Above: Diego Boneta as Eli Madden. Not necessarily my best pick for his character, so if you have any better suggestions, then let me know in the comments. I would appreciate it.
But I was actually really proud of last chapter and how it came out, like really proud. I was smiling while I was editing it because I feel like this story is really starting to progress at a good point, and I can't wait for you all to see what's in store for Lia and the rest of the characters.
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Andrew Price
Fuck.
Honestly, I was pretty used to not getting enough sleep every night. I would always go to sleep, and then wake up at 2, and then proceed to wake up at every hour until I forced myself to get up out of bed. I never fucking slept through the whole damn night.
I rubbed my eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the darkness that enveloped me. I was at peace whenever I was in the darkness, alone. It made it easier to think. Yeah, I did that a lot.
I heard some kind of shuffling on the side of my bed, and looked to my right, where it was coming from, and saw Julian, snoring softly. I rolled my eyes placing my hands on them. But then it came back to me.
We were all at Eli's house, and it was me, Eli, Julian, Liam, and some chick that I invited over. Honestly, I didn't even know her name, nor did I care. I was in the mood for a hook-up and I didn't even care who it was.
We all had a couple of drinks, laughing and talking, mostly about other girls, and those lame-ass guys that think their cooler than us. AKA Mason, Jace, and all those other idiots.
I had to leave the both of them for a half an hour, just so I could have some alone time with the girl. But after, I wasn't satisfied. Hell, I never was.
I called an uber for her, since she too was drinking, and I didn't want to be responsible for her if I drove her home, and we crashed. Plus, being the lazy ass I am, I didn't even want to. I just called and sent her on her way.
She practically begged me for my number. Don't get me wrong, that's what usually happens especially after sex with me. But I refused. I never wanted to have to deal with her. She seemed too clingy, and the way she practically draped herself all over me when we were with the guys. I just wanted to attempt to satisfy my needs, and then I was done with her. And Julian, being the drunk ass he was, fucking gave her my number even when I told her no. So, now she is going to text me.
Maybe I just won't respond. Or block her number. Yeah, that's what I'll do.
I remember walking back inside, after the girl's departure, and the guys were still continuing to laugh and be loud. Eli just had 1 beer, but Julian was hammered to the max. I told the both of them to stay over, since I didn't want them driving, especially at night.
I grabbed them pillows and blankets, and returned to my room, where they were at the time, and found them both sleeping on my bedroom floor. I silently scoffed and rolled my eyes, flinging the blankets and pillows at their face, hoping to wake up at some point and be grateful for even giving them something to sleep with.
Then, I crawled into my large, king size bed and that was it.
I looked over to the front of my bed, and noticed that Eli was gone. He folded his blanket, putting it at the foot of my bed, and placed the pillow on top. Like he was never here. Where the fuck could he have gone? And why the hell was he driving, even when he only had 1 drink?
Eli was my best friend, and I wanted him to be careful. I've seen him go downhill, drinking, partying, girls, mysteriously disappearing. It made me slightly nervous not knowing his whereabouts.
I cursed at myself for acting like a mom worried about where her kid could be. I mean, it's just Eli. He was only my best friend, brother from another mother.
I took my phone out from under the blankets of my bed, and blurted out an expletive when the brightness was turned all the way on. I squinted my eyes, trying to adjust to the abruptness of the light on my phone.
I had a lot of messages. I scrolled through them, absentmindedly, until my eyes were drawn to a particular one.
Eli: Drew, went out to clear my head. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.
Then I saw the one above.
Unknown Number: Had a really fun time last night. Maybe we could do it again, and try some new positions. Like the one where my legs are-
I immediately blocked the number. Usually I'm turned on by that kind of stuff, but this girl had absolutely not game, whatsoever. And I wasn't interested.
Whatever, call me a dick for having sex with girls and then leaving them. That's just how it is. I can't explain it.
I dropped my phone on the mattress, before grabbing one of my pillows on the bed. I repeatedly smacked Julian's head, trying to get him to wake up.
"What the fuck man?" He moaned, before putting the pillow on top of his head.
"Eli left." Was all I said.
"I know. He said he had something to do. What's the problem?" He turns over to my side.
"I think we should go find him."
"Drew, no. That's just low, man."
"I just want to know what he's doing, that's all." I shrugged, hoping he would just get his lousy ass up.
"I'm sure he's fine. Don't be such a girl. Besides, he only had one beer, I had like 10." He began to close his eyes.
"Julian, get the hell up!" I yelled quietly, and once again smacked him in the head with a pillow.
"Fine, fine. I'm up, you asshole. Now what do you want?" He rolled his eyes.
"Let's go find Eli." I proceeded to get out of my bed, putting on the jeans I had on from last night. I grabbed my leather jacket, which was sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor, where most of my clothes were. What? Its not like my mother tells me to clean it up. Okay, yeah she does.
"Fine. But I'm sleeping on the car ride. At least let me have that." He pointed at me, the bags under his eyes more noticeable.
"Whatever, you dumbass. Let's go." I grabbed the keys to my Mom's Audi, since she's the only one who didn't own a sports car or motorcycle. I didn't want anything bad to happen to it, since we're driving at night. I'm very cautious when it comes to my sports car and motorcycle.
I looked at many places he could be that I would know of. The soccer field, we used to play soccer when we were kids. Cafe Ole, the coffee shop that he loved to pick up girls from after having his favorite drink: black coffee with 3 sugars and light cream. And finally, our hideout. The hideout where me, Eli, Julian, Nick, and Liam would all hang out, and escape from whatever stress the outside world would cause. The best part is that no one knew where it was, only us.
But he wasn't at any of these places. Well, for starters, the coffee shop closed at 8, and it was midnight, almost past it. I'm just tired from lack of sleep, but I wasn't going to stop until I knew where he was. He knows that as best friends, we never keep secrets from each other. Especially if it's about girls. Secrets are sacred to the both of us, so why was his text message so bland? Why couldn't he just tell me where he was? That's why I knew he was acting suspicious. He is up to something.
But then I remembered something pretty valuable:
"God, Mason is such a dickwad, it's not even funny." I say, taking another swig of a beer. I was going to stop myself at one, but sometimes I can't help myself. But tonight, I'm at least going to have some self control with drinking.
"He's not that bad, Drew." Eli defended, and I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and want him to continue. "He's still upset by what you did. He's just holding a grudge."
"I saw an opportunity, and I took it. He just happened to catch us at the right time." I gave Eli a crooked smile, and he just shrugged.
"Guyyyysssss, Lina issssss soooooo hoooott. I wwwouulld tttooottaally hit thatttt." Julian slurred. I snorted because he was such a lightweight, and would totally be hammered after 2 beers.
"Drew, did you know that Lia stays with them? She's been living with them for the past 2 weeks." Eli told me, and I honestly couldn't care less.
Lia gets on my nerves. The way she narrows her eyes at me, the way she speaks to me, like she holds some higher authority. The way she fucking slapped me across the face. I couldn't be around her for more than 2 seconds without wanting to duck tape her mouth shut for the rest of the day.
"Dude, why the fuck do you always talk about Lia? She's so annoying." I whined, slouching on the couch.
"She's not that bad, once you get to know her." He spoke, honestly.
"I'm not wasting my time with her, when I know I'll have better offers on the table."
He was either with Lia, or about to pick up Lia. But why would he do it at midnight? Why couldn't he wait until tomorrow? He was definitely trying to keep this covert. He is such a douche.
I slowly approach what seems like the Butler's residence, and I park in the back of one of the cars sitting on the street. But I gave myself enough room so I could see what they were doing. I saw his car, parked right in front of their driveway, and I couldn't help but shake my head. Why is he so caught up with Lia? Does he like her or something? Cause I'm not sure I would be able to handle that, if she continues to show up around us everywhere.
They were both laughing, and running to his car. Then, I knew what I had to do from here.
"We're following them." I confirmed.
"Dude, just let him be. He seems like he's going out with a girl." Julian shuffles in his seat.
"This isn't just some girl, man, this is Lia. He's approaching enemy territory." I gestured to the car that is beginning to drive away.
"Whatever, but if they catch you, and Eli gets mad, I'm going to say 'I told you so'."
I began to drive, slowly and keep a moderate pace between his and my car. Just in case he decides to check his rear-view mirror, and gets suspicious.
We followed them until we reached a baseball field. But I kept driving, waiting for them to park and get out, before I pulled in and parked myself. The baseball field was in the same park as the soccer field we always went to.
After finding a parking spot moderately close to theirs, I got out, and pulled Julian out as well. I wasn't going to confront him or anything, I just wanted to know what they were doing and why.
After they explained, I offered to play. I didn't see the harm in it. It was just us, and Jason, and some chick he wanted to bring along. But I didn't care.
We played to six, and since we flipped a coin, Lia and Eli had to take their shirts off. I wasn't surprised at Lia's appearance, it pretty much matched with her personality: annoying and boring.
After the game started, and began to get intense, the scored was 4-5. And we were losing. I don't do good with losing, at all. My ego couldn't take another hit from this girl.
I struck Eli out, easily. He's never been a good ball player. Plus, he never really had the best hand-eye coordination either, which is a plus for me in this case. Now, all I had to do was do the same with Lia.
But it was intimidating, especially since this is her turf. I've never played baseball in my life, maybe once, but I wouldn't have remembered it. I'm more of a basketball and soccer kind of guy.
But she gave me this look, the look when you know she means business, and I nearly shit my pants. I never thought I would get nervous around her, in a bad way. But if she won this game, I would never hear the end of it. She would blab about it constantly, and continue to use it against me at any point in time. I couldn't let that happen.
I threw my pitch, and she hit it furiously. It flew up into the air, before landing and rolling into the backfield. I prepared my stance, as I yelled for Julian to get the fucking ball and pass it to me. Once she hit third base, he threw it to me, and I sprinted up to her, trying to tag the base and her foot, so that she would be out. But she began to slide.
I didn't expect her to slide at all, she would get dirt all over her clothes, and not to mention all over her legs. Fuck, I didn't expect that. And she did it anyway.
I ended up tripping over her black sneakers, and landing straight on top of her. I mean, straight on top of her.
I braced myself, by placing my hands at both sides of her head. We made eye contact for a long time.
I never really knew that color of her eyes until tonight. I always thought they were green, but looking into them now, they were blue, like the kind of blue you would see in the oceans of Hawaii. But around the pupil, was a little ring of green. And on the outskirts of her eye, was a grey ring. Her eyes were...amazing--beautiful. I've never seen anything like it.
The way her chest rose and fell against mine, made my head spin. Our faces were inches apart, and I could even feel her minty breath on mine. That also drove me insane.
Something felt...weird with my heart, and my stomach. I wasn't sure what it was and why it was happening, but I liked it. Really liked it.
Gosh, Drew, stick to the fucking plan. My conscience told me. The plan was to hang around with her so much, to the point where she would hang out with me, instead of Mason, and all the other guys. The part where Mason would get mad, and then they would fight, and they wouldn't talk to each other, possibly stop being friends. I didn't care of the damage it would cause, I just liked watching Mason squirm.
But I knew that Lia was feeling the absolute same as me, which means she would be more approachable if I still wanted to go through with the plan, which I did. But if she caught feelings, well I would just have to break her heart. Just like I did with everyone else.
But for now, I was going to enjoy staring into her gorgeous eyes, and continue to feel something stirring inside me. I tried putting it aside, but it keeps getting stronger, as time passes.
"Good game, Lee. You're not such a bad ball player." I said, deciding to break the moment. It had to end at sometime, considering Eli and Jason were both staring at us, awkwardly.
After that, I knew I would never have a moment like that again. And a part of me was okay with that, the part that remembers that Lia is a part of a group that I absolutely despise.
***
Lia James
Today is Monday. And I couldn't help but think about how tryouts are 4 days from now. Could you tell I'm nervous? Oh well.
Yesterday, I slept in until about noon, almost one. It felt good considering Eli practically kept me up the whole night on Saturday. He was so strange.
I began walking through the parking lot, people were still driving through, getting out and chatting with their friends. I decided to drive myself to school today.
This school isn't as bad as it may seem. After the first couple of days, everything seemed fine. Other than Andrew and his dumb Leather Jackets boys constantly giving us side-eyes and snarls. But I just gave them a petty smile, just to toy with their minds.
I was so lost in thought, that I didn't even see the car pull out of a parking spot, nearly hitting me. I jerked back, my heart racing a thousand miles per second.
"Um, walking here!" I yelled to the driver. He pulled back in, straightening his car between the two white lines, before getting out. I wanted to see who it was before I gave them a little lesson about driving 101.
"What the hell-Andrew?" I gasped, as I saw him turn his body around. Today he was wearing a pair of aviators. He wore a white T-shirt and slung his leather jacket on one side of his shoulder.
"Gotta keep an eye out, James. Don't want anyone running you over, do you?" Huh, I expected him to curse at me for being clueless. I guess not.
"No, but thanks for the tip." I gave him a tight smile before walking away. Whatever nice act he's trying to pull, it's not working.
"Hey! Wait up!" He yelled. He grabbed my arm and spun me around.
"You dropped this." He said before taking my hand and placing my car keys on it.
"Oh, thanks." I said before putting them in my backpack. "You have a guitar?" I pointed to the instrument sitting in his back seat.
"Yeah." Wow, a man of many words.
"So, is it your siblings, or do you play?" I ask, trying to stir up a conversation. He looked like he wasn't going anywhere for a few minutes.
"I play, actually." He gave me a crooked smile, and I could feel my heart flutter a little bit. Stop it you dumb heart! This guy is a dangerous zone!
"You should play for me sometime, maybe." I suggested, and he nodded his head. I was then back on my path to the entrance to the school. He caught up with me again, holding the door open for me, and gesturing for me to walk through. I just gave him a nod.
"Why are you acting so nice to me?" I ask, when he was finished holding the door for me.
"Can't a guy be nice for once?" He shrugged, and nodded.
"Yeah, but you? I didn't expect nice to be in your vocabulary."
"I guess you don't know much about me." He said bluntly, not making eye contact.
"I guess I don't. And maybe that's the problem." I told him, but he was too distracted checking out some girls by the lockers.
"Alright, I'm out. Hot chicks at 3:00." He saluted to me before walking away, and leaning up against the lockers beside the girls he was just checking out.
"You know what? I do know a lot about you." I mumbled under my breath, before exhaling loudly and continuing my journey to first period.
~*~
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Hi y'all! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, especially Andrews POV. I was so excited to include his perspective and how you all would react to it.
The wheels are turning guys, this story is progressing, and we are far from being over. What are you predictions for the future? What about next chapter? Let me know! I enjoy reading comments.
Much Love.
XOXO