Show Me What I'm Looking For

Ali’s point of view

The sound of the car door slamming shut awoke me from my deep sleep. The thought of it being my parents quickly brought me to my feet as I ran towards the window sill. Sure enough, the silver Volvo was parked in my driveway and my parents were getting their things from the back seat. I was starting to panic knowing far too well that if they saw seven people sleeping in their living room, I would be grounded for life.

“Guys, wake the hell up right now; my parents are in the driveway!” I yelled as I threw pillows at them and started gathering up all the blankets.

“No, it’s way too early. Tell them to drive around the block a couple of times,” Garrett said as he took the pillow and curled up, fetus style, around it.

“I’m serious! If my parents see you guys here, I won’t be allowed to see the light of day until I’m a 45 year old woman living in their basement.”

“This house doesn’t have a basement babe,” John added with his cocky little morning voice as he stretched his arms and sat up.

“You’re all missing the point! Gather up your things and leave through the back door hurry up!” I said as Anny and I shoved took all their things and started walking to the back door.

“I have to pee first,” Pat announced proudly as he walked to the bathroom.

“Patrick Kirch, shall we not?” Too late; the door was already locked. Just then I heard the keys jiggle in the key hole.

“Ali, go distract your parents, I’ll get everyone out.” Anny suggested. Just then I flew to the front door and just as my mom was pushing the front door open, I blocked it and popped my head out towards her. The look on her face was priceless.

“Hi mommy and daddy, I missed you guys so much!”

“We missed you too sweetie… So let us in now; we’re really tired.” She said as she pushed on the door a little. I looked back towards Anny and they still hadn’t left.

“You can’t come in yet…”

“Why not?” My father added suspiciously.

“Because… I— I love you?” I said uncertainly.

“Ali… what’s going on back there? Why can’t we come in?” My mom added pushing the door slightly.

“Anny’s… naked.” She was going to hate me for this.

“Naked?” My parents looked at me like I was going crazy. I couldn’t keep this going for much longer.

“Yea… she has a rash all over her back and she had to show me so I could put cream on it,” I said, hoping they would buy this.

“Oh hey Ali, that thing was taken care of,” Anny announced as she too popped her head out the little opening.

“Aw sweetie, how’s your rash?” My mother asked her. Crap, my plan was about to backfire.

“What ra—”

“I was just telling my mother here, that you had a rash all over your back and had to get naked so I could put cream on it and that’s why I couldn’t open the door,” I said to her. If her eyes could kill, I would have been shot dead, twice over.

“Oh yes, right. Well, come in now. I’m….dressed.” She said to my parents as we finally opened the door and let them in. My dad brought in the luggage and my mom started emptying it. It’s incredible how much clothes they brought for a 24 hours stay. I then casually made my way to the window sill and noticed that everyone was crossing the street to get into Garrett’s banana.

“Jonathan, could you get my purse out of the car? I forgot it in the back seat.” My mom suddenly asked my dad. This was not good; Garrett’s car was still parked in front of my house and before I could even blink, my dad was outside. This wouldn’t end well.

John’s point of view

“Dude, hurry the hell up!” I yelled at Garrett as I waited impatiently for him to open the door so we could all get in. Of course, we had to take the one car left on the planet with no automatic locks.

“Fuck! The key is stuck. What now?” He said as he kicked the bottom of his car.

“Why don’t you call AAA,” Pat suggested as he leaned against the car.

“I’m already on it Patrick.” Jared added from the other side of the car. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ali’s front door open and to my awful surprise, it was her dad. If he saw me here, Ali would be grounded for years and I could forget about ever going back into their house.

“Shit man, Ali’s dad is coming outside. He’s going to recognize me.” I said as I tried to cover my face as he looked towards the car. It was hard to miss five guys sitting around a yellow car.

“Do you boys need help with something?” He yelled out from the other side of the street. I crouched down a little and stared down at my feet.

“No sir, we’re fine, just waiting for AAA. We’ll be out of here in no time.” Jared responded with a huge fake smile plastered across his face.

“Oh alright then, do you need anything from my garage that could— John? John O’Callaghan?” Crap, this was bound to happen sooner or later.

“Oh, hi sir! I didn’t see you there.” I said, sounding more like a question than a statement.

“What are you doing here so early? Are these your friends?” He asked.

“Yea… That’s Pat, Kennedy, Jared and Garrett.” I responded as I played with my hair; an obvious sign of stress.

“Nice to meet you guys. Do you want to wait inside until AAA comes by?” Ali’s dad asked us. If only he knew where we were a couple of minutes ago…

“No thank you sir, we’ll get going anyways. They should be here any minute.” Pat responded from the other side of the car. He could obviously tell by the look on my face that I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

“Oh come on guys! I’m not going to take no for an answer.” He waved over to us and signaled to follow him. We didn’t really have a choice but to follow him. We exchanged looks and followed him into the house. As we walked in, I saw Ali and Anny sitting on the sofa watching The Little Mermaid.

“What are you guys doing here so early?” Ali asked, flashing me a confused look.

“Honey, that’s no way to greet your friends,” Ali’s dad said as he put some kind of bag on the stairs.

“Fine, I’m sorry. How are you guys?” She responded, rolling her eyes.
“Good, good. We should–”

“Ali, did you happen to find a purple vest? I think I left it here earlier,” Kenny added.

“What do you mean, earlier?” Her dad asked Kennedy as he slowly started to turn red, as usual. No one answered; we just kept staring at each other waiting for someone to risk saying the truth.

“All of you, on the sofa right now. None of you are leaving until I get the truth,” we all nodded and I made my way next to Ali.

“Move over O’Callaghan; just because your dating my daughter doesn’t mean I want to see any of it,” Her dad added as I was about to place my arm around her shoulder. He seemed to put an emphasis on MY daughter. I moved over and noticed that Ali’s mom was now sitting in the living room as well. This was bad.

“So, who’s going to start? Anny, why don’t you tell us what happened last night?” Her mom asked.

“Well… You guys said we couldn’t go out so we decided to watch a movie here and I guess we fell asleep. We’re really sorry. They were going to leave before you guys arrived, but you got here earlier than we expected…”

“We got ice cream too!” Pat blurted out.

“PAT! What the hell?” Ali yelled at him.

“You left the house? That’s it. Ali, Anny; you’re both grounded until the end of the week, when Anny leaves.” Her mom announced.

“What do you mean we’re grounded? We didn’t do anything wrong! You can’t do this! Anny leaves soon and there are so many things I want to do with her. You can ground me next week. Please mom…” She said to her almost in a begging voice.

“Our decision is final Alicia. You should have known better than that,” her dad added this time. I couldn’t believe that they were overreacting to this point. It was all a little ridiculous.

“You guys ruin everything! I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.” She said as she got up all teary-eyed. “Come on guys… I think you have to leave before they ground you too.” We then got up, said bye to her parents and walked out of the house. Luckily, AAA was already fixing up the car so we didn’t half to wait long.

“So… When are we going to see you guys again?” Ali asked as she and Anny both sat down on the little step outside the door.

“Ali, you’re grounded. Don’t make things worse.” I said, reminding her.

“I don’t care! They can’t keep me locked up in a tower forever. I’m going to rebel and then they’ll be sorry and then—”

“Baby, you’re rambling.” I said to her, trying to fight off a smile as I placed my hands on either side of her face.

She took a deep breath and smiled. “I know… anyways; we have to go back inside. Call me later.”

“I promise, bye Ali.” I said as I pressed my lips to hers.

“John, her dad could be watching; let’s go!” Kenny said causing me to pull away.

“Alright man, I’m coming! Go get in the car.” I said bye to Ali and Anny and made my way to the car. We drove off within seconds waving goodbye to both of them.