Just a Crush (Just Lovers, #1)

Chapter 1: Summer Senior

The last bell of the school year finally rings. It tugs on the students more than the teacher's frantic voice trying to wish us a good summer holiday as all of them hurry out of the room.

I gather all of my belongings and throw them inside my backpack, giving our head teacher a nod of acknowledgement to wish her the same she tried to do with us. Her head tilts to the side with a soft smile and she waves at me.

Teachers deserve a lot more respect than they receive.

Everyone is excited to spend the last summer as a high schooler with their friends since we will become seniors after the summer ends.

Including me.

Jenny is waiting for me in the hallway next to the door. She was probably the first one to get out of class.

"Those were two hours of my life thrown out the window." She groans when I join her side, linking her arm with mine. "I will never understand why they bother to send us here for report cards. As if they couldn't have given them to us the moment exams were over."

Dorian joins us next to Jenny as we walk past his homeroom. "Cursing the school system once again, Jenny?" His face stays stoic but by now we can all tell when he's amused by the slight crinkle in the corner of his eyelid.

"You know me so well, White," she muses, ruffling his shaggy hair. "I don't blame Avery for teasing you. You do look like the movie version of Dorian Gray."

He slaps her hands away, sleeking it down again into a more organized mess. "It's just a hairstyle, for fuck's sake. If anything, he looks like me."

"That movie came out in 2009 when you were five. You could barely walk with coordination, White, so calm your horses," Avery points out when she tags along and together we make it out of the building.

For the last time for the next two months.

The parking lot is full of the older students, settling their plans for today.

"Hey, Jenny!" A blonde guy jogs over to us, a varsity jacket thrown over his shoulder. Once he's close enough for me to see his features clearly, I realize who it is.

"What's up, Eddie?" Jenny rolls her eyes without a stutter.

Eduard, or Eddie, is the captain of the football team. Famous for his amazing game on and off the field with the girls of our school. Not many have resisted the urge to kiss that pretty face.

Unfortunately for him, Jenny has denied him each time he tried to make a move on her. Especially after he attended a party with her and then hit on her sister at the end of sophomore year.

His pride got slapped across the face when both of the Bennet sisters rejected him on the same night and drove away from the party in Josephine's car. To this day I wish I could have been there to see his face when they shot his ego with double rejection.

But, as usual, I was too busy working on my paintings that day.

I was in the middle of painting a mountain scenery when Jenny called me from the car, her and Josephine giggling all over the place as they told me she will be at my house in ten minutes so we could laugh about it for the rest of the night.

Watching Jenny struggle to not trip as she was getting out of the car, still in the middle of a giggle attack, made up for the fact that I didn't see Eddie's fall.

"Does nine at yours still stand? The guys and I wanted to make sure so we don't show up and no one's there yet." He rubs the back of his neck, throwing a hand in the direction of the other three footballers of our school. They raise their hands when they sense us looking in their direction.