The Party Scene

Chapter 11 

Never Look Back


As the week went on, and turned into two weeks, things seemed to be running just the same as they had been. Alex was warming up to Athena a little now, and was slowly beginning to see just how nice of a person she truly was. However, there still was Lena. She was still a secret, and it appeared that Athena had yet to find out about her, which was exactly how Alex wanted it to be. Sure, he felt bad about it...but he couldn't help how attached he was becoming to Lena. And for that matter, how attached she was becoming to him. Would her attachment soon become more than just that, Alex didn't think so. The only thing that worried him most about Lena, were those moments when no one but the two of them we're in the hallways of the school, and they kissed. He was always afraid that anyone, and anyone in particular, namely Athena would spot them. This was his guaranteed last chance to prove to her that he'd let go of Lena, and changed. Although he hadn't, and didn't have any intentions of doing so. Also, he feared that sometimes he would accidently take things a step to far with Lena, luckily nothing of the sort had happened just yet, and he wasn't planning on it to, but not to press his luck too much he didn't think about that thought often so not to jinx it. He had to admit it however, he was doing a pretty damn good job of keeping it all a secret. He didn't suspect any suspicion from his friends or for that matter from Athena. He ignored Lena during school when he was walking with Athena, but secretly glanced at her as she would pass, and she would do the same to him. When he would receive a text message from her and he was with Athena, and he would get a grin on his face she would ask who it was who had text him, he'd lie and say it was Jack, on occasions not to seem to paranoid those times she'd ask to see his phone after receiving a text message, and she knew it was Lena, Alex would quickly lock his inbox to password only preventing her from looking. And he would always respond with "oh sorry I closed out of it, and it automatically locks it." Athena hated that, but let it go immediately. Again, Alex felt bad yet at the same time didn't. Because as they say 'what people don't know, won't hurt you.' So if no one knew he was still with Lena, it didn't matter what he did. The problem would be when he was caught. 


The truth was, 'what people don't know, won't hurt you', could be played by anyone. And that my friend, was exactly how Athena was playing. It killed her inside to know that Alex was cheating on her, hell it would kill anyone. She knew she was insane to let him do this, and that no one would ever tolerate it. But for some reason, she couldn't let him go. It was something about him that made him so unique and fun to be around, although she would love to be with the real him, the Alex that wasn't cheating, she wanted to get to know that Alex. Albeit said, she hated herself for the way she could let him walk all over her the way he did. She pitied herself for all the nights she spent crying herself to sleep, and in the morning would have the bloodshot red eyes, and a tearstained pillow, with the dry imprints of tears on her face. Most mornings her mom would ask if everything was alright, Athena claimed they were, but as we all know she wasn't fooling anyone with that lie. She was just as bad as Alex the way she acted. While he was keeping a huge secret from her, she was keeping a secret about his secret that she knew. She never wanted to let him know, but always hoped to get him to slip it out of his mouth, or to at least catch him in the act. Although, she much preferred him coming out and saying it opposed to her seeing him in the action. Just hearing him admit what he had done was wrong would be enough for her. The sad part was that Alex had no suspicion of her even slightly knowing about his secret. Which was exactly how she wanted it to be, and that is where the pair of them were alike in every way. 


Both were good people, and both knew they were. Both knew that what they were doing was wrong, yet didn't want the other to find out, and both wanted it to be that way, however at the same time knew at some point they would have to come clean and confess. The only difference was Athena had a lead on Alex for knowing his whereabouts, whereas he had no clue that she knew, which would make it almost seamlessly impossible for him to want Athena to confess for he didn't know she knew. The one thing that the pair of them could agree on was to make sure Lena wasn't involved in the confession. For Lena's sake she'd better pray she wasn't anywhere near Athena, because she would be throwing up the fist if that happened. 


Now onto a different pair of people, that are actually considered not a pair at all; Jack and Cayden. He'd blown it big time, and he didn't even know it yet, for the day hasn't reached yet, but in a matter of hours he would be waking up and going to school, hearing and learning some very unfortunate news. He only wished he had the courage to tell Cayen how he felt about her. He could run it through his head perfectly, but when he was around her, all that evaporated and he was left looking like an idiot in front of her. And for Cayden, she too wished Jack had spoken up about his feelings for her. She secretly knew exactly how he felt about her, because she felt the exact same way about him. She just needed him to say it to her, and that was one thing he couldn't deliver. She would be devastated by her decision she would be making shortly after arriving to school. But what she didn't know yet was the guilt that would be piling up inside of her for the way she couldn't be the one to confess she liked Jack just as much as he liked her. She couldn't help that she couldn't be the one to confess her feelings for him, or any guy. She needed it to be the guy telling her, the way she thought it always should be. And she knew how incredibly shallow that made her seem. It was just something she couldn't shake off. 


Then there was Samantha. She laid there in bed asleep like the rest of the east coast was, her eyelids moving ever so rapidly. She couldn't stop thinking about Zack, and what he had done to her prior almost three weeks ago. No Zack and Ali weren't dating, but they were definitely seeing each other, and that was something Samantha couldn't accept. Deep down she knew this was Ali's doing. She knew Zack wouldn't come out and kiss a girl he didn't even know. But this had pure classic Ali written all over it. She had been ogling him since she set eyes on him, just as Samantha had done many year ago. Her heart was still racing for his, and she longed to be with him. As mad as she was with him, she was ten, twenty, even fifty times more mad at Ali. It was possible that the kiss Samantha and Zack had shared in front of her house had meant nothing at all to him, and it was a simple 'I'm glad to be back, and seeing you again' kiss, though she highly doubted and didn't want to believe was the case. Or it was possible it meant exactly what she was hoping it would mean, that he really did like her, and hadn't forgotten about her since she'd moved. Then there was always that possibility that maybe after meeting Ali, he liked her more than he liked Samantha, which she really didn't want to be the case. Her scenario was that he was conned into kissing Ali, and along the way was getting caught up in the moment and couldn't get out, no matter how much and how hard he tried and wanted to. Ali after all could be a very persuasive person. She did seem like a best friend, right? It was now that Samantha knew exactly what had to be done, she couldn't stop talking to Zack forever, that would be childish. What she needed to do was confront him, and talk things out. Maybe she was wrong about the whole thing. One thing she knew for sure was that she and Ali could never be considered best friends anymore, but maybe if things could get worked out she could consider being acquaintances with her, maybe friends...though that could be crossing the line an inch or two. 


That morning as the hands on the clock ticked off each hour it slowly wound down to a glorious Wednesday morning. Slowly Alex awoke with thoughts of Lena and Athena. Athena woke up to thoughts of Alex. Lena woke up with thoughts of Athena and how much she couldn't stand her. Jack woke up to thoughts of Cayden, and that he was going to try and get what he needed to say out. Cayden woke up to a text message from her friend reading, 'today is the day, and I bet he asks you.' Samantha woke up thinking about Zack, and how she'd decided she would talk to him today for the first time in two weeks. Zack woke up to thinking about his friend Jenna who was in the room next to his because her parents were out of town. Ali woke up, no actually she didn't she missed her alarm. Amanda woke up strangely thinking about Rian, and he woke up even more strangely thinking about her. And many other girls were waking up with the jealous feelings of Athena and Alex together. 


"Hey Alex!" shouted a girl quickly running up to him. He appeared to be the only one in the hall it was still early, and not many people arrived as early as he had for school. 


"Lena!" he smiled and took a glance of his surroundings, no one but the two of them were there. He kissed her passionately, and she kissed him as passionately back. "What are you doing here this early?" he asked her. 


"I could ask you the same question...but I'm here for tutoring since I missed school yesterday and I need my make-up work. Why are you here at this time?" she asked. 


"My mom needed to be at work early, and my dad is out of town, so I figured I'd lurk around the halls until Jack and Rian show up." he explained. 


"Oh, well I better hurry off then because there's Rian now." she said scurrying off. He did a double take as he watched her walk off, then turned to see she was right, Rian was headed towards him. He quickly opened his locker, and jammed his head in pretending to be looking for something. 


"Hey dude." said Rian walking up and tapping Alex on the shoulder. Alex removed his head from the locker and turned to him, knowing that Rian had seen Lena over here talking with him. "Why were you talking with her?" he asked giving Alex that look. 


"She just said hi to me right before you came in...that was all." he lied. 


"You'd better hope that's all, because if Athena found out you were talking with her that would be it."said Rian concerned. 


"I know, don't worry nothing happening." he mumbled. 
Eventually as time went on more and more people began to show up, including Jack, and the girls. And just entering was Cayden with her friend Katie. The two were whispering, and Cayden slightly opened her mouth as if she were surprised, and her friend pointed to a guy. Jack noticed all of this, and couldn't help but continue to watch, he stood right behind Alex ducking down so that he could see her without her seeing him. The guy walked up to Cayden and the two talked for a minute, she seemed to be happy and giggling a lot. 


"What do you think they're talking about?" asked Jack. Alex shrugged as they both continued to watch. Just then Cayden shook her head up and down and placed a really big smile on her face and the two of them hugged, and he walked off. Her friend screamed and even Jack and Alex could hear the scream. Jack came out from behind Alex and started to walk down the hall upset and with his head down, and Cayden saw, not knowing why this could have been. Jack didn't even say hi to her which wasn't like him at all. 


"Katie, I'm going to go to class." she said walking off and trying to chase after Jack calling his name, but he didn't respond of even look back at her. She halted and turned around and walked over to Alex. 


"What's up with him?" she asked. Alex wasn't sure exactly what happened with Cayden and that guy but he had an idea. 


"You right now..." he said sympathetically and not in a rude way. 


"You mean...he saw that?" she said nervously biting her lower lip. 


"Yeah he did...what was that all about?" he asked not trying to intrude into her business. "The two of you dating now?" he guessed. 


"Well...yeah he just asked me out..." she hesitated to speak. 


"And you said yes...Cay, why?" he asked disappointedly. 


"I...well." she stuttered. 


"Jack is so madly head over heels for you, we were talking..and he was going to...never mind, it's not my place to tell." he said stopping short. 


"No...he was going to what, Alex?" she pleaded to know the answer. 


"He was going to tell you how he felt, but I guess that's a long shot now..." he said brushing past her and towards his girlfriend who had just entered. Cayden stood there struck as if a brick had just flown in and hit her directly in the heart. If she'd known that he was going to tell her, shed have told this other guy no. 


"Hey boo!" laughed Athena at the sight of Alex walking calmly up to her. 


"Boo, you never call me that?" he chuckled confused. 


"Yeah well, I figured I'd try it." she smiled. "I don't really like it." she finished. 


"Me neither, so don't use that anymore." he said seriously. 


"Hey, I was thinking you could come over today or something, or we could hang out?" she asked and patiently waiting for an answer. Alex didn't hesitate to answer, although he was planning on meeting Lena later on in the afternoon. 


"Yeah absolutely, I just have to be home before eight because my mom wants me to be there when my dad gets back from his trip. 


"Oh yeah, he does come back today doesn't he." she responded. 


"Yep, he does but we can hang out all before then!" he said grabbing her hand and walking her to class. Nice save he thought in his head. She totally bought it. 


The day went on rather quickly for everyone, everyone that is except Jack. His day was going horribly wrong and he couldn't do anything right. It was now lunch and he'd taken his time getting out of his and Alex Algebra class which they had with Cayden, so Alex headed to lunch without him. And Jack began to make his way out of the door, but Cayden stopped him. 


"Jack...listen." she said with sad eyes. He looked up at her slowly but didn't make eye contact. "I didn't know...Alex told me, I wish I could take it back, really I do." she started. 


"I'm going to miss lunch..." he sighed and walked off past her, leaving her to be the only one left in the class. 


"But Jack!" she exclaimed. He was too far off, and didn't plan on looking back, but forwarded on to the cafeteria. 


"Jack Jack...everything okay?" asked Rian as Jack sat between him and Alex. He didn't answer. But slapped down his Algebra quiz on the table. On the top was a big bold F. 


"Ouch..."said Alex. 


"Tell me about it, this isn't my day..." he sighed. 


"What happened?" asked Amanda. 


"You didn't hear that Cayden is now dating someone?" asked Rian and Alex at the same time. 


"Oh yeah I did...Jack there's other girls...you've just got to get over her. She'll come to her senses and see that she wants you." she paused. 


"That's just it...she does want him." said Alex. 


"Yeah...you told her I was going to tell her how I felt?" said Jack staring at him. 


"Sorry..." said Alex bluntly. "But she told me that if she'd known that she would have told that other guy no." he finished taking a bite of his food. No one else spoke about the topic the rest of lunch. 


"Um so, Zack... I think I'm going to see him today." said Samantha to Amanda. 


"Really! Good for you, it's about time, you can't ignore him forever. You just need to talk this whole thing out with him." she replied. 


"Yeah I know, I'm just nervous I don't know exactly what to say. But I'm just going to let it come out." she went on. 


"Samantha it will be fine...he used to be your best friend it's going to be alright." reassured Amanda. After all that the bell rang and students shuffled back to class, and before anyone, specifically before Samantha knew it school was out. 


She was sitting in the passenger seat of the car contemplating just exactly what it was she would be saying to Zack when she arrived, and her brother was driving...yeah her brother. This was a rare situation that never happened. But when she explained she needed to go to Towson, he agreed, since it'd been a long time since he'd seen the place. And he could use the company of his old friends that were still left here. 


"How long are you going to be?" he asked her as she got out of the car. 


"Not sure, you just go and hang out with your friends, and I'll call you a little before I think I'm ready to leave." she answered and he drove off. 


"He's not home said a voice in the distance." Samantha turned around, she knew that voice. 
It was her first time back in this town in over a year. She needed to clear up this whole mess. But more importantly she needed her best friend to help her out. Her true best friend, not the one that goes around kissing the guy she liked. 


"JENNA!" she exclaimed. 


"SAMANTHA!" she shouted. The two darted for each other at full speed, and collided into each others arms embracing in a huge hug. 


"How the hell are you? It's been like a year!" Jenna continued to shout. 


"I'm okay...I really need to speak with Zack though, where is he?" she asked. 


"On his way home now I think, he shouldn't be much longer...I'm staying at his house for a while until my parents get back...so I can let you in." she explained. The two settled in Zack's house, no one was there, his parents most likely at work. 


"Jenna...he kissed me a while back, and you know how I've always liked him...and then my ex-best friend back home, she stole him from me...now he's with her and all." she complained. 


"Yeah that snob has been here a few times. I really don't like her. But I didn't know that he kissed you, but I'm definitely sure that he really doesn't want to be with that little skank. She's kind of pushy and demanding, and seems like she's the one controlling him." explained Jenna. 


"Yeah I thought I could trust her..." she began, and then the front door opened. 


"Trust who?" asked Zack walking in. "Samantha....you're here, in my house what are you doing here?" he tripped over his words. 


"You two need to talk, I'll be in the other room." said Jenna walking out. 


"We need to talk, listen Zack...what are you doing?" she said as he sat next to her, she began to shake at their closeness. 


"I'm not proud of myself. I didn't even kiss her that afternoon in the garage, she was talking to me, and basically the rest was her." he started. 


"But all this after...you're still with her..." she paused. 


"She's doing it all, she said stuff...and I know it's wrong because she was like your best friend. I've told her it's wrong." he went on. 


"Why did you kiss me the night I saw you first." she asked, waiting for an answer. He hesitated for a moment. 


"I...don't know..." he breathed out. 


"You like her?" she asked furthermore. 

"I...well, I like you, but she's making it hard...I'm just not sure..but can we promise each other one thing. Over the course of this year, can we put this behind us, and get to be the best friends we used to be...and maybe next year we can try us or something?" he suggested. 


"Really you mean it?" she asked sounding excited. The most excited she had sounded in a long time. "Just one thing...I don't think I can put what's going on with you and Ali behind me, but I can pretend and try to...it will be hard but I owe that much to myself at least." she said smiling. 


"Great, I'm really glad that we had this talk...it was really needed." he smiled and gave her a big hug. "Jenna...you can come out from behind that wall in the kitchen." he laughed. 
She came running out, and leaped over the back of the couch and landed on top of her two best friends. 


"Ow." exclaimed the three together and broke out in unison laughter. 



Back in town Alex was with Athena. It was nearing seven thirty and he soon would be leaving.

"I'm so glad we could hang out today!" smiled Athena laying her head on his shoulder and the two cuddled on her couch watching a movie. 


"Me too." he said half true. "I'll be back, I need to use the restroom, he said getting up to go. His phone was left on the coffee table, and as he exited the room, it began to vibrate. At first Athena thought nothing of it, but the temptation was getting to her, and she picked it up noticing it wasn't locked and it read 1 new text message. She clicked it open, regretting it instantly. There in her hand the phone read. "How much longer until you're home, boo?" and it was from, well you guessed it Lena. Alex entered and she quickly sat the phone back down as though it was untouched. 


"Hey boo. I don't want you to leave." she pouted. 


"I don't either, but my dad is coming back remember..." he sighed. "And I thought we established that boo wasn't a good nickname for me?" he laughed. 


"Well, yeah I don't know it's catchy, and I've seen other persons call you it." she winked. 


"Oh okay babe." he said and kissed her sweetly on the lips. "I think I should leave now..." he said. Athena grabbed him one last time, and kissed him again. 


"See you tomorrow...call me tonight?" she said as a question. 


"I'll do my best." he smiled and waved to her as he left her house. He snapped his ipod out of his back pocket and placed his phone in his front one, and turned the ipod on to his Blink-182 cd. 
All my friends say please don't love her. He sang, and continued to walk, the song played on. 
Shit fuck I made a mistake, I thought I needed a break. The truth is I'm such a dick, it's broke and can't be fixed. A while later he showed up to his house Lena was outside waiting for him. 


"You're back, finally." she smiled and hugged him. He opened the door, and there in front of him was Rian and Jack. 


"Shit...what the hell are you two doing here?" he asked. 


"When are we never not here?" they replied together. 


"Lena?" said Jack shocked looking from her to Alex. 


"I thought you were at Athena's?" asked Rian. 


"I was...Lena, just showed up...listen she and I are friends...there's no changing that." said Alex sitting on the couch and everyone followed. This was going to be and interesting night. 
If you wanna call it a heartache, why don't you take back those things, I miss her. If you want the pain to go away, better suck up your pride and admit you lost her. Let go, move on, let go, move on... 
It was only a matter of time before Athena would find out now. 


"Why didn't you reply to my text?" asked Lena, playing with Alex's hair, as Jack and Rian stared at each other. 


"I didn't get it." he said taking his phone out. He went to his inbox, and found a message that was already read...that he hadn't seen. "I got it..." he gasped. The question now wasn't when Athena would find out, since she clearly knew. Now, it was more than a game. She knew about his secret thinking he didn't know she knew, so now he would hold that against her...boy could the drama stir up anymore. For this group of teens, that was an absolute yes.