OKAY. this chapter is basically just here to give you a good idea of what Steph looks like, I considered taking it out, but it was pretty chill so I said whatever.
MUSIC: almost (sweet music) - hozier
lit
-rabid
***
AUGUST-
"Met a cute guy at ballet today." I flop onto Gabby's bed and pull out my phone.
"What? A student?" She turns to me. "This is revolutionary, you never care about boys."
"No, not a student." I scroll around a bit. "You remember I told you about that new girl? In my elite group? Julianna?"
"Yes? I don't see how she has anything to do with the said cute guy but continue."
"Well, okay, he walked in and my first thought was, father." I look over at her. "But then he introduced himself as her older brother, so,"
"What did he look like?"
I breathe out. "Tall, loose sandy blonde hair, easy smile, you know, generally your average kind guy looks." I breathe in again. "Pretty eyes that had these little crinkles in the sides when he smiled. He had these dimples on his cheeks and really really pretty lips. I just, I don't know," I cringe at the last thing. So I keep talking. "He's got unruly eyebrows and his hair was messy, not too long, but enough to flop over his eyes if he bent over too far." Then I keep going because she's coaxing me on. "his shoulders weren't wide but he's packed head to foot in muscle for some reason. He looks like if you took a boy-next-door type and sent him to the gym,"
"So what makes him special?"
"I don't quite know, it might have been his little protective thing with Jilly and then, well I don't know."
"So he was in shape?"
"He looked like he came straight from the gym, mentioned something about leg day."
"Woah, do you have pictures? A name?"
"Jilly referred to him as Steph."
"Oh and that's a hot name, any idea of what his full name is?"
"I'm not doing any roster stuff, so, all I know is that he's Steph, and he's new to Regina."
"So like, what exactly made him noticeable?"
"I don't know. A lot of things." I let out a sigh, trying to figure out what exactly about mystery Steph that I found so irresistible. "I don't know, he got wicked nervous around me like always but he didn't try to do anything stupid, he just, I don't know?"
"Well duh, boys get stupid around you all the time, he isn't different, but what exactly made you stupid too?"
"Okay? I'm gonna gush a second here." I sit up off the bed, tossing my phone to the side and looking right at her.
"Oh god, Aug? Gushing? Am I dead?" I roll my eyes at her.
"I'm going to have to say, in all honesty, it was the first three seconds we saw each other, and I'm probably just making this up, but we made that type of eye contact you make before you kiss, that eye contact that just takes everything out of you and gives it all back in an instant."
"Okay then," she's judging me for how I said it.
"I'm trying to explain it." I give her a joking glare. "If I was batshit insane, I'd say I'm going to fall head over heels in love with him,"
"Sounds like you need to find this boy and grab him by the arms and marry him."
"I can't." I snort. "God no."
"Why not?"
"Because he's literally one of my student's older brothers, he's probably like one of those 17-year-olds that looks super old."
"How old is Jilly?"
"Fourteen." I sigh. "It would make sense that he's seventeen, which would make me a creep because I'm six years older than him."
"True love knows no age."
"Yeah, but the law does," I grumble.
"Please go over that look again."
"He had that starry-eyed look. Like he just got a taste of the world and he knows his future is wide open ahead of him." I slap backward into her bed. "Why are we still talking about this, he's 17."
"He's probably not, keep your hopes up."
"We'll see."