Take Me Home | ✔

Chapter One

[ one ] - hot chocolate & elevators 

↠  thursday - eight days until graduation

              MY TOES WERE FALLING OFF.  

           The little red flag waved lamely in the colder-than-it-should've-been early May air, as the tourist guide who carried it led the wave of students into the pier, called Jennette's Pier. I shivered in my sandals, trying to wriggle warmth into my toes again. When the permission slip read senior beach trip, I had packed for just that. Not for some winter excursion to a frozen pier. 

        "This is definitely not what I had paid for," I whispered to my best friend, Kara, leaning over to her. "I thought North Carolina was warm." 

        "Why'd you think that? It's North of the equator," Kara laughed in my face jokingly, but wrapped an arm around me. 

          "You think you're so cool just because you're wearing a jacket and sweatpants," I rolled my eyes. 

            "Well, no one told you you had to wear shorts and a blouse as thin as paper." 

       She eyed my summer outfit with a mocking look before I shoved her to the side of the railing, making her squeal and gaining many looks from our senior class. She stuck her tongue out at me, as we kept walking, following the tour guide down the long, long pier. 

       In the distance, I saw my boyfriend, Austin, walk ahead of us in the crowd. I tried to ignore the fact that he was standing abnormally close to Patricia Willis's supermodel body, but I failed at it. I only stared at the back of her head, suspicious thoughts making me jump to conclusions, something I did a lot. 

         Kara looks at me and follows my gaze. "Aw, Vi, don't think that way." 

       "What? Think in what way?" I ask innocently. But I couldn't tear my gaze away from Austin and Patricia, who were laughing at some joke. A lame one, I assume. But my jaw dropped as Austin shuffles closer to her body. I glared at Patricia's perfect blonde locks hard, like I could turn her into stone if I concentrated enough. 

        "You think Austin has feelings for Patricia," Kara whispered low enough so that no one can hear.

          "It's not something impossible, they were almost exes, Kar," I tell her without tearing my gaze away from the pair of them. Jealousy was something that came common to me, and I hated it. But I couldn't control it. 

        "They never went out in the first place," Kara rolls her eyes. "Don't sweat it, love. He loves you and only you." 

But I couldn't stop looking. 

         "Stop that," Kara scolds, poking my shoulder roughly. "He asked you out three years ago because he likes your random, quirky personality. You're ten times hotter than Patricia Willis, my friend." 

          I scoffed, tugging at my blouse that didn't help ward off the cold weather. "That's what best friends are supposed to say." 

           And that was when Austin wrapped a taut arm around Patricia, and tucked back a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. 

         Kara and I share a heated look, our jaws dropping. I frowned, crossing my goosebump-covered arms across my chest. A deep feeling swelled in my gut, and I clenched and unclenched my fists so my nails bit deep into my skin. I knew I shouldn't be too harsh, but this kind of thing has been happening for months with Austin, except, with other girls. I tried to tell myself each time that it would stop, that Austin would come to his senses, but it never has. Maybe Austin was getting tired of me. After three years, from sophomore year to our last days as high school seniors, maybe he wanted a new change scenery.