Same Day, 7:26 P.M..
"Honey, I'm home!"
Shane had just made it to his neighbor's front door. He had stil not yet come down from the high of winning another game in his first year on the team, and it showed in his enthusiastic greeting to his friend, who had an amused look on her face.
"Just come inside before I slam the door in your face." Alexa said.
"Can do!"
"Go up to my room. I just washed the couch and it needs to dry before we sit down on it."
The young boy comically skipped like a schoolgirl into the mansion-like house, not caring at all about how ridiculous he looked at that moment. He was happy, and that's all that mattered to him.
"Hey! Shoes, Price! I don't want any marks on my floor. Off now. Jesus, act like you've been here before."
Before going upstairs, he removed his sneakers. Then, he continued on to the room, while Alexa followed, trying to hold in a laugh from how dumb Shane looked right now.
"Speaking of being here", he started while entering her room, "When are your parents coming home? It's gotta be soon."
Alexa sighed.
"They said they should be home by Wednesday morning."
Shane was confused by the way she responded.
"You don't seem too happy about it. Something the matter?"
"Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."
"Alexa. You're hiding something from me, I can tell. What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She said, trying to end the conversation.
Shane went silent for a moment, until a big grin slowly started to form on his face. Alexa was a little weirded out by this.
"What? What's with the random smile? You're scaring me, Price."
"I know what's wrong. You're sad because I'm not gonna be able to spend the night with you anymore once your mom and dad get home. Little Miss Bliss is gonna miss me." He answered, the smile still on his face.
"N- No! That's not it at all! You have no idea what you're talking about, idiot!" She yelled defensively.
"Suuure I don't. Just face it, Short Stuff. You can't live without me."
"Ha! You wish! Again, there's no problem, and if even if there was, it wouldn't be because of...you?"
Alexa trailed off from her rant when she realized that Shane had gotten pretty physically close to her while she was talking. He was slightly bent over to the point that they were almost at eye level and close enough to where she could feel his breath on her face.
"Are you sure about that?", He asked in his signature smooth voice. "You know I drive you crazy, Bliss. Don't deny it."
The petite princess' eyes went wide.
"I- I... well... I don't... It's not like... No..."
Her stuttering was cut off by the sudden sound of laughter that was in the air. Suddenly, Shane fell on Alexa's queen sized bed in hysterics, grabbing his stomach.
"Yo! Hahahaha! I get you every single time! You should've seen the look on your face... Again! That shit never gets old, I swear! Hahahahahaha!"
"YOU JERK!"
Alexa pounced onto the laughing boy and began angrily hitting him in his chest, once again not doing that much damage, to Shane's further amusement.
"Woman, we've been over this. It didn't hurt the last time, and it doesn't hurt now. You're wasting your time." He said with a goofy smile on his face.
Alexa stopped and stared at his face, still on top of him.
"What? Is there something on my face?" Shane asked confused.
"Price... Do you do this with other girls?" She asked him.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Do you, like, tease anyone else like you tease me? Do you have a silly nickname for everyone? Am I just... A source of entertainment for you?"
Shane looked at her in shock.
"Dude, where is this all coming from?"
"Please, Shane. Please just answer me."
Shane knew that whenever Alexa used his first name, things were serious, so he knew he had to act accordingly.
"To be honest, no. What me and you do together, is just between us. Unless you count that one time I was trying to calm down Alicia, I don't have any nicknames for other girls. Everything is separate from us. As far as I'm concerned, we have a special bond with one another. So, of course you're not just a plaything to me. You're my friend, Alexa. I'd never use you like that. Ever. You mean way too much to me to treat you like that."
Tears started to fall out of the petite princess's blue eyes.
"Do you really mean that?" She asked, on the verge of breaking down.
"Yes. I meant every single word of it. Every one."
At that point, all Alexa could do was bury her face into his chest and release her tears. Shane embraced her and rubbed her back as she softly cried in his arms.
"There, there. It's okay. Just let it out. I'm here for you." He said, returning to the soothing voice that he used whenever it was needed.
Alexa eventually sat up and wiped away her tears.
"I'm sorry for interrogating you like that. It's just, I see how you interact with others, particularly the girls, like today on the field. I felt like today when you were chatting up the cheerleader squad and making us laugh that, you were just reusing all the stuff you do with me. I know it's selfish and stupid, but I felt ... Jealous when you started to use that British accent. In my mind, I was thinking that that was my accent. A little voice in my head was telling me that only I should be able to hear that from you. Again, I know it's dumb, but that's what I felt."
"It's okay, Alexa. From now on, I will only use it with you. That's exclusively between us."
Alexa grabbed back on to the boy and held him tightly in response.
"Thank you, Shane. That makes me feel a lot better."
"Hey, princesses always get what they want, right?"
She smiled.
"Yeah, that's true. Hey. Can- can we stay like this? I don't want to move." She asked timidly.
Shane responded in a way he felt most appropriate to the situation.
"As you wish, your highness. We shall stay like this as long as you desire." He said in his exaggerated British accent.
Alexa looked up at his face.
"I know this kinda goes against what I've been saying, but Shut Up, Price."
The two teenagers literally ended up sleeping in each other's arms. Now there were no doubts inner decision to let Shane into her life. None.
