Balcony Scene

*Alexa's P.O.V.*

"Hey Lexi, your shifts over." Called my friend Bella, from the counter in the front of the tattoo shop I work at. I glanced at the clock and saw she was right. I grabbed my things and went to the front of the shop.

"So, you got any plans for the weekend?" She asked as soon as I got up front.

"Not really, just finishing moving out. That's about it."

"Shit, that's right!" She exclaimed, "well, if you need any help, Andrew and I would be more than happy to." (Andrew is her boyfriend.)

"Thanks, but it's fine. I already have Ian, Mike, Vic, Tony, and Jaime." I explained.

"Oh alright." She said as she began to twirl some of her blonde and red hair around her finger.

"You got any plans?"

"Nah, probably just gonna hang with Andrew." She replied flatly. Her and Andrew had been together for almost 2 years and are head over heels for eachother. Its pretty adorable.

"You know what we gotta do?" She said randomly.

"What?"

"We gotta get you a boyfriend." I chuckled at her idea. "What? You deserve a really good guy. You've got a fantastic personality and you're fucking gorgeous so it shouldn't be that hard."

"Yeah, but the thing is, is that there aren't many genuinely good guys out there and the few that are either would never find any kind of interest in someone like me in a million years, or have girlfriends." I stated pessimisticly.

"What about Vic?" She suggested. She knew I had a crush on Vic but I knew he would never feel the same back. Before I could answer, Stevie, another guy that tattoos here, came in for his shift.

"Hey girls!" He chimed.

"Hey!" I said. He came over and gave me a one-armed hug and then did the same to Bella.

"Well, I'd love and stay to talk to you guys but I'd better get home so I can finish moving." I sighed as I looked at the time. The 3 of us said our good byes and I left. I got in my car and drove home. The whole time I was thinking about Vic, thanks Bella. I tried to drown the thought out by listening to music which worked for the most part, but deep down, I knew I had just temporarily stashed it away deep in my mind.

Once I was finally home, I realized the guys were already getting the rest of my things into the moving truck. I got out of the car and went over to apologize for taking so long and after that, I joined them. About an hour or two later, we were done and were about to drive to my new house. I took a final look at the house in which I've lived in ever since I moved to California when I was 16, and went to the truck. After about twenty minutes of driving, I was finally there. It took us about 3 hours to set everything up. We drove back to my brothers house so I could get my dog. I have a black Pug named Vader. He's named after Darth Vader because I'm a huge Star Wars nerd. After I got him I took a real final look at the house, got in my car and drove to my new home.

I walked inside and let Vader go explore. There are 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in my new house. It's really big and it's right by a beautiful beach. Since I don't have 5 people in my house, I used one of the bedrooms as a computer room and another as an art room. I made my way to my living room, which had big windows that overlooked the beach and decided to take it all in. I was starting a new chapter of my life. I have my own house now and it's my first time living without my brother in a while. My train of thoughts came to a halt as my phone began to vibrate:

Kristen Stewart: You moved in yet?

Kristen Stewart was Bella. I always call her Kristen Stewart because she played Bella in the Twilight movies. I texted her back saying yes and she said she'd be over soon. Just as I was about to put my phone back down, it went off again:

VicNasty: Hey, you still want me to come over later?

VicNasty was a name I gave Vic from an inside joke. We had planned that he was going to sleep over the first night I moved in so I texted him back saying yes and that Bella was going to be here too and he said he'd be over in an hour or so and we could all go out to dinner to celebrate. I figured I'd let Bella know and she was fine with it.

***
I had just finished getting ready with Bella when I heard the door downstairs open as a familiar voice rang through the house.

"Bellaaa, Alexaaa! Vic is here!"

"Did he really just talk about himself in the third person?" Asked Bella

"I think so." I answered as we left my room and headed towards the stairs. When we were finally down, I heard the TV in the living room on so we followed the sound and saw Vic, watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians and petting Vader. I shook my head, crept up behind him, and placed my hands over his eyes.

"Guess who?" I sang. He shrugged. "Jesus Vic, you're no fun!" He just laughed and got off of the couch.

"You guys ready to go?" He asked right as he stood up. We nodded. With that, we headed to his car.

***

Dinner was great. We went to a resturant that I was unable to pronounce the name of, even after multiple attempts by Vic to teach me. We talked about boys, we talked about girls, we talked about politics, we talked about life in general. I couldn't have asked for anything better. By the end of the night, Bella had went home and Vic and I watched The Hangover until we passed out.

***

I woke up today in Vic's arms. I don't remember getting in them though. I didn't want him to let me go, I felt like I belonged there. I need to stop. He's one of my best friends and nothings going to happen so I should just get over it. When he woke up he apologized and said he didn't know how we got like this either and got up to make breakfast. He made some toast and I just stayed on the couch because I don't like eating in the morning. When he came back with his toast, we decided that we'd spend the day at the beach. At about 12 o'clock, we decided to get ready to go. I went to my room and got changed while Vic got ready in the bathroom. I threw my hair into a ponytail, slid some shorts on, grabbed my shoes, and went to meet Vic downstairs. He wasn't wearing a shirt so I decided to take a moment to check him out. I wasn't obvious about it though. Him, on the other hand, ran his eyes up and down multiple times.

"Fuckin' perv." I mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." I said as I grabbed my towel and walked to the front door. He tagged along and kept asking me what I said. I'm very stubborn so I never ended up giving in and telling him. It was a gorgeous June day. It was about 80 degrees, the sun was shining, and the birds were singing. The beach was even more amazing up close. I thought it looked great from my house but damn, it's like even better now! I wasn't expecting it to be this way. Everything just seemed so much more detailed up close. The white sand felt softer than anything I'd felt before, the palm trees that were closer to the entrance of the beach were taller and brighter, the ocean was a sparkling, vibrant blue. I took a moment to look at my surroundings before laying my towel down. Vic did the same and ditched me to go to the ocean.

"Hey wait up!"

Last one in's a rotten egg!" He called. I kicked my flip flops off and slid my shorts off as fast as I could and went to catch up to him. Eventually, I passed him and reached the ocean.

"You got a huge head start and I still fucking beat you!" I boasted.

"I let you." He lied.

"Suuuuuure you did." He smiled and shook his head. I looked away for a second and when I looked back at him, I got blasted with a face full of ice cold water.

"Revenge is a bitch." He simply stated.

"You're gonna pay for that one, Fuentes." I warned. I waited unti he wasn't paying attention and then splashed him with loads o water.

"Oh it's on." He challenged. We splashed eachother for ages and I felt like a little kid again. I remembered how when Ian and I were kids when we lived in Pennsylvania, our parents (on the rare occasion that they payed attention to us,) would bring us to the Jersey shore and we'd do stuff like this. Remembering the past caused me to think of the day I ran away.
-8 years earlier-

"So your friend is driving you to the airport right?" Asked Ian.

"Yes. Don't worry, I'll be fine." I assured.

"Alright, see you tomorrow then, love you." He sighed.

"Love you too and stop worrying okay?"

"Alright, bye!" And with that, we hung up. Today, I was going to run away. My parents have ignored my brother and I basically our whole lives and whenever they did pay attention to us they were either taking us somewhere (to pretend that they're been good parents so the neighbors won't catch on.) Or they're beating us. My brother moved to California 2 years ago, when he was 18. Today, I'm going to join him. I hate living here, ever since Ian left, the abuse has worsened. They've starved me, thrown me into walls, and done more horrible stuff. I'm through with them. My friend, Amy, is driving me to the airport at about 1 tomorrow morning. I know my mom and dad will be asleep by then. I already have everything packed up. Now all I have to do is stay out of everyones hair and count down the hours.

**

Finally! Amy's car has just pulled up out front and my parents are sound asleep. I grabbed my first round of bags and silently made my way to her car. She helped me with the rest. We spent the whole ride to the airport discussing how my parents are going to react and how she's going to miss me dearly when I'm gone but wishes me nothing but the best. I found myself getting choked up when it was finally time for us to say good bye. We hugged eachother tightly and Amy didn't leave until I was out of sight. This was the first day of the rest of my life and I couldn't wait. My 7 hour flight took off at 3 A.M. and instead of us landing at 10 in the morning, we arrived at 7. I forgot they were in a different time zone. Once I was off the plane I received a text from Ian asking if my flight got in okay and that one of his friends was with him. That friend turned out to be Vic Fuentes.

-Present-

"Helloo? Earth to Alexa?" Said Vic as he snapped me out of my trance. I realized that we were back at our towels but I was too lost in thought to remember the entire walk back.

"You alright?" He asked. I nodded.

"Just remembering when I ran away." I stated.

"Ah yes, the day we first met." He sighed happily.

"I'm glad we met, all you guys have changed my life so much. You pulled me out of the depression that I came with when I moved up here, you helped me overcome basically all of my inner problems without realizing it. I couldn't be more greatful to have people like you in my life." I admitted. I didn't mean to say this, but it felt great that I did.

"You helped me through a lot too, believe it or not. Plus, after you met everyone and heard the bands music you motivated us to keep going so we owe much of our success to you." I blushed and he drew me into a hug. We didn't talk for a while after that. We just sat there and listened to the sound of the ocean and felt the gentle breeze through our hair. I was alright with that though.