(9) Heartbeat Communication

"Please Lex? It'll be fun!" Elle whines and flops back onto my bed, "Once the kids go to bed, we can talk and stuff."

You may be confused on the situation.

Here, let me enlighten you.

Two weeks have passed since the squadcation at the lake. Squadcation, get it? Squad plus vacation? No? Oh well, if Shakespeare was allowed to make up his own words, than so am I.

Anyways, it's been two weeks. They went by pretty quickly for the most part. Mason's been giving me the cold shoulder, Parker is sweet as ever, if not too sweet, and Jared is his usual teasing self. Elle? Well, I'd had against her until today.

Flash forward to the present.

"Please Lex? It'll be fun!" Elle whines and flops back onto my bed, "Once the kids go to bed, we can talk and stuff."

"Elle, I don't do babysitting. Or kids." I groan.

Kids are cute an all, and maybe in the future but right now? Let's just say I prefer not cleaning up after sticky handed children and I would rather not be changing diapers and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every two to three hours.

"Okay, it's one night. And we'll make money! Easily." Elle protests, "Plus I already told the lady we'd be there. It's not like I can just back out of it or anything."

"Ugh, god Elle." I sigh.

"Thanks Lex!" She throws her arms around my neck and I laugh.

Why must I let her drag me into things that often result in stupid decisions on my part?

I might as well start making a list of some sort.

Stupid decisions made because Elle dragged me into something:

1. Kissing Mason/Parker. I don't even know which one it was anymore. I mean, I know he told me his name was Mason, but the entire memory is distorted and Parker said it was him. I wish I wouldn't of.

2. Drank so much that night at the club because Elle kept giving me drinks. Maybe then I'd know if I practically molested her brother, or her brothers best friend, aka my worst nemesis, Boxer Boy.

3. Taking over her job for "fifteen minutes." Yeah right. Three hours later and a rough first impression with Mason. Enough said.

Despite that list, I love that girl to death. I can tell we'll be basically friends for life.

-

"Lexa, we're leaving!" Elle let's herself into my apartment while hollaring, "C'mon, if you apply your fracking mascara any slower not only will I age like ten years, but we might end up having to ride with that annoying family in the elevator again!"

I chuckle and grab my bag. I actually didn't even bother with mascara. My entire face is bare, makeup free, and I surprisingly am not even too bothered by it. It looks nice with my casual grey lounge tank top and sweatpants. Jokes aside, I refuse to be judged by children, and I know Elle doesn't care what I wear, so why dress up?

We live in a society where girls are told to wear makeup and dress nice for other people but I say, honestly, frack on that because if I want to wear a damn dress I will wear a damn dress for no one but myself.

Exactly four minutes and thirty seven seconds later, we're all set and ready to go. Physically, I feel fine, mentally and emotionally I'm completely not ready to deal with possibly screaming children tonight.

I follow Elle out of my apartment, carefully locking it behind me, unsure of when we'll be back, "Lexa!" Elle yells from the end of the hallway, "Hurry the hell up!"

I laugh and jog over to the elevator and yawn while pushing the button, "So who is this screaming child monster we have to watch?" I question.

"Well, her name is Elodie Mai and she's absolutely adorable." Elle leans over and shows me a selfie of the two of them on her phone.

"Aww." I smile

"She was adopted from Vietnam when she was less than a year old, she's five now, and has been living here since then. Her adoptive parents gave her the name Elodie, but kept her Vietnamese roots by making her middle name Mai, which was her families last name in Vietnam."

"What happened to her family?" I raise an eyebrow.

Elle bites her lip, "They got killed. Some sort of attack, or something. We don't really talk about it. She doesn't remember anything."

I frown, "She seems so little and innocent and one day she'll find out she's been through more than most have even though she's only five."

Elle nods, "Yeah. But she's just the cutest, wait until you see her smiling little face."

"Alright." I grin, pushing the elevator button.

Maybe this won't suck.

Unfortunately the elevator opens and as I peer in I see, the annoying family from 9A.

The short, chubby, happy looking dad looks up, "Care to join us?" He asks, baby in hand and his other kids running circles around his wife.

Elle smiles. Well, it looks like a smile. It's really a Alexis Anderson, I will fricking murder you for taking so long in the bathroom instead of walking down the hallway and then we would've been here before this fracking family kinda smile. Just a fun fact, I'm very good with smile-ology.

-

"ELLE!" A giggly little girl comes to the door.

"Hi Elodie!" Elle grins and bends down to the little girls height.

Elodie, a small boned girl with long straight black hair and pale skin, smiles at her and throws her arms around Elle's neck giggling.

"Guess what?" Elle asks the little girl.

"What?" Elodie giggles.

Elle grins, "We have a new friends that's going to play with us tonight." Elle casually turns the little girl in my direction, "This is Alexa. Can you tell her your name?"

"Elodie!" She grins and I laugh.

Elle wasn't lying about the cuteness in the girl.

"Hey Louise." Elle stands up and smiles, "This is my friend Alexa."

"Hello." A warm looking woman greets enthusiastically from the door, "Cmon in, my dear." The woman, a plump one with a halo of golden brown hair on top of her head looks down at her daughter lovingly. She looks strangely familiar, although I can't say I've seen her before. She's a bit older, but her face looks worn and makes her look older than she probably is. Nevertheless, the bright smile on her face could subtract ten years.

Elle and I follow Elodie into the house.

"Elodie Mai, are you going to be a good girl?" Louise asks her daughter.

Elodie grins and throws her arms around her mom. The love between the two of them is undeniable. It makes me a little jealous, but I understand how busy my mom has to work to keep up with the rent and upkeep.

Louise stands back up and hugs Elle before walking towards me, arms outstretched.

I gingerly embrace her back and she pulls away, smiling at me, "It's a joy meeting you Alexa. You're welcome back into our home anytime assuming you can take care of my little angel here."

I chuckle, "Of course, Mrs..?"

"Oh, just call me Louise. Surnames are for the elderly." She winks, "And I'm still a kid at heart."

"Louise it is then."' I laugh. Elle joins in and pretty soon Elodie is rolling on the ground laughing simply because why not? She's young and doesn't even know why we're laughing but she doesn't need a reason. As we grow older it seems that we are in a state of sadness and only other people can bring us up, only things can make us happy, and even then the happiness is temporary. We live in a society where children being depressed and children killing themselves is of the norm, I wish all of us could be free like a child, free to depend on ourselves, not take everything seriously, and just let go and live in the moment. Happiness is a drug and everyone's addicted. It keeps them going and can be easy to find or impossible to see. It can be sold to us in the form of a smile, and stolen with less than ten words. And times like now, happiness is such a mystery we forgot what the word means in the first place.

Okay.

I know I say this a lot but honestly someone make me a tumblr so I can publish all this shit and get famous. I could title my book Same.

Bet it would sell millions.

-

"Alexa, come play princesses with us!"

Elodie screams in her little voice while giggling, "Princesses is fun!"

I grin and follow her into her small playroom. Princesses, here we come.

Fifteen minutes later it's turned into a photoshoot.

Elodie's wearing a sparkly pink poofy dress with purple capped sleeves, and a purple crown on her head. She carries a scepter and is waving it at Elle's ready camera.

Elle is wearing a yellow flowy skirt and matching shirt with butterfly sleeves.

She looks ridiculous, as do I.

I ended up being chosen to wear a sequined while dress. It's a few sizes too small, so it clings against my stomach and chest, but poofs out at the skirt. On someone else, more specifically a very small sized someone else, I'm sure it falls to the floor, but it drops only to my knees. I look in the mirror. Absolutely ridiculous, as I thought. I laugh and lower myself down to my knee and pose with Elodie, before picking her up and swinging her around in a circle while she laughs gleefully. Elle snaps more pictures and they slowly print out of the modern version of a vintage camera. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Later, the sun is starting to set and Elodie is starting to yawn.

"Hey Lex, do you think you could put her to bed? She goes down really easy, and afterwards you can go on your phone or watch TV or something." Elle asks.

"Sure." I've totally got this. I smile, "Let's go kiddo!" I say to Elodie and chuckle. She lets out a yawn and then giggles.

I help her into her pajamas and get her tucked into bed within the next ten minutes. Fifteen minutes later, she's asleep.

Well, I look around, unsure of what to do. My phone died within five minutes of waiting for her to fall asleep, and I have no clue how to work the TV. Might as well wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen from dinner.

I walk into the kitchen and squad down, looking in the cabinet underneath the kitchen island for dish soap. There it is.

I grab it and turn on the sink, quietly singing a random song under my breath while filling the sink up with water. I've never actually minded doing dishes. The water is soapy and sudsy and the bubbles rise up above the water and float around the kitchen.

Beginning the cleaning, I continue my singing and let my thoughts float onto the thousands of random tangents my mind can come up with.

Suddenly I hear a noise. Crash.

There it is again. I reach under the sink and grab the first thing I see which happens to be a toilet cleaning brush.

Why that's in the kitchen, I have no clue.

The thuds get closer and I dip it into the soapy water before walking towards the noises, the handle of the brush stretched out in front of me.

Suddenly, the door bangs open and the figure enters, kicking off their shoes and then kicking the wall. I wonder who peed in their Cheerios this morning.

"-What do you mean there's nothing else you can do? Fuck that, fuck every single one of you!" The figure throws their phone at the wall. I kneel, a few yards away, the brush outstretched and ready if needed.

"Who're you?" The voice bellows, seeing me.

Frack.

I stand up and in an instant, press the soapy end into his eye, or as close to it as it gets. I can't even tell, my eyes are closes in blind fear. After that little stunt, the guy, I can tell its definately a male now, seems to get angrier. He flips on a light and I gasp.

"Lexi? What the hell are you doing in my-" He says at the same time I say, "Mason? What the hell are you doing here-"

"I live here." He responds, "Why are you in my house?"

"I'm babysitting. I wasn't aware you lived here or have an adorable little sister or thought to grace me with your oh so wonderful presence."

He just looks at me.

"Here." I practically drag him to the kitchen and get a wet rag to dab off the dish soap on his face, "Do you want to talk about it?" I ask, while

concentrating on getting off all the white bubbles.

His blue eyes pierce mine, "No, not really. It's complicated."

"I can do complicated."

"Well, I could do you but we don't always get everything now do we?"

I blush, and try to conceal it, "So Louise is your mother?"

He nods, "Clearly she has terrible judgment when it comes to picking responsible babysitters."

"Hey, I'm plenty responsible!" I protest.

He smiles at me and gestures towards the sink that's practically overflowing with suds and dirty dishes, "Responsible, my ass."

I chuckle, "You going to help me or stand there?"

He raises an eyebrow, "I should help you why?"

"Alright dickhead-"

"Kidding, kidding Lex, geez. Of course I'll help. You wash, I dry?" He grins.

I nod and move to the sink to continue washing the dishes before passing him them to dry.

"Lexa, hurry up already." Mason complains, "It's been five minutes since you've picked up that dish, how is it humanely possible to still be washing it?"

I wag my finger at him, "Patience is a virtue."

"A virtue I don't have."

"Ah yes, we all know you don't have very many virtues Mase."

"What did you just call me?"

"Mason." I look at him.

"No you didn't." He grins, "You nicknamed me."

"Well, I mean, technically it was Elle's nickname-"

"Really? I think you're just overly infatuated with me." He moves closer to me.

I lean backwards onto the kitchen island and smirk up at him before tilting my head to the side, "I'll bet you don't even know what the word infatuated means."

"I don't have to know what it means to know how you feel about me." His voice has dropped to a throaty whisper and I gulp, trying to press myself further into the island. He comes closer yet, if that's possible and places a hand on each side of my waist. I look up into his eyes. Unlike the mood right now, his eyes are clear and simple. No complications. Just beautiful.

Meanwhile my body is a shaking mess of nerves, excitement, and something else. I don't know what that something else is but it feels like electricity coursing through my veins and through my entire body.

He looks down at me and reaches up with one hand and tucks a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

I can feel my heart thumping practically out of my chest and wonder if he can hear it too.

"How do I feel about you?" I murmur, mostly to myself.

Apparently he hears me, because he lifts one of my hands and places it on my chest, right over my heart, "That. That is how you feel about me."

"How do you feel about me?" I whisper. He just looks at me.

In that moment, with a burst of courage, I reach my hand up carefully, never breaking eye contact with him. I place my hand on his abs and slowly slide it up to his chest, before stopping at his heart.

I can feel the threatening pull of a smile appearing on my face as I listen to his heart. Thump. Thump. Thump.

A/N thanks for 18.7k reads. keep commenting, voting, and fanning. it really is motivating and makes me update a lot faster

As you can see this update is a lot longer than usual, in fact it's 2894 words long which is about 1000 more than I usually write. Should I keep doing longer chapters every two ish weeks or shorter chapters once a week? Let me know please!

many people have commented about the bar scene where Lexa dances with a masked guy and in the end he says his name is Mason. Remember Lexa had a lot to drink that night. Thoughts may get disoriented. And then Parker tells her that it was him she had kissed and she heard the name Mason because that was the name she wanted to hear and the alcohol confused her. This will be further explained later, just trying to clear up confusion. Who do you believe? Was it actually Mason and Parker lied? Or was is Parker and Lexa didn't want to admit it to herself?

Hmmm.

Questions: How do you like the two new characters, Louise and Elodie Mai?

-tinylighthearted