Somewhere in Neverland

Tuesday November 14th - 3pm

For the past week, I’ve been spending a lot of my spare time, thinking about Alex, and how he had told me he was falling for me. It was kind of hard to believe, considering how much of a mess my life was in right now. All of my bruises were starting to fade, and I hadn’t seen Jared since that day. When I told my parents that we broke up, they asked why. When I told them, they still refused to believe it. To be fair, they only knew the sweet side of Jared, before he changed, when he was friends with my older brother, Dustin.

School had just ended, and Alex was driving me and Taylor to work, where he was going to hang out with the guys for a bit. When we got there, I went straight behind the counter to punch in, and automatically started making the usual orders for the guys. It had sort of become routine for them to stick around while we worked, not that I minded in the slightest, but rather enjoyed their company. In the middle of making Zack’s cappucino, Taylor tapped me on the shoulder, showing me her phone.

“Party tonight at Sierra’s, you in?”

I had never really been friends with Sierra, but I nodded anyways, grinning. I handed Zack his drink as he handed me some money and I gave him his change before he went back to the booth.

“What time? And why is she having it on a Tuesday?"

“10 and because this is the only night her parents are out of town.”

We finished at 9, so it gave us plenty of time to get ready. It was pretty busy, so time flew by fast and soon enough, I was in Alex’s car again, on my way to get ready for the party. It then hit me, that I didn’t know if he was coming.

“Are you going to the party tonight?”

“What party?”

“The one Sierra is throwing”

“Can I bring the guys?”

I laughed slightly.

“Of course!”

“I’ll swing by in an hour to pick you up.” My house came into view, and when he parked in my driveway, I nodded and opened the door.

“I’ll see you soon then!”

I got out of his car, shut the door and ran into my house, throwing my bag on the couch. I didn’t even acknowledge my parents, I just went straight upstairs to take a shower. Twenty minutes later, I went downstairs dressed in black skinny jeans, a red halter top and and my combat boots, with my leather jacket. I picked up my purse to look for my makeup, when I noticed my parents sitting in the kitchen.

“Whats going on?” I stood in the doorway.

“We need to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Jared.” Oh jesus christ, now what?

“Why?”

“We want to know why you broke up wit such a sweet boy?” I was tired of them not believing me.

“He wasn’t sweet, Mom. He was an asshole.”

“WENDOLYN PETERSON. LANGUAGE.” Christ, I hate my name.

“IT’S THE TRUTH, YOU THINK YOU KNOW HIM BUT YOU DON’T. HERE, YOU WANT THE FUCKING TRUTH?”

The bruise on my wrist was fading, but still clearly visible in the form of a handprint, as was the one on my side, just not as much. My father’s reaction was definitely not what I was expecting. He merely turned to my mother with a grim expression.

“I want a divorce.”

“WHAT WHY?”

“I knew there was something wrong, and when she told us, you told me not to believe it. So I didn’t, and look what happened. We have one kid left Mary, and look what’s happened to her because of your judgement. We should have listened to her.”

I ran out of the house, slamming the door behind me, afraid to listen to the rest of the conversation. As I was walking down the street, Alex’s car pulled up beside me, so I got in.

“You alright?”

“No.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything.”

“Do you want to talk? We could skip the party -”

“No I need this. I need to drink.” So he drove to Sierra’s house in silence with me sulking in the passenger seat.

When we got there, I could see Jack and Zack on the porch, drinking beers. Alex went to join them, but followed me when he realized I wasn’t stopping to chat on my way to the kitchen for drinks. The kitchen was crowded with piss drunk underage teenagers, spilling their drinks and laughing their youth away. I grabbed a bottle of tequila off the counter, not caring whose it was, and poured some into a red cup, filling it halfway. I mixed in some juice and started drinking it, just as Alex appeared with the guys. I downed the rest of my drink when I saw them, and grabbed the bottle.

“Shots anyone?”

They all obliged so I started pouring the tequila into some shot glasses that I took from the cupboard and grabbed a lemon from the fridge which i cut up. On the count of three, we tilted our heads back and let the liquid burn our throats, and then sucked on a lemon wedge. Taylor stumbled into the kitchen, already drunk, so I poured another round of shots, with an extra one for her. We took 2 more rounds before I started feeling a little more than buzzed.

“ONE MORE ROUND, CHEERS TO THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!” We took another round of shots. This was going to hurt in the morning.

“That’s enough shots for me, I’ll stick to mixed drinks now.” Alex stated, and I reluctantly agreed, pouring us some drinks.

Three hours, 5 tequila shots, 8 mixed drinks and 3 beers later,it was 2am and everyone was trashed. Taylor had passed out and Jack had taken her home in a taxi, Rian, Vic and Zack were still drinking, and I was in a taxi with Alex since he was too drunk to drive and left his car at Sierra’s. We were on our way to his house because he knew my parents would kill me if I came home drunk.
When we arrived, he had to carry me inside, upstairs to his bedroom and set me down on the bed. He was about to get up, but I pulled him back down, harder than I thought because he stumbled a little and fell over on top of me. Our faces were millimeters apart, and I stared into his eyes, getting lost in the sparkle in his eyes.

It didn’t take much longer for his lips to come crashing down on mine. He ran his tongue over my lips, begging for entrance, so I grabbed the back of his neck, bringing him in closer, letting him in. I pulled on his jacket, and he quickly slipped it off, without disconnecting from the kiss. He pulled away, but only to remove his shirt as well, and then tugged on the hem of mine, which I quickly discarded beside the bed.

He got up and went to the door to close it, and locked it before coming back over to the bed and hovering over me. We continued our makeout session from where we left off, until he was down to his boxers, and I was only in my panties. His hands rested on the pillow, on either side of my head, his eyes filled with excitement and lust.

“Are you sure this is what you want Wendy?”

Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the fact that I knew he was into me, but this was what I wanted, what I needed to forget about Jared, about everything. Alex would be the perfect distraction.

“I’m sure.”

His lips crashed back down onto mine. And that was all it took for us to get lost in each other under the sheets that night, drunk on alcohol and lust.

--

Wednesday November 15th - 1pm

"Why the fuck did you let me drink so much last night?"

Alex and I decided to skip school due to our splitting hangovers and went to hang out at the park instead. We were sitting on a bench, drinking coffee and trying to remember what happened the night before. His arm was slung around my shoulders, and I was leaning against him.

"You were upset and wanted to drink."

"Ugh."

Alex chuckled, and there was a few moments of silence, only the sound of rustling leaves on the ground being swept away by the wind.

"So why were you upset anyways?"

I pursed my lips together. Did I really want to tell this to Alex? It could bring up some of my past that only Taylor knows about, and I wasn't sure if I wanted Alex knowing just yet.

"My parents want a divorce. It's my fault."

"How is it your fault?"

"I...told them about Jared. I was sick and tired of them not believing me. Once they realized I was telling the truth, my dad said he wanted a divorce from my mom, because she was too stubborn to believe that the Jared she knew would do that to her daughter. My dad thinks they were too blinded to realize that I was in pain."

"That's not your fault Wendy, not at all."

"If I hadn't said anything, they wouldn't be getting divorced."

"You had to, that wasn't something you should keep from your parents."

"Either way, they're getting divorced, as if this family wasn't dysfunctional enough already..sometimes I just want to run away, leave this life behind. Other times, I wish I was younger, when my life was better."

He stood up form the bench, coffee in hand, and extended his free hand towards me, palm up. I looked up at him questioningly.

"Come on."

"Where?"

"Wendy, just take my hand and trust me."

"Where are we going?"

"Please just take my hand?"

I bit my lip, and put my hand in his, letting him pull me to my feet. Giggling, we ran to his car. We drove for a few blocks, until we got to an ice cream store a few blocks away. It was a small shop, but there were a few tables, one occupied by a mother and her son.

"Order whatever you'd like."

"I'll have a large chocolate chunk ice cream in a waffle cone" Alex faced the guy behind the counter.

"Make that two please"

The guy started fixing the cones, and then Alex paid for them so we went to sit at one of the tables to enjoy our ice cream.

"Why are you doing this for me?"

"I'm trying to make you feel better." I gave him a genuine smile.

"It's working."

We ate the rest of our ice cream in silence, and then went back to his car so he could drive me home. I thought the drive there would be silent as well, one of those comfortable ones, but instead, Alex spoke.

"Hey can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you regret last night?" Did I? No.

"No..do you..?"

"No, I was just checking. I didn't want things to get awkward between us."

"Alex..why would they?"

"Because I really like you, but we were wasted and had sex, and...I don't know if you feel the same way I do..or if I fucked up..I don't know." I giggled, and it caught him off guard as he pulled into my driveway and shut off the engine.

"Alex! Stop worrying, I like you too. I..I had fun today, thank you for everything!" I pulled him in for a hug, wrapping my arms around his neck and his wrapping around my waist.

"Wendy..." His voice was quiet, as if he was shy and unsure.

"Yeah Alex?"

"Um...I feel like I'm totally doing this out of order, but would you....wouldyoubemygirlfriend?"

"What? I didn't quite catch the last part" He took a deep breath, and took my hand in his, interlocking our fingers.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" I smiled, and gave him a quick kiss.

"Yes. Yes I will."