vote and comment obvs but ALSO STOP HATING ON IRON MAN YOU BITCHES PACK YOUR THINGS AND GET OUT BC I DONT NEED THAT NEGATIVITY AROUND MY STORY
have a good day and enjoy the chapter (:
oh heads up this chapter sucks btw
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The move began like it normally does, with my mom trying to pick up the hot furniture mover guy.
I'm busy hauling boxes out of the truck, but there she is, flipping her hair and pouting her lips as if her one and only daughter isn't doing all the work. Typical.
The new house is tiny, as usual, but actually one of the nicer ones we've lived in over the years. It looks normal, almost like a normal family could live here, but instead it's just us. It's cute, white with blue shutters and a little picket fence, very typical. My mom's always picking up low wage jobs wherever we go, from being secretaries to store clerks. This time she picked up a waitressing job at the local diner and some shifts at the grocery store, that's the only way we could afford to live here.
The salty ocean air is strong here, since we're just a few blocks from the beach that I went to last week, and Caden runs around in the small yard, sniffing everything and anything he sees while I work on carrying the boxes out of the truck. He likes the yard here, and I don't blame him. A few times we had to keep him in apartments, and he was always so unhappy.
Taking a break from working for a second, I pull out my phone, checking to see if I have any messages. None. It's been like that for a week. A week since I met Calum, and still nothing. I keep catching myself thinking about him, about that day. I thought we had a good thing, I mean, aside from almost getting arrested, but maybe I misjudged his interest in me.
But I'm not going to wait around for someone who's not interested.
I finish placing a few packages inside the help with the assistance of the other moving guy, and I feel like getting away from my mother and her slutty habits so I clip a lease on Caden and call over to my mom, who was making sure her boobs were on full display for the mover.
"Mom, I'm going on a walk!" She doesn't even turn around, just waves me off. "C'mon boy," I beckon to Caden quietly, slipping out through the little white fence and heading towards the beach.
The walk is short, mainly filled with Caden trying to pee on every mailbox we pass, but I like the fresh air, looking at all the houses in the neighborhood and trying to memorize the layout of the town so I won't get lost. I like how close the beach is to our house, and I like the town in general. I think we picked a good one this time. Hopefully we'll stay a while.
The beach is practically abandoned in the overcast weather, which makes it even better to walk along, just me and Caden and the wind. It's a nice break from everything.
I can't help but think about Calum. It was one day, I shouldn't be feeling so upset about this. But shouldn't he have called by now? Sent a text or something? I guess he just doesn't feel the same way.
I pass by the ice cream shop Calum and I went to, forcefully tugging Caden away from the seagull he was trying to sniff. Out of nowhere, I hear a familiar voice from behind me, and I whip around suddenly to see Calum running towards me.
"Calum?" What the hell is he doing here? It's like 9 am on a Tuesday.
"Carter. Carter, thank god." He pants, out of breath from his sprint down the beach. His hair is matted down and his face is tinted a little red, looking extremely adorable in a tank top and basketball shorts. "I have come to this beach every day looking for you." He regains his breath while I'm caught off guard by his words.
"Why didn't you just call?" I put a little edge on my voice, after all, aren't guys supposed to call within three days or some shit?
"I'm sorry, I really wanted to call. I mean, I really wanted to," He talks quickly, like he needs to get this out in one sentence. "But stupid me took a freaking shower, and your number washed off and I really wanted to call but I didn't have your number so I've been coming down here everyday because I just really wanted to see you and I was hoping you might come back to the beach and god, you look really pretty." His cheeks suddenly get even redder as he sucks in a huge gulp of breath. But the color of his cheeks matches mine when I process the last part of his statement.
So that's why he didn't call, he lost my number. I can't help but feel relief and happiness at the thought of him coming down to the beach each day to wait for me. I can't believe he did that. I'm just... me.
"Pretty?" I question with a laugh, unable to keep the smile from creeping onto my face. I look down at the baggy t-shirt and soccer shorts I was wearing for moving day. If anything I look like a piece of trash, maybe he hit his head on something.
"Yeah, you look cute..." He's regained his breath by now, but his face stays a shade of pink, though I'm not sure if it's from fatigue or embarrassment. Either way, his words send an eruption of butterflies barreling through the pit of my stomach. "But you'd look cuter if you agreed to hang out with me today?" He phrases it like a question, shrugging his shoulders and giving me a puppy dog look, catching me off guard.
"Calum, I don't know..." My mom might need some help unpacking some stuff, after all, I kinda just ditched her.
"I've just spent the last week waiting for you at this beach, the least you could do is spend the day with me." He says with a laugh and an eye roll.
"It's just, my mom, she might not want me out all day." I grimace. I really want to hang out with him, but my conscious is getting the better of me. Though, he does bring up a valid point when he said how he waited for me, I mean, who does that? Jesus, he's cute.
"C'mon, Carter Stevenson, live a little."
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"Carter, over here!" I instantly hear my name called as soon as I step out of my economics class. Thoughts of the pep rally rush back from the discussion at lunch, and I remember how the groups plans to set me with Max were going to be set into action today.
I'm kind of excited and kind of dreading it. Yeah, it'd be nice to have someone cute to get my mind off Calum, but at the same time, I'm not sure how well Amanda can pick out a boyfriend for me. The girl won't let me eat potato chips, I'm not sure if I should trust her with my love life.
"Hey." I say softly when I join the circle of girls that were gathered around Amanda's locker, consisting of the usual suspects, Jess, Amanda, Rebecca, Stacey and Macy. The twins were on their phones, of course, Amanda and Rebecca were fighting about something and Jess clutched onto her Louis Vuitton bag- which probably cost more than my house- while she picked at her manicure. Nobody even notices me join the group.
"Becca, you can't just sleep with the first person that walks in front of you when you're drunk." Amanda snaps, causing Rebecca to groan. I see Jess roll her eyes, but the twins don't even look up from their phones. I've started to gather that fights happen in this group a lot, I'm surprised everyone's still friends, they're constantly yelling at each.
"I can't help it, it just happens!" She protests. I thought we were going to a pep rally, yet here we are, standing in the middle of the hallway talking about Rebecca's sex life.
"Yeah, well-" Amanda starts to counter.
"Shut the fuck up," Jess groans suddenly, checking her phone for the time. "We're going to be late for the pep rally." She grabs my arm quickly and starts to drag me down the hallway. "C'mon Carter, you can come with me." I don't really have a choice but to follow her, looking behind my shoulder to see that the other girls were following, Amanda and Becca still wearing annoyed expressions.
The sports field is just behind the school and the second I'm dragged out there it's like an explosion of red and white. Cheerleaders line the field and people are dressed in the schools colors everywhere I turn. There's a bunch of soccer beach balls floating around the crowd, and there's way more students here than I would've thought. It's madness.
"Over there." Jess points to an empty section of the bleachers. We take our seats quickly so no one else does, the rest of the gang filing in behind us. I look around at all the strangers, and for once, none of them are staring at me. It's nice to be unnoticed again.
"Hey, where's Michael?" I suddenly remember as people start to chant the school name. I know he's not on the soccer team with the rest of the boys, but I figured he would've come
"Detention. Idiot." Rebecca rolls her eyes. It's weird, I wouldn't have pegged Michael for a bad boy considering he defended Spiderman like a little boy earlier, but from what the girls have told me, he honestly just doesn't give a shit. "He was hitting on his english teacher again. The boy needs to learn that no one wants his dick."
"Says the girl who slept with him. Twice." Macy scoffs.
"We were wasted!" Rebecca defends herself again. When Amanda said that Rebecca is a partier, she wasn't kidding. "And you gave a blowjob to that kid in your biology class just because he let you cheat off him during a test." Macy gasps and covers her heart, immediately pissed off. Jesus Christ, so much drama. I can't help my face from going red just at the conversation topic, I'm probably the only virgin in this group.
"One, it's not our fault you drink vodka like it's water, and two, that was one time." Macy replies angrily. Everyone's pissed off now, and it's kind of entertaining to watch them all cat fight with each other. I've never really been a witness to drama in my old schools, yet here I have a front row seat.
"Whatever. Bitch." Rebecca scoffs and turns to face the field. It's obvious Macy's going to reply, but an ear piercing squeak of a microphone cuts everyone off. The crowd falls silent, and everyone's eyes are on the principal as he stands at the podium.
"Welcome students. I'm sure you're all excited so I won't talk long, but as you all know, the first soccer game of the season is tomorrow." People all around us cheers. "This team has worked hard to get to where they are today, so without further ado..." His voice raise dramatically. "The Westfield Warriors!" The entire field erupts into cheers and chants, while the cheerleaders start some cheer that no one can hear.
The soccer team starts to file out onto the field, jumping around and shouting, adorned in their uniforms and some confetti that was thrown into the air. I see Luke first, his fist in the air, and his arm around Ashton's neck, and I cheer a little along with the rest of the girls. The two see me and wave excitedly, and I'm mid laugh when I see Calum follow out behind, his eyes quickly flickering to me. I internally groan. Jackass.
I watch as he sends a wink to one of the cheerleaders as he passes, but I can see him look to me right after. I hope he's watching as I roll my eyes. He's such a player, I can't believe I ever liked that.
"Oh, oh," Amanda exclaims in my ear suddenly. "That's Max, number 16 over there." She points to one of the players entering the field.
Damn. He's cute, cuter than I thought he would be anyway. He has dirty blond hair, brown in some spots, and a few pieces of it fall in front of his eyes. He's too far away to see his eyes, so I don't know what color they are, but it's pretty obvious how toned he is, even from a distance. He's pretty attractive, I'm surprised with Amanda's pick.
"I'll introduce you when the rally's over." Amanda reassures me. I just nod, my excitement building. I hope he's not a dick, it'd be nice to have someone, especially with this being a new school and all.
The pep rally doesn't last too long. The cheerleaders did some chants, the players circled the field for a while, and the coach made some long speech that contained a more swear words than the principal probably wanted, but then everyone started dispersing, already pumped up for tomorrows game. Luke and Ashton come up immediately to our group, dressed up proudly in their jerseys with huge smiles on their faces.
"Hey, New Girl," Luke ruffles my hair. I like Luke, he treats me like a normal person. The boys in, "the gang" as Amanda calls it, are a lot more genuine than the girls, excluding, of course, Calum. "Coming to the game tomorrow?" Calum walks up behind him, but I decide to ignore him, keeping my attention on Luke and Ash, who impatiently wait my response.
"Wouldn't miss it." I smile, and I see Calum frown out of the corner of my eye. Good, I like to know I'm getting under his skin. Serves him right. I spy Amanda trying to pick up a conversation with him, but he walks away, an angry look on his face.
"Good, you better cheer me on." He gives me a pointed look, but soon cracks into a smile, matching mine. I'm about to reply but I feel Amanda tug on my sleeve.
"Hey, lover girl, time to meet your prince charming." I turn to Luke and Ashton, shrugging my shoulders.
"Sorry, Amanda's already picking out baby names for Max and I, I'll see you guys later." I don't get to see their reactions before Amanda pulls me down the bleacher stairs, but I hear Ashton shout down to me.
"Wear protection!"
I'm dragged down the bleachers a ways, still trying to look behind me at Luke and Ashton and their cheeky smiles when I almost crash into someone as Amanda stops abruptly.
"Oh god, sorr-" I start to say, but when the person turns around, I see that's it's the player Amanda pointed out earlier. Man, he's even cuter up close.
"Max, Carter. Carter, Max." Amanda gestures between us, and I feel embarrassed all of a sudden. I probably didn't make the greatest first impression by almost sending him barreling down the bleachers. "I'll leave you two kids alone." She sends me a wink, and despite my protests for her to stay, she leaves Max and I in uncomfortable silence as she rejoins the group. I see her make a beeline to Calum, and begins talking animatedly with him, every so often causing him to look down at where I stand with Max.
"So..." I try to think of something to say to the cutie. "I'm Carter." I let out a nervous laugh.
"Yeah, I know." He laughs uncomfortably, but his words are genuine.
Blue. His eyes are blue.
"Right." Of course he knows, Amanda just introduced us. God, I'm such an idiot. "And you're Max." I'm crashing and burning.
"Correct again." He says. This is kind of awkward, I have no idea what to talk about. "Are you coming to the game tomorrow?"
Oh good, I know this answer.
"Um, yeah, yeah," I stammer. Dammit.
"Cool. I'll look for you." He smiles. He's nice, not the best conversationalist, but maybe that's just because we're strangers. I'll give him a shot, I mean he's cute and from what Amanda said, relatively interested in me, which is more than I can say for any other boy in school.
"Cool." I simply reply with. "Well, I should get going, I guess I'll see you at the game." I give him a smile and he gives me one back and that's that. I walk up the bleachers to where everyone else is.
Immediately everyone swarms around me, everyone except Calum, who stands off to the side, obviously still listening in. I guess my love life is front page news at the moment.
"Well?" Jess is the first one to speak.
"It was good, kinda awkward." I swear I see Calum smirk. He shouldn't even be listening in, he can go run off with his little cheerleader for all I care. "But he's really cute." Emphasis on the 'really.' I see Calum's smirk drop into a frown, paired with an eye roll. He scoffs none too quietly.
"Oh look who's listening in..." Luke gives Calum a smug look.
"He's just jealous because Carter's got a new boy toy and it's not him." Rebecca laughs, teasing Calum as he groans.
"Please, she can fuck whoever she wants, see if I care." He defiantly states, sneering.
"Okay. I will." I stare down Calum and watch as his expression becomes shocked for just a split second. He's caught off guard, and I can tell. I have no intention of actually sleeping around like a whore, but he can think whatever he wants. Anything to let him know I've moved on.
"Whatever." He rolls his eyes after he regains his confidence. "Fuck you." He starts to storm his way down the bleachers but I'm not letting him have the final word.
"Sorry but that job's already filled."
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dedicated to irwinway bc she's starting a brenna fan club at her school and she's now my idol
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wow look brenna wrote another shitty chapter surprise
the flashbacks really rushed and gross ewie oh whale
and this is like all boring dialogue and i hate myself
but im basically still setting things up like it'll get better
i hope
and carters all like "u no wut fuq u calmu ill date who i want and ders nothing u can do bout it"
and calums all like "u no wut fuq u 2 carter i hate u even tho 4 some reason i dont liek when ur wit other boyz??? still hate u tho"
and amandas all like "omg i run dis school n calmus mine bitchez"
and rebeccas all like "i liek dick"
anywhore vote and comment and all that jazz and ps not (: every (: comment (: has (: to (: compare (: this (: to (: grease (: i (: wrote (: this (: i (: promise (: i (: know (: what (: i based (: it (: off (: of (:
oh and thanks for all the positive feedback I dont actually understand why you guys like this but hey thanks dudes and dudettes peace out ~brenna
OH AND PS NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN BETWEEN CARTER AND LUKE BC I SAY SO