A S P E N ' S   P O V

"Aspen, come help with dinner," Mom yelled just as I had gotten upstairs and flopped on my bed.

"Do I have to?" I yelled back, hoping I wouldn't have to get up from my comfortable bed.

"Aspen." She yelled in her 'mom' voice, making me groan and get up.

I walked out of my room, my socks padding along the cold marble floors. Leave it to my mom to pick all the fancy stuff for our house.

Livi had been in her room, facetiming her fiancé. From what I overheard, he was almost done at work and just had some paperwork left. He had to finish some stuff for a charity he owns but after that, he was headed here.

I walked down the steps, not looking up as I was texting Rosa and Vita. I could hear pots and pans clattering in the kitchen. The only reason we didn't have a cook was that Mom wanted to still make meals for when me and Livi were kids. Now, we were both barely here so there was no point.

Walking into the kitchen, I slid my phone into my back pocket. She had already started cooking something on the stove, a cutting board, and some vegetables on the island.

"Go ahead and start cutting up those vegetables. Slice not dice." She said, not even turning around.

Well, hello to you too.

I headed over, picking up the knife and beginning to cut the vegetables. We stayed in silence for a moment, the only sound in the kitchen was the clanking of her stirring the food in the pan.

"How has school been?" I heard her say as I turned briefly to see her looking at me over her shoulder.

"It's alright. Midterms are coming up soon." I shrugged, sliding the sliced vegetables into a bowl before moving to take a seat at the island.

"Anything happen recently?" She pressed, making me pause just as I was about to bring back out my phone.

I knew exactly what she was asking. Just by the edge in her tone and her minor glances over her shoulder. She knew I knew what she meant but I wasn't about to give myself away.

"Not really."

"So, what about that boy from earlier?" She mentioned, causing me to mentally facepalm as I had forgotten about that.

"We just happened to leave at the same time. Nothing more, just a coincidence." I spoke, thinking I heard the door open before I shrugged it off.

"Are you sure? I saw you guys talking to each other." She said, making me groan and think of how much she saw.

"It's not that serious," I mumbled under my breath, causing her to turn around and glare at me.

"What's going on in here?" I heard a voice say just as she was about to reprimand me for mumbling.

Turning around, a huge smile crept over my face at who it was. I leaped out of my seat and quickly walked over to hug my father. He laughed as he wrapped his arms around me as well. I hugged him tightly as I hadn't seen him in two weeks.

"Hey, Lele." He greeted, making me smile at the nickname he had given me when I was younger.

"Hi, Dad." I greeted, stepping back and smiling at him.

"Aspen, go get your sister." Mom said as I knew she wanted to greet Dad herself.

♤♤♤

"Come on, Ens. Just get to the goal." Dad instructed as I tried to run past him with the ball.

"I haven't run in forever. How are you so fast?" I groaned as he stole the ball from me yet again.

"You're asking me. All I do is coach." He shrugged, tossing the ball down at the goal.

"Completely unfair," I grumbled, walking over as he just laughed at my words.

He picked up the ball, tossing it over to me as I luckily caught it. Thankfully, when Mom and Dad bought this house while she was pregnant with Livi, they had been sure to include a big backyard. This called for many small games of flag football between us two.

"You okay? I saw you slightly limping back there." He mentioned, making me freeze as my eyes grew wide at his words.

I'm gonna kill him.

Little bitch.

"Dinner's ready," Livi said, poking her head outside as me and Dad turned in her direction.

"Come on, Ens." He said, nudging me towards the back door.

We walked inside, leaving all of our football stuff outside. I noticed Livi quickly walked back into the dining room as Dad headed into the kitchen. I paused for a moment before deciding to go ahead and take my seat at the table.

God, I wished I went in the kitchen with my cringy parents.

As soon as I walked in, I saw Livi and a tall man seated at the table. Brushing off my clothes, I went to go take a seat across from them.

Oh, how awkward this would be.

"Hey, Ens." Livi sweetly spoke, looking over at me with a large smile on her face.

What does she want? She never calls me Ens.

"Hey.." I trailed off, watching as the man (presumably her fiancé) looked at me intently.

"Aspen...I want you to meet Cole. Cole, this is Aspen, my baby sister." She said, motioning between us two as I shifted my gaze over to him.

We stared sharply at each other, neither of us breaking our gaze. I could tell Livi was nervous with the both of us, twirling her hair around her finger and bouncing her leg. I only knew she was bouncing her leg because she kept accidentally hitting my foot.

"C or K?"

"Excuse me?" He responded, taken aback by my question.

"Is your name with a C or K?" I asked again, making Livi kick my shin under the table.

"I'm sor-" She began to apologize before he cut her off by grabbing her hand and wrapping his arm around her.

"C." He responded, a smirk overtaking his face.

Two can play that game.

Just as I was about to respond, Mom and Dad walked into the room with plates of food. Well, more so Dad was holding most of it and Mom just had one plate in her hand.

"Ew, couples." I shuddered, rolling my eyes as they sat the food down and took their seats.

"Says you," Livi spoke, unfortunately not mumbling her words which caused Dad to snap his head in my direction.

"What is she talking about?" He asked, sitting down after pulling out Mom's chair.

"Nothing," I said through gritted teeth. "Right, Livi?" I sarcastically smiled, directing my attention over to my lovely sister.

I could see the faint smirk playing on her and Cole's faces, making me roll my eyes at the two. I picked my fork as a plate was slid in front of me. Just as I was going to begin eating, I felt a slight buzz in my back pocket.

Slowly pulling my phone out, I hid it under the table as I didn't want Mom to see it and try to take it.

I'm literally about to turn 24 but okay.

I tried to hide the grin that was threatening to spread across my lips as I read the messages on my screen. I will always have time for Hunter's stupidity.

"Aspen, get off of your phone." Mom said, making me snap my head up and look at her. "Apart from your sister's wedding, we need to speak about your birthday."

Without argument, I simply turned off my phone and slid it into my pocket. I focused my attention back on the conversation ahead of me.

"What about it?" I asked, hoping she didn't want to have some fancy uptight party again for my birthday.

"What do you want to do for your birthday, Ens?" Dad asked, making me turn to him as I tried to think it over.

"I just want a small party with my friends where I can get drunk." I answered truthfully as Mom scoffed at my answer.

"You can always invite your friends here." Livi suggested as I turned to look at her like she was crazy.

"Mom might get mad that someone scuffed the floors." I shrugged, sipping some of my drink.

"Aspen." Mom began before Dad cut her off by grabbing her hand.

"You know, Ens..." He started, catching my attention once again. "I may or may not have gotten just enough tickets to disney world for you and your friends." He shrugged, pulling small pieces of paper out of his pocket as I stared at them in awe.

"You're joking." I gasped, my jaw dropping at the sight.

"All fast lane." He smiled, extending them in my direction.

"Thank you, Dad." I grinned, grabbing the tickets from him. "When are they for?"

"The week of your birthday." He spoke as I continued grinning at the tickets.

I'm gonna have the best damn birthday.

♤♤♤

Shuffling out the bathroom, I noticed my door slightly open as I quickly shut it. I did not feel like being called by Mom and Dad once again.

After getting out of the shower, I quickly threw on my pajamas and flopped down on my bed. My hair was still slightly damp around my face as I didn't feel like drying it after I got out the shower.

As I was about turn on Netflix and lay down, I heard my phone loudly ring in the room. Looking around on my bed, I found it under the blanket.

Grabbing it, I saw a text from an unknown number. Confused, I hovered over the text before clicking on it.

Hey, this is the boy from the bowling alley. I noticed you hadn't texted me and your friends came back so I asked them for your number. Hope you don't mind xx

My friends don't give anyone my number without letting me know? And I'm pretty sure they would have told me if they went to the bowling alley again.

My phone started ringing in my hands again as I was trying to wrap my head around this. I looked at it to see Rosa facetiming me. Pressing accept, I slid under the covers as I watched her and Vita's face take over the camera.

"Hey, guys." I smiled, watching the two smile into the phone.

"Peaches, guess what?" Vita grinned, making Rosa groan and roll her eyes.

"What? What happened?" I asked, turning on the tv while also paying attention to my two friends.

"It's not that serious." I heard Rosa say, making Vita scoff at her words.

"Yes, it is. So, Hunter asked for her number earlier today and they've been texting all day." Vita explained as my jaw dropped at the thought of Hunter finally getting over his nervousness around Rosa.

"But he could barely get the words out. He kept taking long pauses and saying 'uhm' when he asked me." Rosa added as I playfully pouted at how adorable he was.

"Is Roro finally growing up and talking to boys?" I teased as she narrowed her eyes at me on the screen.

"He just asked for my number. It's nothing serious." She tried to brush it off even though I could see the small smile spreading across her lips.

"Does Rosa have a crush?" Vita joked, placing her arm around her shoulder as I realized they were on the couch.

"No...I don't know..." She trailed off, burying her head in her hands. "He's cute and really sweet from what I've seen so far." She smiled, lifting her head as she stared at her screen.

"And speaking of loverboy, now," Vita smirked, making Rosa gasp and turn to look at her quickly.

I noticed her quickly grab her phone, moving it so only her forehead was in the camera. The camera started shaking side-to-side subtly as she texted him back.

"Anyways," She began, placing her phone back so I could see her and Vita's faces. "He's really cute and sweet but I don't want to rush anything. He can barely say two words to me in person." She blushed, making me and Vita awe at her words.

"I ship you two already. By the way, did you guys go to the bowling alley?" I asked, hoping they said yes.

"No? We've been at home all day after class." Rosa shrugged, Vita nodding in agreement.

Just as I was about to say something else, I saw my screen get taken over by another call. I playfully rolled my eyes as I saw Dalton's contact name pop up.

"Hold on, guys. I'll call you back." I said, making them nod and wave goodbye in the camera.

I picked up the call, waiting a few minutes before it connected. I spotted him sitting somewhere, one airpod in his ear. He looked down at the camera as I laid back against my headboard.

"Hey, angel." He said, making me smile and roll my eyes at him.

"Hey." I greeted, pulling the blankets up and turning down the volume on my tv. "Where you at?"

"Just driving around." He answered, a red light flashing against his face as he set his phone down and I spotted him driving with one hand.

Now, is not the time Aspen.

"You have fun?" He asked, making me groan as I thought about how boring dinner was.

"No, I was so bored. Me and my dad played some flag football though." I grinned before suddenly remembering what my dad asked me earlier. "I'm gonna kill you, though."

"What the hell did I do?" He asked, tilting his phone so I could see more of his face.

"My dad asked if I was okay because I was fucking limping." I frowned, brushing some of my hair out of my face.

Instead of responding, he fucking burst out laughing. I looked down at him, the glare very prominent on my face. Right when I was going to say something though, I heard a knock on my door.

"Don't talk." I quickly said, placing my phone down as he immediately stopped talking. "Come in," I yelled, watching my door open before my Dad poked his head through and walked in.

"Hey, Ens." He smiled, coming in and sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Hey, Dad. What's up?" I spoke, pausing the show I had on the tv as if I was actually watching it.

"I just wanted to tell you me and your Mom aren't going to be here in the morning to take you back to school." He spoke as I nodded and just hoped Dalton was on mute or something. "Me and the team have to take pictures for a few press events."

"That's fine. I can just get Rosa or Vita to come to pick me up." I shrugged, not caring if I missed any of my classes.

"Ok, well goodnight." He smiled, getting up and coming to place a small kiss on my head.

"Night, Dad." I smiled back, waiting until he walked out of the room to pick my phone back up again.

"And tell whoever you're on the phone with that I said hi." He quickly added before shutting my door as I felt my jaw drop slightly at his words.

I picked my phone up as I quickly unpaused the tv. I looked down to see Dalton laughing his ass off as he continued to drive around. I glared at him as he took notice of my glare.

"Shut up. It's not that funny." I groaned as his laughter died down a little bit.

After he finally stopped laughing, we just sat in silence for the moment. I had gotten absorbed in the tv as he focused on the road. I looked down to see him thinking hard about something before he finally decided to speak.

"Hey, can you send me your address?" He said, making me falter back at his words.

"Why? You trying to climb through my window or something?" I joked, causing him to playfully roll his eyes.

"No, just put some shoes on. You don't even have to change out of your pajamas." He added as I just looked at him suspiciously.

"Angel." He simply spoke as I felt my stomach fill with butterflies.

Did I just say butterflies?

Hell no, Aspen. Calm your hormones.

yall why are my chapter names and end of chapter pictures so big. 😭

anyways, what were your guy's thoughts? i kinda hated this chapter but go off.

see you guys in the next chapter! make sure to vote snd comment if you enjoyed <3