her; Alex Alvarez [discontinued]

[chapter seven]

[her; Alex Alvarez]

We all walked in to see Pen on the floor. She was holding her landline phone, and I guessed it was because she dropped it. Dad, Finn, Alex, and I walked in, and Finn greeted Pen with, "Hey Mrs. Alvarez." Pen responded, attempting to start a conversation with the boys, "Hey guys! How was baseball?" But instead of the boys responding, dad responded. He said it was, "Terrible!" And proceeded to complain about how none of us wanted to try his very white meal. It really was terrible, and that's why I make breakfast for us. Pen definitely wanted to laugh, but instead, she said, "Thanks for helping out, but maybe next time pick a food a kid would want to eat.. or has heard of." I agreed with her and said, "Um yea dad, what the hell even is a tapenade??"

Alex said something too, "Yea and maybe next time, don't hand out masks with my FACE on them!" He didn't know it but it was secretly my idea, I just had dad make it come true. I had two in my hand, switching them over my face. Alex gave a stupid compliment to himself, and then we walked over to the table to sit down. Lydia came in and started groaning about something. I guess Elena? Lydia and Pen started talking about Elena, and how she'll pick someone to be her escort to the quince, but then Pen gasped, as if she was in pain and Alex, like a good son, asked, "You okay, mom?" Pen reassured him with, "Yea. I just need to talk to Jolene and get my shoulder squared away." Pen had messed up her shoulder while she was doing a surgery during war. Finn asked, "What happened Miss Alvarez??" Pen said that it was nothing, but I said, "Don't be so modest, she jacked up her shoulder up in Afghanistan being a hero." Pen mimicked what I said and then slid on the chair prepared to tell a story.

This entire family always starts their stories by saying where it was, and what year it was. And so she began, "Kabul, 2004. I was assisting in surgery when a mortar HIT close to the OR. The blast caused a pallet of surgical gloves to fall on my shoulder. The last part is not as impressive, but still! It is a war wound." Finn did something stupid and then told Miss Alvarez that he thanks her for her service. I never really liked Finn, he seems so... controlling. After that conversation, Alex asked if he could have money. Pen just said that there is 10 dollars near the door. Obviously, Alex wanted more. At the end of the day, I was definitely gonna give him some money, but he doesn't normally like that I always give him money. So he continued to beg his mom. "Ayyy........AYyyyyyyy......Ah-" before he could do another groan Pen interrupted and said, "What papito." "It's just... we need at least 20 dollars to do anything fun. But it's okay. We can just watch the other kids have a good time." I rolled my eyes and spoke up. "Dude, I can just give you money, stop torturing your poor mother."

We were about to leave for the fair when dad stopped us. He said, "Wait, guys, I have an exciting announcement." We stayed quiet, but Pen said, "Something went terribly wrong in your adult diaper?" I looked down at dad's pants, and they really were huge. I laughed a bit, but my dad just defended himself and said that its athleisure wear. Who the hell has heard of that? Rich people. Dad explained that his old college band was reuniting and going to play at the fair today. No one was excited, not even me, and I love supporting my dad, even though the dumbest things. Dad saw that none of us were interested, and pulled out a captain's hat! And put it on his head. Alex and I looked at each other, and I spoke up and said, "Dad, I hate to break it to you but u look stupid." Dad just frowned, and then Lydia asked, "what is el yacht rock?" They started talking about how dad had to pay them to do it, blah blah blah, I hit Alex's arm to signal to him that it's time to go. We all walked out of the apartment. 
A/N the following bit isn't involved on-screen, but I added it to involve Aaliyah.
Once we got outside the building, I took out some cash, and was about to hand it to Alex, when Finn said, "Dude! What if you sell some of your mom's pills to get more money?" I was about to say that I have enough money for us, but Alex said, "I don't know man... it seems really risky, and I don't wanna get in trouble." On and on I tried to interrupt, but they would interrupt me in the middle of my interrupting! Eventually, they came to a very horrible agreement, and we were on our way back up to the apartment before I knew it. I sped up to Alex, put my arm around him, and said, "Dude, do you really think this is a food idea? What if you get caught? Your mom will kill you! No. Worse than that! She is going to kill you, resuscitate you, kill you and then ground your lifeless body!" Alex just rolled his eyes and continued walking. I was completely against this idea, but I'm going to be there for him no matter what. But if we get caught, I am putting all blame on Finn. I hope Alex does too. He's dumb, but he's not dumb enough to take the consequences for something that's not even his fault. We kept walking up, Finn continuously annoying me, he wasn't even talking! I just wanna strangle this stupid kid before he can do anything else to my innocent Cuban boy. Finally, we reached the apartment, Alex called out a few times, to make sure that no one was here. Finn looked annoyed, and I was about to kill this kid, but he spoke up first. What the hell is it with me getting spoken over?? "Alex, no one's home, your mom just left. Just grab some pills and let's get out here." DOES THIS KID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT IT'S NOT THAT EASY??? HES TURNING ALEX INTO A LATINO DRUG DEALER. Thankfully, Alex spoke out about his unsureness, and said, "Yea I don't know. Why don't we all just hang out and play video games?" I agreed with, "Yes, it beats being at that over-priced fair!" Finn rolled his eyes and made a proposition to Alex, "I heard Shane Lennon sold ONE of his dad's pills for 20 bucks. Or... I could just take you off the group chat with all our friends." I widened my eyes. That was low. Alex said, "The only thing worse than being in a group chat... is not being in a group chat!" He continued with, "Fine... I'll do it." Since Finn knew that Alex was nervous, he said, "Great! I'll stand guard and if I hear anyone coming I'll yell..uh..'Tumbleweed'! That's our code word." Alex questioned him and asked, "Why tumbleweed?" Stupid finn didn't know and said, "I don't know... shut up." God, I'm gonna strangle that kid. After finn closed the door, Aled and I said at the same time, "No you shut up." We looked at each other and laughed. I questioned him a bit, asking why he cared so much if he was on the group chat or not. He answered, and it kind of made sense, I guess since we're in middle school our popularity "matters". I don't get it, but I guess for him it makes sense, so I let it be. We kept looking for Los drogas. Once we found them, Alex picked them up, but he hesitated and put them back down, and then picked them back up and I was getting tired of this little game, but then we heard a door open, and ran behind the curtains and closed them. It was Elena. She was on hold with the VA this time. I guess Pen left her with a chore. Alex and I stayed as quiet as possible. I peeked my head out through the curtain and saw Elena eating cheese puffs. Dang, now I want Cheetos. I whispered to Alex that we could get out through the fire escape, but he said that finn would barge into the room about to say that we're taking too long. I knew he was right, so I didn't say anything. The automated voice on the phone said having trouble communicating with your family members? Elena, surprisingly, said, "Huh, you could say that." Alex and I looked at each other confused. Feeling like no one understands you? "Yup" Losing your appetite due to depression or anxiety? Elena sighed and said, "Do you have advice for feeling like the weirdo in your family? For explaining that you don't want to pick a boy to be the escort to your quince because you don't even know if you like boys." I was shocked. I knew what was happening, I'd heard it all from Elena before, but Alex didn't know. He looked so shocked. I felt really bad, but I had to pretend I didn't know. Reach out, and talk to someone "Yea, that'll go great, how do I even do that?" Oh, thank god she didn't mention that she talked to me. I would be in deep shit. "'Hey mom, I think I might like girls.'" I was so scared, and Alex was taken back, so he stepped back, literally, and stepped on a plastic sword, and it made noise. This idiot! I heard Elena stand up and run over, she opened the curtain to see me about to get mad at Alex, and Alex holding his mom's pills. Elena shook her head and asked, "What are you doing here? Why are you spying on me?" Alex was worried, and said, "Tumbleweed!" I rolled my eyes. Elena shook her head again and said, "I'm not even gonna ask about the sword. What are you doing with mom's pills." I responded to Alex since I knew he would say something stupid. "I can explain.",I said Elena shook her head and I continued, "We were stealing them." Elena did not look impressed. And in a split second, she looked worried, "Mom is going to kill you! I mean, quite literally, kill you, resuscitate you, kill you again, and then ground your lifeless body!" Huh, I said the same thing. Alex was about to laugh but then he remembered what was happening and said, "We didn't really want to, it was Finn's idea! Please don't tell mom." It sounded like Alex was about to cry. I grabbed his hand, and he looked even more nervous, I caught on and took my hand away from his, but he took mine back. Elena looked between us and then said, "I won't, but what's Finn's problem anyway? You're gonna let him turn you into a Latino drug dealer? Stereotype much?" ....is that really the problem she has with it? Alex, being stupid said, "it's not drug dealing, god. We were just going to sell some pills to get some money." He said it as if it was the complete opposite of drug dealing. Is this kid stupid? I facepalmed myself with my other hand, and Elena chuckled a bit. Then Alex thought about it more and realized that it was totally drug dealing. Alex sighed and put the bottle of pills back on the table, letting go of my hand. Elena looked nervous, but said, "So.. did you guys hear what I was saying when you were back there. I knew what Alex was going to say, but it was wrong, so I replied with a witty comment, "Nah.. that curtain is pretty thick." Elena looked at me like I was dumb. She knew I knew what she had been talking about, but I think she caught on and realized that I didn't want Alex to know that I knew. Elena turned back to Alex and said, "You cant.. say anything to anyone. It's not that I'm embarrassed, I'm just not sure." Alex promised her that he wouldn't tell ANYONE. Ans he looked at me and gave me a small smile. Elena then hugged us and told Alex "Good brother." Alex was really awkward about hugging other people besides me, Abuelita or his mom, so he just said, "Now I really don't understand what's going on." I chuckled a bit before pulling away from the hug. When we heard someone talk from the phone, we all ran on the couch and yelled, "ALVAREZ, 2294!" The lady asked who we were holding for, but none of us knew, Elena tried pretending to be Pen, but she had a horrible impression of her. Then Alex took the phone and practically said that he was Elena's son. He started talking about babies having babies, and I was disgusted, I fell back onto the couch with a huge sigh, but then Pen ran in! Oh, thank god.

Wait... what happened to Finns 'tumbleweed'? This dude left us for stranded. Pen looked rough. We asked her what happened to her and she said that she got roughed up on her way to the market and that the kebab line is no joke. I agreed. It really is no joke, and u gotta be serious. I heard that one year, some kid tried to cut in the line, and ended up in the ER. So now I don't est kebabs. 
Pen found out that it was Jolene on the phone, and Alex said we should go. He did a stupid promo for full sail, but dad had just told Alex to say that. We walked down the building, happy that no one had gotten in trouble.

While we were down there, we heard the concert about to start. Elena and I yelled at the top of our lungs, "Boo!!" Dad said, "Cmon Aaliyah, Elena!" Dad started singing, quite horribly I might add, and the rest of the day went by in a flash.

A/N I'm really proud of how this chapter turned out! Thank you for reading!-  Ray

Word count:2413

[her; Alex Alvarez]