Priceless

~~~

Thanksgiving dinner with my family had to be one of my most hated events. It was because they held it at our house with the whole family, as in from my grandmother, grandfather, and then their closest friends. Which included the Hastingses and the Hendersons, and lots of other people whom I didn’t know, but I had to interact with them anyway, and basically act like the girl they wanted me to be, when inside of me I was really considering to sneak out of here and maybe spend my Thanksgiving with the Nickelsens. I was sure I was welcome and truly accepted there anyways.

"I'd have to give it to you, Bailey," a voice said from behind me and my jaw tightened, recognizing to whom it belonged to. I slowly spun around to face as she continued. "Managing to get a hold of/snag one of L.A.'s finest and youngest successful businessmen is really a nice move, you know."

"I don't know what to say to that, Serena," I responded calmly. "Please, just enjoy the rest of the night with Lacey. Or your family."

She scoffed. "She and I are so done," she stated, exaggerating the word so. "I don't appreciate her always trying to get into my boyfriend's pants, drunk or not. And judging by the looks of it, you should keep an eye on her, too."

I followed her gaze and spotted Lacey handing a glass of wine to Alex, as they casually talked. I knew I wasn't jealous, but my mind told me that I should go over and mark what was mine. Otherwise, I could probably lose a decent guy to another girl. Although it would probably take more than that to get Alex to notice Lacey, I knew that the latter was quite cunning and probably had a few tricks up her sleeve, so I had to make my move. After giving Serena a thankful nod, I strode over to where they were, and upon reaching Alex, I linked my arm with his.

"Hey," I said in a friendly voice, smiling both at him and Lacey, who lost her smile when her eyes drifted to me. "You two getting to know each other?"

"Lacey here was just telling me about her excitement on working at her father's company by the summer," Alex told me, smiling. "She was also asking for some tips."

"Oh wow, that's great, Lace," I said, turning to the girl in front of me who was looking less amused by the second. "Congratulations on that. And also, I hope you'll find a new best friend there."

She frowned as she brought her glass to her lips and took a sip of her drink. "Yeah, thanks," she said to me coldly, and then turned to Alex and smiled. "I'll see you around. It was nice talking to you." And with that, she walked off.

Alex slid an arm around my waist and turned me towards him, a sly smile on his face. “I was aware of what she was doing,” he informed me.

“And you liked it?” I asked bluntly.

“I was being polite.”

I smirked at him. “Yeah, well, now I guarantee you she hates me even more.” Then there was the announcement that dinner was ready. I took his hand and led him to the dining room, where everyone else was going to. I spotted Mr. and Mrs. Johansson, who I had met earlier. I made it a point to avoid them for the rest of the evening, actually, because they kept on gushing about how Alex and I were perfect together, and those statements of theirs made me feel quite uncomfortable.

We started eating dinner and I spent the rest of the night just talking to Alex after that, completely pushing other things onto the back of my mind. Soon, though, it was time for him to go.

“Well, I’ll see you soon,” he said as we stood in front of his car. His parents had already driven off a few minutes earlier but he had chosen to stay a bit for a while. Now, though, it was time for him to go since everybody else was leaving.

“Yeah.” That was all I could say because he was already leaning down. I shut my eyes and waited until his lips finally reached mine, hoping that this time, I would feel something—like how I’d felt with Stephen, even though it was only on the cheek—but still, I felt nothing. I mentally sighed, hoping that maybe the next kiss would. Maybe tonight I was just so eager to see the others and that was why I felt this way. Just like how I was so caught up in that Math test the last time he kissed me, so I felt nothing as well.

Yeah, maybe that was it.

I forced a smile as he pulled away. “Be safe,” I said. He smiled at me and then got into his car, and started driving away. Sighing, I started walking back to our house, silently begging myself not to hurt Alexander Johansson, because he was a great, great guy who deserved the perfect girl my parents wanted me to be.

~~~

I looked as excited as I was as I got into Erin’s car and happily strapped up. She didn’t look as stoked as I was, though, as she started driving away, and turning up the radio. I glanced at her, sort of confused.

“Trey and I picked them up from the airport at 7 AM yesterday,” she explained, reading my mind. “That and we watched movies at Kennedy’s, so I’m not as excited as you are.” I didn’t have much time to react or say something, because she wasn’t done yet. She furrowed her brows and went on. “Jess and Kennedy are not in good terms. Do you know that? She hasn’t filled me in with the details yet, but she mentioned it to me yesterday when we were preparing popcorn. She had no chance of telling me why because John interrupted us right when she was about to get into it.”

I tilted my head slightly, wondering if it was because Kennedy had kissed Jess that night of our Halloween Party. It could be the reason, but there was still the talk Brian and the others made Jess do. She hadn’t told me yet how it went, so I wasn’t really sure if they weren’t in good terms because of that, or because of the kiss. “We should have a girl talk later,” I stated. “We should catch up with her. Maybe when they boys start to get busy drinking or singing, or whatever.”

She scoffed, “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.” She glanced at me with a knowing look. “Stephen has been talking about how he missed you nonstop the whole time I was smoking with him. So I’m guessing that as soon as we get there, he’ll give you some time to greet and hug the others, and then after that he’s gonna fucking make you spend all of your time with him.” I blushed at this, so I turned to look out the window, hoping she wouldn’t notice. “And then there’s John who’s still in the needy phase, so I think it’s Tasha, Jess, and Rachael who will have girl talk tonight, and then we can dish it out of them probably tomorrow morning when we’re preparing breakfast.”

It was my turn to scoff. “You mean when we’re preparing breakfast while you sleep in a counter or wherever you want to,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, I won’t fall asleep during girl talk. I can’t miss it for the world.”

We talked for a few more minutes but pretty soon, we stopped and just sang along to My Chemical Romance. Pretty soon, we reached Scottsdale, and that was when I realized I had never been in this neighbourhood before. It was actually my first time to go to the Gomez’, and that thought excited me even more for reasons I knew not of.

Erin parked her car in front of a two-storey house with...well, I was never good in explaining how houses looked like, so I just stopped looking at it and unbuckled my seatbelt. Erin and I then got off her car and made our way to the Gomez’ front door. We haven’t even pressed the doorbell yet when the door opened, and we were greeted by an energetic John Go.

“Bails, I missed you!” he exclaimed, flinging himself at me right away. I laughed as I hugged him back.

“Likewise, Baby Go,” I said. He let go of me but kept an arm around my shoulder as he led me inside.

“Thanks for inviting me in,” Erin snapped behind us, but John ignored her and I did, too, as I was soon greeted by the others as well. I gave Jess a we’ll talk later look and she smiled shyly as she walked over to me for a hug.

“Girl talk badly needed,” she murmured through my clothes. “Which we can probably have tomorrow morning or whatever.”

“We’ll find time,” I told her. Garrett came as soon as Jess pulled away, and then there was John O, who brought me a bottle of beer. We casually conversed for a few minutes before his lips pursed into a smile and he looked teasingly at me.

“As much as I’d want to keep standing here and talking to you, I could see someone wanting so badly to be with you, and I don’t wanna deprive him of that any longer,” he said and then his gaze moved to the boy who was standing in a corner with a cigarette between his lips. I blushed at what John said but smiled as soon as Stephen’s eyes met mine. John tapped my shoulders, “Why don’t you go spend some time with him?”

John had already pushed me forward slightly, so I just decided to walk towards Stephen. He got rid of his cigarette when I finally reached him, and then quickly pulled me into a hug.

He sighed deeply. “Finally,” he said and I suddenly felt my heart race at the sound of his voice. “Missed you. A lot.”

I tightened our hug for a moment before I pulled away, looked up at him, and smiled. “Missed you, too.”

“How was Thanksgiving?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Lame. Wish I’d spent it with the Nickelsens instead,” I said.

He smirked as he stole my bottle and drank from it. “I’m sure you’d be happier if your boy toy was there,” he said, and I tensed.

“He was there,” I said simply. I didn’t want to think about Alex at this moment, quite frankly. I just wanted to be around Stephen and my friends. That was all I wanted.

“Come on, let’s go somewhere else.” He laced his fingers with mine and started hauling me away. I had no choice but to follow. Well, it’s not like I didn’t want it anyway.

He stopped at the kitchen to get a bottle of Jack Daniels from the fridge before we walked to the staircase. “Where are you going?” asked Brian as Stephen and I made our way upstairs. Stephen didn’t even stop nor look at him, but answered anyway.

“Roof,” he said simply.

“Can I—never mind.”

When Stephen and I entered a room, I was wondering whether I’d heard him wrong when he answered to Brian, but I was pretty sure he said roof, not room. What the hell were we going to do in a room anyway?

“Stephen, where—”

He cut me off right away. “This is my room, and it’s kinda connected to the attic so I have easy access to the roof,” he explained. And then he stopped and moved behind me, and started pushing me up those thin, tricky stairs. “Go on. I’ll be right behind you.”

I climbed up carefully, watching every step I made so I wouldn’t trip and fall over. I finally made it to the attic room, where it was so dark, but the light from the moon illuminated it, thanks to the big window that was there.

I waited until Stephen got to my side. And then he grabbed me by the hand again, and pulled me towards the window. He handed me the liquor as he opened the window. And then he climbed out of it. He then took the bottle from me and put it on the floor, and assisted me in climbing out the window. When I was finally there, he slightly closed the window. I followed as he started walking a little forward. And then he settled on the middle spot and sat down. He looked at me and patted the place beside him. I immediately walked to where he was and sat on the place he’d patted. I looked up at the sky and sighed peacefully.

“We’re not gonna stargaze,” he said with a short laugh. I turned to him.

“What are we gonna do, then?” I questioned.

He answered by giving me a lopsided smile and pulling his phone out of his pocket. “We’re gonna play Truth or Dare.”