2: don't act so proud
"I got it, Dad. You're worrying way too much, I'll be fine." I laughed quietly as my dad started to go down a list of things for me to do as I walked him out to his car, and he finally stopped.
"You're right, you'll be fine. I'm sorry. I'm just nervous." He leaned down and kissed the side of my head. "If you need anything, you call me. Got it?" I nodded and he smiled down at me. "I love you, kiddo. Don't throw too many parties when I'm gone." He started to get into his car and I laughed cheaply.
"You have nothing to worry about, seriously. Sam will be here for the rest of the week, I'll make sure she doesn't break anything," I promised and Dad laughed. He loved Sam, of course, but we both knew that he had to worry about her more than he needed to worry about me.
"I love you, pumpkin!"
"Bye, pops. Call me when you land," I told him and he nodded, promising he would. I waved as he drove away and he waved back as he got to the end of the driveway. He drove out of view and I sighed loudly, losing my smile.
I walked back into the house and closed the door, locking it as well. I had a migraine and I really just wanted to take a nap. Sam had to go to her little brother's play tonight, so it was just me. All alone.
Noah was still having his party and I still wasn't going.
I got a bottle of water from the fridge and walked through to the back hallway to get to the stairs. I skipped up them and walked to my room which was down the hall. As I got to my room, I walked in and locked the door. It was a force of habit. I trudged to my bed and started to get comfortable in the cloud of heaven.
All of a sudden, my phone began to ring and I scrambled to find it. Once I did, I checked to see who was calling and was slightly surprised to see Christian's name.
"Hello?" I answered, resting my head back against my pillow.
"Hey, Maya!" Christian seemed happy about something and it put a smile on my face.
"Hey... what's up?"
"Are you going to Fryer's party?" Christian asked and I sighed as I slowly lost my smile.
"No, I don't think so," I told him, tapping my finger against the back of my phone. "Why?"
"Because I'm going, and I wanted to know if you'd go, too," Christian said, seeming whiny. "C'mon, Maya. For me? We'll have a good time."
"Christian... I don't know." I heard him sigh quietly and I bit my lip as I tried to decide. "Maybe I'll go for a little while, but I'm not staying the whole time."
"That's good enough for me," he said, seeming happy again. "I'll come over to yours first, and then we can walk over. If I park my car in your driveway, I'll have no problem leaving."
"Okay," I said, completely giving in.
"Thank you, Maya. I owe you one." I nodded to myself and started to pull my blanket up to my chin. "Party starts at nine."
"I'm taking a nap beforehand," I told him and he laughed lightly.
"Okay, grandma, see you later." Christian ended the call and I tossed my phone somewhere on my bed. I only had a few hours before the party started and if I wanted to get a nap in, I'd have to go to sleep as soon as I could.
. . .
I woke up with a start as I realized someone was ringing the doorbell and I quickly got out of bed and rushed downstairs. Before getting to the front door, I looked at myself in a mirror that was in our hallway, and saw that I looked decent. I continued to walk to the door and once I got there and unlocked the door, I was greeted by Christian.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty." I rolled my eyes and opened the door wider for him to come in. He did so graciously and I closed the door once he was completely inside. "Did you have a good nap?"
"Yeah, I did. Thanks for asking," I told him, smiling over at him while slightly dazed. I walked him a little ways further into the house and stepped into the living room. "I'll go get ready, you stay here." Christian nodded and took a seat on the couch before I left and skipped up the stairs.
I went to my closet as soon as I got into my room and tried on a couple outfits before choosing one. I cleaned my face after getting dressed, and started to do my hair. I decided if I was going to go to this thing, I might as well look good, so I turned my curling iron on and waited for it to heat up.
In the meantime, I started on my makeup. I never did much, just a simple look with an added eyeliner wing. It suited me well enough and I had gotten use to it by now.
I only wanted to fix up my natural curls, so I started curling my hair before the iron was completely heated, knowing it wouldn't be a big deal. Curling my hair took longer than I had intended, and eventually someone began to knock on my door.
I knew it was Christian, so I just yelled for him to come in. The door opened and as he walked in, Christian looked around my room. He'd been over a thousand times before, just because our moms used to be really good friends, and he was sort of forced to be my friend when we were younger. Noah Fryer had been in the same boat, but he hadn't stayed as close to me as Christian had.
"I didn't know you redid your room, it looks really good." Christian walked in further and sat down on my bed. He had left the door open and I laughed to myself. Christian knew my dad would lose it if I had a boy in my room without the door open.
"Thanks," I told him as I looked around with a smile on my face. "Mom was planning to do it ages ago, and we had bought everything for it, so Dad and I finally did it a little while ago."
"I'm still so sorry about that," Christian said after a short pause.
"It's okay," I told him, not wanting to bring it up. "Well, we should probably go over soon. It's already past nine."
"Yeah, you're probably right... you look really nice, Maya."
"Thank you," I said, pleased with myself. I stood up and looked in my mirror a final time before walking over to Christian and reaching beside of him to grab my phone. "So," I started as I gave Christian a smirk. "Who are you trying to get with this week?"
"Shut up." Christian rolled his eyes and hit my shoulder with his as he stood up. "I'm not after anybody."
"Sure," I said, shrugging my shoulders as I led him out of my bedroom. "Not even Megan Sipple?"
"How did you know?" Christian asked, stopping in his tracks.
"I know everything, Chris." I shook my head at him, wondering how he could possibly forget no one could keep a secret from me. I read people too well. "I think she might like you."
"Let's hope," Christian sighed and continued to walk behind me. We walked down the stairs and made our way through the house, to the front door. I made sure I had the keys to the house, knowing I couldn't just keep the door unlocked with hundreds of kids next door.
As we stepped out, I locked the door and slipped the keys in my jean pocket. It barely took any time to walk over to Noah's house, although his driveway was so long. When we got to the door, we were surprised to see so many people there. The door was wide open, so we just walked in and started to walk around. Christian told me Noah was usually in the kitchen, and dragged me back there.
I was slightly paranoid I'd run into Calum and feel obligated to apologize for what I said in chemistry earlier that day.
Sure enough, as we walked into the kitchen, we saw Noah, Michael and Calum. Calum's head turned toward us and he immediately made eye contact with me. His previous smile had slowly faded to a look of shock and I tried to look away, but I couldn't.
"Christian! How are you, man?" Noah and Christian started to talk and I stood next to Christian awkwardly. I had finally broken eye contact with Calum, and I was trying my hardest not to glance over at him.
I saw Calum start to move toward me from my peripheral vision, and I immediately sighed to myself. What was I going to say to him?
"Hey, here's the beer." Before I could do much more thinking, someone walked into the kitchen, and something hit me in the back of the head.
"Shit!" I was surprised to hear the exclamation not only leave my mouth but everybody else's. I had fallen to the ground, since my balance was altered and, without a second going by, three people had gotten down on their knees to surround me.
"You okay?" Calum asked me first, his hand reaching for my shoulder as he touched it comfortingly.
"I'm so sorry," I looked up to see Luke Hemmings and quietly laughed to myself, already finding the situation funny. "I really didn't mean to, I didn't know you were there. I couldn't see over the box."
"Guys, back up," Christian said, gesturing for the other two boys to give me some space.
"I'm fine, really. It just surprised me." I moved to raise my head and they all gasped. "What? What's wrong?"
"Just be careful, that hit your head really hard," Calum warned and I noticed his hand was now on the small of my back.
"I'm fine, seriously." I looked over at Calum and he slowly looked away from me.
"Luke, you fuck," Noah exclaimed as he walked over to us. "You okay, Maya?"
"Yeah, I'm good," I told him, nodding my head. Calum and Christian helped me up, and I thanked them both. "Don't worry about it, Luke."
"Maya, what are you doing here?" Noah asked me and I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked over at him. "I didn't even think you were you. You never come to these. I thought you thought they were lame."
"Well... they are," I said, crossing my arms. "Christian wanted me to come, so I did. Is that a problem?"
"What? No, not at all." Noah shook his head and took a step closer to me. "Maybe I should walk you back over."
"I'm fine, Noah. Don't kick me out so soon." I rolled my eyes and started to walk closer to Christian, but Noah stopped me.
"Maya, I'm glad you came. I don't want you to think I don't want you here, I'm just surprised to see you, is all."
"That beer better be fantastic, it already packs a punch." We all looked back at Michael slowly as he made a pun, and he was smiling widely. We all rolled our eyes and looked away from him. "Okay, maybe that was insensitive, but that was really good. That was fucking hilarious! You guys aren't appreciative of anything I do."
"Mike, calm down," Noah said and walked over to him. Calum walked over to me once again and I looked up at him.
"Hey," I whispered, looking away from him.
"Hey," he said, sighing loudly afterward. "So, you decided to show up and hang out," he noted.
"Yeah, I didn't want to," I told him, without making eye contact with him. "I have something to add to my list about guys like you."
"Oh, really? And what's that, Jacobson?"
"You like to hit girls with boxes of beer," I told him, a small smirk evident on my face.
"Only the pretty ones." I looked up at Calum and he winked at me before walking away. I scoffed and shook my head in disbelief.
"I'm not gonna be your girl of the week!" I yelled as I crossed my arms. Calum looked back at me and smiled before he walked out of the room.
"Hey, Christian? I'm gonna go see if I can find anybody." I placed my hand on Christian's arm to get his attention and told him where I was going before he thought he lost me or something. He looked at me and nodded. I left the room and walked down the hall, but as I turned the corner, I jumped. Calum was standing, leaned against the wall as if he had been waiting, and it scared me half to death.
"I knew you'd follow me." Calum smirked as he pushed himself off the wall.
"I didn't follow you, so don't act so proud." I crossed my arms and started to walk further down the hallway, but Calum kept up with me. "I didn't bring Sam."
"Okay," Calum said, shrugging his shoulders. "Michael will get over it."
"Why are you following me?" I asked Calum as we turned another corner into another hallway.
"You followed me first. I'm just walking in the same direction," Calum told me and proceeded to take a bigger step so that he was in front of me. "Why are you following me?"
"I'm not, and I never was." Calum stopped me by stopping in front of me and turning around. He took a step toward me and took up any space between us.
"Am I still an egotistical, supercilious asshole?" Calum asked me and I nodded. "What does supercilious even mean?" I scoffed at his ignorance of the word, but his pride didn't seem to be hurt.
"It means you're an asshole who thinks he's better than anyone else, bud."
"That's a little harsh, buttercup. Maybe we should think of something nicer."
"Look, Cal, I already apologized to you during class because your little feelings got hurt. You'll be okay, take it like a big kid."
"Don't you mean, take it like a man?"
"No, Calum, I don't." Calum was full of smirks tonight, and I was starting to feel like I should slap them off his face. "What are you trying to do?"
"What do you mean?" Calum asked, acting as if he was up to nothing.
"Calum, I can see right through you. What do you want?"
"You wish you could, but I'm not that easy to figure out. You'll get used to it," Calum said, smiling at me as he started to walk away, walking backward. "See you later?"
"See you Monday," I told him, crossing my arms.
"You'll see me before then, babe," Calum told me and I furrowed my eyebrows at the pet name. "You look nice, Maya."
"I know," I muttered under my breath as Calum walked out of view and into the crowd of people that were in the living room.
If he thinks I'm that easy, I'll just have to show him he's wrong. The cute, caring guy act? Yeah, right, I'm not an idiot.
Two can play at this game.
a/n:
this was super quick!!!! sorry i haven't updated in ages!! again, im always going to be focused on msb, which my other book!!! it's my main priority and i work really hard on it. read it if you'd like to!!!
if any of my msb readers are reading, thank you so much for 500k and for rank #5 that's fuckin awesome!! ily!!!
jill