I rub my eyes thinking maybe they were playing tricks on me. He was still there. I sigh and look up at him before asking.

  “What are you doing here?”

  He looks at me and smiles.

  “Dear sister, did you think you could get rid of me that easily?”

  ‘Kind of.’

  I think before answering him.

  “No,” I said, ending the conversation and shutting my door, locking it. He was not going to ruin the fun and happy day I was going to have with my friends. I wouldn't let him. I go back to my bed, grabbing my phone. I check the time at 9:46 am. I sigh and begin getting ready. I grab some of my clothes, just a simple white T-shirt and some black shorts with my black bikini on underneath. I go to my bathroom and take a shower letting the warm water cascade down my back. I sigh and start to wash my hair. When I finish I condition my hair and wash my body. I step out of the shower and grab a towel wrapping the -warm cotton- towel around my body. I begin to dry off and get ready completely for the day. I blow-dried my hair and accidentally woke Alice and Adrien up, I then put on my outfit and just put on some waterproof mascara before leaving the bathroom only to find Adrien and Alice asleep again. I chuckle and check the time again at 10:13 am. I nod after looking at the time and start trying to wake them up again and successfully get Adrien up first by shaking him and then promising him a donut after we leave when he is half awake. Waking up Alice was more work. She slept like a log sometimes and it was horrid to wake her up but then again so was I according to her. I began shaking Alice telling her the house was burning on fire thinking maybe if I tricked her maybe she would get up but it didn’t work until I remembered something and said.

  “We can have ice cream if you get up!”

  I say and as if she heard me in her sleep she starts to wake up the first thing she says to me is.

  “Where's the ice cream?” I laugh hearing her say this and pull her out of bed. She screams as she hits the floor with both of me and Adrien laughing as she glares at us and gets up from the floor and walks into the bathroom Adrien sits down at my desk, goes on his phone, and begins texting someone. I get up and move to my desk before asking him a question.

  “Hey, um Adrien do you like me like Alice said last night?” He looks up from his phone contemplating his answer.

  “Well I-” before he could continue the answer Alice bursts in and yells.

  “There's a spider in the bathroom, someone KILL IT NOW!!!”

  I laughed and walked into the bathroom after I had asked where the spider was. I killed it and noticed it was time to go.

  “Come on guys we need to leave to get to the pool on time,” I say, seeing them nod I get into my car and wait for Adrien and Alice to get in when they finally do. I pull out of the driveway and drive down the road watching the houses pass us by. We turn on some music. Alice had fallen asleep again as we continued driving. Adrien is in the passenger seat scrolling on his phone while I am just listening to the radio humming to the music. The drive seemed to take so long the awkward silence louder than any screaming my mother ever did but I tried to ignore it not wanting to bring more attention to myself after what I said in the morning. The pool was finally in sight as I drove into the parking lot. Adrien wakes Alice up while I grab our stuff and bring it into the pool area. I look around seeing little kids run around the pool while the lifeguard blows his whistle yelling to the kids to stop running. They giggle and slow down until they get to the far side of the pool and cannonball in, I smile and look back seeing my two friends walking up behind me. They nod and I place the stuff at a little table before sitting down on the chair after taking off my shirt only leaving my bikini top on. I watch Alice jump into the pool, Adrien following closely behind. Watching from afar I laugh seeing Alice and Adrien fight over the one pool float that we had brought. They both came back up set because in their fighting they had popped it when they were tugging it back and forth between each other. They acted like little kids with each other but I loved them. I wouldn’t change them for the world. All of a sudden I’m thrown into the pool, I scream before hitting the warm water. I hear Adrien and Alice laughing from above the surface as I swim around the pool, when I pop my head out from under the water they both give me an innocent smile. I scoff getting out of the pool. I smell like chlorine now. I think to myself as I dry myself off trying to get the water to come out of my hair I hear them laughing and look over at their smiling faces and smile back at them before going back to drying my hair still sour about being thrown into the pool. They walk over to me and both swing their arm over my shoulder being squished in between wet-cold- bodies making me shiver. They chuckled, grabbed their towels, and started drying off. When they finished we got back into my car and started driving again. We listened to music on the way to the mall. Laughing when Alice was shaking her head with her eyes closed to the music blasting on the speakers. We soon noticed the mall coming up after Alice screamed.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “It’s right there it’s right there!!!”

  We laughed at her and I pulled into the parking lot looking for a good spot to park when we found one close to the front I parked and Alice grabbed her bag before flying out of the car while Adrien and I stayed back grabbing her coat and my bag while Adrien grabs his backpack we then start to head into the mall to find Alice. Once we found her - in the chocolate shop- we walked to the clothing shops and looked around I found a cute dark gray T-shirt, so I went and asked Alice what she thought of it and she said it was cute and my ‘style’ so I got it and when we left Alice had gotten 3 sweaters and 1 pair of pants, I had only gotten the shirt, and Adrien had gotten a sweater. We walk around for a while longer before deciding to go home. Tomorrow was school so they had to go home. I dropped off Alice first and then started driving to Adrien’s house.

  “Adrien?” I look at him quickly before focusing my eyes back on the road.

  “ Yes?” he replies, looking at me for an answer.

  “Do you like me? Or were you telling the truth when you said you didn’t?” I ask, trying to stay focused and not look at him.

  “I- Well it wasn’t a complete lie I don’t know exactly how I feel but I know I love hanging out with you and that I- I hate seeing you hurt or crying!” He says struggling to get the end of his sentence out. I nod slowly trying to understand that he might not like me the way I like him. My heart crumbles a bit and my face falls, I quickly right it and smile pulling him into his driveway.

  “Well thank you for telling me that's all I wanted to know,” I say, smiling at him as he nods before getting out of the car.

  “Alright then bye Alya!” he says smiling back before he walks up to his house.

  I hold back the hot tears that fight to fall on my face as I make my way home. I can’t cry over him. It's not his fault he shouldn’t be forced to like me. I finally get home and as I walk in I see my dad at the table waiting for me while doing some work on his computer.

  “Hi honey, how was the pool and mall?” he said smiling. I smiled back and said.

  “It was great Alice spent a lot of money though, and I found a T-shirt that I like” he nodded back and said.

  “Well, I’m glad you had fun. I cooked dinner a while ago and put the extras in the fridge, grab some if you're hungry” I nod and go upstairs fighting the overwhelming emotions that cloud my mind. I throw my bags down on the floor of my room and flop onto my bed, thinking about today's events. Everything was going so fast my parents were together and happy and now they're divorced and I live with my dad. My life was fine and my mother was okay with me and now my mom hates me and my life has been flipped upside down. Everything was different and maybe that was a good thing.

  Have a great day/night!