Late Nights & City Lights (Connor Franta / O2L)

Chapter 7

“Ouch!”  I said as his elbow dug into my stomach.

“Oh, sorry!”

That voice.  I looked up and found myself staring into a pair of green eyes.  The boy grinned, obviously recognizing me too.

“Hey, Allison.”

“Hey, Connor.”  I smiled at him.  Then, aware of how close we were standing and feeling Gina’s stare locked on us, I took a step back.  “Did the boys drag you out here again?”

Connor laughed.  “Guilty as charged.”

So that had been the group of guys heading for the volleyball courts.  I wondered if that girl screaming for Sam had actually been an O2L fan.  It would make sense why she was running like her life depended on it.  Some girls were crazy.

I remembered that Gina was still standing there, so I quickly introduced her to Connor.  “Uh, Connor, this is my friend Gina.  Gina, Connor.”

“Nice to meet you, Connor,” Gina said, her voice suddenly flirty.  “Allison, this is the guy that walked you home, right?  You never told me he was so hot.”

“Allison never told me that she had such a beautiful friend either,” Connor said smoothly.  “I guess Allison kept a lot of things from us.”

Gina turned to look at me, her mouth hanging open in awe and appreciation.  “I like this boy!”

Connor grinned, obviously pleased with himself.  “So what are you two doing right now?”

“Well, I would say you, but I’m going to meet up with my boo,” Gina said, sticking out her lower lip in a pout.  “Allison’s free though.”

And with that, Gina skipped off to meet up with Shawn.  In her absence, Connor turned to look at me.

“Is she always like that?”

“You get used to it.”  I shrugged casually.

“Connor!”  Someone yelled.  We turned simultaneously to see a figure jogging back up the sandy slope towards us.  “Dude, are you coming or what?  Who’s this?”

“Oh, uh this is my friend Allison,” Connor said.  “She’s the one I met the other night.”

“Oh yeah, I remember,” the dark-haired boy said.  “I’m Jc.”

“Hi,” I replied softly.  I glanced over at Connor.  “Um, I’d better—”

“Did you want to come?”  Connor cut across me.  “I mean, you’re welcome to, unless you’d rather meet up with Gina.”

“You should come!”  Jc said.  “It’ll be a lot of fun, I promise!”

I checked with Connor to make sure he was okay with it.  When he nodded, I said, “Uh, sure, I guess…”

“Great!”  Jc grabbed me by the hand and dragged me along behind him towards the volleyball court.  I stumbled over my feet, but Jc didn’t stop.  He rushed over to the other guys, who were bumping the ball around between them. “Guys!  I brought us a friend!”

The tallest boy caught the ball and tucked it under his arm.  Four pairs of eyes were suddenly on me, not to mention the death glares from the girls that were sitting on the side, watching.  Jc pulled me forward and I couldn’t help but feel like an animal at the zoo.

“This is Allison,” Jc introduced me proudly, still holding my hand.

“Hi,” I said, waving at the boys staring at me.

“I’m gonna guess you know them,” Jc said, “but if not, that’s Kian, Ricky, Sam, and Trevor.”

There was a chorus of “hey”s around me.  Connor had finally caught up and was standing on the other side of me.  He grinned at me, shrugging as if to say, “I can’t help my friends.”  I returned the smile.  Ricky, who had been holding the ball, chucked it at Connor, who narrowly avoided being slammed in the face by ducking down.  Jc jumped over to throw his arm around Trevor’s shoulders and whispered something in his friend’s ear.  I noticed they were both looking at Connor.  Trevor laughed at something.

“So, Allison,” Kian said, coming over and leaning on Connor.  “I hope our little Franta here didn’t scare you too much the other night.”

“No,” I responded, shaking my head.  “He was a perfect gentleman.”

“That’s a first,” Ricky joked, rubbing his fist against Connor’s head, messing up his hair.  Connor fled, laughing as he pushed his hair back into place.  Ricky and Kian continued to chase Connor in circles, messing with and poking him.  As I watched, laughing, my phone rang.  I saw ‘Gina’ printed on the screen.

“Hey, Gina, what’s up?”  I asked, sticking my finger into my ear to block out Ricky and Connor’s yells.

“Where you at?”  She shouted into the phone.  I had to move my cell a few inches away from my ear.  Wherever she was, it wasn’t lacking music.

“I’m still with Connor,” I answered.  “We’re at the volleyball courts.”

“You’ve got to come meet Shawn!”  Gina sounded like she was starting to get a bit tipsy.  “And he’s got friends!  Like, hot friends!”

“Okay, okay, I’m on my way,” I finally conceded.

Gina squealed in delight.  “Yay!  See you soon!”

She hung up and I was left shaking my head in wonder by my friend.  I searched for Connor, and found him using Trevor as a human shield against Kian and Ricky.  I didn’t want to interrupt, but at the same time, I didn’t want to be rude and leave without saying anything.

“Uh, Connor?”  I called.  Kian and Ricky immediately stopped their attacks and looked at me then back to Connor with devilish grins on their face.

“Connor!”  Kian yelled, grinning and making his infamous crab hands.

“Connor, it’s for you!”  Ricky chirped, jumping into the same stance as Kian.  They ran in circles around Connor, snatching at him with their “claws”.  Connor laughed, trying to swat them away.  I could tell they were making fun of Connor, though I didn’t know why.

Connor, still holding Trevor out in front of him, made his way over to me.  When he determined that his friends were going to leave him alone, he let go of Trevor, who ran back to Jc and Sam.

“What’s up?”  He asked.

“Gina called,” I told him.  “She wants me to go meet up with her.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he said, pushing his hair back.  I noticed he did that a lot.  “I understand.  We can meet up later, yeah?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”  I smiled and he returned it, the corners of his eyes crinkling.  It was actually kind of cute.  Ricky tossed the volleyball over our heads and Kian raced to retrieve it, slamming into Connor on the way.  Connor stumbled forward and bumped against me, his arms grabbing my waist so he wouldn’t fall and take us both down. 

Connor realized where he was holding me.  “Sorry,” he said quickly, standing up straight.  “Kian and Ricky are…Well, they can be…them.”

“It’s okay,” I said.  I was glad it was dark, as I could feel my cheeks burning slightly.  “Um, I’d better go…”

“Okay,” Connor said, nodding.  “Yeah.  See you later.”

“Bye.”  I waved at Connor, traipsing back up the beach to find my friend.  As I left, I could hear Ricky and Kian yelling, but I didn’t know what it was about.