Chasing the New Girl - (Complete)

Chapter 2 - Getting to Know Austin

Austin opened the door to his bedroom and the first thing she noticed was that it had a rustic cedar smell that was so inviting and his room was actually really clean. He had a really cool metal bed with lockers along the side of it like what you would see in a locker room. Basketball and football trophies and medals were lined up on a shelf around the top of the room and above his headboard was a professional black and white photo of him in a football uniform throwing a football. He also had a basketball hoop attached to his closet door.

"So you're REALLY into sports huh?" she asked, looking around.

"I am, but I didn't do all this. My Mom is a real estate agent that stages houses so she goes a little overboard on decorating. As you can tell she's pretty proud of my sports accomplishments," he laughed. "A little too proud. Someone might come in here and think I was really full of myself. It's embarrassing."

"No you shouldn't be embarrassed. It's really nice. I actually love it!" Jolie said before realizing she might have sounded a little over enthusiastic and her smile faded and her face flushed.

"I set up this gaming station myself though," he added, thankfully not noticing her outburst. He had a whole gaming area with two computer monitors, an Xbox One X, a gaming chair, and a professional headset and controller.

He walked over and sat down on his bed and said, "We should watch a movie or something," as he picked up the remote.

Jolie stayed standing there awkwardly, not sure what to do. He laughed.

"You can come in and sit down," he said, patting the bed next to him.

Her eyebrows raised. He wanted her to sit on his bed with him? She considered it for a second before hesitantly walking over and slowly sitting down on the very edge of his mattress, leaving a large space between them. She really wished she wasn't so socially awkward with strangers.

He laughed again. "Why don't you scoot back here and sit beside me against the wall? It will be a lot more comfortable. I promise I won't bite."

Her insides fluttered and she felt short of breath, but she did as he said and scooted back further onto his bed and sat beside him against the wall, their arms touching slightly for a second, making her blush. Sitting this close, she noticed how good his cologne smelled.

She couldn't believe this was really happening. Boys like him didn't normally talk to her. They usually walked right past her in the hallways at school like she was invisible. Judging from his room and letter jacket patches, he was obviously a popular jock and she was a shy, brainy nerd that had never even been out on a date or gone to a school dance or a real high school party. Then she realized he didn't know anything about her because they only just met. He had no idea how much of a loser she really was. He would probably figure it out before long, but for now she was a blank slate. She was the mysterious new girl and she kind of liked that.

"So, what movie should we watch?" he asked, scrolling through the options on his screen.

"I don't care. You can just pick something. I'll watch whatever."

"Okay. Do you like Hoosiers? That's one of my favorites."

"I've never seen it," Jolie said and Austin turned his head to her and his mouth dropped.

"What? You've never seen Hoosiers?" he asked in disbelief. "It's only the greatest basketball movie of all time."

"Yeah, I seriously haven't seen it," she shrugged. "You can put it on if you want to. I'm not really into sports movies, but I'll give it a shot."

Austin pulled up 'Hoosiers' on Netflix and said, "I think you'll like it, even if you don't like sports movies. It's a classic," he said as he clicked on it and the beginning music started to play.