MAKE SURE TO READ THE ONE BEFORE THIS ONE! These are the final chapters of the book so go back to Chapter 39 to where I left off on updating.

When I thought about Halloween and what we would do, sitting in a cold jail cell wasn't at the top of the list. Hadn't even crossed my mind this is how we would spend the rest of the night.

Nico and Lexi were off to the side, talking in hushed tones. Olivia and Derek were across the cell on another bench. Liv's head was resting on Derek's shoulder while he had an arm around her. If the situation was different I would be 'awing' at the pair.

I was currently using a bit of shirt that I ripped up to clean up some of the blood off of Alex's face. He wasn't bleeding that bad and most of it was starting to dry up. He was leaning back against the wall while letting me clean him up, his eyes glued to my face.

"Would you be surprised to know this isn't my first time in jail?" He asked out of the blue. My hand paused at his lip.

"So the rumor that the police know your name is true?" I joked. Alex rolled his eyes at that.

"No that isn't true. It was right after my parents died and I..." He scratched the back of his neck. "I sort of went on a bender. Got arrested." I could tell he wasn't proud of that moment.

"Doesn't make you a bad person." I said as I resumed cleaning him up. "This is my first time in jail."

"Your brother is going to kill me when he finds out."

"You'll be fine." I waved him off. "But just know he is a few inches taller than you."

"Gee thanks." I grinned. Despite the situation I actually felt good. We may be sitting in a cell but if it had to be for anything I'm glad it was getting back at Mitch. Although the real reason was we were found where underage drinking was occurring...and we were underage.

"I'm waiting by the way." Alex said after a moment.

"Waiting for what?" I put the piece of ruined cloth down and leaned back a little.

"For you to tell me it was stupid for fighting Mitch. That I shouldn't have let him get to me. That you are angry with me for putting us in this situation."

I could see him thinking I'd say that. That I would get mad he would fought Mitch and then we ended up here. But how could I be mad? He defended me against Mitch.

"Alex." I leaned forward and grabbed his cheeks with my hands. Turning him to face me I stared right into his eyes. "What you did was amazing." His eyebrows raised at that.

"You could have easily let him talk about me like that. Yeah you could have let it go but you didn't and I could never be angry at you for that. Plus I joined in at the end." At my words a grin played on his lips. "As for being here....just happened to be bad luck." I shrugged.

"You aren't mad your boyfriend got you put in jail?" Alex reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear; my purple wig laying on the bench beside me.

"I wouldn't want to be in jail with anyone else." He gently tugged me down by the side of my neck and placed a kiss on my lips. It only lasted for a second before I heard him hiss. Remembering his cut lip I quickly pulled back.

"Sorry." I winced.

"It's okay." I could tell it hurt more than he let on. Not wanting to hurt his lip again I placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Well that was an entertaining night." Derek suddenly spoke up. None of us have really said anything since the cops came and took us here.

"How pissed do you think Noah's dad is gonna be?" Nico asked.

"Care to explain why all of you are sitting in a jail cell at 1 in the morning." At the sound of Noah's father's voice we all sat up.

He stood in front of the cell, arms crossed, as another officer stood beside him. Noah's dad, Mason, has always been intimidating but him standing there staring all of us down I felt like I was 4 years old and getting in trouble with my dad.

"Well..." Noah started to say but trailed off. What do we tell his dad. 'Oh we got arrested because we were too busy fighting to get out of the house fast enough'. Yeah I don't think that is going to fly. Especially with it being one in the morning and he had to come all the way here to get us.

"You kids are free to go." The officer unlocked the metal doors and slid them open. We all stood and filed out of the cell, all of us avoiding Noah's dad stare.

I gripped Alex's hand as we left, feeling beyond guilty. I was the reason we were here in the first place. If I hadn't gotten involved with Mitch. Or if I would have just stayed home none of this would have happened.

Judging by the look on Noah's dads face he wasn't too happy about this. When we reached his truck he stopped and turned to face us all.

"Care to explain?"

"It was stupid Dad, we know."

"Yes it was stupid. What were you guys thinking! Jail!"

"Dad-"

"Do you know how your mother felt when we got a call this late at night from the police station, telling us our son and his friends were arrested." I ducked my head at his tone.

"We didn't mean to-"

"I want a real reason. Right. Now."

Before Noah or anyone else could talk I stepped forward. I couldn't let them take the blame for it. Not when it was my fault.

"Mr. Thomas its my fault." His head snapped towards me.

"Someone that I know showed up and started....saying things." I struggled to say. I wasn't sure what to call Mitch. "The guys jumped in to defend me and we didn't hear the sirens until it was too late." I explained, keeping my eyes down. "I'm sorry. I can pay you back for bailing us out."

No one said a word so after a moment I brought my eyes back up. I could see Mason looking around at everyone before settling his gaze on me again.

"I take it the words weren't friendly." I shook my head, my cheeks heating up. His dad stared at me for another minute before he nodded. "Well I hope he got what was coming to him."

My eyes widened a fraction at his words. His face softened a bit and the corner his lip tilted up.

"I am proud the boys stood up for you." He nodded to all four of them. "But all of you are still in trouble. We'll talk about your punishments tomorrow."

Noah's dad didn't seem as angry as before but I still felt bad. I wondered what his idea of punishment is. We all nodded silently and piled into his car, all of us practically sitting on the others lap.

Alex put his arms around my middle and kept me pressed against him the whole ride home. We were all quiet and as soon as we pulled up I saw Noah wince. No doubt his mom was up waiting for us.

Alex squeezed my hand as we headed inside. Noah's dad may have been slightly okay but a mom knowing her child was in jail....yeah I don't think this will go well.

It was like seven of us knew we were about to get yelled at so we all huddled together through the door. Standing in the archway was Noah's mom Ava. Her arms were crossed and her face a mask, not showing us what she was thinking at the moment.

We all stood in front of her and my grip tightened on Alex. I waited for the bomb to drop.

"Thank god you all are okay." The words barely left her lips before she was pulling Noah towards her. "When we got the call I thought you guys had been hurt or something."

Alex's hand was ripped from mine, as Ava pulled her to him. I watched with a pang in my chest at the concern on her face she looked him over. Motherly touching his cut lip and shaking her head. The sight of it just made me want my own mom.

Ava looked over all of us, inspecting us for any sort of cuts or injury, before she placed her hands on her hips.

"I don't care what happened tonight but all seven of you are in serious trouble." All of us ducked our heads at the motherly tone. "Now it is late. So all of you go to your rooms and I don't want to hear a peep out of any of you until the morning. Got it?"

I had to fight the smile on my face at the way Noah's mom easily became all of our moms in that moment. Her tone leaving no room for discussion.

"Now up to bed. Now."

We all had already planned on spending the night here so we all had our PJ's and stuff here. We had all originally planned to camp out in the theater room but that clearly wasn't happening tonight.

Under the gaze of both Noah's parents we all trudged up the stairs, silent. Thankfully Noah's house was that big that there was plenty of room of us all.

Without a word Nico and Lexi slipped into a room, Derek and Olivia in the room next to it. Alex lead me further down the hall, along with Noah, until we came to two more doors.

"Don't worry Riley no one blames you for tonight." Noah said as we stopped in front of the two doors. "Been awhile since we've had so much fun." He grinned. I raised an eyebrow at him. That was fun?

"Goodnight guys." With that Noah slipped into his own room, leaving just Alex and I.

"Don't worry about Ava and Mason, they are literally the chillest people." Alex said softly as he lead me into the room and shut the door behind us. Flipping on the light I noticed the room was well lived in. I had a feeling Alex stayed here more often than he let on.

"You don't think they will be pissed that I got their sons and all their friends put in jail?" I worried my bottom lip between my teeth.

"First off it wasn't anyone's fault with tonight. If anything it was Mitch. He showed up for a fight. Wouldn't put it past him to have called the cops as soon as he got there." He muttered the last part. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he did either. Sounds like something Mitch would do.

Seeing Alex wince as he reached for my night bag I stepped forward.

"Lets get you cleaned up." Gently taking his hand I lead him towards the bathroom. Forcing him to sit on the toilet as I rummaged through the cabinets under the sink.

He stayed quiet as I took out everything I needed and stood between his legs. Alex stared up at me as I softly wiped at the cut on his forehead. This position was all too familiar.

My mind flashed back to the underground fight from weeks before. Me patching Alex up in the bathroom after having just kissed him for the first time. That night felt like it was light years away and yet like it just happened yesterday.

"Thank you for tonight." I whispered as finished cleaning up his face. "Despite everything I had a great night. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed Halloween."

The last time I had fun at Halloween was when I was maybe...eight? Trent took me out trick or treating and we literally hit every house in a two mile radius. By time we got home our pillowcases were so full, we had candy for like a month.

After that things just got busy. Trent was too busy with soccer and school. I was a bit too old to dress up, especially when everyone in my grade stopped going the year before. With no one to go with I didn't want to alone so I stopped.

Going today with Harper and the others was more fun than I had anticipated. Yeah we may have gotten arrested, for a stupid reason, but it was still fun. Adding me jumping on Mitch's bad was just the cherry on top.

"You know I'm proud of you for tonight. The way you handled Mitch." Alex smirked up at me. "Quite the badass."

"I learned from the best." I grinned back. He brought his hands up and placed them on my hips.

"Are you saying I'm a bad influence?" He cock an eyebrow at me. If anything Alex has been the best influence on me.

"I need a bit of bad influence in my life." I hope he understood the meaning beneath my words. A squeeze of my hips and a soft smile I knew he got it.

* * ** * * * * * * *

The next morning Alex and I were woken up by a small body landing on top of us. The boney body making me groan along with Alex. I didn't have to open my eyes to know it was Harper and that is was early in the morning.

It felt like we just fell asleep seconds ago.

"Time to get up!" Harper yelled, scrambling off of us and started jumping on the bed.

"Harper." Alex groaned.

"Auntie A said to get you up." She sang as she kept bouncing. I curled closer to Alex wanting desperately to go back to sleep. It was way too early to be awake.

"Get up! Get up! Get up!"

I felt Alex breath against the side of my face as he whispered.

"She isn't going to stop until we get up." His voice was low and raspy from sleep. I groaned a buried my face in his chest. Just five more minutes.

Sleeping next to Alex was...it was amazing. He was like a giant heater and despite the muscle on Alex he was really comfy to lay on. Like a giants teddy bear.

"Okay, okay. We are getting up." Alex finally caved. As he sat up I whined when my head moved off of him. I was so not a morning person.

"Rileyyy." Harper whined as she literally fell right on my back. All breath left my lungs.

"How about you," the weight of her was lifted off me and I figured it was Alex. "go wake up Noah and the others?"

"Can I?"

"Just make sure to jump directly on Noah and Derek, kay?"

"Kay!" With that I felt Harper jump off the bed and run out of the room, ready to inflict the same torture on the others.

"What about Nico?" I mumbled, realizing he didn't include him in that.

"And throw Harper to the wolves, aka Lexi? No thank you. Lexi may love Harper but not early in the morning." Even I wouldn't want to be around Lexi this early.

"Now get that ass up." His hand smacked my butt as he moved off the bed.

"Do I have to?" I groaned.

"Unless you want Harper coming back in here in just a few minutes than....yes." Not in the mood to get trampled again I sat up. My eyes bulged slightly at the view in front of me.

Alex was shirtless in a pair of sweatpants as he crossed the room. I could practically see every muscle ripple with each movement. I still had no clue how he was so ripped. I've never seen the dude workout and he hasn't had a fight since we got together...so how he's staying in shape I have no clue. But I definitely wasn't complaining.

Once again it was hard to imagine someone like Alex was dating me. All of that was mine. I clearly didn't hate that thought.

"Are you going to keep staring or are you going to get up?" Alex asked, not even glancing in my direction. Stupid eyes in the back of his head.

"I wasn't staring." I mumbled, stumbling off to the bed. Of course Alex's bed was the most comfiest one I've ever slept on and every part of me was demanding I get back in it.

"I think the drool says otherwise." He finally looked at me with a smirk. My hand came up to touch my chin but found it dry.

"Ha Ha funny." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You can stare all you want, I'm all yours baby." Alex came froward and placed his hands on my waist.

"You're lucky you're cute."

"Is that why you are dating me? For my looks?"

"Pretty much." I shrugged, a grin playing on my lips.

"For some reason I can't be mad at that. Use me for my body baby." I couldn't help but laugh and smack his arm.

"I better go shower."

"Need some company?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me. I was half tempted to say yes and see his reaction but I held back.

"In your dreams." Pulling out of his hold I went over to my overnight bag and grabbed some clothes.

"Oh it is." I crinkled my nose and looked over my shoulder at him.

"Perv." Alex just smirked making shaking my head but I felt myself smiling as I shut the bathroom door.

That boy will be the death of me.

By time I got out of the shower and got dressed Alex was already downstairs with the others. It was only 8 o'clock in the morning when I walked into the kitchen and judging by everyone else's face they weren't too enthused to be up like me.

The only person happy to be up was Harper, who was wiggling in her seat as she waited for her breakfast.

When I slid into my seat next to Alex, Noah's mom came around to stand in front of the table facing us. Her arms were crossed and her face was blank.

"Last night was unacceptable." She looked at every single one of us. When her eyes reached mine they softened just a bit. "But I do understand why." I had a feeling Noah's dad filled her in when we went to bed.

"While the two of us understand and are proud of you boys, its still not acceptable. So the reason you all are up is you are going to spend the day cleaning." Noah went to groan only to shut up when his mom shot him a look.

"This is your punishment. When I say all of you, I mean all of you." The look she gave each of us had us all, even Lexi, nodding. "The pool needs cleaning. The grass mowing. The carpet vacuumed, in each room. Dishes unloaded. Dusting needs done. The floors need to be swept and moped." She listed off chores like no ones business.

"And once you are all done with that, then I need your help cleaning up the halloween decorations."

When she said all day she truly meant all day.

"That will take ages." Derek argued.

"And? None of you have anywhere to be. I already called your parents to let them know you'll be here all day. So eat up and get to work." With that she turned on her heel back to the kitchen. "Oh and someone will be cleaning up the breakfast dishes as well."

The entire time Noah's mom talked, his dad leaned against the counter with his arms crossed. He seemed pleased to let his wife take the lead on this one.

"What about Harper?"Alex asked as she slid a pancake towards his younger sister.

"She's coming with me to go grocery shopping. Mason will stick around to make sure you all are doing your chores." Ava came around and placed a plate filled with pancakes in the middle of the table. "So eat up."

Across from me Olivia sent me a wide eyed look that I mirrored. Noah's mom didn't come to play. All of us seemed to scared to say anything so we just grabbed our pancakes and ate in silence.

Of course the silence didn't last long. Theres something about not being able to talk that suddenly makes everything funnier. Just one little look was enough to get everyone to snort or cover their mouths. Then it became a game to see who would laugh as we ate.

In the end we all ended up laughing which just made Ava shake her head at us. Since we were now done it was time for our chores. From the looks on everyone's faces none of us were thrilled.

"So....who's going to do what?" Nico asked. True to Olivia fashion she instantly jumped in and instructed who was doing what. In a matter of seconds we all had our chores set.

"Now be quick about it. The sooner we get done the better." She was almost like a drill sergeant as she stood and clapped her hands. But we were all in agreement to get it all done.

With that we all stood and got ready to get our chores done. With a quick kiss from Alex he left with Derek outside to mow the lawn and clean the pool.

With those two outside the rest of us were stuck doing the inside chores. Olivia would do the dusting. Nico and Lexi sweeping and moping the floors. Noah would do the dishes and unload the dishwasher since he knew where it all went. And that left me to vacuum all the rooms.

While we all worked occasionally Noah's dad would walk by, purposely showing us he was watching. His mom and Harper had left to go to the store with a promise that when she got back we were helping with halloween decorations.

I was in the middle of vacuum the hallway when I glanced