My phone buzzes rapidly in my pocket, signaling a new text message has been sent to me, and I could only assume it's from my parents since no one actually texts me— I know, don't be jealous, I'm extremely popular.
Hey sweetie, I know that you have plans to hangout with Emma today after school, but I would really like you to be home for dinner tonight :)
~ Mom sent at 12:34 p.m.
I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion as I reread his message. Something is definitely up, my mom is usually pretty chill whenever I ask to hangout with Emma, so there's definitely a reason as to why she wants me home tonight — I just don't know why.
"You okay?" Jessy asks curiously, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Phenomenal." I say sarcastically with and an eye roll.
"Who texted you then?" She raised a brow as she bit into her cheesy pizza that looked really, really good right about now.
"My mom, she said I can't hangout tonight," I frowned, earning a look from Emma, one where she seemed like she was about to go outside my house and protest from me missing out on our big movie night that we've planned on for weeks.
"She wants me home for 'dinner?'" I remark in confusion, using my index finger to do quotation marks around the word 'dinner.'
"That sucks! I even took two hours to try and download that old movie you've been wanting to watch." Emma remarks with a pout leaning her chin against the palm of her hand.
Damn that sounds really tempting.
Movies, popcorn, and a cozy blanket?! What more else could I want on a pre-Friday night.
"No it doesn't suck," Ariana interferes with a giant grin. "What if a hot guy is coming over to have dinner with you guys?" She suggests with a teasing wink and they all made that really annoying 'ooh' noise that you only hear in tv shows and movies.
Of course they would think something so unrealistic like that would happen when in reality I live a very, very simple life.
My parents hardly have people come over unless it's for holidays — or to chitchat about the company with a few coworkers. . . but that's pretty much it.
We have a few close friends but our circle is pretty small so I highly doubt a 'hot guy' will be magically appearing around my dinner table to tonight.
"Very highly doubted since my life is not some romcom movie. Besides the people my parents are close friends with have like one kid and he's nine." I point out smartly and Emma lets out a snort, knowing exactly who I'm talking about without me even having to go into any further detail.
That imbecile of a child purposely put LEGO's on the last few steps of my staircase so I could trip and fall. Thankfully I didn't but let me just say if I had only three words to describe that blonde headed child it definitely would be- Evil. Little. Boy.
"Do you remember that time Andrew Anderson was your at your house in a skin tight speedo? The image of him bending over to pick up that monster of a child by your pool is an that will never go away." We both shivered at the thought as the rest looked at us as if we were crazy.
Andrew Anderson is the father to the one and only LEGO boy. Who by the way practically scarred me and my eyes when I was only fifteen! Who even decides to buy a Speedo anymore? And two sizes too small for them?!
"Don't ask." Emma warned as she closes her eyes dramatically.
Rebecca bursts out into a fit of laughter as she starts scrolling through her phone to show Emma something.
Oh my crazy little Rebecca and her crazy little crushes on older men. I'm afraid of what she has stored in that iCloud of hers.
"How the hell do you have that?!" Emma screeches in pure fear as she attempts to cover the phone by putting her hands over it, but of course Jessy would never allow her to escape the horror so she removes her hands from the cell with a laugh.
My curiosity gets the best of me and I sneak a peek at the phone and there he was.
Andrew Anderson.
Cue the shiver.
"If you happen to forgot I have the pleasure of being next door neighbors to that hottie." She swoons and I think my eyes are physically going to pop out of my head at the sound of that.
"He's like forty." I argued and she shrugs in response. She continues to show the picture around proudly to Jessy and Ariana who now look a little queasy at the site.
"I think I'm about to physically and mentally throw up the breakfast that I didn't eat." Ariana remarks sourly, downing a few sips of water to get her mind off of what she just witnessed.
I threw a french fry at Rebecca jokingly so she could get off of that phone of hers, and she sends me a glare practically scaring me with the mean look on her face. This now leads to Ariana throwing her red apple at Emma who swiftly caught it in time before it could touch that pretty face of hers.
"What? I thought we were throwing food." She grins innocently with a bat of her lashes, looking for any excuse to throw her food around.
I guess this means only one thing. "Food fight!" I yell as loud as I possibly can, but not really expecting an outcome with how loud my school cafeteria actually is.
Oh gosh, there goes a piece of bread flying across the room- and is that a T-shirt? Oh my gosh is everyone actually taking me serious?
Oh my chicken nuggets!
People are actually throwing food! The one time people decide to listen me, does this seriously have to be that one time?
Since when do they ever listen to me?!
The whole cafeteria is now in screeches and screams as today's lunch special go flying across the cafeteria room.
Jessy grabs a fistful of green beans which normally end up in the garbage and extends her left arm back before launching it, only for the expired food to land a few feet away from us, and onto a white back wall where the beans slide down faster than I can blink.
My eyes wander over to Rebecca who is catching tater tots into her mouth and Ariana who is ducking underneath the table to protect not only herself but her brand new outfit as well.
I glance over at Emma who is now running out of the cafeteria, and that makes me decide to do the not so safe option, something that I never normally would do.
I stuff my hand into a pile of mashed potatoes and let out a wholeheartedly laugh as I aimlessly throw it across the room without even a second thought.
There it goes flying- wow, it's really picking up some speed there- there somebody goes swerving it, and oh my- just my freaking luck!
Damnit!
No, no, no!
Maybe if I close my eyes I'll wake up and this will all be one terrible dream. Okay, yes I'm going to do that now.
I squeeze my eyes shut to the point where they feel glued down and take in a few deep, steady breaths to calm myself.
When I open my brown eyes- I'll wake up at home in my cozy bedroom.
Okay open time!
Damnit.
There it is, a fresh glob of cold mashed potatoes clinging onto Liam Palazzesi's shirt.
My heart begins to thump rapidly in my chest as I now realize what I've just done. He's going to strangle me!
His eyes look like they could cut me with how sharp he's staring at me. His fingertips wipe the gross potatoes off the fabric of his clothing and I can help but gulp hardly as the mess continues to worsen and leaves a giant stain.
Oh crap.
"Who in their right mind started this mess?!" Principal Johnson now shouts, fuming in so much anger that his face may as well be turning red at this point.
He pulls his walkie talkie out of his pocket ready to call whatever enforcement he has to as his eyes scanned the messy room.
Everyone's mouth zipped shut and I silently begged that nobody would rat me out.
I never get into trouble.
It's just not who I am.
I want to make my senior year memorable but not like this!
Principal Johnson got louder as he asked once again and of course the thing I was dreading happened. All fingers point to me accusingly and I force out a sheepish smile as an embarrassing blush raises to the back of my neck. "Miss. Russo, detention for the rest of the year- after school and- and clean this mess." He seethes with a stutter as he points a stern finger in my direction.
I close my eyes in embarrassment as one important thought pops into my brain.
My parents are going to kill me.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
The ticking of the clock makes me utterly impatient as I wait for detention to finally be over.
I spent all of fifth period cleaning the cafeteria with the janitor and apologizing for how truly bad I felt. Thankfully the janitor is a really nice guy- he shook his head with an amused smile and told me to not worry about. I should really buy him a gift card to somewhere nice to show my gratitude.
I'm brought back to reality as I hear Mr. Rodriguez constant snores somehow gradually getting louder and louder, making the pencil in my hand that I forgot that I was holding finally snap.
The silent room echoed with the crack and I gave a sheepish smile to those who I received a few glares from. Especially those who were just trying to sleep their way through detention.
Grabbing my attention- an urgent shout yet whisper which was no louder than a sound of pin drop grasps my attention from the other side of the classroom. "Giana!"
Someone I know is in here? That's a first.
I looked around for the owner of the voice and my eyes finally stopped on Alex.
Alex King, part of Liam's little posse and one of the most popular guys here. Shocking that he knows my name but what can I say? My name does happen to get tossed around a lot- whether it's in a good or bad way.
"Alex." I mimicked and he rolled his eyes playfully at me with a smile on his face as he came to take a seat next to me. "Did you really start the food fight?" He asked intrigued by this and I shrugged.
"Innocently in my defense." I tell him simply and he just throws his head back laughing like a little kid. "How can you start a food fight 'innocently?'" He quotes with his fingers.
"I threw a french fry at my friend and made the slight accident of screaming food fight but I really didn't mean for it to get that out of hand." I admit, suddenly feeling my cheeks turn a slight shade of pink at the sole thought of me yelling for the whole senior year class to hear.
"Liam was beyond pissed." He remarks and I shrug not really caring if he was or not. I actually would've paid to see that! More comical than the shows they have on tv right now. "He could throw his shirt in the wash no big deal. I have to stay in detention the rest of the year!"
Alex nods agreeingly with me and opens his mouth to say something but gets cut off by the sound of the bell ringing.
And that's the end of detention!
I smirked over at Alex as I catch him staring at me for a little too long.
"See you around, Alex."
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"Honey, I'm home!" I shout obnoxiously as I throw my backpack onto the floor with a loud slam of the front door.
My mom came strolling in with a wide grin until she sees the mess I already made.
"Seriously Giana? I spent all morning cleaning the house." She scolds as she picks up my bag and hands it to me.
"Sorry, I didn't realize." I mumble as I take the bag out of her hands.
"Out of curiosity why exactly did you want me home for dinner? Emma planed this awesome movie night that I have to miss out on." I frown as I pester her with the question I've been trying to figure it out for hours.
She looks at me with a surprise expression written on her face. She pleas a comforting hand on my shoulder and suggests a sarcastic response. "Maybe because I love you?"
"And I love you too now get to the point." I question further and she laughs at my eagerness.
"Go clean yourself up for dinner I invited some friends over. They have a kid around your age and I just thought you could keep him company."
Now that makes way more sense.
And I thought something bad was going to happen!
"As long as he doesn't trip me with LEGO's I'll be his best friend." I exaggerate and she smiled in pure amusement. .
"Then I think you'll have a new best friend."
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
I looked at myself one last time in the mirror before smiling in approval. My makeup was very settle and I had the tiniest drop of lipstick on just to give my lips some color.
I have on a white T-shirt that I got from Forever 21 and a pair of denim shorts along with a few gold accessories.
As if on cue the doorbell rang and I feel a little nervous if I'm going to admit.
I don't know why but I strangely do.
"Max! Lauren!" My mom greets enthusiastically and I can hear them chatter some more as I head down the staircase.
As soon as I walked into the dinning room my eyes connected with no other than Liam freaking Palazzesi!
My eyes bulge out of my head and I quickly take a seat down praying that he wouldn't come up to me. Of course but nothing happens to go my way.
"Giana! Come say hello to Max and Lauren Palazzesi." My mom smiled politely and I grit my teeth as my eyes fall on the brown headed boy.
To say I was beyond embarrassed was an understatement.
I gave my mom the what-do-you-think-you're-doing-face and if her eyes could speak I knew she would be telling me to shut up and just go with it.
I grew some courage and walked over to his parents officially greeting them for the first time.
After that I was finally released from my duties. And by that I mean I finally got to be as far away from Liam Palazzesi as possible.
My mom, Lauren, and I are currently all on the sofa chitchatting, but if I'm going to be honest I'm practically zoned out.
"Giana, I must say that you're absolutely gorgeous." Lauren complemented and I gave her a tiny smile. "Thank you that means a lot." I said sincerely.
"Of course honey." She nodded happily as she turned her face back over to my mother.
Lauren was beyond stunning with her brunette colored hair that fell in loose waves and her ocean blue eyes.
"Giana!" Max called out waving me over. That's one way to ruin my mood alright.
He was standing between my father and Liam which made my heart thump loudly.
Was I in trouble?
"Hi," I blurted out awkwardly as I walked up to them. I could feel Liam's gaze on every single move I made and I felt as if this was an AP exam that I was guaranteed to fail. I bit my lip to stop the flow of words that were about to spill from my mouth.
"I want you to meet my son. Giana meet Liam, Liam meet Giana." He smiled and I turned my gaze to Liam. "We've met." He told his father bitterly and his smile widen as did my father's oblivious to the tension between us. "Even better!" He exclaimed but got interrupted by my mom calling us over to eat.
Thank goodness.
No more questions for me.
I took a seat at the far end of the table with Liam sitting across from me and my mother sitting besides me.
Couldn't my dad sit across from me or something? Even Lauren would be a million times better than this. I mean the view is pretty fine- more than fine actually but it's the mouth that comes along with it; a very arrogant, narcissistic, annoying mouth to be exact.
"Liam, don't you think Giana is a nice girl? Why don't you two talk and become friends?" Lauren suggested to loosen the tension between the two of us.
Liam rolls his eyes at his mother's comment and I suddenly feel even more uncomfortable than I did seconds ago.
Wow and I thought this couldn't get any worse. My mistake.
I nervously shifted around in my seat as I made eye contact with the idiotic boy.
He eyes me carefully before smirking like he was about to pull something out of his sleeve just to get a reaction out of me. "For a girl who started a food fight? Very."
My face heats up as red as it gets and I feel all eyes on me now.
This is why I despise the dude!
My parents didn't quite know about that yet. . .
I was really trying to hold out for as long as I could before informing them about that.
"How did detention go today?" He adds and I feel my eyes grow as wide as saucers. "I thought you said you went to the mall after school." My father interrupts as he tries to cover up my tracks.
"I did. . ." I admit truthfully and everyone looks beyond relieved at this news that Liam was just trying to make a fool out of me.
"After I went to detention." Laughter erupts from Liam's mouth and I automatically kick him under the table without thinking twice about it.
"What the hell was that for?" He barks frustrated and I snicker at his pain .
"Liam!" Lauren scolded urging him to be quiet as she gently slaps his forearm to put him back in his place.
"Okay, I think everyone needs to calm down. So what better way to do that then with some good news!" Max claps cheerfully and to think things can't go anymore south they just keep on going!
This definitely should not be good. . .
(A/n- Chapter two is finally complete! What did you guys think? Do you think Giana deserved to get detention? Thoughts on Liam and Alex? Please, please don't forget to share and comment. It means the world to me when you guys do. Until next time!)