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The two Higgins’, Alex, and Owen all changed into fresh clothes, Alex had taken a shower as well claiming he felt dirty despite jumping in a lake full of water.
Talia had thought the boy was being ridiculous but didn’t say anything. She and Owen were sitting in the living room, Owen playing a game of Go Fish with Andre, Keithie, and Greg at the table and Talia sitting on the couch surrounded by Donna, Charlotte, and Becky.
“You’re so pretty,” Donna compliments as Talia moves her fingers through the girl’s hair, making a small braid.
The older girl smiles “Thank you, you’re pretty too,” she compliments her back.
“What’s this for?” Charlotte questions as she pulls an eyelash curler from Talia’s makeup bag. Talia had let her go through it as she was very curious.
“It’s to make your eyelashes look longer,” Talia explains, Charlotte nods and puts it back, beginning to dig through the bag again.
“Can you do our makeup?” Becky questions, Donna and Charlotte squeal at the suggestion.
“Please,” Donna asks.
“We’d look so pretty,” Charlotte adds causing Talia to chuckle.
“You’re all already pretty and you have to ask your moms,” Talia says.
All the girls jump from the couch and run to find their moms causing Talia to grin. “They seem to love you,” Owen comments before looking at Greg “You got a four?” He questions.
Greg shakes his head “Go fish,” he tells the blonde who mutters a swear word under his breath before pulling a card from the deck.
“Yeah, it’s weird,” Talia speaks up “but it’s nice,” Owen nods at her words and Alex comes out from the room he shared with Talia and Owen, freshly showered and new clothes on his body.
Talia glances him up and down before looking away, Alex notices this and smirks as he walks past the blonde, sitting in a chair next to Keithie and Andre. “What are you guys playing?” He questions.
“Go fish- Damn it, Greg!” Owen exclaims as they count the pairs of cards they had, Greg had the most so he had won.
The boy smiles cheekily at the blonde as Owen picks all the cards up and starts shuffling them, muttering to himself.
“We can deal you in if you want,” Owen tells the brunette glancing up at him as he deals the cards out.
“Yeah sure,” Alex shrugs, Talia smiles as she watches the boys get along, it feels right, all of it, being here with all these people, like one big family.
โโ
It was late, around 7:00 when everyone left the lakehouse. They now were getting settled into seats in a local diner called ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐’๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ ๐ป๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐. Lenny, Marcus, Eric, Robbie, and Kurt had assured everyone that this was the best place in town.
Talia sat beside Donna and Charlotte who had insisted on sitting next to the blonde. The two young girls and Becky all had light makeup on their faces and their hair was in French braids, that was Talia’s doing.
“Hey Lenny, remember we used to come here in high school late at night after we got wasted,” Marcus speaks up as the waiter sets down menus.
Lenny shushes him and Talia gives her father a look, kicking his leg under the table as she is too far away to hit the back of his head.
“What’s “wasted”?” Donna questions from beside Talia.
“Nice one, Higgie,” Lenny mumble to Marcus “Uh, “wasted”, uh, kids, is something that happens when you have a hankering for ice cream,” Lenny explains.
The lie causes Alex to snicker behind his menu causing his mother to hit his arm and give him a look.
“I wanna get wasted,” Andre beams putting his hand over his chest and standing from his seat.
“I wanna get totally wasted,” Charlotte speaks up just as excited.
“I wanna get wasted every single day of my life,” Donna exclaims.
“I wanna get chocolate wasted,” Becky speaks up, Roxanne looks at her youngest with wide eyes.
“No you don’t need to get wasted, it’s okay,” Roxanne tells Becky while rubbing her back.
“Wasted isn’t fun, Beck,” Alex tells his little sister.
“I know I’m getting wasted,” Talia murmurs as she looks at the numerous different alcohols that the place had.
She feels someone kick her leg af glances up to see Owen shake his head and glance at Becky.
I huff and puy the menu away as the waiter comes back “Everyone ready to order?” The young man looked to be around Talia, Alex, and Owen’s age. The waiter’s eyes find Talia and he smirks. He had shaggy brown hair and blue eyes, he wasn’t unattractive but there was just something about him that just made Talia not attracted to him.
“All right, everybody, you know what, let me make this easy. Twenty burgers and twenty fries, okay? And that’ll be just for me. What are you guys having?” Eric jokes causing everyone to laugh. Nobody noticed the waiter looking at Talia like she was a snack, except for Alex who was gripping his knee so hard his knuckles were ghostly white.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Do me a favor, that’s for everybody, just put it on that.” Eric pulls out a credit card and hands it to the waiter.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Lenny tells him.
“I am not gonna have any hamburgers. I’ll take some meatloaf, some canzones, but put the marinara sauce on the side. With corn, either on the cob or whatever you got.” Mama tells the waiter.
“Are you going to the electric chair?” Marcus jokes.
“What?” Mama questions not getting the joke.
“No, he was just kidding, Henry VIII,” Lenny speaks up causing an erupt of laughter from everybody.
“She’s eating for two: her and Toe-Bo Cop,” Kurt adds causing more laughter.
“But, Mama, they do have bunion rings if you want some,” Lenny speaks up.
“That was good, Lenny,” Deanne chuckles.
“How about some drinks?” The waiter questions looking up from his notepad.
“I said I’m paying so take it easy with that, okay?” Eric jokes “I’m kidding, everybody, I’m kidding, we can drink all we want. I’ll start, I’m gonna have a Coke. I know Donna, she’s gonna want a Sprite, correct? Yeah, and, uh…Bean’s good with milk, obviously,” Eric sighs gesturing to where Bean was being breastfed by Sally.
Bean pulls away from his mother “I want cookies,” he says.
“Mmm, cookies and MILF,” Marcus speaks up.
“MILF? Oh Higgins, thank you so much.” Sally smiles as she holds the strap of her colorful overalls up.
“Take it easy alright? Hey, tuck it away, sweetie,” Eric tells his wife who shrugs.
“What can I get for the lovely blonde beauty?” The waiter questions his eyes on Talia as he speaks.
“I’ll take a Miller Lite, run me a tab, please,”
“You’ve got it, sweet cheeks.” The water winks at her, Owen and Marcus grimace as the guy flirts with Talia, and Talia rolls her eyes.
“I’ve got it sweetheart, make that two, put them both on this, start up a tab, please,” Alex tells the waiter with a tight, forced, smile as he holds out his card. Talia looked at the brunette with a confused and slightly annoyed expression, did he think she was incapable of paying for herself, and what the hell was with the nickname in front of their families? The adults were taken aback too now wondering if something was going on between the two.
“I’m gonna need to see some ID,” The waiter tells him with a fake smile.
Alex pulls his ID from his pocket and gives it to him, the waiter scans the ID over before giving it back to Alex.
“Shit, add another if Hollywood’s paying,” Owen chuckles “And while you’re at it can you stop flirting with my sister there are children present, Tristan,” he shoots the waiter a quick smile as his eyes flick down to his name tag.
Tristian clears his throat and writes down the three’s orders now looking at Greg. “I’ll take a flat water. Voss.” He tells Tristian.
“What?” Tristan questions looking at the boy confused.
“You know, Voss, or Figi, if you don’t have Voss.”
“Oh Christ,” Alex mumbles under his breath.
“Yeah, you know, anything you got’s good,” Lenny spoke up.
“We have out of the faucet,” Tristian explains.
“Like, from a hose?” Greg questions.
“Tap water,” Tristian responds.
“What county’s that from?” Keithie questions.
“Asia,” Talia responds causing Owen to grin and shake his head.
“What part?” Greg questions.
“Oh my god just get the water. We’re done talking about water, tap water.” Lenny speaks up.
“I go get the Voss from the b-“
Rita is cut off by Lenny “You just sit down, Rita. Just study a menu, the big test is coming.”
Rita sits back own a confused look on her face as she looks down at the menu. Kurt looks at her and starts speaking Chinese causing Talia to raise an eyebrow, she didn’t know he could do that.
“Hey now,” Rita smiles
“I’m sorry, what now?” Deanne questions her husband, apparently she didn’t know he could either.
“He says they have the best burger in town here,” Rita explains.
“Really? Since when did you learn to speak Chinese?” Deanne questions.
“It’s just a little something I picked up watching a Chinese cooking show,” Kurt replies.
“That’s great, maybe you should focus a little less on the talking, and a little more on the cooking,” Deanne replies.
Everyone chuckles, Mama full-on cackling.
“Burn,” Marcus speaks up.
“You got told.” Mama laughs.
“You got toe,” Kurt bites back causing more laughter.
“He comes back,” Lenny laughs as Tristian comes back with the drinks giving Talia’s drink to her first and Alex his last.
“Mommy, can I have some of her milk?” Bean questions pointing at Talia, Owen chokes on his beer as he lets out a laugh and Talia’s cheeks turn red.
Lenny gets up to check on their food as everyone starts chatting quietly.
“Here’s some more napkins, your food will be out shortly,” Tristian comes back placing the napkins next to Talia.
Owen reaches over the table and grabs one he sits back down his eyes scanning over it before he lets out a chuckle.
“This one’s for you, T.,” he tosses the napkin to Talia who looks at him confused.
She picks it up and reads it:
000-528-5204
๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
Talia crumbles the napkin up and tosses it across the table going back to talking to Donna and Charlotte, Alex picks it up and unravels it, his blood boiling when he sees the guy’s number on the napkin.
Owen looks at his best friend, a confused look on his face, Talia’s rejected plenty of guys but she will always still flirt with the ones that are interested in her, so why was this one any different?
“That waiter is totally into you,” Charlotte whispers.
“He’s kinda cute,” Donna adds.
Talia laughed at the two girls and found Tristian who was serving another table, he was attractive and was the type of guy Talia usually went for, charming, a good worker, cute smile, but she just couldn’t bring herself to call him, let alone flirt with him and she couldn’t figure out why.
Her gaze travels to the oldest Feder son as he sniffs the beer and grimaces taking a small sip before shaking his head and sliding it over to Owen who gladly took it. This causes Talia to snicker, she knew the boy wasn’t a drinker, and it wasn’t very hard to miss, so why did he get a beer?
Alex felt the blonde’s gaze on him and moved his eyes to stare back at her. Talia quickly looked away, she was still mad at him for calling her a pet name in front of their families and for paying for her drink.
“Rematch, I dare you,” Everyone in the diner turns to look at where the noise was coming from, where Lenny stood.
โโ
Talia was drunk. After her fourth beer, she had been cut off by her father much to her dismay. She now was in the bathroom washing her hands, she turned the faucet off and clumsily wiped her hands on her flannel as she left the bathroom running into a hard chest as she stumbled out.
A pair of hands wrapped around her waist to steady her, she was expecting Alex, almost hoping for him, disappointment filled her as she looked up at Tristian.
“Careful, wouldn’t want you to fall sweet cheeks.” He hums.
Talia scoffs “I’m fine, I can walk myself,” she tells him causing him to chuckle.
“You know, your boyfriend is kinda a dick,” Tristian tells her as his hands rest on her hips.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Talia replies.
Tristian smiled at this, “So I can do this,” his lips pressed against hers and she didn’t like it.
“Off,” she commands as she’s pushed into a small broom closet, Tristian hums against the blonde’s lips.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs.
Alex was worried. Talia had been gone longer than she should’ve been, so he got up from the table abruptly and made his way towards the bathrooms.
A small thud comes from a broom closet with its door cracked open. Alex, in curiosity, moves towards the door and pushes it open. His eyes fall on Talia as her body was pressed against a wooden shelf, being kissed forcefully by the asshole waiter as she tries squirming away, his hands roaming over her body.
Without thinking Alex rips the asshole off of Talia by his hair causing Tristian to yelp, he throws a punch to his nose causing Tristian to slump to the floor from the impact.
Alex grabs him roughly by his shirt “Touch her again, I will fucking kill you, do you understand?” He hisses, ignoring the pain in his hand.
“You’re fucking crazy!” Tristian yells as he scurries out of the broom closet, holding his bleeding nose.
Alex watches him scurry away a sick feeling resting in the pit of his stomach. He turns to Talia and shuts the door, flicking the light on.
“I’m fine,” the blonde mumbles moving to push past him. Alex stops her by blocking the door.
“Don’t bullshit me, Talia” he tells her “Are you hurt?” He questions looking her up and down and using his hand to move her face from side to side.
She swats his hand away “I didn’t need your help,” she seethes as she tries to straighten her stance.
Alex’s face hardens as he scoffs “Oh that’s fucking rich because it looked like you did,”
She shoves him roughly, and he lets her not even flinching when she hits his chest, she needs to let her emotions out, and he would let her.
Talia was confused. Alex didn’t make a move to hit her or even stop her from hitting him. It angered her and she didn’t know why.
“I don’t need someone to take care of me,” she tells him.
Alex’s face softens and he brings his thumb up to her cheek making her breath catch in her throat as his expensive cologne fills the small room.
“I didn’t say you did, but everyone needs help sometimes,” he tells her.
“Not me,” she mumbles before shoving him out of the way and opening the broom closet door. She was surprised to see Lenny standing outside the woman’s bathroom, her gaze fell to the floor as she stumbled past him making her walk to the small bar and sitting on a stool ordering another beer.
Alex leaves shortly after stopping in his tracks when he sees his dad who raises an eyebrow.
“It’s not what it looks like,” Alex tells his father “S-she needed my help- that waiter he did something and I stopped him.” Tue brunette rambles.
Lenny didn’t want a further explanation so he nodded believing his son “Go sit down, I believe you,”
Alex nods his head making his way back to the table his eyes catching Talia at the bar, drinking again.
โโ
“I’m fine, I don’t need help,” Talia hiccups as she’s carried by her deeply worried father.
“I know,” Marcus tells his daughter as he carries her outside, everyone is now leaving, Owen and Talia are drunker than hell, and Talia can’t even walk herself.
“I’ll take her home,” Alex tells Marcus who hesitantly nods, he trusted the Feder boy, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
Alex takes Talia from Marcus and brings her to his car despite the blonde’s slurred protest.
“Fuck you, Feder, I don’t like you,” she slurs as he sits her in the passenger seat, putting her seatbelt around her.
“Sure, sweetheart,” Alex hums as he gets in the driver’s seat.
“I’m serious, first you want to pay for my drink, and for what? Because I’m poor you think I don’t have money?” The blonde babbles.
Alex pulls out of the parking lot tailing behind Marcus’s car. “That’s not why I did it,” he assures her.
“Then please humor me, why the fuck did you?” Talia questions.
“I was jealous,” Alex admits quietly “That waiter giving you his number, looking at you like that, I couldn’t take it, I’m mad I didn’t punch him sooner,”
Talia falls quiet and looks at the brunette, her eyes falling to his plump lips “Kiss me,” she tells him.
Alex glances at the blonde in the dark, not able to see the lust in her eyes. “When you’re sober,” he tells her.
“What?” Talia questions, confused, did he not want to kiss her anymore?
“When you’re sober, and thinking straight, if you still want me to kiss you, I will.” He tells her.
“Do you not want to kiss me?” Talia mumbles suddenly feeling self-conscious.
Alex lays his arm on the center console “You have no idea how much I want to kiss you,” he mumbles.
Talia’s heart skips a beat and her stomach flutters, maybe it was the alcohol. Her eyes find his hand and she hesitantly slips her hand into his, intertwining their fingers and laying her head on his arm.
Alex looks at Talia a small smile making its way onto his face, he thought he could fall in love with this confusing, caring, blonde.
๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ซ’๐ฌ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ๐
๐๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐
๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐จ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐’๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ญ๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ญ ๐๐๐ฒ<3
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