Alexa's Point of View

"Alexa what are you doing here?"

"This is your dad?" Aaron turned around and asked me, I nodded my head. "I knew he looked familiar."

"I knew she looked familiar," I said referring to Haley's mom sleeping with my dad.

"Wait what?" Haley asked.

"Oh," Haley's mom said. "Huh?"

Aaron grabbed my father by his shoulders and pushed him back.

"Son, you don't want to do that," My father said.

I got up, tears in my eyes and walked over to my dad, "You're a horrible person."

I turned to Haley's mom, "It was you. That night on the couch. You didn't know he was married? How didn't you know?"

She was speechless, I couldn't tell if I caught her in a lie or if she was shocked herself.

"Leave," She said to my father. "Go right now!"

I was crying. It wasn't a loud cry, but there were a lot of tears. Aaron held onto me as Leslie pushed my father out of the house. She slammed the door shut just as he made it onto the stone path.

"Alexa I-" She started. "I'm so sorry. I had no clue he was married. Was he married to your mom?"

I nodded my head, I was so upset I couldn't speak. Words couldn't form.

"Do you mind if I.. talk to her?" She asked.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "She definitely will be.. on edge."

"Okay.." Leslie trailed off. "Oh I am so sorry Alexa."

Haley and Aaron sort of just watched as everything happened. Mostly Haley, as she had no clue my dad was cheating on my mom. Aaron and I saw the other night though.

"I'm gonna go now," Leslie said awkwardly as she left through the front door.

Haley instantly rushed over to me and pulled me into a long embrace, "We can cancel the party and just eat ice cream and watch movies if you want."

"As much as I appreciate that Haley, I really need to get drunk," I sniffled but laughed.

She laughed in response, "I totally feel you. Let's get drunk tonight!"

***

I danced amongst everyone in the living room. Sweat beading up on my forehead. It was quite hot in here, but I was having fun.

In the living room, Aaron moved the couches and the rest of the furniture to stand against the wall. In turn, the floor was clear, giving everybody room to dance.

I drank my red solo cup of whatever Aaron grabbed for me and drank. I turned my head as I danced. My eyes landed on Aaron, who sat on a couch watching me from afar.

"Stop looking at me," I shouted as I pushed through the sea of people to get to him.

He was sitting next to a boy, Vinnie, the boy who tried to sleep with me at Aaron's party.

"Hey I'm talking to you," I said to him realizing he hadn't responded to me.

Vinnie shot Aaron a look and Aaron looked at me strange.

"What?" I asked tilting my head.

"You two are friends?" Vinnie asked.

I nodded my head slowly, but Aaron had no reaction.

"Since when?" He laughed.

"I don't know," I shrugged and held onto my elbows, clearly uncomfortable with how the conversation was going. "Okay.. I'm gonna go I guess."

I turned around awkwardly and left confused. Why was Aaron acting like he wanted nothing to do with me? Like he didn't even know who I was.

He was probably just drunk or something. Maybe Vinnie gave him something to smoke. Whatever it was, it bothered me. But at the same time, I was too intoxicated to care.

I walked around the party looking for Haley. As I pushed through everybody I bumped into a dark haired boy.

"Hamzah," I said looking up. "Hey Hamzah."

"Hey?" He questioned.

"Hey why'd you ignore me today?" I pouted.

"Huh?" He asked.

"I was knocking on your window," I said mimicking my hand to show me knocking. "You ignored."

"I didn't purposely," He said. "I didn't realize."

"Yeah, yeah," I said.

"Where's Aaron?" He asked. "It's not safe for you to be walking around like this."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Because you're clearly intoxicated and there's people here who would love to take advantage of that," Hamzah replied.

"Okay and?" I said crossing my arms. "It's not Aaron's job to protect me."

"Nice to see you two together!" Haley chimed into the conversation as she walked up to us and threw each of her arms around Hamzah and I.

"Very nice!" I called back to her in response.

"Well I have to go find Chase, I'm trying to set him up with someone," Haley said. "Wish me luck, I'll need it."

Hamzah laughed, "Good luck then."

She squeezed his arm as she walked past him. I watched her until I lost track of her as she just became another blurry face amongst the party crowd.

"Did you eat anything?" Asked Hamzah, I shook my head. "That's not good Alexa, that's why you're so drunk."

"No," I shook my head.

"Just listen to me," He sighed as he grabbed my hand.

I furrowed my eyebrows as he led me through everybody and into the kitchen. He went into every cabinet before coming across some saltines.

"Eat some of these. This should help," He said.

"Thank you," I said as he handed it to me.

I teared open the sleeve of crackers. I started to eat them. I leaned the sleeve in Hamzah's direction, "You want?"

He took one from the sleeve and chewed on it, "What have you been up to?"

"My dad's been cheating on my mom," I said nonchalantly.

"What?" Hamzah asked surprised, I nodded my head. "Damn."

"Yeah," I said. "You?"

"Nothing," He shrugged his shoulders.

"Nothing?" I asked arching an eyebrow.

"Nothing," He confirmed.

"I don't know if Miss Sharpe would agree," I said.

He smiled and shook his head.

"You should drink Hamzah," I suggested.

"Who's gonna make sure you're all good?"

"I'll be okay," I said. "Let's live a little."

Hamzah grabbed a can of beer from the red cooler and popped the cap, taking a sip.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" I asked.

He ignored me and continued to drink. Soon enough, we were both hammered dancing among everybody. I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him close to me as we danced. It reminded me of when we were younger and play would Just Dance on his Wii. He knew every dance move to Cotton Eye Joe. We were seven then, and now we were seventeen and juniors in high school partying with the biggest partiers in Chico.

"Hamzah I need to get some fresh air," I said stumbling as I stood up. "It's so hot in here."

Even though Haley's expensive house has central cooling, it couldn't out-cool the body heat that radiated throughout the house as people danced on one another.

Hamzah grabbed my hand and we walked outside through a back glass door. There were a ton of people standing beside her closed up pool.

"I wish we could go swimming," I said to Hamzah looking over at him.

He was just staring at me, his eyes stayed connected with mine. He leaned in and held my face in his hands before kissing me.