**spoilers of Ahs Murder house in this chapter!**
"Then what is it?"
"Nothing..." He told me then added in a completely different tone "I just can't believe you actually found that guy attractive."
I waited only a small moment before cracking my face into a smirk and arching my right eyebrow "so you're jealous."
"Shut up."
"Don't worry I'm sure he won't steal your spotlight for long, pretty boy." I laughed and grabbed his arm, dragging him back to join the others who were filing out of the door and toward the car.
~~~
"thanks for driving us!" I yelled while following Alex up the few steps to his house as Grayson drove off.
Alex fiddled with the house key in the dark and I waited patiently as he groaned because the lock was stiff. All the lights were out except the kitchen light, it was only ten PM so Elaine and Thomas were probably still awake.
We finally stumbled through the door and snapped out of our laughter when a huge bang erupted and followed by what could only be thought of as a strangled scream.
My heart rate quickened as Alex and I were momentarily frozen in shock. He snapped out of it first, turning sharply on his heals and running into the kitchen.
"What're you doing?!" Alex screamed, anger and shock evident in his voice. I followed behind him, rushing so quickly I almost slammed into his perfectly sculpted back which you could see clearly through his tight shirt - not the time. Right.
I peered around him and my heart ached when I spotted Elaine on the floor, a hand covering her left cheek that was swelling and red. Tears in her eyes were clearly threatening to spill and I wanted to rush over to comfort her, yet something stopped me.
My eyes flickered to only feet away from her where Thomas Parker stood, his jaw clenched and his fists balled. Oh my god.
"No. Uh nothing. Go upstairs sweetie - both of you." Elaine forced out as she scrambled to her feet. In seconds, Alex was beside her trying to help her stand.
"You did this!" He suddenly yelled and was storming toward his dad, squaring up.
"Listen to your mother." Thomas spoke through his teeth and I could feel myself boiling with anger, I could only imagine what Alex was feeling.
How dare he? How dare Thomas Parker hit his wife? No matter the situation violence was never okay.
My heart broke for the beautiful, strong woman stood now before us, who kept her head high in front of her son.
And my heart broke for Alex Parker, who had more emotion in his features now than I had ever seen before as he witnessed the woman he adored so much belittled by the man who was supposed to care for her until death do us part.
"How dare you?!" Alex yelled, bringing his fist back in the air. I grabbed it with both of my hands, putting myself between the two of them. I only realised now how small I was compared to him and how scary exactly he could be.
"Not now." I whispered and I noticed Elaine thank me with a reassuring smile. Alex glared at me and dropped his fist, grabbing my hand tightly in his.
"Go upstairs." His mother repeated and Alex hesitantly nodded, dragging me with him.
I closed his bedroom door behind me and he placed his head on the wall furthest away from me and banged it repeatedly.
"Stop it." I told him quietly, but he carried on.
"Alex stop!" I grabbed at him and he turned to me with two emerald, pained, downcast eyes.
This was the first time I'd seen hurt on Alex Parker face. It was there, clear as day and seeing it broke my heart.
"What am I supposed to do? Do I stay up here? Should I have stayed down their? Max what do I do?!" He sat on the edge of his bed and thrusted his face into his palms harshly.
"I don't know.." Is all I could say and it only made me feel stupid. Alex Parker was looking for my help and all I could say was 'I don't know'?!
"He won't hurt her. Not now that we're home and are aware of the situation. I suggest you get some sleep. We can deal with this tomorrow. She will be okay." I toldhim, taking his large hand in my small one in attempt to comfort him.
"You're right...go get some sleep Max." He told me and I left his room, maybe to be alone was what he needed right now.
Seeing your mother after being hit by your father couldn't be good on the mind so maybe he needed to think.
~~~
I made sure I woke early in case of any commotion the next morning. I was never an early riser, but this was the Parkers we were talking about. My second family. Yes, Alex Parker may be my worst enemy and I may hate his guts, but I refused to let anymore damage happen to this family because of the possible words that could come out of Alex Parker's always-running mouth.
I slipped on a big hoodie and some fluffy socks then head down the stairs. I was surprised that only Elaine wad present, This was the first time since I had been here that I'd woken before Alex.
We both said our hasty 'mornings' and I sat at the table while she made me a coffee.
"Where's Thomas?" I asked her. I knew I was slipping onto a dangerous subject, but I had to talk to her about it.
"He's at work." She finally turned to face me, bringing me my coffee and slipping me a small smile. I gasped when I notice the pink hand mark printed onto her left cheek and she looked at me with sad eyes.
"Elaine..." I got no answer, but she knew what I was going to say.
"What happened?" I whispered and she sat beside me, momentarily breaking down. Her face was in her palms exactly the way Alex did it.
I heard her soft whimper and I stroked her back soothingly.
"You don't deserve this." I told her.
"It's nothing I can't handle. It won't happen again." She looked up at me and plastered on a strong face, wiping below her eyes and taking a deep breath. I nodded, but I didn't get chance to reply because Alex joined us.
I felt the tension build in the room and decided it was time to excuse myself and let them talk.
~~~
"Where's your mum?" I asked as Alex joined me on the couch as I aimlessly flicked through the channels on tv.
"She got ready and went to work." He answered. He laid down, placing his head in my lap and giving me a cheeky grin.
"So what do you want to do today?" He asked, looking up at me.
"Well I don't want to spend it with you, that's for sure." I grinned down at him and found my hand soon tangled in his overgrown, messy wave of hair.
"You're funny cupcake." He smirked and I found myself giggling.
"How about we have a picnic?"
"A picnic?" He groaned.
"Or we could do something else, I guess."
"Like what?" He asked.
Wow, Alex Parker was so helpful with ideas. Note the sarcasm.
"Go for a walk?" I suggested.
"A walk?!" He groaned again. "Forget it, go back to the picnic!" I laughed and jumped up, probably giving him whiplash in the process, but he would survive.
I changed into shorts and a tank top while Alex prepared the picnic he was dying to have. Yeah, next joke please.
When I finished getting ready, he was too and we ventured out into his back garden. I laid down a blanket and we sat. The whether was gorgeous today thankfully. This was good for three reasons:
1) I would probably get a decent tan.
2) Alex wore sunglasses on days like these which happened to go well with his bad boy image.
3) Alex quickly got too warm and whipped his shirt off. Drool - calm me a perv or whatever, but I must get myself some sunglasses too just so he can't see me staring.
We each laid on our stomachs, chatting about everything and anything while picking at the picnic.
"Is your name Google?" He asked me suddenly. I gave him a confused look while popping a grape into my mouth and noticed he was withholding a cheeky smirk.
"Huh?"
"Cause your everything I'm looking for!" He winked and I rolled my eyes.
"I thought we agreed last year that you'd stop using them on me! What happened last time?!" I asked him.
"You kicked me in the balls...." He muttered.
"Exactly."
"See, I don't learn from my mistakes cupcake!" He smirked and then I just waited for it.
"Are you a thrift shop? Cause your tags aren't the only thing I'll be popping." The grin on his face broadened and this time I laughed. Where he came up with them, I'd never know.
Alex rolled onto his back revealing his very defined abs and I found myself trying to look anywhere else. And failing of course. The things I'd do too Ale- EW! No no no, I would not finish that sentence!
I mimicked his actions and rolled onto my back, looking up to the almost completely clear sky. A few moments passed and I rolled onto my side, cushioning my head with my arm and watching as Alex did the same.
"Hanging out with you hasn't been the worst thing I could've done this summer - like expected." He told me suddenly, then pursed his lips closed as if he already regretted saying anything remotely nice.
"Yeah I enjoyed...meeting the lads and Tara." I grinned and he shook his head a little while chuckling.
I noticed how small lines formed in his cheeks like dimples when he smiles and how his iridescent eyes were almost hypnotic.
~~~
I wasn't going to lie, now that Alex Parker was being mostly nice to me, almost as though we were actually friends, weirded me out. This kid had aggravated me since nappies and successfully managed to make my high school - well the whole school life absolutely crap. Of course, his close group of bad boys did help him pull the god awful pranks over the years.
Such as stealing my clothes from the girls locker room after gym, leaving me stranded in only underwear with no other choice than to run around collecting my clothes that they so kindly littered around the halls.
Another example, filling my locker with pictures of Alex Parker himself which spilled out when I opened it, in the process making me look like a definite stalker who adored and would kiss the feet of the devil we all knew as Alexander Parker. Of course if ever we called him Alexander to his face he'd put us through hell.
Like the time a big shot thought he could call him out by his full name which only resulted in the ultimate wedgie - being hung by your boxers on a tree and awaiting them to snap so the torture could end.
"You're staring cupcake." Alex didn't take his eyes from the TV as he was too engrossed within the next episode of American horror story which I got him into.
When I didn't reply, he spoke again. "Don't try to deny you were checking me out." A smirk formed on his lips and I opened my mouth to say something against his statement, but nothing came out.
It probably did look like I was checking him out, I didn't realise I was staring while reminiscing upon his ways of ruining any social life I had left.
"I'd rather scratch my own eyeballs out and eat them than 'check you out.'" I answered after only a minute. This made him avert his undivided attention to me.
"Oh really?" He challenged. This boy consistently got on my nerves.
"Really." I smirked.
"You don't think I'm attractive, Max?" He asked me and I couldn't help but feel like the question itself was a trap.
"You make me gag." I narrowed my eyes.
"Soon in more than ways that one." He winked and the sudden innuendo took me by surprise.
"I- you-...You're disgusting." I glared at him and now I understood why I felt it was trap, Alex Parker had a come back to anything!
"It's why you love me cupcake." As I had no witty comeback to this, I turned back to the t.v where season one , murder house was playing. My favorite season out of all five.
"You know what I don't get Max? How Tate Langdon did all those awful things yet still manages to get violet Harmon to fall in love with him." He furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head.
From a girls point of view, it all made sense because without a doubt every girl fell in love with Tate Langdon. However, for a boy, I had no idea.
"We all have our flaws, Violet's in love with him" I shrugged, I knew how bad it sounded, if anything like that happened in real life I'd run for the hills, but for a character it was interesting, as Tate Langdon had each and every teenage girl under his spell.
Alex looked at me like I was an absolute maniac. Like I had just told him that I had the ability to fly or something. "He killed at least five people that he liked! He set his step dad on fire! And don't even get me stated with the whole Violet's mum situation!"
I could think of no other response than making the light hearted comment I made earlier. "We all have our flaws...?" I grinned and so did Alex, shaking his head as he tuned in for the remaining five minutes of the episode.
~~~
"Okay making our own pizzas can't be THAT hard" I reassured myself more than Alex because I was just about the worst cook going.
By Alex's question; 'what is a gas mark?' I could tell that he probably wasn't much better than I was.
I gathered the ingredients and Alex helped me make the dough. A minor flour fight erupting, but the rumble of our stomachs made sure we didn't take it to drastic measures.
We rolled out our dough and added the tomato purée then topping. I was pleased with how mine went, a ham and pineapple cheesy pizza. Alex's on the other hand, topped his with just about everything we had in the cupboards. We put them in the oven and headed back to the living room, thinking a job well done.
"Your pizza looks so boring. Don't you like trying new things?"
"Oh apposed to your mountain of every topping going? That's got to be disgusting." I scrunched my nose, daring to place my legs on Alex's lap. When he didn't react, I mentally sighed in relief.
I was surprised my mother had not yet tried calling or even texting me since it had been two weeks, she must have been really quite busy.
"Do you smell that?" Alex asked suddenly and seconds later, the fire alarm sounded loud and clear. Oh god.
Alex and I rushed into the kitchen, where clouds of thick black smoke filled the air, leaving us coughing and spluttering. Alex opened the oven and both pizzas were up in flames.
"THE PIZZAS ON FIRE!" I screamed.
Alex flashed me a sarcastic look, in no rush to stop the house from burning down. "NO SHITÂ SHERLOCK."
He grabbed a tea towel and pulled the hot trays out of the oven, whipping at the flames with the towel until they eventually went out. I turned off the oven and opened the window, soon returning to Alex's side who was staring with sad eyes at the burnt black pizzas. What a horrific time to be alive..
"Maybe we should've just ordered..." I trailed off and grinned at Alex who was now seeing the funny side to almost setting the house on fire.
"You wouldn't have liked your pizza anyway." Alex shrugged.
"I happen to like plain!-" I was cut short.
"No. I mean I snook chilli peppers and jalapeños into your toppings." Alex's face had turned into a wide grin of amusement and I was then relieved that the pizzas did in fact burn.
"Order the pizzas dufus. NO SPICE!" I yelled as I ran up the stairs to change.
~~~
Aloha! Thank you for reading! I was wondering if y'all who read this book could possibly leave a comment on your thoughts of the one and only Alex Parker?! Or maybe who you're favorite is out of the group of bad boys. I promise you'll see more of them soon and learn more of their witty remarks and vandalizing ways! Don't forget to Vote, LOVE YOU ALL XOXO