“Last night was fucking wild, wasn’t it?”
A text message from Santiago had summoned the rest of the Alphas to one of their designated clubhouses: the pool behind his house. Lucas had been the first to arrive, like the faithful wingman that he was. Then Max had made his grand entrance, filling the other boys in about his latest escapades with Beth and Georgia with that proud grin of his. And finally, the surprise of the day: Aiden Weinmann, fresh out of juvie and ready to get back to business.
In normal circumstances, the boys would have been chugging beers while passing around a blunt. But with most of them still getting over the past night’s hangover, they settled for cans of soda paired with a bong that carried the fresh product Carter Newton had so graciously delivered to them. Santiago was inside the pool, gray eyes hidden away by Ray Bans while he rested his arms on the wall. In front of the the devil Max Wallenberg was lounging shirtless in one of the chairs, humming mindlessly as he took in the sunshine. Lucas was happily bobbing up and down in the water, too lazily to properly keep himself afloat and resorting to using a pool noodle to sit on so he wouldn't have to put too much effort into not drowning himself on accident. And after having spent the past several months cooped up, Aiden never stayed static for long like the other boys. Upon arriving he had immediately dived into the pool and swam several laps before getting out and pacing around the edge. Currently, he sat on the poolside with his legs restlessly kicking in the water and his jittery fingers twisting a pool noodle into styrofoam pieces of trash.
“So a little birdie told me Lu got his jaw readjusted...” Diablo teased one of his best friends, playfully elbowing Lucas on the ribs. Although he hadn’t been present to witness this firsthand, there was plenty of video evidence on Snapchat and Twitter about it. “Mamacita Chanel gave our boy here a round trip to the stars with the smack she gave him.”
A snort could be heard from the pool chair as Max straightened up, sliding his sunglasses to the top of his head ”What?! Why? Does this mean that my chances with MacMillan are even worse now?” he said with a disappointed pout that turned in to wide grin.
“In my defense, I didn't understand a single word she said,” Lucas made no attempt to hide the somewhat embarrassing display, content to cling onto the comical looking pool noodle. ”She was pissed. I still don't know what the hell I did…” Probably something stupid as usual, but it had happened so quickly he didn't get a chance to figure out what went wrong.
“You probably grabbed her ass or something,” Santiago mused, the thought of Chanel’s round and perky ass in the King’s Academy gym shorts very clear in his mind now. “Not that I blame you, though. God knows how long I’ve wanted to do it myself, but I like having a dick too much to risk it.”
Chanel Martin was definitely one of the girls Santiago had always wanted to take to bed, but knew it would be nothing short of impossible. Not only was she Julie's and April’s best friend, but she was also aware of his reputation, and had been very open in her dislike towards him. He knew that any attempts at getting into her pants would be met with a fate worse than the slap Lucas had received: if Chanel didn’t cut his dick off, April would happily do it herself. The risk was definitely not worth the reward.
Lucas shook his head in disagreement, left hand waving off the accused crime. “No way in hell I wouldn't remember that feeling,” He dismissed that possibility as he lowered his hand to his jaw, remembering her rage-fueled expression on that gorgeous face of Chanel's. Getting slapped was almost worth it, seeing how mad she was at him was kinda hot in a weird way.
Aiden sucked down a smokey breath of the bong, letting it simmer like a boiling disease in his lungs, before exhaling in a grey puff. For once, Aiden wasn't hungover like the others and was craving the hell out of a beer, but out of solidarity (mostly forced since Santiago was petty enough to deprive him) kept his blood alcohol-free. Sobriety was an ugly feeling, though, so he had been hogging the bong for the past ten minutes to wash away the bad taste juvenile hall left in his mouth.
“Man, juvie was such a sausage fest. I don't even remember how to think with my dick.” Aiden quipped, listening idly to the conversation completely centered around a girl's ass. Not seeing faces for several months, Aiden tried to remember what Chanel looked like and the picture slotted into place slowly in his foremind. He mostly remembers her ass, actually. “Wait, nevermind. I remembered how to think with my dick. Shit, now I'm sober and horny.”
Max let out a loud laugh as he laid back down flipping his glasses back over his eyes in one swift motion. “As if Chanel Martin would give any of us assholes even a minute of her time.” He peaked at Santiago lifting his glasses ever so slightly. “It’s a fucking miracle that April has hung around as long as she has.” He shot his friend a wink before letting his glasses settle down on the bridge of his nose again.
“Hey. Keep Lils out of this,” Diablo said rather brusquely, his muscled tensing as he remembered the reason why he’d asked his friends to hang out in the first place.
“Sooorry, I forgot she’s the only girl that’s off topic… for some god damned reason” Max huffed in a sarcastic tone flailing his arms around not even bothering to look up.
“You want a reason, Wallenberg?” Diablo spat, sliding his own glasses to the top of his head so he could glare at his friend. “I’ll give you a reason, cabrón: let’s just say Beba’s sticking around me for at least eighteen more years. That sound like a good enough reason to you?”
Sitting up slowly Max took of his sunglasses again looking more confused than anything. “No… That didn’t answer my question… like at all dude.” his eyes shooting from Lucas to Aiden looking for answers. “Why would she want to stick with you for eighteen years? That’s such a weirdly specific number.” he asked turning back to Santiago with a puzzled look.
Lucas watched the conversation rather nonchalantly, albeit at the mention of April there was the faintest ghost of a smile. Aha, so Diablo went ahead and confessed! Before the guy could relish in the victory of being right, his smile faltered at Santiago’s last comment, his bouncing slowly coming to a halt as he looked at his visibly anxious best friend. That was way, way too specific. The gears in his head turned, pushing aside the fogginess that usually came with being hungover as his face turned into one of pure shock, jaw hanging.
“Uh…” Lucas’ initial word was muddled as the realization crawled over him, quickly shaking his head. ”That’s--You--Uh--” He couldn’t articulate his words properly, raising his hands to his head in both confusion and horror.
Aiden’s sure that if he concentrated enough, he could figure out what Santiago meant. Already his mind was drawing up the significance of the number ‘18’ - legal age to fuck, legal age to fuck, legal age to fuck. Other than that, Aiden can’t think of anything important about eighteen.
“What’s in a number?” Aiden hummed in a faux-philosophical manner, chewing on his removed soda can tab.
“You guys need to speak in full sentences and without hidden meanings.” Max sighed annoyed still not catching on what his friends were talking about.
The scowl that Diablo had worn just a few seconds previously was replaced with booming laughter as he watched his friends reacting to his statement. “Alright, fine. Let me spell it out for you, Maxie-boy,” the boy began, grabbing the bong that sat between Max and Aiden and taking a long, deep drag of pot to build suspense. He definitely needed the high for what he was about to admit. “In about six months, y’all are gonna be tíos. Any of you know what that means?”
“I know exactly two phrases in Spanish: ‘quiero acostarme contigo’ and ‘donde esta la tienda de licores’. One of them I learned in juvie and it wasn’t the one asking where the alcohol is.” Aiden said smugly, sipping his coke. Juvenile hall might have been severely lacking in women, but Aiden is nothing if not versatile when it comes to getting some fuck.
Lucas closed his mouth as he squinted at Santiago. “No, Dora the Explorer hasn’t gotten that far yet, what does that mean?”
At his comment, Santiago choked on his soda, spraying the innocent Max with a mouthful of Pepsi. Once he was over it, he howled with laughter for so long his abdomen started to hurt.
“Ugh! It means uncles…” Max grunted as he started to wipe the pepsi off. Flinging his hands to get the sugary liquid of his torso. “I don’t see how that…” his face slackened in realization. “Oh shit.” Max whispered before falling silent, his face settling into a face of concern.
Now that his friends got it, Diablo nodded nonchalantly at them. “Yup. In about half a year, your boy’s going to be a dad,” he finally confirmed, taking another long hit of the bong.
Aiden began laughing like Diablo said the funniest thing he’s ever heard because, well, he did.
“Man, how do you say ‘you should have pulled out’ in Spanish?” Aiden howled in between fits, his hands holding his sides as he literally fell over and began rolling on the floor laughing and even earning himself a few chuckles from Santiago. Truth be told, Aiden didn’t really grasp the severity and importance of having a baby and was rather looking forward to seeing how things would fold out. He always did like a bit of chaos and thought watching all of this fall apart would be a bit entertaining.
Getting confirmation of his suspicions threw Lucas for a loop as he flattened his hands against the ground, eyes wide as he tried to process this news. He wanted to speak, but any words or thoughts got caught in his throat. He probably should have at least had the decency to look away, but there was a small part of him that was hoping for a ‘just kidding!’ or for Santiago to start laughing again. When neither came, Lucas swallowed hard, sinking into the pool.
“So…” He finally found it in him to talk again, albeit with some difficulty. “...congrats? Maybe? You seem to be taking this really well, bro.”
Santiago snorted. “As well as someone who’s still trying to believe it can take it,” he said earnestly, giving Lucas a shrug. “I’m scared shitless, but what else can I do other than to get over it? I mean, when your mom puts the fucking fear of God into you with a slap harder than the one Chanel gave you and starts talking about marriage, you start to believe it pretty quick.”
“Quick question,” Aiden murmured after having calmed down, raising his hand lazily like he was in some weird fucked up sex-ed class, “Are we down for naming the baby Snoop Lion? Because I'm so down.”
Max who had stayed uncharacteristically quiet cleared his throat “So…” he began looking down at his pineapple shorts before looking up at his friend again. “Have you discussed all of your options?” his eyes trying to find some sort of seriousness from his latin friend. “I mean, were talking about bringing a kid in to the world.” he stated “Look, you know I love you Santi -no homo-, but you can barely take care of yourself and now you’re going to be a dad?” his hands showed his anxiety where they were clasped tight in front of the blond boy.
“Jesus, Max, you sound just like my dad…” Diablo said with a grimace, remembering the conversation he’d had with his father after his mom had stormed out of the dining room. “Look, man, I appreciate the concern and all, but I just found out about it yesterday. Lils hasn’t even told her dad yet, and we haven’t had the chance to actually sit down and think about how we’ll go about things. All I know is that she’s ten weeks along.”
Aiden sighed from where he sat, his laughter gone as Max chased it away with a somber mood most unlike him. To show his slight annoyance, Aiden splashed water at Max with his foot before reaching over to push Santiago's shoulder encouragingly.
“Man, there's no reason to get all serious.” Aiden huffed, “It's just a baby. What's the worst that can happen? Just hire a nanny — preferably one you can bang like in those bad pornos.”
The suggestion brought a mischievous smile to Diablo’s lips. “Now there's a thought,” he said impishly, wiggling his eyebrows while briefly splashing Aiden with chlorine water. “I wouldn’t mind a hot babysitter to take care of me too.
Lucas wrinkled his nose in disdain, disagreeing with Aiden's statement. “I don't think that April would appreciate that,” He said, glancing back at Santiago.
“No! Whatever, I love babies! I’m just saying… Maybe not at 18!” Max shrugged “I’m down for Snoop Lion.” he quipped as he laid back down on the chair.
“No, you can’t just name a kid after a meme, that’s just fucked up,” Lucas denied the hilarious name with a barely held back laugh, making an attempt to go back to the topic at hand. “This is serious. It’s not just a baby, bro, that’s an entire life, a--a human being that’s gonna get older and someday be in the exact same position we are. Are you and April going to keep it, or abort it, or give it away, or--or what?
Although he should have been happy that his loyal band of idiots were taking the news a lot more seriously than he thought they would, Diablo was starting to get flustered by this whole thing. Yes, he was definitely grateful for their concern, but the main reason he'd called them up in the first place was to help him let loose and forget the immense pile of shit he was under. Sitting around and asking him questions he had no answers to was only doing the opposite: making the young man feel more nervous, stupid and afraid of the situation.
Santiago let out a deep breath before rubbing his face with his hand. “I mean, I brought all that up yesterday to Lils when she first told me, and she was ready to throttle me when I mentioned getting rid of it in any way... So we're definitely keeping it for now, I guess.”
Lucas opened his mouth to ask why before abruptly closing it. Fuck, she probably wanted to keep it after he had encouraged Santiago to tell April about his actual feelings. Any argument he could have had to discourage his best friend from going through with this was officially null and void. He took a rather long drink of his soda, trying to think of what he could possibly say to assuage him, but he was still having trouble wrapping his head around everything.
Well, of course he wasn’t going to come up with anything. Oh, maybe he could try to think of something Nadia would say. “Well...how do you feel about it…?” Wow, that came out so much worse than he had intended, he was pretty sure Nadia would have said something comforting or assuring, he sounded like one of those cliche therapists.
Santiago raised an eyebrow at his best friend. “I already told you, Lu: I’m scared shitless,” he repeated, visibly annoyed and uncomfortable about the insistence they all had to talk about his feelings. “I’m fucking terrified and have no goddamned idea what the hell I’m supposed to do other than take it like a man. Now can we go back to talking about banging girls again?”
Aiden jumped up from where he was sitting, getting tired of the conversation quickly. “Alright, let’s go over the facts: she’s pregnant, Santiago’s screwed, and we’re not going to solve anything sitting here with our dicks in our hands. I just got out of juvie and I’m ready to party. Where the fuck is the booze?”
Shaking his head defeated, Max stood up sighing. “Well now that that’s good and done with…” he paused as he threw his arm around Aiden. “... Let’s get this bastard plastered!” his booming laugh rang out over the Fernandez garden.
Lucas frowned at the trio, though as he looked at Santiago’s expression, he knew the conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere. Best to have the more intricate details discussed in private; Aiden’s offer was mighty tempting. Clapping Santi’s shoulder, he leaned in for a moment. “We’re here for you,” He told him quietly before grinning. ”I’m down for plastered, boozed, intoxicated, and can we please go back to the topic of Chanel’s ass; we did not talk about that for as long as I would have liked.”
Eternally grateful for the change in subject, Santiago’s demeanor immediately went back to its usual cocky self, and his uncomfortable frown morphed back to the million-dollar grin. “Then let’s get fucked up all over again, cabrones!” he whooped, leaving the pool and heading out to the outdoor fridge to toss some beers over to his boys. He knew deep down that getting plastered again was definitely not a smart idea after the raging hangover he was nursing, but at this point, Diablo didn’t care. Drinking himself into oblivion was definitely better than going back to the hole he’d dug himself into thanks to thinking with the wrong head. It was too late to make smart decisions.
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