Falsity

~Part One~

Over the loudspeaker everyone could hear their principal's voice, sounding more uninterested than the students as he announced last minute sign ups for summer clubs. But no one was listening, everyone was staring at the clocks in their classrooms counting down the minutes. Packing up their belongings, some inching slightly out of their seats, even some teachers gave a resigned nod and let students out early knowing how crowded the halls were about to become.

The anticipation in the air was almost tangible, like the quiet before a storm.

Then the bell rang, cutting off the principal's voice. It was finally summer vacation.

Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors all ran out their classes. There was this buzz of excitement as all anyone could hear was the laughter and chatter as students headed towards their friends. Hardly anyone rode the bus home on the last day of school. Everyone was too eager to celebrate. There were so many parties that were starting later that night no one wanted to get busted by their parents. Sleepovers were always the perfect cover up.

So many groups of students littered the parking lot, some talking, getting ready to leave, and some just hanging out and enjoying their time. Amongst these groups was Charlie and his friends throwing a football back and forth to each other. However he wasn't really focused on the ball and where it was being thrown, he was more focused on the girl who was silently waiting on her ride beside them. For some reason she's been the only thing on his mind the past month.

Even with being the captain of the baseball team Charlie still couldn't find the courage to ask her out, he's never even said one word to her. He only noticed her because she was the only sophomore in his science class. She was always so quiet with an earbud snuck inside her sweatshirt that always went unnoticed by everyone except for him. For some reason he noticed everything about her. He just didn't know why.

Getting hit with the football brought him out of his head, quickly turning to pay attention to his friends, he missed the way the girl noticed and laughed to herself.

His friend Erik noticed what he was staring at and laughed. "Really dude? Of all people, you're staring at some mouse?" Erik opened up his hands to catch the ball, snickering as he wound his friend up. Throwing the ball at him aggressively, Charlie glared at his best friend.

"Don't even start, Erik. You're just jealous because deep down, you secretly want all my attention." Charlie shot back, trying to brush off his comment. He knew that once his friend started there was no end to his monologue that always followed. "And for the record, just because someone isn't constantly yapping everyone's ear off like you doesn't make them a mouse."

Erik smirked as he rolled his eyes, tossing the ball to another one of their friends before heading towards Charlie with his hands raised in mock surrender. "Look, I'm just saying— you just made captain! Embrace it. Do you know how many chicks want you right now? Wait no— do you know how many people just want to be around you!" To prove his point he turned Charlie around and faced him towards the hottest group of girls, the cheerleaders.

Not having a choice in the matter, Charlie made eye contact with the first girl he saw, which ended up being Samantha.

She wasn't the captain but she was the most popular if any of the guys at school had a say. She's been trying to get his attention even before he was made captain. She smiled, showing off her freshly bleached teeth that always stood out against the fake tan she somehow always had. He had no other choice but to be polite and gave a quick wave with a grimace. Not having noticed how uncomfortable he was she waved back at him, blushing she quickly turned towards her friends while giggling.

"Do you know what she's probably saying right now? Oh my gosh, Charlie Ryans just waved at me!"Erick exaggerated in a high pitched voice, his arms tightening around Charlie.

Shoving his friend off Charlie tossed his head back, not shocked at his friend's behavior.

He looked at his friend who was still goofing around, most likely trying to get a rise out of him. "Dude I know you're joking, she was probably just happy either one of us even looked at her. You basically made it obvious with your loud ass mouth." And then he remembered something else, "Also, you know her reputation. Wasn't she just dating Wilkinson? For like two weeks at that?"

He knew who he wanted. And that was Sol. He couldn't believe he never noticed her before.

Erik just shrugged and rejoined their friends, dropping the topic that would eventually be brought up again. Charlie went with him, happy to finally have his friend shut up.

Back at the school entrance Donovan Fenty quickly walked out, having gotten caught by his coach he was now trying to find his friends in the large crowd of students.

In his rush, he accidentally knocked into Sol, causing her to drop her notebook on the ground. Startled, she quickly took out her earbud as he crouched down to pick it up. "My bad, didn't mean to knock into you." He quickly apologized. But as he looked up, he realized who he was talking to. A teasing smirk curled his lips as soon as they made eye contact. "Oh it's you. Hey, sweetheart."

"Watch it Fenty, if that was my phone you and I would have had a problem." Snatching the notebook out of his hand she went to put her earbud back in, she was too exhausted to even deal with his shenanigans today. Somehow, he always managed to see her at least once a day to say or do something annoying, it seemed as though that was all he did when he was around her.

"Oh come on, you love me too much." He smiled down knowingly, they never had any issues. "Whatcha listening to today?"

With how close they already were Charlie was able to notice their conversation, overhearing the nickname Donovan casually called her. Not liking how close he was to her he went to walk over, quickly getting stopped by Erik who shook his head. "You and him already have your problems, don't make it worse when you're not even dating the girl. Plus we're still on school property. We need our captain for next season."

Charlie wanted to push Erik down, he knew the history between him and Donovan. It wasn't going to repeat, he wouldn't let it happen.

However it didn't matter anyway, because when he looked back up he noticed the conversation between Donovan and Sol quickly ended when an old Altima pulled up right in front of them, the driver almost hitting a couple of students in the process. Sol rolled her eyes at whatever Donovan said to her and quickly hopped in the car.

Charlie starred as the car drove off, the speed of it nearly taking out some more students. He looked back to where she previously was and made eye contact with Donovan, instantly glaring. He was already staring back at Charlie with some cocky grin.

Both of them just maintained eye contact when Donovan decided to be the first one to look away, rolling his eyes as he walked over to his friends.

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Hiii! I've done so much editing after posting, taking down, posting, and then taking it down again. But I am so much happier with the results. If you have read this before, when it was up for a whole two seconds, I have changed the name of the book along with some character names. 

I also want to point out that this book is taking place sometime around 2013, I am absolutely obsessed with this era for some reason. So if you were a teen at the time and notice somethings don't make sense then you're probably right because I was still in 3rd grade at the time. 

I hope you give this book a chance though, I haven't done anything since 2018 and so I'm pretty rusty. I hope you guys like it.