Across The Street // Luke Hemmings

Chapter One

Chapter One

"I'm sweating my ass off," Katie yelled at me as we made our way up the hill going back to our house.

Going for a run on a summer day in California probably wasn't our smartest idea, but there was something about the air over here that makes you want to do crazy things.

Katie and I are from Maine, but we're going to college in California this fall.

Our parents rented us a small, two-bedroom condo to live in over the summer in California. Katie and I are both screenwriting majors, and the program that the college has in the summer was too good an offer to pass up.

Our parents are planning on making a few trips to come visit us, because we are only 18 after all.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go! Only a few more steps! Just think of how nice the air conditioning will feel once we- Katie, what the hell?!" I turned back to find Katie curled up in a ball in the middle of the street.

"Am I dead? I feel like I'm dead. Chelsea, I can't feel my face." I always drag her on these little adventures, but isn't that what best friends are for?

"Get up, you little fucker! The girls will be over soon and we need to shower. Seriously, smell yourself." That seemed to get her up off the ground.

That rush of cold air when you walk through the door never gets old. "Oh my God, YES. I'm telling you, that feeling is so orgasmic."

Katie's the type of person who says what everyone is thinking, but choose not to say because it's probably innapropriate. She has no filter, and it's amazing.

I rolled my eyes before sprinting to the shower. Katie takes forever in there, so I wanted to get in first.

After cleaning ourselves up, it was almost 5:00.

We were having the other girls from our screenwriting course over. There's only six of us in the class, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to get a jump start on making friends in college.

The class has already met a couple of times, and they all seemed super sweet. Honestly, we'll take what we can get.

"Okay, how do I look?" Katie modeled her outfit for me.

"Wow, you look great, especially for someone who suffered such a traumatic death while jogging half a mile today!"

"No that's good, get all your wise cracks out of your system now before the girls come over. We need friends, Chelsea. Don't fuck this up, okay?"

Her voice was getting so increasingly louder, that we almost didn't hear the doorbell ring.

"Showtime!" Katie exclaimed as she clapped her hands together.

"Hey ladies! Come in, come in, come in!" I held the door open while the four of them filed in.

Katie quickly said, "Let's sit in the living room! This place is tiny but this couch is so god damn comfortable I could have an orgasm just-"

Oh my God.

I shot her a look, as if to say, "cool it with the orgasm talk" but after a few seconds of silence, the other girls started laughing hysterically. Thank goodness.

Turns out, the orgasm comment was exactly the ice breaker we needed.

These girls were just like Katie and me, which made conversation effortless. Sam, Brooke, Peyton, and Jill were all hilarious and so easy to talk to.

We were so busy talking and laughing, we hadn't even noticed that it was dinner time.

"Just a large cheese pizza, please. Yes, thank you," Katie said into the phone before giving them the address to deliver to.

"Alright, it should be here in 15 minutes or so! Actually, if it takes longer than a half hour, it's free. And that's the shit I like," Katie informed the group.

After another 20 minutes of chatting and getting to know each other, the doorbell rang.

"Pizza's here. That's the shit I like," Peyton mimicked.

"Awww yeah." Katie nodded in approval. I opened the door to get the pizza, and I took out money from my pocket.

"Oh, actually, you're all set," the delivery guy said with a smile.

"But it only took you 20 minutes, I thought it had to take you over a half hour for us to get it for free?" I asked.

"Don't ask questions about free pizza," I heard from behind me.

The man chuckled as he shook his head. "No, I mean that those guys across the street took care of it for you," he said as he pointed behind him to a small group of guys fooling around on skateboards and bikes.

"Oh, ok? Thanks," I responded, even though I was thoroughly confused.

The delivery guy walked away, and while the door was still open, I quietly asked the girls, "do any of you know those clowns?"

They all shook their heads.

"I'd like to know them, that's for sure," said Sam.

"I'd like to suck that one's -"

"SHHHH." I cut Katie off.

"We don't bite, you know," came from across the street.

Damn Katie and her loud mouth.

We're all just standing in the doorway staring at them. And I'm holding a fucking pizza.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: thanks for reading! please don't forget to comment and vote for this chapter.. thank you :)