08. family excursion

                                    

                                          
❛ ━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━ ❜
chapter eight: family excursion
[a/n]: enjoy the chapter! more filler, but it's a bit more eventful than the previous one.
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━━━ "HEY, BUXBAUM, HOW WOULD YOU feel about a little late-night adventure with me and Greg?" Rodrick asks over the phone that night, his voice garbled.
Haley stares at herself in the bathroom mirror, her mouth sudsy with soap like a rabid dog, her pink toothbrush hanging from her mouth. "Gr-g? I tharght yur her-ted hirm."
"Speak English, Buxbaum. You know incoherent sentences are my thing," Rodrick chuckles.
Haley rolls her eyes as if he can see her, but the tug of a smile on her lips is irresistible. She spits out her toothpaste, rinses out her mouth, and repeats her sentence. "Greg? I thought you hated him."
"Usually," Rodrick says slyly. "But the kid isn't actually as lame as I thought he was."
"I could have told you that a long time ago," Haley jokes fondly. "I really think he's a charming kid." 
"We're moving into lying territory, Buxbaum. Now, what do you say?" Rodrick urges her. 
Haley can almost hear his smile over the phone, which makes it difficult to decline his offer. But then again, she looks at herself in the full-body bathroom mirror, and grimaces. Her getup is something, to say the least: Powerpuff Girls pajamas, messy hair, and fuzzy cat slippers.
"Can I bring my sister?" Haley questions, peeking out the bathroom doorway to see if her sister's light is still on. It's blindingly bright, seeping like honey out the crack of Alex's door. She's probably huddled under the covers playing some stupid game on her iPad. She's hardly occupied.
"Of course you can. Hey, maybe Greg'll want to hang out with her, too." The tone with which Rodrick says this suggests there's more to the story. 
This is confirmed when a faint voice from the other line hisses, "Shut up, Rodrick!"
"I'll be there," Haley sighs, kicking off her slippers and lazily running a brush through her hair to make herself look a bit more presentable. She hangs up, tucks the phone away, and bellows, "Alex! Do you want to go out with me tonight?"
There's the quiet padding of footsteps across wooden floorboards, then the click of a door opening. "That depends..." Alex says, her voice trailing off as she steps outside into the hallway. She's clad in penguin-patterned pajamas and similar slippers to Haley's. "Who are we going with?"
"Why do you assume we're going with someone?" Haley frowns, instantly wondering if Alex had been eavesdropping on her conversation. Like Lisbeth, Alex has a special attraction to gossip.
"Because you never do anything remotely fun unless someone's pressuring or forcing you to," Alex replies, raising a challenging eyebrow at her older sister and shrugging.
"Fine," Haley answers. "We're going with Greg and Rodrick."
"Ew," Alex groans. "Greg is such an annoying little creep." Haley gives her sister a shocked, reprimanding look. "I'm no liar, Haley Louise." Haley winces at the use of her middle name, which was what her sister often uses to get a reaction out of her. She never fails. "Greg collects crushes like they're Pokémon. Earlier in the year, he wouldn't take his eyes off Holly Hills. Now he's got his sights set on me, and he thinks he's being secretive about it. It's so embarrassing."