Chapter 11 – Stupid hormones.

Alexa's POV

My feet pad along the pavement on Saturday morning, the shoes I'm wearing creating small clicking sounds as I go. Sighing, I round the corner to the shop and push the door open, giving Pete a small wave as I pull the list out of my pocket. Mum asked me this morning if I could quickly run to the shop and pick up a few things we're short of at the house and I, being the loving daughter that I am, agreed.

I scan my eyes over the list as I grab a basket.

Let's see, let's see... aha!

Coffee. We need coffee... as if that isn't the understatement of a lifetime.

Teddy decided to cry throughout a large portion of last night, for absolutely no reason at all, and I am now officially dead on my feet.

I am never having kids.

After grabbing the coffee I move onto the second item on the list: bread.

Bread, bread, bread, bread-

What sort of bread? The list doesn't say.

Thanks, mum. That's real helpful.

Deciding to go for the most obvious choice, I pick up a plain white loaf. I'm not getting brown bread and putting up with Cora's monumental tantrum again. You live and you learn, people, you live and you learn.

Gathering up the last few items, I make my way over to the counter and place the basket in front of Pete.

"Running errands for your mum again?" he asks, picking up the first item and scanning it through.

"As always," I reply with a small laugh.

"Yeah, you're a good kid," he says and I shrug in response.

Family helps family, that's just how it is.

"Tell your mum her order should be in for Wednesday," he says, handing me the bag as I hand him a twenty.

"Sure thing. Thanks," I reply as he hands me the change and, with another small wave I make my way out of the shop, hopping out of the doorway as usual.

"You know, you look really odd when you do that," a voice says from behind me, making me jump and nearly drop my shopping.

Spinning around, I turn to face Beck as he leans against the wall next to the door, his knee bent with one foot flat against the wall.

I'm not going to lie, he looks really good today, and my heart picks up a pace or two at the sight of the toned arms that are currently on display due to the grey tank top he's wearing.

Stupid hormones.

"Beck, hey," I say, my face heating slightly when I realise that, once again, he's caught me hopping out of the shop like a moron.

"Hey, Blondie," he says with a smile, nodding towards the bag in my hand. "Shopping?"

"Oh, um, yeah," I reply, lifting the bag slightly and dropping it back down again.

"You okay?" he asks, studying my face and apparently taking note of my bloodshot eyes.

"Yeah, yeah I'm just tired," I reply. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Yeah, me neither," he says with a shrug.

Really? I wonder why. I highly doubt it was due to a crying two year old. Then again... maybe I don't really want to know.

I refrain from wrinkling my nose at the unwelcome thoughts and give him a small smile.

"What are you doing today?" he asks after a small silence.

"Today?"

"Yeah. Got any plans?"

Babysitting probably.

"Um... house stuff," I shrug. "Work later. Why?"

"I'm bored," he replies with a shrug. "And I noticed that this tiny ass town actually contains a cinema."

"The Guild?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

The Guilded Cinema isn't really much of a cinema; in fact, it's tiny. Holding only two screens, it's rare that there's ever anything worth watching being played. The last time I went was with Darcy and we ended up watching some rom-com about a girl surviving her first year of high school. It wasn't awful but it definitely wasn't worth watching again... or the money it cost to get in.

"Yeah," he replies. "You know what they're showing?"

"Um... no, I haven't checked in a while," I admit. I haven't checked since Finn decided to try and talk me into a Cinema date... it's not worth the hassle.

"Well, then let's go check," he says, pushing away from the wall with his shoulders. He starts walking backwards in the direction of the Guild, still facing me and raising an eyebrow. "You coming?"

What?

""Uh, Beck, I have..." I lift up the shopping bag again and trail off.

"Drop it off at home," he says with another shrug. "I'll meet you there." He turns around so now he's walking forward.

"But-" I start to protest at his retreating back.

"I'll be waiting," he calls back, waving a dismissive hand at my protest and not giving me a chance to decline.

I continue to stand outside of Pete's shop for a few seconds, confused about what the hell just happened. A small smile takes over my lips as I make my way back home, swinging the shopping back and forth slightly as I walk.

Stop it, I tell myself, forcing the smile to disappear. You made a promise to yourself. Not again, you're not doing this again.

Damn Darcy for this... putting ideas in my head that shouldn't be there.

Friends. We are just friends. Just-

"Friends," I tell myself aloud, rolling my eyes at my stupidity.

Sure, Beck's pretty cool... and there's no denying that the guy is hotter than the sun... but I'm not going there. I've done the Icarus thing before and, man, did I get burned.

"Not again," I mutter, shaking my head.

***

I don't even need to open the front door when I get home to hear the shouting going on upstairs, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole street could hear it.

I sigh, pushing the door open.

Here we go again.

Don't get me wrong, my family is great and I love them all to bits... but damn if they don't have a set of pipes on them. Arguments aren't unusual in my house, especially not if Dylan's involved, but today it's a mad house. We're all running off of low sleep and cranky attitudes.

I decide to ignore them as I walk into the kitchen, placing the shopping on the table and glancing over at mum who's stood by the fridge, her phone to one ear and my kid sister trying to get her attention from the other.

"Mum, mum, mum, mum," Layla says, over and over and over again.

Mum pulls the phone away from her ear, covering the mouthpiece and turning to Layla.

"In a minute," she says, sounding extremely frustrated.

"It's been a minute!" Layla complains with a whine.

Mum ignores her, tuning back into the phone conversation and turning away from the tiny pain-in-butt of a child.

"Mum, mum, mum, mum-"

"Layla, go upstairs," I tell her. "She'll come get you when she's finished."

The six year old takes one look at me, sticks her tongue out, and storms out of the room.

'Thank you,' mum mouths at me just as another problem occurs. The argument from upstairs travels downstairs, the chaos growing as Dylan and Olivia charge into the living room.

"Give it back!" Olivia screams

"Take it back!" Dylan snaps.

I walk into the living room and snatch Harley, Olivia's favourite teddy, from Dylan's hands as he dangles it over our sister's head, just out of her reach.

"Grow the hell up," I tell him, rolling my eyes as Olivia retrieves Harley from me and runs out of the room with him.

"You grow the hell up!" he snaps back at me.

"Go help mum unpack the shopping," I reply, shoving him in the direction of the kitchen.

"Bitch!" he yells after me.

"Dylan!" I hear mum scold as I make my way upstairs, heading straight to my room and shutting the door behind me.

This bloody family will be the death of me, I swear.

Sighing, I move to the corner of my room to retrieve my bag from where it sits on the floor. After checking that my purse and phone are definitely inside, I make my way out of the room, pausing in front of my mirror as I pass it to check my reflection.

Ugh, I look tired.

I gather my hair in my hands and bunch it up, trying to decide if having it up looks better or worse.

What about makeup? Maybe I could...

No.

Shaking my head at myself, I let my hair fall back down.

What the hell is wrong with you? I ask myself. Stop being such a tit.

He doesn't care if I look like shit and it doesn't even matter because I don't care if he cares... which he doesn't.

Ugh.

Such a tit.

Okay, leaving room now.

Walking back down the stairs, I don't even hit the bottom before I hear mum calling me.

"Alex, could-"

"I'm off out!" I call back, pretending not to hear her.

Yes, the world's worst daughter award goes straight to me.

"Oh, do you know when you'll be back?" she asks, coming to stand in the kitchen doorway to look at me. She's finished on the phone now, apparently.

"Um, I don't know, a few hours?" I guess.

"Okay, tell Darcy I say hi," she says, walking back into the kitchen.

"I will," I call after her, not bothering to correct her. I don't have time, I need to get going.

It takes me about fifteen minutes to walk to the Guild, where I find Beck stood leaning against the wall watching me approach.

"Okay, so," he starts when I'm close enough. "We either have 'War for Justice' or 'Wasting time', the choice is yours."

"Wasting time?" I ask, surprised.

That's the new horror film that came out a few weeks ago, the one Finn wanted to take me to see. I didn't think it'd still be in cinema, I thought I was going to have to wait until it came out on DVD to watch it.

"Yeah, you heard of it?"

"Yeah. It's supposed to be really good," I inform.

"Well, I guess we'll be the judges of that," he says with a shrug, stopping me as I make my way towards the front doors. "What are you doing?"

"Um... going inside?" I reply, my words forming more of a question than a statement. I point at the doors for emphasis.

"No."

"What?" I ask with a frown.

He smirks at me, a smirk that instantly informs me he's up to no good, and starts backing towards the alley down the side of the building.

"Come on," is all he says.

"Beck," I hiss, following a few steps after him and stopping again.

What the hell is he doing?

"Come on, Blondie," he whisper-shouts back.

He's not serious, is he?

"Where are you going?" I ask, quickly catching up with him and glancing behind my shoulder to see if anyone's watching us. There's no one there; the street's dead.

We make it to the end of the alley and turn down the back of the building, stopping in front of the back door which is surrounded by a chain fence, the gate locked with a sign on it that clearly warns off trespassing.

"Beck, we shouldn't be doing this!" I hiss, glancing over my shoulder once again as my heart spikes with adrenaline.

We are so going to get caught!

Beck grabs hold of the fence in front of him and turns his head back to look at me.

"Then why are you following me?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at me. It's a challenge, he's clearly challenging me, and I try to wrack my brains for an answer.

Why am I following him?

His smirk morphs into a wicked grin at my silence and he turns back to face the fence.

"Exactly," he says, hoisting himself up and clambering over. He drops down on the other side, his boots making a distinct 'thud' on the ground as he lands. "Now come on, Blondie, we've not got all day. The next showing starts in ten minutes."

I stand and stare at him for a few seconds, trying to decide what to do. He stands facing me and links his fingers through the fence separating us, not saying or doing anything except staring right back.

He's letting me choose.

Biting my lip, I glance behind me once more. My heart is thudding so hard in my chest I'm worried it's going to try and spring free, the adrenaline racing through my veins a completely foreign (although not all bad) feeling. I've not done something this crazy in – well – ever.

"Fuck it," I whisper, turning back to the fence and placing my foot in one of the gaps before pushing myself up.

It's not exactly easy but it doesn't take me too long to drop down next to Beck, a triumphant grin in place as I turn to look at him.

"I'm impressed," he says, his eyes shining with some foreign sense of adventure that I've never experienced before.

I'm starting to experience it now, though.

"What now?" I ask.

"Follow my lead," he says, turning to the door and twisting the handle. It opens with a click, taking me by surprise a little.

"It's not locked?" I question.

"I think it's supposed to be," he replies with a shrug. "My guess is that some employee decided to skip out for a sneaky smoke and forgot to lock it behind them."

"What if it had been?" I ask.

In response, Beck reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of wire.

"You're kidding, right?" I whisper, raising an eyebrow.

How many places does this guy break into, exactly?

Chuckling, Beck walks inside and holds the door open for me, closing it behind me once I've entered.

The first thing I notice about the room is that it's full of boxes. There are boxes on shelves, boxes stacked on top of other boxes, boxes of all different sizes. It doesn't take a genius to figure out where we are.

"What are you in the mood for?" Beck asks, walking over to the nearest boxes and opening two of them. He reaches into each and comes up with two different types of sweets. "Skittles or M&Ms?"

I give him my best 'are you fucking crazy?!' look and remain silent.

"Right. Of course," he says, and I expect him to put the sweets back where he found them. Instead, he brings the two packets together and points them at me. "Both it is."

"Beck this is stealing," I hiss at him as he proceeds to close the two boxes back up.

He briefly glances at me before looking back down at what he's doing.

"I prefer the term 'borrowing without intent of return'," he replies.

"That's called stealing!" I exclaim.

"Shh," he whispers, putting a finger to his lips. He sends me another wicked grin. "You'll get us caught."

Exasperated, I roll my eyes, laughing slightly at this entire situation.

"You're crazy," I whisper.

"Yeah, well," he whispers back with a slight shrug. "Being sane is boring."

I shake my head and walk to stand next to him, not sure what other response to give to that.

"Okay, now, which do you want?" he asks, holding out the bags of sweets to me.

"Are you sure we won't get caught?" I ask back.

"Positive," he assures me. "Trust me, they're not going to miss two bags."

Sighing, I bite my lip slightly and grab the Skittles from him.

"Good choice," he says with a grin. "Now let's go."

Grabbing hold of my free hand, he tows me towards the only other door in the room. Just as we're about to reach the door, however, he freezes.

"Shit," he mutters.

"What?" I whisper back.

That's when I hear it, the voices, getting louder and louder as they approach the store room.

"Shit!" I hiss. "Beck, what do we-"

I'm cut off as Beck pulls me into the small gap between the door and the wall... just as the door itself is opened.

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

"Which one is it?" a voice asks and I push back into the wall, willing myself to disappear.

My heart is practically thundering now, and I'm pretty sure Beck can hear it as he snakes his arm around my waist and holds me to him.

All they have to do is walk into the middle of the room and they'll see us.

Oh, I am so dead.

"I think it's this one," another voice says, and I hear the sounds of a box being opened.

"Bingo," the first voice says. "Let's go."

Yeah, you do that.

There's a few sounds of shuffling before the door closes, leaving the two of us alone in the store room once more.

We stay where we are for a short while, just in case they decide to come back, and it isn't until it becomes clear they're not that we move.

"Well, that was bloody close," Beck says with a short laugh, and I stare at him like he's insane as I let out the breath I'd been holding in. "You good, Blondie?"

"I'm going to kill you," I inform him, shoving his shoulder with my Skittles-free hand.

"I mean, you can try," he says with a shrug and a cocky smirk that instantly has my eyes narrowing in challenge.

"Don't test me, Becky boy. I reckon I could take you on in a fight," I warn him, the both of us knowing that I'm talking complete and utter bullshit.

"Oh, you think so, huh?" he replies with a grin.

"Oh, absolutely."

"Maybe," he agrees, shrugging. "Maybe not. I'd be happy to test this theory but first," he opens the door and gestures me through. "We've got a film to watch."

We slip out of the room and into the cinema corridor, unheard and unseen apparently as there's no one trying to chase us down. From here I take the lead, knowing exactly where I'm going as I lead Beck down the hall towards the two screens.

"I'm not sure which one's showing ours," Beck says. "Make a guess."

Knowing it's a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right, I decide to try screen one first. It's dark when we enter, meaning they've already started playing it, and we carefully make our way down the centre row. There are a few other people in the cinema, around about twelve overall I'd guess, and Beck decides to stop and ask one of them if we got the right screen.

"Yeah, man, the adverts have just started," the guy replies.

"Great, thanks," Beck says and, with that, we find seats and sit down.

For the next ten minutes I can't help but keep looking around, waiting for a member of staff to come in and kick us out. It never happens.

Eventually, Beck tells me to pack it in and warns that he'll kick me out himself. I don't test that threat and instead just decide to enjoy the film whilst, obviously, snacking on our illegally acquired Skittles and M&Ms.

Overall, the film is awesome. Filled with enough jump scares to make it interesting, but not too many that it gets annoying, and I decide that the critics definitely had it right with this one. Beck, of course, laughs at me every time I jump... but I soon realise that it doesn't really bother me. In fact, I prefer it. I'm really not the kind of girl that wants to be protected from the scares. In my opinion, if you agree to watch a horror film then you best be prepared to get scared shitless.

"Oh, my god. That was awesome!" I announce when the credits start rolling, practically bouncing in my seat. "Seriously the best film I've seen in ages."

"Yeah?" Beck asks, slouching in his seat slightly and watching me. "I'm surprised you could even see it properly, what with your hands in front of your face and all..."

"That happened once," I argue, holding up a single finger before poking him in the shoulder with it. "Once."

"It wasn't even a scary bit," he laughs at me.

"Yeah, well, I thought something was going to happen to the dog," I defend myself. "You can't blame me for that. The dog was adorable."

"That he was," Beck agrees, shaking his head and laughing slightly as he moves to stand up. "Come on. We should leave with the crowd."

That makes sense. The more people there are, the less chance of us getting noticed.

Standing up, the two of us make our way towards the doors, but my heart picks up speed when I notice the guy standing by the door, clearly waiting for everyone to clear off so he can neaten up the theatre in time for the next showing.

"Don't panic," Beck murmurs to me as we approach him.

Right. Don't panic. This is me... not panicking. I'm as cool as a fucking cucumber. I'm as cool as ice. I'm as cool as... what's cooler than ice? Well, whatever it is, I'm cooler than it.

"Cool film," Beck says, nodding at the guy as we pass.

"Glad you liked it," he replies, barely giving us a single glance as we walk past.

We walk down the corridor and through the lobby, not stopping until we're out the doors.

And, just like that, we're home free.

"That was so awesome," I say, spinning to face Beck and bouncing slightly on the balls of my feet.

This time, I'm not talking about the film, and Beck seems to know it if the smirk that takes over his face is any indication.

"I know," he agrees.

"I mean, I totally thought we were going to get caught," I whisper-hiss as we start to make our way down the road.

"Why are you whispering?" he whisper-hisses back at me.

"I don't know," I admit, giggling slightly.

We're quiet for a few minutes, just walking in an easy silence until Beck decides to break it by offering to walk me back to the house. I accept the offer and we both continue on the journey.

As we walk, I test a few conversation topics, trying to figure out what is and isn't a red flag with him. I've already learned that family is a no-go so instead I try and ask about where he used to live before here. He doesn't give up much, just a few non-committal comments here and there, and I soon learn that Beck has a real talent in turning the conversation back on the other person.

With all my tentative prying, I end up answering more about myself than I discover about him.

"So, when was the last time you went to the cinema?" I ask, deciding that to be a fairly easy question.

"About a year, I think," he answers. "Can't remember what the film was called, though."

"Did you sneak in to see that one, too?" I tease, nudging him with my shoulder.

"Actually, no," he replies, running a hand through his hair quickly. "The person I went with, she didn't want to risk getting caught. She didn't want to fuck things up with the people she was living with."

"Her family?"

"Not quite," he says. "Although, also kinda. More like friends of the family. It's complicated."

"Sounds it," I agree.

When we eventually reach my house, I stop and spin to face Beck, not entirely sure what to say. I'm not going to lie, I kind of wish we could hang for a bit longer, but I can't... mum no doubt needs me. Besides, we'll see each other at work anyway.

"Well, this is me," I say.

"Yeah, I remember," Beck says, motioning to Roofus who sits a little ways away on the ground.

I smile and glance down at the stone dragon. "He's not grown on you, then?"

"Not even a little," he admits sheepishly, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. I laugh.

"Just give it time," I say with a grin. "I should probably..." I motion to the door behind me.

"Right," he agrees. "I'll see you tonight."

"That you will. Uh, Beck?"

"Yeah?" he raises an eyebrow at my slight hesitation.

"Um... thanks. You know, for today. I had fun." I catch myself as I go to brush some of my hair behind my ear, forcing my hand back to my side. It's a tell-tale sign for me, something that I've always done around guys I'm crushing on... so maybe I do, you know, have a small crush. And by small, I mean minuscule... like practically non-existent. It has to be small and I can't let it grow. I have to crush my crush, if you will... because I get the feeling that Beck, with all his secrets and mystery, is not the right guy for me to fall for.

"Anytime. What are friends for?" he replies with a small smile.

Right. Friends. Exactly.

Just friends.

(Hey guys! So here's chapter 11! I've kinda resigned myself to slow updates for now... sorry about that. Y'all are just gonna have to be super patient with me!

What did you think of this chapter? It's one that I've had planned in my head for a while now so I'm not sure if my writing has done it justice or not. Your opinions would be very much appreciated :)

So, yeah, thanks so much for reading :) don't forget to leave a Vote/Comments/Add/Follow if you think it's worth it :D I'm gonna keep this A/N short and sweet so, until next time, byeee!)