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.

"Ha ha very funny," I deadpan, smacking Lucas on the chest before strolling past him and heading back inside the house.

I breathe a sigh of relief as the cool breeze of the air conditioning envelopes me once I step inside. I wash my hands and splash some cool water on my face before pulling my short hair into a ponytail.

My grandmother, who had been a talented hairdresser back in the day, had given me a haircut yesterday. My almost waist length hair had been trimmed down and slightly layered until it was just about shoulder length. I thought it looked good (although Ivy's comment faltered that view slightly).

My eating disorder had meant that a large mass of my hair fell out regularly because I hadn't been getting any nutrients, so to minimise the amount of hair being loss, I had always cut it short. Now, although the hair loss had predominantly stopped, I wanted to cut my hair short one last time before letting it grow out.

Making my way into the living room, I see Mia and Grace sprawled across the floor, sitting infront of the fan, shoving each other out of the way to get more fan time. I walk over to them and press the button at the top that allows the fan to spin and both girl stop pushing each other pronto and stare at each other sheepishly.

"Right, it moves," Mia mutters as I fall face flat onto the couch in exhaustion.

"Yup."

"Hey Bella," I hear Grace call out and a moment later I feel a poke on my shoulder.

"Yeah?" I reply, my voice muffled as I refuse to raise my head from the couch pillow.

"Can I borrow some of your clothes?" She asks breathlessly. "I'm sweating my balls of in this dress."

"Yeah me too," Mia adds. "I'm so HOT." She stops to giggle. "I mean obviously I'm hot, but like, I'm also HOT."

I raise my hand and shoot them a thumbs up. "Suregoahead."

"Thank you." I hear their feet shuffling across the ground and pattering against the wooden floor in the distance as they stroll off, both muttering obscenities about the ridiculous heat despite it being the beginning of October. Ugh, global warming.

Not long after they leave, I hear the boys walk into the living room. I'm still in this position on the couch, which is why my spine almost snaps in half when the weight of someone sits on top of me.

"Mghmfh." The air is gushed out of my body as a 200 pound boy settles on my back.

"Getoffmeyouarebreakingmyback."

I flail my hands helplessly and struggle to crane my neck to see who it is, but when a low rumble of laughter erupts from on top of me; I know exactly who it is.

"I know other ways to break your back Belly," Lucas giggles mercilessly like a 12 year old boy and I hear Dylan snicker before high-fiving his friend.

"Youhaveagirlfriend," I reply, trying to wriggle out from under him. "Nowgetoffme."

"I was only kidding," Lucas huffs but does as I say and pries off of me. I sit up on the couch and wipe sweat off from my forehead - trying to get a 6ft, 200 pound man off of your back is a whole ass workout, damn.

"Would she appreciate you making jokes like that?"

"No," he mumbles, pouting his lips.

"Exactly." I nod my head. "Now apologise."

"Sorry Bella."

"And to Ivy." I add.

"And sorry Ivy."

"Well done." I grin wickedly. "Now get me a drink, preferably a capri sun from the fridge."

"Okay." He walks out of the living room, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers as I lay back on the couch with a sigh.

I stretch my legs out and turn to look at both Dylan and Aidan who look at me in awe.

"Teach me your ways," Dylan says admirably, causing me to erupt into a fit of giggles.

"Sorry," I shrug. "It's a talent only some are born with."

***

"Dinner has arrived!" My dad announces, walking into the living room where us kids are lounging around, watching Friends on the TV. The smell of Chinese food wafts into the air and my stomach rumbles in response. My fathers grin and cheery mood drops instantly however, the moment he see's the guys spread across the floor and the couch.

Narrowing his eyes, he places the bag of Chinese food onto the coffee table. "Why are there teenage boys here?" He questions, pointing his finger menacingly at the three boys. His finger stops over Dylan and his eyes narrow even further, into tiny little slits. "And you, the one who made that highly innapropriate remark about my wif-about Valeria."

Dylan smacks a hand over his mouth and gasps. "Mr Fernandez you don't remember us?"

"No!"

"Dylan, Aidan and Lucas," I point out, pulling my lips into my mouth to suppress a smile.

"Dylan, Aidan and Lucas?" My father repeats. His face stays in the stern and narrowed expression for a beat until his brain processes who the boys are and his face breaks out into a large grin. "Well why didn't you say so?"

"But-"

He interrupts me. "How have you guys been! Wow haven't you lads grown!" He strolls over to them and does the guy hug with all three of the boys.

"Didn't you talk to them at the party?" I ask as my father shakes his head.

He chuckles. "I mean I was banished away for half of the party and I only had time to speak to Mia and Grace." He nods to the two girls who have scrambled over to the food bag and are in the midst of pulling out containers of food.

"Ohhh."

"Yep." He shrugs off his jacket just as his phone begins to ring. After looking down at the screen with a frown he glances back up at us. "Well help yourself to dinner, if you'll excuse me I've gotta take this call."

We all nod is reply and shuffle towards the coffee table, passing around the boxes of food. Once I've collected a container of my own I sit back on the sofa, I stretch my legs out in front of me and open up the lid of chow mien. I wrinkle my nose slightly at the overwhelming smell and look up to see Grace and Mia looking at me, they both send me encouraging smiles and I swiftly pick up my chopsticks and swirl noodles around it before popping it into my mouth.

Lucas grabs a box of his own and lifts up my legs from where they're stretched across the couch and sits down, draping my slipper clad feet in his lap.

He digs into his own food and lets out a groan of appreciation and I find myself thoroughly enjoying the sound. Okay stop that right now, you're being creepy.

I focus my gaze back onto the TV and away from Lucas and his food moaning. We're currently watching the episode 'The one where Ross is fine' which I've probably rewatched a thousand times, but it's one of my favourite episodes so I don't mind.

As the episode comes to an end, my father walks back into the living room looking a tad distressed. I place the almost finish carton of noodles onto the coffee table and gaze at my dad quizzically.

"Dad what's wrong?"

"Um," he begins hesitantly, clearing his throat. "That was work."

My stomach drops at his statement, knowing exactly what's about to come.

"And they need me back in the office urgently," he continues, not meeting my gaze.

"When are you leaving?" I ask curtly, hurt and anger coursing through me.

"Tomorrow morning."

I nod and pull my lips into a thin line.

"Look Bell, I'm really sorry but this is importa-"

I don't here the rest of his lame apology as I storm out of the living room.

He's choosing work over me again.

Not paying attention to where I'm going I accidentally collide with my mom in the hallway.

She immediately notices something is wrong and holds me at arms length, her eyebrows furrowed. "Bell? What's happened?"

"He's leaving."

My mom's face softens and she rubs my arm comfortingly before throwing me a pitiful smile. "I'm sorry baby."

"It's fine, I knew something like this was gonna happen, he never changes." I sniff, keeping the tears at bay. I'm not going to let this get to me.

My mother drops her grip from my arms and begins to tie her hair into a ponytail. She then takes her earrings out from her ears and places them into my palm, all whilst I look at her in both confusion and curiosity.

"I'm going to have a word with your father." She explains, cracking her knuckles and storming past me and into the living room.

Only seconds after, Mia, Grace, Aidan, Lucas and Dylan are violently shoved out of the sitting room and stumble over each other as they briskly try to get out, the door slamming loudly behind them.

My eyes widen and flit over the group before I swiftly run over to the closed door and press my ear against it. The others follow suit and before you know it the six of us are all huddled around the door trying to listen to the conversation happening inside.

"Shhh Lucas, your breathing is so loud." Aidan whispers, pulling Lucas' ear.

He lets out a yelp causing Grace to narrow her eyes at him. She briskly stomps on his feet.

"Shutup Lucas we can't hear properly!"

"All of you shut it!" I whisper-yell, pressing myself deeper into the door.

The walls are too thick so their conversation is barely audible but I do pick up on certain words being said (or screamed in this case) such as; my mom repeatedly yelling 'pendejo' and my father shouting 'lo siento' several times in reply.

However, the murmurs soon come to a halt and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. I look over at the rest of them and they all peer back at me equally in confusion. Shrugging my shoulders I press myself even further against the door. Although, I guess I put too much pressure because before I know it, the door flies open and I'm face planting the floor of the living room.

"Oomfgh," I groan, as the weight of all 5 of the group fall promptly after and squash down on top of me.

Our sudden in burst however hasn't seemed to distract my parents for whatever they are doing as when I gaze up at them they're still in the midst of...kissing?

"Um what exactly is going on here?" I announce, my mouth falling open in shock.

The two jump away from each other and I blink slowly, processing what I had just seen.

First of all, I'm going to need bleach to get rid of the image of my parents snogging from my brain.

And second of all...my divorced parents...kissing???

Uh oh...this isn't going to end well.

"Omg are you guys going to get back together?" Mia gushes, clasping her hands together after she has scrambled off of me. I sit up on the ground, still staring pointedly at my parents.

"NO!" They both reply simultaneously.

"Um...we were just...making up," my mother tries to explain, subconsciously patting down her hair.

"Yeah," my dad adds. "We were just kissing...as friends."

My mom snaps her head towards my father and sends him an incredulous look. "Really?" She snorts in disbelief. "Kissing as friends? Don't give them any ideas! Before you know it all 6 of them will be spitting salivas with each other!"

"Who says we already haven't?" Dylan winks at Mia who giggles in response. The rest of us gaze at them weirdly.

Right...the world has gone mad.