What You Caused

21.

Chapter 21 | The world's gone mad

Isabella:

Children sure are messy. I grimace at the state of the garden once all the guests have left. Paper plates and plastic cups are strewn all across the grass, party hats and food wrappers are scattered around in various places and chairs are knocked over onto the ground.

I look at the empty garbage bag clutched in my hand and then back at the garden before heaving out a frustrated breath and getting to work.

With the help of Mia, Grace, Dylan, Lucas and Aidan we're able to clean up the garden in double time whilst the lovely adults lounge around in kitchen, sipping on red wine and laughing loudly. My father has yet again been shipped off to collect dinner for all of us and Sofia after her exhausting day of running around and screaming is taking a nap up in her room. I've changed out of my costume and am now wearing leggings and a very oversized t-shirt, Mia and Grace had come to the party in normal attire so were wearing their clothes from before and all three of the guys had stripped down to their trousers and were currently sporting no shirt, raising the temperature outside up a couple of degrees.

I grab the last couple of paper plates. "Grace can I put these in the trash bag please?" When Grace doesn't budge I wave my hand in front of her face.
"He-llo Gracie!"

"Oh sorry here." She snaps out of her daze and briskly turns towards me, thrusting the garbage bag in front of me.

"What were you looking at anyways?" I shove the plates into the bag before dropping it onto the ground and quickly scanning the garden to see if I missed any rubbish.

She flushes pink. "Um nothing."

I look back at my friend curiously, analysing her flustered demeanor before peering my head to look in the direction she had been staring in before. A knowing smirk crawls up onto my face when I realise where my bestfriends attention had been drawn too.

I giggle. "Drooling over Aidan I see."

"Er, NO." She shakes her head vigorously. "I was not doing that."

I ignore her. "Girl look at his abs." I gush, nodding my head appreciatively. "I wonder what his workout routine is. How many times a week do you think he goes gym?"

I turn back to Grace who is completely zoned out once again, with dreamy eyes and her mouth curled up into a silly smile. "Probably 60 times a week." She mumbles, wiping the drool from the corner of her lips. "Wow," she sighs contentedly.

I snigger and pick up the trash bag, leaving Grace in her dazed element and walk over to the back of the garden to shove the bag in the large trash can situated there.

"Right I think we're finally finished!" I announce to no one in particular peering around at the finally clean garden with my hands on my hips.

"Actually there's still one piece of trash left."

I swivel my head to see Lucas approaching me with a smirk playing on his lips, his cheeks are flushed pink and his chest is covered in a thin layer of sweat from the incredibly hot weather and the way his six pack contracts as he breathes heavily is just wo-okay um cut it out.

"Um, where?" I briskly avert my gaze, trying to locate where the rubbish is.

"It's there."

I turn back to Lucas, my eyebrows drawn together. "I don't see anythi-wait why are you pointing at me?"

Lucas snorts and breaks out into a fit of laughter, cackling as if he had made the funniest joke in the entire universe. I roll my eyes realising what he was insinuating.