Ch.19

For the second day's events, we had three subjective events graded by judges: essay, interview, and speech. These events were much more boring to watch for the parents in the crowd, though it was the last stretch of the competition. Manny and Luke once again disappeared to crash more parties it seems, having a better plan this time. 

These events were based on individual performances but still graded overall into the team's score. For me, I breezed through the events very easily and got a perfect score on them all. Making Sanjay glare even more at me due to not being able to outperform me. 

Meanwhile, I went over to support Alex in her last stretch as I finished before anyone else. Once we all finished the last three events, the final score was given with our team getting first place. I also received the MVP award for our team, with Alex getting the silver medal, while another person we just met got the bronze medal. Sanjay was very annoyed having not received any metal for individual performance. 

Like that the events were over and it appears nothing crazy happened to Luke or Manny at their party crashing. While we all returned home with Alex slightly gloomy she didn't beat me for the MVP award. Though she wasn't that upset just more annoyed at herself. 

Life continued with Sanjay trying to annoy me more at school by making sly comments or challenging me at everything in class. Though I just ignored him making him even more agitated, while Alex found it funny that Sanjay was this desperate at angering me. Eventually, New Year's Eve came and with it, Alex's family of adults all went to a thing Jay invited them to. Even my parents were invited. 

Haley volunteered to watch the kids, though it really meant that  Alex and I were left in charge of the kids.  Thankfully my baby sister is a great baby, and usually never cries but just is a happy quiet baby. Making watching her easy along with Lily now being a toddler making it easier to care for her. While Luke and Manny could be distracted by TV, junk food, and video games. In fact, all the kids could be distracted by these things. 

In the first hour Lily, my baby sister, and Haley are sitting on the couch with the two kids watching TV and Haley on her phone texting at light speed. As Alex and I are discussing some schoolwork, as Luke and Manny are upstairs in his room. Then we hear some people knocking on the door with Manny and Luke running downstairs to answer it. 

Haley, Alex, and I look over to see two girls coming inside around Luke and Manny's age. I chuckle as I realize the two boys are using this 'freedom' to try to hook up with some girls. Haley and Alex share a look as they become worried about what to do now. 

"Guys! What do we do?!" Haley says running over to us with a hushed, worried, and panicked voice. 

"I don't know!" Alex says to Haley as both turn to me, while I just give them a confused look. 

"What?" I say since I really don't care and I doubt either boy will get far with the girls. 

"What... What do you mean what?! Gabe, they brought girls over!" Alex says as Haley nods her head. I give a quick look to see that my baby sister and Lily are still okay watching TV, which they are. 

"So… Listen, they are just young kids. I doubt they will do anything… more than expected, plus it's Luke and Manny… I mean you really think either one will… you know," I say to them as I try to come up with a reason to not cock block the two kids. Alex knew what I meant immediately while becoming embarrassed with Haley trying to process what I was referring to. 

"Wait… what do mean… oh! WAIT! Did you and Alex… never mind don't tell me," Haley says as I give her a look of surprise and my mouth wide. Alex's face became extremely red and gave her sister a very annoyed look. 

"Alex!…Gabe!... you guys!… Oh my god!" Haley says taking our looks as confirmation while completely forgetting the issue at hand. 

"Haley!" Alex says even more agitated now. 

"I'm gonna just head upstairs to see what is going on," I say not wanting to be a part of this conversation anymore. 

"Can someone sit with the girls please," I say as I walk upstairs with the two sisters just staring at each other, but then snapping out of their stupor to sit in the living room with the two kids. 

"Hey, Gabe," Manny says as he comes downstairs with a girl his age and they walk over to the living room. 

"Uhm, hey Manny… Is Luke in his room?" I say as I let them pass me before going up the stairs. 

"Yeah, he is in there with Becca," Manny says as I nod my head with the two of them walking over to the living room. 

I then make my way upstairs to Luke's bedroom where I stand in front of it thinking about what I should be doing. My head is filled with hundreds of different thoughts and scenarios as I hesitate in front of the door. Finally, I press my head to the door to hear if anything is happening that should require my immediate attention. 

"Did you talk to him?" Alex says as I look over to see Haley and Alex looking at me in front of the door. 

"What are you guys doing? Who is watching Lily and Olivia?" I say to them wondering what they are doing up here. 

"Manny and his friend are down there, did you talk to him?" Haley says this time as Alex nods her head. 

"No… I don't know what to say," I say to them as they walk over and we all are standing in front of the door, thinking about what to do. 

"Fuck it," I say opening Luke's door, as I figured I'll wing it. 

As soon as it opens we see Luke and his new 'friend' making out on his bed. This makes everyone pause as we all look at each other in surprise. Meanwhile, I am trying to think of what to say and my mind is blanking, as I have no experience with kids. 

"What the hell!" Luke says standing up and running over to the door about to slam it shut. 

"Luke! Leave it open!... Because… uhm… Alex?" Haley says stopping Luke while looking to Alex for help. 

"Yeah you need to leave it open…uhm so… you don't do anything bad," Alex says as Luke gives them a confused and annoyed look. 

"Why? You guys want to see us make out? You guys always close the door whenever you make out with your boyfriends," Luke says making me almost laugh out loud, while Haley and Alex look stumped having no retort. 

"That's different!" Haley says as Luke gives her a disbelieving look. 

"How? It's not like you guys haven't done it, I bet even Alex and Gabe were gonna do it later," Luke says as Haley's brain seems to go back to the earlier conversation downstairs. Alex's face became extremely red at this point, and while let out a chuckle making everyone give me different looks. 

"Just… uhm… be safe," I say letting Luke close the door as the two girls look at me with the same faces. Haley with a look of disbelief thinking Alex and I are doing more than making out, as Alex looks completely embarrassed and annoyed with me. 

"Gabe, can you go see if the two girls are ok? I want to talk with Alex," Haley says as I nod my head since I figured they would be talking about what Haley thinks is going on. 

"Sure," I say heading downstairs as the two girls head into their room to talk. 

Going downstairs I see my baby sister and Lily still watching TV, though it seems Manny and his new 'friend' have had an argument. Lily gives me an annoyed look as it seems she was annoyed being stuck with an arguing Manny and the new girl. 

"Everything ok?" I ask as I grab Olivia who giggles being picked up by me as I sit with her on the ground to play with her in my lap. 

"I have to use the bathroom," the girl Manny is with says standing up and leaving as Lily and Manny both watch her leave with annoyed faces. 

"Want to tell me what happened?" I say once she leaves. 

"She is a big meanie and Manny told her she was being one," Lily says before Manny can speak and he nods his head agreeing with Lily's statement. 

"I see…," I say just nodding my head. 

"Gabe… how did you win Alex's heart?" Manny asks me breaking the awkward silence with the TV noise in the background. 

"Uh… Slowly, I guess. First, we were just friends and shared the same interests. Then I realized I had feelings for her and decided to ask her out. Luckily she liked me too and we started dating shortly after. But everyone is different, so all I can say is to never give up and you will find someone eventually, you just have to keep trying," I say to Manny as I am not the best went it comes to giving romantic advice. 

"So, it's all luck?... Great…" Manny says with a defeated look on his face. As I try to think of something better to say to cheer him up. 

"Listen… You are still very young and I get wanting to find a girlfriend is one of your top goals right now… But, if you appear top desperate that will drive them away. As the saying goes, confidence is key. It really is, the more confident you seem, appear, or act. The higher the chance girls will flock to you," I say to Manny who just nods his head, though he doesn't appear any happier. 

"Hey, Manny… can we talk?" the girl Manny was with says coming back from the bathroom. Manny gives me a quick look as I give him a sly thumbs up and he nods his head as the two go to the other room to talk. 

I then went back to playing with Olivia and talking with Lily about her favorite Disney movies. I then found and played on the TV for the two girls to watch. Eventually, Haley and Alex came downstairs. Then I heard the two girls quickly leave and Luke yell that he hates Haley before running back up to his room. Manny went upstairs to talk with Luke it seems. As Haley and Alex then come back into the living room. 

"Everything ok?" I ask them once they come into the living room. 

"Yeah, I figured out how to get rid of the girls. Though Luke is now really upset," Haley says with a shrug before sitting down and going back to texting on her phone. 

"Gabe, can we talk?" Alex says and I nod my head standing up before placing Olivia back on the ground with her toys. 

I follow Alex to her room where she closes her door and we sit on her bed. Alex seems more nervous than usual and doesn't seem to know what to say to me. 

"Whatever it is, you can just say it to me," I say to her trying to comfort her. Alex then takes a deep breath before turning to me. 

"I want to have sex," Alex says as my brain short-circuits having not expected this at all. 

"Right now!" I say snapping out of my surprise. As my brain is trying to calm down with the thousands of thoughts racing through it. 

"What?! No!... Soon though… I want to have sex soon," Alex says with her face very red as I stare at her still surprised. 

"Ok… Uhm… We can try to come up with a time and place," I say since Alex likes planning things and it seems this is the next huge step in our relationship and Alex would want to plan this thing. 

"Yeah, okay," Alex says as we both sit there awkwardly for a few more seconds. 

"We should head back downstairs, we can talk more later," I say as Alex nods her head and we go back downstairs.