The Struggle For Love

Chapter 6

*Stacie's POV*
        “We’re here,” Nick says as we near a huge house.
        Marissa and I both stop dead in our tracks as we stare wide-eyed at the magnificent house. No wonder Alex’s parents don’t pay any attention to him. They are too busy working their butts off to afford this house. It’s the biggest house I have ever seen. It isn’t your typical, average house. It’s the type of house millionaires can only afford. I wonder what Alex’s parents do for a living. They obviously do something important that pays a lot to be able to afford such a house like this.
        “This is his house?” Marissa asks shocked unbelieving what is before us. She took the words right out of my mouth. Nick nods.
        “Well, technically it’s his parents house,” Nick says shrugging.
        “Still, he lives here!” Marissa says waving her hands around signaling she means the house before us.
        “Yep,” Nick says chuckling. He swims up to the door and swims in like he owns the place. Marissa and I glance at each other shocked before following closely behind in order to not get lost.
        The inside of Alex’s house amazes me. I never knew he lived so extravagantly. From what I can see, the house has three floors with some very expensive décor displayed in the entrance hall. Most likely there’s some expensive décor in all the rooms. There are some stairs with black, beautiful, metal railings on both sides of the hall leading to the second floor where they connect. His parents must have a really important job to be able to afford such a luxurious place like this.
        I’ll admit I’m kind of jealous. Who am I kidding? I’m extremely jealous of Alex! I have only ever thought of having a place like this! I have only dreamed of having a house like this in my sleep! When I was younger, I use to leave extra early to get Blythe and Brittany from school to look at houses like this. I would swim down their streets and admire these types of houses. Of course, I used to go before Avery was born. I could never skip out on playing with him. Today is different, though. I need to do this. I am doing this for me and my mental state of mind. If I don’t do this, I’ll be forever alone and forever afraid to talk to boys.
        I think I have seen this house before, though. Yep, it was one of my favorites. I would always pass by this house with admiration twinkling in my curious young eyes wondering what the people who lived here’s day by day was like. Who would have known I was admiring Alex’s house! He seems so unhappy though. How could he be unhappy when he’s living in a place like this? It’s a dream come true for most people if they could live like this! I must be missing something if he’s this unhappy.
        “Alex! The girl’s are here!” Nick screams snapping me out of my thoughts. He glances over at us and smiles. Suddenly, Alex appears in a doorway on the other side of the room.
        “In here!” he screams back. I guess regular talking to each other isn’t possible in such a big room. They wouldn’t be able to hear one another.
        Nick motions for us to follow him, so we do. We all swim towards where Alex was which looks like the kitchen. Alex is putting some things away as we swim in. The kitchen is so wonderful. There are so many expensive and upgraded appliances in here. It’s so high-end from what lies at my house. My family has appliances from years ago while his family has the newest ones.
        “Are you guys hungry?” Alex asks nervously. Not to be rude, Marissa and I both nod our heads.
        “Um, yes actually,” Marissa tells him.
        “Good because I made us some food. I hope you like it,” he says half-smiling. He moves over unveiling the magnificent food he made us. There are so many dishes. There’s food made for breakfast time, lunch, and dinner. These must have taken him hours to make. Did he come straight home after our talk to cook all this? Everything still looks warm. Just looking at them all makes me hungry. I wasn’t even that hungry before.
        “Thank you, Alex. They all look great,” I blurt out nicely. I didn’t even think about saying it. It was just habit, I guess. Marissa glances over at me smiling and nods approvingly. I smile back at her. Phew! I’m doing fine so far.
        “No problem. We can all make a plate and then, get to work,” Alex replies smiling.
        “You don’t mind if we eat while working on our projects?” Marissa asks surprised. I’m guessing she doesn’t believe he would be okay with it considering something expensive could get ruined.
        “Nope, I don’t care at all. It’s fine with me. Is it fine with you?” Alex asks jokingly.
        “Mhmm,” Marissa mumbles smiling. Nick chuckles quietly and motions for us to grab something to eat. After a few moments of Marissa and I not moving, Nick decides to get some food himself. He fills a plate before turning back to us. He grabs something off his plate and takes a bite.
        “Mmm, it’s delicious, Alex. I can’t believe you made my favorite of yours,” Nick says looking over towards Alex smiling. Alex smiles back.
        “Thanks. I knew you liked it when I cooked that one, so I just had to make it,” Alex says laughing.
        “Great friend,” Nick says swimming over and tapping Alex’s closest shoulder. Marissa and I glance at each other before deciding to grab some of Alex’s food, too. We both fill our plates with things that look appetizing.
        “Ready? Would you like something to drink?” Alex asks grinning, probably because we just filled most of our plates with his delicious-looking food.
        “Um, sure. I would love something,” I reply nicely. Alex motions for me to come look at all the drinks his family has. I decide on a red-looking drink. Hopefully, it tastes great.
        “That’s my favorite,” Alex says half-smiling. I glance at him surprised. I can’t believe I picked his favorite drink.
        “Really? I picked your favorite drink?” I ask. He nods. I glance over at Marissa quickly feeling shaken. Alex’s eyes are burning into the side of my skull. How could I have picked his favorite drink? Is this supposed to be some sort of sign from the ocean? No, it has to be a coincidence. Marissa mouths for me to breathe and count to ten, so I take a deep breath before I begin counting. One. Two. Three.
        “So, where do you want us to go, Alex? Do you want us to just work in here?” Marissa asks jokingly hoping to get all the attention off of me.
        “Um, we can go in the living room,” Alex says taking his eyes off of me finally. Eight. Nine. Ten.
        “Lead the way,” Marissa says smiling and motioning for him to do so. Alex glances at me quickly before swimming out of the room. Nick follows him closely behind. I watch them go before feeling a pair of eyes burning into me once again. I look over to see Marissa with worry painted all over her face staring at me. She swims over to me quickly placing a hand on my shoulder.
        “Are you okay?” she asks whispering.
        “Yeah, I’m okay. I just couldn’t believe I picked his favorite drink. You know how the littlest things can make me stress. I thought it was a sign from the ocean,” I admit.
        “It’s just a coincidence. You just picked the most delicious-looking drink, right?” I nod. “Then, yeah. It was just a coincidence. You might not even like the drink afterwards.” I smile and nod. Wow, I’m glad I have such a great friend like Marissa.
        “Thanks, Marissa. I’m glad you’re here. I wouldn’t be able to survive here without you. If you weren’t here, I’d probably have a panic attack,” I say chuckling to relieve a little tension. She begins to chuckle, too.
        “Girls! Are you coming?” Nick asks screaming loud enough for us to hear. I swear he calls us “girls” a lot, but shockingly, it doesn’t bother me.
        “Yeah! We’ll be right there!” Marissa screams back. She turns back towards me. “Are you really, okay?” she asks seriously.
        “Yeah, I’m fine. Just stay with me, okay?” She smiles.
        “Wouldn’t dare leaving you, sis,” she replies hugging me. I hug back quickly. “Now, let’s go before they think we dipped out on them,” she says as we separate from our warm embrace. I laugh just thinking about how they would react before following her out the door.
        “We got worried,” Nick says as he sees us. He’s waiting impatiently in the entrance hall.
        “Worried for what? We were just having a little girl talk. It’s not like we were talking about you,” Marissa says chuckling.
        “Oh, okay. Good,” Nick says turning back around and leaving. “Wait, were you talking about me?” Nick asks turning back around looking worried. Marissa and I both laugh. Everything’s always about Nick in his mind.
        “That is for me to know and for you to never find out,” Marissa says smirking. Nick instantly pouts.
        “That’s cruel,” he says in a baby voice. I chuckle.
        “We weren’t talking about you, Nick,” I say laughing at the pouting Nick.
        “Oh, okay. Good,” Nick says smiling. He turns back around and starts swimming away. Marissa and I look at each other and chuckle quietly before following Nick into the living room, which is on the other side of the entrance room than the kitchen.
        “Alex, they claim they were just having girl talk,” Nick says laughing making sure to put quotations that he made with his fingers around the words, “girl talk”. Alex is sitting on the floor looking through some papers. Once he notices we’re in the room, he looks up at us smiling. Even though my gut says he’s smiling at the both of us, my heart says it’s only me who he’s smiling at. I smile back awkwardly in politeness.
        “We were starting to get worried,” Alex says happily as he stands up.
        “You mean you were. I wasn’t that worried,” Nick says chuckling awkwardly. Wow, there’s a lot of awkwardness in the room.
        “Yeah, right. You were just as worried as I was,” Alex says chuckling. Nick glares over at Alex making Alex look away from him.
        “There was no need to be worried,” I reply half-smiling. Alex looks back at me smiling.
        “I know. I just couldn’t help it,” he replies forcing a smile to form on my mouth. He was worried about me. He was actually worried about me, and he didn’t even wait until a situation where he should have worried about me appeared. I can’t believe he did so. No one ever worries about me for any situation, and he did.
        “Thanks,” I reply wondering if there’s a hint of astonishment in my eyes. Hopefully, there isn’t. I hope there is happiness instead of astonishment gleaming in my eyes.
        “No problem,” Alex says continuing to smile at me.
        “So, how about we begin? We might be able to finish this thing before it’s due,” Nick says making me realize he’s right.
        “Yeah, we should begin working now,” I state. Marissa glances at me quickly, probably to make sure I’m doing fine so far. I smile hoping to tell her I’m okay for now. She nods and looks back at Nick with excitement.
        I watch Nick grab her hand and bring her to an open space away from Alex where they won’t be bothered with our talking. Marissa smiles looking surprised at first, but quickly getting over it. As she sits down, she glances over at me one last time. I assume she wants to make sure that her seating arrangement is fine with me. I nod my head approvingly. She nods again and looks back at Nick. They are still in the room, so I am okay for now. I know that whenever I feel nervous or worried, I can look at her and she’ll help me through it.
        “Shall we begin?” Alex asks making me realize I having been staring at my best friend and her partner.
        “Oh, yes.”
        “Where would you like to begin?” Alex asks me. I think for a second before coming up with an idea.
        “How about we split up into parts? You can do something while I do something different.”
        “Brilliant! Truly genius!” Alex exclaims. Marissa and Nick quickly glance over at us shocked at Alex’s sudden outburst. I smile feeling myself blushing.
        “Thanks,” I say feeling a little embarrassed.
        “I would never have thought of that. I would have had us just work together. Your idea will make us work so much quicker. We might actually be able to finish this project before it’s due,” Alex says forcing me to realize I should have never told him my idea.
        Surprisingly, I don’t want us to finish this quickly. I want our project to take as long as possible because if we finish this, we’ll act as if nothing ever happened between us afterwards. I don’t know why I feel this way, I just do. I mean I do have some ideas, but they’re probably just examples of me thinking too much about things.
        I was thinking it might be because I don’t want anymore people to swim out of my life. So many people have left me, it’s starting to become habit. I don’t trust anyone to stay anymore. I expect them to all leave me at some point in my life or another. I guess you could say I suffer a little bit from some abandonment issues. You would too if you had to deal with and experience the things I have had to.
        Another thought is that I don’t want to forget this experience. I don’t want to forget meeting Alex. If I did, I would never have grown as much as I have in these few, short days. Instead of bottling it all inside like I usually do, I have been telling Marissa the truth about what I really think and feel. Consequently, Marissa and I wouldn’t have grown as friends like we have. I would still be thinking very poorly of myself if these past few days had never happened. Surprisingly, my insecurity has diminished in the past few days. I have thought much better about myself and my body. All of the ways I have grown is thanks to my meeting Alex. I don’t know why it all circles back to him, but in a way, I’m glad it does.
        The last thought that came to mind was that I might actually like Alex. It’s crazy for me to think I like him already after only a few days, but you can’t put a timer on love. It happens when it wants to happen, which is usually by surprise and when you least expect it. Sometimes it happens when your young, and sometimes it happens when your old. Either way, you have to be grateful considering not everybody gets the chance to fall in love. However, the only true thing that matters is that you stay with that love of your life if you do in fact meet them because not everyone gets the chance to. Some people even pass up their true loves not realizing it was that person who they had been searching for all their life.
        “Stacie?” I hear Alex saying bringing me back down to earth.
        “Yeah?”
        “You stopped talking for a while. You looked so intrigued with your thoughts, so I thought I would let you finish them. But then you started to take a long time,” Alex states beginning to ramble as he scratches the back of his neck. Lately, Alex has been doing this a lot. I think this means a guy is nervous when he does this.
        “Oh, thanks. I was just thinking of what we could each do,” I say cutting him off hoping he’ll buy my lie.
        “Come up with any ideas?” Shoot! I didn’t think he would ask me that, especially so quickly!
        “Um, no. I couldn’t come up with any,” I say half-smiling.
        “Okay. While you were thinking, I came up with one. Want to hear it?”
        “Of course!” I say relieved.
        “Well, I thought we could divide up our resources and each look over our pile,” Alex says playing with his fingers.
        “I’m not the only intelligent one here,” I say smiling hoping to relieve some of his nervousness. Alex instantly lights up. “I love your idea, Alex. I say we do it, and then put our information together when we’re done.”
        “Really? Okay, sure. Let’s do it,” Alex replies excitedly.