A Star-Shaped Rose

chapter 7 •

"No! Bad boy!" I say and stuff it into my back pocket. He huffs and heads to his front door. Shoot

"No, Sean!" I yell and he turns to me.

"What?! I just want to go home" I resist the need to say you are home

"But just.. look at the pretty.. bushes" I say and cringe. Really? Bushes? Oh well.

"Wow, I've seen those everyday this weekend! I don't care about bu-..." he is cut off by my phone.

Yes, come on in it reads. Thank the gods. I turn to face Sean who is staring intently at the bushes. So now he does what I tell him.

"Okay, lets go" I push him towards the door and "Just shut up and open the stupid door" i rub my temples as he twists the doorknob and opens the door.

"Why the hell is it so dar-.."

"Surprise!" everyone jumps out and the lights blind me. I smile, not because of the blinding lights, and look at Sean who looks scared to death. I punch his shoulder.

"Happy birthday!" we all scream in unison. Yeah, it wasn't planned which makes it weird. its witchcraft. A whole lot of people i've never seen before are here and a lot of people i have seen are also here.

There's some people who used to go to my school when i was a freshman or a sophmore. There are even people from my grade. Gross. I will have to burden Christopher on that later.

Claire and my mom come running up to us and when they finally reach us, by moving people out of the way.. Very rudely, they are out of breath.

"Happy 20th birthday. It's a pool party and we contacted some of your old friends and their friends so it will be fun!" Claire fist pumps my mom and kisses Sean on the cheek and leaves. Why do our parents act more like teenagers than me, who is actually a teenager? Oh well.

"Wow" Sean says speechless.

"Yep"

"Oh, look there's Drunk Jason! And Shoe-Shine!" he says happily. Those are his best high school friends, you know.. Beides me. Jason's nickname is drunk Jason because he is known to get blackout drunk during parties, and Shoe-Shine is Sam. he used to call himself the 'Shining Sam'. Sam came from a poor family, and one day he had really old shoes and people were making fun of them, so.. 'Legend' says, that Sam jumped some rich guy and took his money and bought these really cool shoes. I honestly don't believe that story, but he did get money somehow and those shoes were cool. So welcome... Shoe-Shine.

"Bye, Stell" Sean kisses my forehead and walks off to Sam and Jason. I roll my eyes as i watch them do their thing.

"What are you doing here alone?" a familiar voice asks behind me and i turn around and i groan. This is the exact reason i'm going to yell at Christopher later.

"Leave me alone, Carter" i feel like i say these exact same words everyday to everyone.. Oh well.

"No can do" he smirks and steps in front of me when i turn away. "And why not?" i ask and put my hand on my hip. He looks at my action and chuckles and ignores my questions. He grabs my wrist and starts walking in the different direction with me following.

"Where are we going?" i huff, and he ignores me. He opens up the back door to the backyard where mostly everyone is at.

"No seriously, what are we doing?" he stops and turns to me and a mischievous smile forms on his face. That's not good.

"It's pretty hot out" he looks up at the sky. "I think we should go for a swim" okay, i'm not that dumb to know what he is planning.

"No" i say and turn around, but he grabs my wrist and turns me around and picks me up to throw me on his shoulder.

"No, no, Carter, put me down, now!!" i scream as he laughs and ignores my protests and i look down to see water. "Carter!" i warn as he yells "cowabunga!" and that fool jumps into the water with me.

I hold my breathe and swim to the top of the water and start kicking my legs, so i'll stay up and not drown. That wouldn't be good.

"Carter!" i yell once he comes up to the surface. He starts laughing uncontrollably, so i do the only rational thing to do at a time like this. I splash him with water and push him into the water and swim away and out of the pool.

"That wasn't nice" Carter says once he comes up. I shrug my shoulder and fake laugh. "Sucks for you" i laugh again this one not so fake. "Can you at least help me up" he holds out a hand. I would help him but i don't feel like him pulling me into the water with him.

"Nope" i grab a towel from the table and take off my jeans because i have my swim suit under it, but leave my shirt on. No way in hell am i going to take off my shirt, even though i'm wearing a bikini, in front of all the people out here.

"Oooo, who knew you had legs, Stella fella" Carter comes out from the pool and up to me. I roll my eyes and wrap the towel around my legs. See, if I took off my shirt this would be worse.. most likely.

"Aww, booo" he pouts and I shrug. "Go bother someone else" I shoo him away and guess what? He doesn't leave, so I leave.

"Where are you going?" He asks and follows me. Why the sudden interest? Weird boy.

"Away from you" I say and go into the house and into the kitchen where my parents, Claire, and Andrew are.

"Hey" I say and see what I'm looking for. The chip bowl. I bring it towards me and start eating chips.

"Hi, Stella" my parents say as Claire and Andrew say hi to Carter, you know him being Christopher's friend and all.

"I didn't know you guys were friends" Claire says and points at us.

"We're not" I say at the same time Carter says "yeah, we are" I roll my eyes and clarify that we aren't.

"Okay" they say not interested anymore. I shake my head and leave not forgetting to take the chip bowl.

"Hey, wait up!" I start walking faster and go up their stairs and into the first room and lock it. I hear footsteps before they start retreating. I sigh and turn around to face the room, but the last thing I expected to be here is on the bed. Yes, I nearly drop my chips.

The poor, poor chips