^Alex Pyfetter as Christian Maverick
It was the morning before Christmas and all throughout the house a ringing was heard...
"Fire! Fire!" Brett's scream from downstairs snapped my once resting eyes wide open. It took no time at all for my body to jump into action as I flung myself out of the covers of the now-empty bed. No smoke could be seen but my vision started to blur as a dizziness spell hit me. My hand steadied itself against the wall as I started to crawl towards the door. By the time I reached the door and slung it open, my vision had returned enough for me to race down the hall and down the staircase.
"Fire!" I nearly fell down the last step as I belted towards the sound of his voice. My mind was in overdrive.
What was on fire! Where was the fire extinguisher?! Did we even own one?!
Prepared for the worst, I whirled around the corner into the kitchen. Oven mitt in hand, Brett was beating what I could make out as a plate.
"Brett?" The exasperation leaked out of my voice as my anger fumed.
"Angel! Look what happened!" Brett turned towards me with eyes full of excitement. Brett took a lighter out of his pocket and held it to the plate of Doritos. Suddenly, they caught fire and a big thing of fire erupted on the already charred Doritos. "How cool is that!" Amused as Brett was, I crossed my arms and glared at him. "Angel! This is pretty friggen cool! You got to admit it!"
Sure the house wasn't up in flames, but my anger was ignited.
"You about gave me a heart attack! I thought the house had caught fire!" I wanted to punch him but the fire alarm was still asking for attention. "The fire alarm is going off for Christ's sake!" Crossing the kitchen, I grabbed a hand towel and started fanning at the darned thing.
"Well, it kind of did..." Brett said turning away from me.
"What!?" I said outraged.
"The curtains just caught flame for a minute!" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the singed curtains confirming Brett wasn't lying.
"Brett!" I was beat. "Can you go one day without causing destruction!"
Brett huffed. "Sorry MOM," I shook my head frustrated by his immaturity. "I'll try and be more careful!" That's when the beeping of the fire alarm subdued.
"I'm serious! You're gonna burn the house down and kill the both of us." Pointing at the fire I said, "Why's that still burning!? Put that out! "
"Yes, mom!" He said as he began to pour water on it. "Gosh, mom! You don't understand!" He joked as he took a chip from the once burning pan to examine it.
"So, now that I know that the fires out, can I ask where you got this idea?"
Brett pointed at the stove before speaking. "It's Christmas eve and I was preheating the oven for cookies. I guess someone made Dorito nachos and one dropped at the bottom of the oven. It started to burn, hence the fire alarm."
Michael was the only one in this house that would eat nacho Doritos. He would put Doritos in a baking sheet, cover it with cheese, melt it, and top it with more cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Personally, I would rather just go buy the flavored nacho Doritos and eat them out of the bag.
"Try it!" Brett said shoving at me an overcooked, charred, Dorito.
"It's going to be a hard pass." I slid onto the barstool with the intent on making sure he didn't make any more fires. With my watchful eyes over him, he managed to put in the Christmas cookies without causing another fire.
"So have you figured out that date yet?" He asked after placing the baking sheet in the oven.
"I already told you, swimming."
Brett laughed to himself before pointing out, "But you haven't asked!"
"Asked what?"
"Angel, this is a lesson on asking someone out on a date. So, you're going to have to ask me out." Brett said. I couldn't help but huff at how stupid this was. "You should be glad I'm helping you."
Summoning the fakest smile, I asked, "Brett, would you like to meet me at the lake tomorrow?"
"Why?" Brett said faking a look of confusion, then put a hand to his chest as if shocked."Is Angelina asking me out on a date?"
"Yes, I am!" After a long pause, I expected him to say something so I said it for him. "Would 3 work for you?"
"Why not right now?"
I shrugged and said, "It's a date." I popped out of my seat eager to do something. "I'm gonna get ready. Don't forget about the cookies." With that, I sashayed away and into my bathing suit.
-------------------------
"Seriously what are you going to do once we're out of school? Be a doctor?!" Brett stopped at the red light and looked at me. "You can sing." He was pulling this crap of me joining the band again and I was getting ticked off.
"Let me sound it out for you. I CAN'T SING!"
"You're lying out your ass-"
"I have not had voice lessons, I'm not creative, I'm shy, I'd start from nowhere, and people wouldn't like me." I said trying to get him to shut up. However, this brought up more.
"I don't know what's going on through your head, but I know people would love you. You've got the most creative and eccentric mind I know, and everyone starts from nowhere."
"Is it annoy Angelina day? Besides, when did this become such a big aspiration of yours? " I asked annoyed.
"You have a natural-born talent. Wouldn't you rather have a career that would be fun instead of being stuck in law or the medical field? " After a minute he said, "Exactly."
After a long pause, I turned the music back on up. Brett did give a good point and it made me think the whole rest of the way there. Natural born talent? Maybe, but how could I be a singer? It seemed like a faraway dream that seemed impossible and scary.
When we arrived, I got out of the car as Brett popped the trunk to get the sunscreen out.
"Sorry." Brett said as he came to my side referring to the singing conversation.
"It's fine." Is all I said before squirting the sunscreen and applying it to my arms, legs, stomach, and chest. Brett also applied it to himself. It wasn't long till we were in the lake trying to get away from the heat. It might be December, but texas could be snowing one day and 80 the next with a beating sun. In a few days, another cool front would be coming through and possibly another snowfall.
"Stop splashing!" I complained.
"Stop splashing!" He horribly mimicked my voice. Rolling my eyes I had an idea.
"Let's race." Brett could always seem to beat me on land but in the water, he was a dead fish; I was a jellyfish, pushing onward through the water.
"We already know whose going to win. It's no fun."
"I'm giving you a ten-second head start back to land." I said.
"But-" I started counting down from 10 interrupting his reluctance and sending him into a fast front stroke. Brett was a third to shore before I started doing an even faster front stroke. Sailing through the water with every push and shooting my head in and out of the water. It took me about 20 seconds to reach shore with Brett close behind.
"I almost got you! Brett said shaking his head slinging water everywhere. "You have to admit that was close." His huge ego made me laugh.
"Close without the 10-second headstart." I said stepping back onto land." I left the towels in the car!" I realized mentally face-palming as the cold air touched our wet bodies.
Brett groaned. "Jesus Angel!" I laughed at that. "You are the most forgetful girl I've ever met."
I shrugged and put my hands up saying, "Sorry?"
"Well, I need to go pee anyway so I'll go grab them."
"Well, have fun." I said signaling that I'd stay here. Brett left leaving me standing there by the edge of the lake watching the children splash around and shove one another off the edge of the lake.
It was then that something struck my back and I winced in pain. Whipping around I saw a football and the same guy I saw at the park. My eyes denied myself as he jogged up in swim trunks.
"Oh my god!" He laughed in spite of it all. "I'm so sorry!" He flashed a small apologetic white smile. His blonde hair looked even messier wet and yet I loved it. "Jeez!" He breathed in. "You got some sun!" I rubbed my shoulders which of course stung.
Faking a smile, I turned my whole body towards him. "I knew I forgot sunscreen somewhere." I leaned down and picked up the football at my feet and looked back up to meet his dark blue eyes. It startled me for a second but I quickly recovered a look of boredom.
"Look we're sorry." He lazily pointed a thumb behind him where five guys who all were shirtless and could be seen as good looking. Actually, they were all gorgeous guys that could pass as supermodels.
"Oh, it's fine." I said brushing it off and trying to forget the pain from the impact of the football.
"Hey man! Grab the sunscreen!" The guy said shouting toward his friends.
"Oh no, you don't-"
"Yes, I do." He demanded. " Now turn around." I hesitated a second. Seeing my hesitation he laughed making me blush. "Not in that way!" I gave a dry laugh as I turned around. Hearing one of his guys approach and say, "Danggg dude!" I blushed but it quickly deepened when I felt his hand swipe cold sunscreen just above my bra strap.
"Cold?" He asked making me nod.
We were stuck in uncomfortable silence while he rubbed the sunscreen on my neck and lower back making me blush profusely. "Names Christian."
"What, like Christian Grey?" It slipped off my lips before I could stop myself.
A grin lit his features to my disbelief."No, like Christian Maverick. How about you?"
"Angelina."
"What like Angelina Jolie?" He smirked back.
"No like Angelina Lee." Now I was smiling.
"Well, that's a beautiful name, Lee" Chris drug out my last name. "For such a beautiful girl." I hoped that a blush wasn't making its way onto my face.
"Thanks, Chris." With that, I handed the football to him. He stepped closer before trailing his eyes down me, checking out my red bikini and causing my insides to ignite.
"Don't mention it." His eyes narrowed as he made his way back to my face. "Hey? You're the girl that I bumped into at the park, aren't you?" Chris said pointing at me with the football.
"I could've sworn I was the one who ran into you?" I crossed my arms.
"Oh yeah!" Giving a sarcastic dry laugh. "I'm sorry for my dry humor."
"Or huge ego!" All a sudden his eyes widened. "Oh no! I didn't say that out loud!" I said wanting the earth to open up and swallow me.
How could I be so rude to someone so nice?
"Oh no! I'll admit that I have a big ego, but I also have a big package." My eyes peeled back shocked from his words but butterflies were going wild.
He was flirting with me! Wasn't he?
"Besides I like a girl that speaks her mind." I smiled at this and laughed. "What?" He asked.
The reason I laughed was because my stomach was fluttering out of control and I didn't know how to handle it. I couldn't tell him that though. "How I bumped into you yesterday and you bumped into me today. Maybe like fate?" I tried staring back into his deep blue gaze.
A hey sounded from the group of guys making both of us look back at them. "You should get back to your game."
"Yeah." He said. "Maybe destiny will make us meet up again?" He questioned. He started to turn back when he looked back. "See ya, Lee." I waved after him and watched as he approached the guys.
Did I really just flirt with someone other than Brett? Were these lessons working?!?
I continued to people watch while occasionally looking back at Chris and his friends passing around the football.
Brett's hands snuck around my waist from behind. Turning towards him, my lips met his and I smiled beneath them. It started slowly but sped up all at once. I did the thing that seemed to turn him on by sliding my hand up to where his 6 pack poked out. In turn, he brought one of his hands up to my head and pressed me harder into him. Moaning gave him the chance for him to stick his tongue into my mouth and I took it into my mouth and danced with his. Pulling away I smiled.
"I thought we were acting as if we were on a date?" I questioned.
"Well if you want to Fuck latter-"
"Brett?!"
Brett shook his head and looked up. "Well if you want this to be like a real date with the opposite sex, that's what todays society sees it as." He paused scaring me a bit. "Unless you find the perfect guy." He smiled at me which made me return one as well. Handing me a red towel, I wrapped my now partly dry body in it.
"So, are we going to continue this date or..." Brett paused with a question in his eyes.
I was about to respond when I heard a scream. Brett's face went into a face of shock making me turn around. Splashes could be seen in the distance as well as a deep shade of red coming from the water on the far side of the lake. A shrill scream sounded as a hand sunk into the water and the splashing seemed to still. "Call 911!" I told Brett and before I could think, I dove into the water.
The next chapter won't go too swimmingly...
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