla.
As I polish mine off, Alec is taking thirds. Then he decides he has had enough cake and heads back into the kitchen to scavenge up some ice cream.
It is nearly nine now, and I tell Alec I have to go. But he pulls the puppy-dog look out on me and convinces me to stay and watch Cinderella with them all. All the girls change into their pajamas and head into the theater room, a small room with a projector and a large sofa and a lot of bean bags. Alec and I take the couch while all the girls take a bean bag. Arianna turns the movie on and then leaves, the adults going to clean up while Alec and I watch over the kids.
After the movie starts, Alec's arm finds its way around my shoulder. Since I am already really tired, I go ahead and scoot closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder. His other arm wraps around me as my arms wrap around him. He is a lot cooler than me, and it feels good. Not like the frigid shock of vampire skin, just a subtle antidote to my flaming skin. I breathe in his sweet scent that is tinged in cologne. I can hear his heartbeat very loudly, and it is racing. Am I doing that? The smell of his blood rushing past so close to my mouth is tempting, but I fight back my instincts.
"Carls? Carlie? Come on, Carlie, wake up." Alec murmurs, shaking me very softly and gently by the shoulders. My eyes flutter open and find Alec only two inches above me.
"The movie is over. It's around ten thirty." He tells me.
"I need to go home." I mumble sleepily.
"I know. My mom is going to drive you. We just need to know where you live." he says each word slowly as if I am mentally incompetent. I mumble out my address and then my heavy eyelids begin to droop again.
"Oh no you don't. Come on, you need to get to the car." Alec tugs on my arm, trying to pull me up.
"I can't." I moan. Alec sighs in exasperation and amusement. Then he puts one of my arms around his shoulders and one of his around my back and the other of his under my knees. He scoops me up with a grunt and staggers out the door. I miss the rest of our journey to the car because I fall back asleep.
Alec awakes me again, and this time I am in a car in front of my house with Arianna smiling at me from the driver's seat. "Thank you for helping out, dear. I hope Alec will bring you around again soon." She says to me.
"Thank you for letting me come," I push past my grogginess and smile at her. Alec helps me out of the car and walks me to the door.
"I'm really glad you came tonight." He says a bit embarrassedly.
"Me too. I had a lot of fun." I smile at him.
"Does that mean you might consider hanging out with me again?" He grins.
"I might." I smirk.
"You really are like a princess. I'm returning you to your castle now." He chuckles, looking up at the huge, looming form of my house.
"Oh, whatever, Prince Charming." I laugh.
"Goodnight, Carlie." He whispers, and for a moment I thought we were going to pick up where we left off in his living room during our dance. But he exhales in frustration, then smiles at me once more, and jogs back towards his car.