Chapter 13 - Alexia

Thank god.

Luke and I were fine. We both apologized for our actions, and never spoke of it again.

It was a good week. But Thursday, it got even better. It was morning, and I was leaving my house to go to school when Vanessa called me.

Before answering, I said bye to my mom and my brother. I then calmly closed the door and answered the phone. "Hi."

"Alexia! What is wrong with you?! I texted you yesterday and you didn't answer!" she screamed.

"Oh, I'm sorry Vanessa, I didn't see. My phone was dead. What was that you wanted?" I asked.

"I asked you for the English homework! I didn't do mine, and you have to send me the picture!"

"I'm sorry Vanessa. I'll be right there so you can copy it," I assured her.

"Whatever," she said before hanging up.

I know what you're thinking. Oh, Alexia, why didn't you stand up to her? Didn't Luke's speech inspire you?

Yeah, it did. But, honestly, I was a little afraid. I didn't know how she would react, and I personally didn't want to find out.

I practically ran to school. As soon as I reached Vanessa, she yanked my backpack away and started looking for English homework.

"Where is it?" she demanded.

"Let me look," I said.

Surprisingly, she moved, and I searched for the sheet of paper. I found it, and hid it in the back of the bag. I knew I had to stand up to her, so I figured not giving her what she wanted would be a good step to start.

"I can't find it," I lied.

"What?! You are the most worthless, stupid person I have ever met!" she yelled enraged.

Then she did something I wouldn't ever imagine.

She slapped me. She actually slapped me across the face. It didn't even hurt, but that did it. I couldn't take it anymore.

"You know what, Vanessa? Fuck you. I won't take your shit anymore," I stated, maybe a little too loudly.

Some people looked in our direction. Others came closer. But I didn't care. Vanessa had to hear this.

"You're just a bitch who can't even make a call without help. You are the worthless piece of shit. Not me. I've suffered my whole life because of you. I do half the stuff I would like to do because of you. I've never even had friends! All. Because. Of you," I said, pointing at her. I realized that I'd started to have a kind of rhythm to my words, and I didn't want to stop it. I turned to the crowd that had now formed around us.

"Don't listen to her anymore! She's just a spoiled, dumb, self-centered bitch, who doesn't care about anyone except for herself!" I turned back to Vanessa. "I won't be helping you anymore. You're on your own. Goodbye."

Just to prove my point, I gave her the finger. To my satisfaction, Vanessa ran away, crying. The crowd made an opening so that she could run off alone.

I only then realized that everyone was watching me. I looked around and saw Luke staring at me with a huge grin on his face.

Suddenly, the crowd erupted. They screamed happily, finally free of Vanessa.

I guess everyone hates Vanessa. I thought.

"You were amazing!" someone yelled.

I turned to see who it was and found Luke's smiling face. "That was awesome!" he exclaimed again. I laughed, but I doubt he heard me over the cheers.

"I couldn't have done it without you!" I yelled back.

He smiled, then shook his head. He came closer and spoke into my ear, "No, you would've done it sooner or later. But that was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. You're really special Alexia."

My eyes widened.

You're really special Alexia.

Nobody had ever said anything like that to me. I was flattered, and I blushed. "Thanks."

It was at that moment that the bell rang. It brought us back to reality and I wasn't happy about it.

I reluctantly picked my bag up, which was lying on the floor, and walked to English class, with Luke right beside me.

For the first time in my life, I ate with someone other than Vanessa and her dumb friends. I ate with Luke. I was so happy I couldn't take my smile off my face.

"So," he said as we sat down at a table. "How was it?"

"What?"

"How did it feel after you stood up to Vanessa?" he asked.

"It was… amazing," I admitted, "I've never felt so powerful in my life. I actually surprised myself. I've always been a shy person. It felt really weird talking openly to the crowd. But everything worked out okay."

He smiled.

I looked back down at my food. "But, now that I did this, now that I stood up to Vanessa, I don't know what to do. It's like, if you build a house, you need a base first. But if the base falls apart, the whole house falls down too. Vanessa was my base," I said.

"Well," Luke said. "Then I guess it's time for you to make yourself a new base. A whole new building. The first house was designed for Vanessa. Design one for you now."

I thought about it. "Why are you so wise?" I said.

"It's one of my many talents," he said as-a-matter-o-factly.

I giggled.

"Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something," he said. "You know that trip to Switzerland I invited you to?"

I nodded.

"My mom and me are going to Lugano during the Christmas holidays," he informed me.

"Lugano?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, it's a city in Tessin. It's a really nice place," he explained. "Anyways… did you think about my offer?"

"You mean to come with you?"

"Yeah."

"It would be an amazing trip, but I don't know if we can afford it right now…" I said. I hadn't talked to my mom about it yet, but I didn't think she would want me to go.

"Don't worry about the money. It's on us," he said.

I was astonished. "Wow… really?"

"Yeah."

I paused. "I still have to talk to my mom, but I don't think she'll be okay with this."

"Well, if you want, I can come to your house and convince her myself."

Again, I was shocked. "You would really do that?"

"Yeah, of course. It'll give me a chance to meet her."

I thought about it. "Okay."

"Okay? You mean okay, okay?! You'll come to Switzerland?" he demanded.

"If you can convince my mother, yeah," I said.

"Oh, I'll convince her. I am really cute, so people listen to me," he joked.

I laughed.

After lunch, Luke and I were walking to Social Studies, when a guy walked up to us. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He looked about my age, but he was tall and muscular: handsome.

"Hey," he said. "Alexia, right?" he asked me.

"Um, yeah!" I said. "And you are…?"

"Noah. So a couple of my friends are going to the beach tomorrow after school. You wanna join?"

Well, this was a first. No one has ever invited anywhere. I'll admit, it was a little strange. I mean, some guy that I don't even know walks up to you and asks you to the beach? Weird.

But I wanted to do something like this. I wanted to go to the beach with my friends, rather than staying home, doing homework.

"Sure. What time?" I said.

"Right after school," he said smiling. "See you then," then he turned and left.

I looked at Luke, who was right next to me. "That was new," I said.

"Do you think I can come too?" Luke asked me.

"I'm not going if you don't come with me," I told him. He laughed.

The next day, after a whole day of school, I raced home, changed, got my beach bag, and left. I met Luke in Palisades Park, right in front of the Santa Monica statue, as arranged.

We then walked down the stairs to the beach. We found the others right away, since they were all crowded in one place. I was surprised to see a lot of people. Some were playing beach volley, others were already swimming.

"Hey, guys!" a familiar voice called. Noah was walking towards us, shirtless. Aw man, he was hot.

"Glad you came!" he said. "So, welcome! Drinks are over there. Make your self comfortable."

"Thanks, Noah," I said, giving him a bright smile. I caught a glimpse of Luke looking at me, but when I turned to him he was looking at the ocean. "There's a spot over by those guys," Luke pointed. "We can put our stuff there."

We walked over and put our stuff down. I then took off my clothes, leaving me with a sea-green bikini. Immediately I felt very conscious of my body showing. Personally, I thought that I was in pretty good shape: my belly was skinny, except for a really small strip of fat. I tried to seem cool about it, but I was a little shy. But my worries vanished when I saw Luke. He was wearing red swim shorts, but that wasn't even the best part. He was perfect: defined chest, strong arms and a six-pack. He actually had a six-pack.

"Wow. You look great," Luke told me. I realized I had my mouth open, so I quickly closed it and turned away. "Thanks. You want to go for a swim?"

He looked at me, surprised. "A girl that wants to swim instead of just lying on the beach? Well, this is new," he said smiling.

"I'll race you to the water," I said, then sprinted towards the ocean. I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard Luke say 'Wow' before dashing behind me. The idea made me smile.

We had an amazing afternoon. Luke and I played the whole time, splashing each other. When we were too tired to continue, we got out and dried off. Honestly, when Luke was drying his hair with the towel, my heart did a couple of jumping jacks.

Noah came over a couple of times, for some reason always ignoring Luke. Noah talked to me a bit then went back to his other friends. At six, Luke walked me home.

The next few weeks were amazing. People were friendly with me, they greeted me in the hallway, one even made me cut the line at the cafeteria. Everyone was nice, but Luke especially.

He came to my house one afternoon. I greeted him outside, then opened the door to my house.

My mother was in the kitchen, cooking dinner. I don't know if you've noticed, dear reader, but my mother likes to cook. A lot.

"Mom, this is Luke. Luke this is my mom, Agatha."

"Hi," my mom said.

"Hi, nice to meet you. You have a beautiful house," Luke noted.

My mom looked at me with an approving look. I suppressed a laugh, then spoke. "Mom, we wanted to talk to you about something." I said.

"Yes?"

"Luke invited me on a trip to Switzerland." My mother blinked a few times, confused. "And I was hoping that you… let me go there," I said.

If my mother was surprised, she didn't show it. She looked down. "Alexia, dear, it would be an amazing opportunity. But have you really thought of it? When will you go? Where will you stay? How will you be able to pay for all this?"

"Mom, we have thought of it. We'll go during the Christmas holidays," I said.

"Where?" she asked us.

"We'll stay in a hotel in Lugano," Luke interrupted. "And the money is already taken care of."

My mother was more shocked than me to hear that information.

"I'm still not so sure this is a good idea," my mom said. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I hardly even know who you're going with."

"Mom, what can I do?" I asked.

"I don't know, but if you don't mind, I would at least like to meet your mother, Luke," she said. "Do you think we could arrange that?"

"Of course," Luke said. "I'll talk to my mom about it as soon as I get home."

My mom nodded.

"That you so much, Mrs. Bates," he said.

"Oh please, call me Agatha," my mom insisted.

"Okay… Agatha," Luke said.

My mom just smiled.