The Golden Boy

Found Him

The California sun beat down on my blue car, making it's surface cast a glaring glow behind him. He stood there leaning in a comfortable pose—but actually was too, tense—a leg propped up against the door and an uncertain expression set on his face.

"Nice Audi." He complimented jutting his chin back at it. I nodded.

"Thanks. You've never seen it before?" I asked as I peered around the parking lot to see only a few people lurking around.

"No. Never got time to meet you here before. I have practice at this hour usually, you know?" He tried to smile. I know he was trying to make small talk to not make this awkward.

"And…today you have time?" I slowly moved forward to copy his stance beside him.

"Today is day off." He shrugged and looked in the distance. I nodded silently and a quiet fell over us for a long moment giving me a little more time to ponder over the words I wanted to let out.

"Look, I wanted to say—"

"We should talk." We said at the same time and stopped.

"You go first." He motioned with his hand and I swallowed.

"I…wanted to say…sorry. For what I said on Monday—"

"No, you don't have to apologise. I understand that two people don't always feel the same way about something. I mean—" nervousness made him run a hand through his hair.

"Let me finish first, please?" I interjected. This guy should have felt grateful because Fiona Marriott, doesn't say please to no one. "I'm sorry for what I said and I'm sorry for how I behaved after that. It was wrong and kind of selfish of me to avoid you and everyone like that. I think I just panicked because I haven't been in a situation like this before so, I took off to the wrong path. So, can we please…I don't know—can we wipe it off and like be normal again?" I finished my rant, this time uninterrupted and looked expectantly at him.

A soft chuckle escaped him as he faced me. "Well, if you think that it was your fault then, you shouldn't be worrying about that. And actually, yeah. I wanted to talk to you about the same thing…that you don't have to ditch everyone else because of what happened. I could just …back off, give you some space and…leave you alone, I guess." He said scratching at his neck looking down, his words turning into a more somber tone.

He gave me yet another reason to like him even more. To think he's different from all the other guys I have met before.

To think that maybe I shouldn't have turned him down that day when he asked me to kiss him sober. Things would have been different, preferably positive, if I had gave in instead of running away. But what's been done is done.

I couldn't change the past.

But I can look up to hopefully a better future now, right? Where maybe, just by a little chance, I could entertain the idea of being with a boy. And I think chances would be a little high if the said boy is Chase.

"No. You don't have to leave anything, Chase." I said a bit desperately. "We could just…move on from that?" His eyes bore into mine and I noticed that the light in the crystal blues was dimmer than usual.

Like, the clouds have obscured the sun light for the lake beneath. And I liked brighter things. Especially, his eyes.

Then he nodded, his lips tilting slightly upwards. "I think, yes. Yes, we can." He muttered.

I let out a sigh of relief like a physical weight was lifted off my chest. Now, everything was how it used to be.

No more ditching group lunch.

No more hiding out in the library.

And no more avoiding the boy I was beginning to like.

××××××

Things were better now. Last weekend we went to hangout at a diner around the block from school. We, as in our whole group including Chase. We even sat together, him on my right, passing me sauce and napkins, us laughing on something from our private conversations and him staring at the side of my face quite often.

I would intentionally move my head sidewards to make my hair fall to hide my slightly inflamed cheeks from his gaze.

And damn, it was so unusual of me to react like that, I almost cursed out loud at myself.

What was happening to me?

Was liking someone supposed to feel like this.

Craving their attention and then not being able to maintain eye f*****g contact, either.

Stupid idiotic teenage hormones.

I don't think anyone even noticed what was going on infront of their unknowing eyes. The twins were fighting over a peice of fry that Matt supposedly stole. And Bree and Ashton… I don't even want to know what he was whispering in my best friend's ear to make her blush like a damn fire truck and hit his arm.

Shivering internally from the unwanted thoughts that shoved their way into my brain, I shifted my attention to the boy beside me.

A cute boy that is.

Jesus Christ, I'm being so f*****g gross.

I was at my locker, about to shut it when someone leaned their arm on the next one beside me. "Hey, Fiona. What's up?" Matt grinned quickly preventing a nuclear level glare. "Wait. Is that a cookie?"

"Yeah—um—in a whole Tupperware actually." I shrugged and watched his face light up like a house on christmas.

"Can I have one? Just one, I swear, please."

I grabbed the box and handed it to him. "Have as many as you want, dude." I smiled.

"You're awesome! You're definitely my favorite girl. Oh my god. Hmm… I can tell these are homemade, I just have this superpower, you know? I can tell by just eating if the food is home cooked or not." He boasted, his words muffled and barely intelligible because of the crunchy little darlings.

"So, I wanted to ask you something. That's why I'm actually here." He swallowed before continuing. "Can you give Chase and I a ride back at home?" I twisted my lips in confusion.

"But what happened to your car. And what about his?"

"Mom dropped us today." He shrugged. "And Tessa was sent for service."

"Who's Tessa?"

"s**t, sorry!" He laughed. "Chase calls his Tesla Tessa." He explained, eyes twinkling with joy.

"Oh," Mia hasn't come today. That meant both the boys. Can I do it? Chase shouldn't be a bother—except if I get distracted and crash—and as far as it goes for Matt…I think I can handle that. And I think Bree didn't brought her car today, too."Meet me after school, then." I tried to smile. Keyword. Tried.

××××××

"I'm sorry, Fy…but, Ashton is dropping me." She said with a pout that I would have had considered cute, if not for the reason that she was bailing out and letting two guys sit in my car. With me. Alone. Without another girl.

Internally, I was freaked the f**k out.

But on the outside, I chose to appear mad.

Which I always do.

"I know what you're doing. You've started to ditch me too much since lately to spend time with your beloved boyfriend." I grumbled hiking my backpack.

"Hey, he isn't my boyfriend. Yet. We're only seeing where things will go." She scoffed.

I snorted. "Oh, please. We all know that you both are going to end up together, that fucker has already convinced himself. And you, I saw how you ingnored my allegations of ditching me." I stood, my arms crossed and a pointed look on ny face.

She laughed. f*****g laughed. "Well, I can't deny that." She shrugged and then threw her arm on my shoulders, tugging me along. "But I promise I'll make it up to you. Let's plan a sleepover, yeah?"

I tossed her a grumbled 'yes' and left her her with her cheeky ass boyfriend—gagging at his cheesy kiss on the cheek—and saw them ride off into the sunset in his black car.

I took my sour mood to my car and found only Matt standing there. "Where's your cousin." I asked, my brows furrowing.

"He said he'll be here. Maybe he's still in the practice and he isn't picking up his phone, either." He shrugged. "Can you just go in and call him?" He asked.

"But why won't you go in?"

"Oh, that…" he chuckled averting his gaze. "I…actually…I'm not allowed in there. You see, the last time I was there, the court got wet because of the fire alarm went off and…so practice had to bcancelled...because of the water…I swear, it wasn't my fault! Completely." He appealed with wide eyes.

"Uh-huh. I believe you." I nodded and went off to find the basketball court all the way across the school.

The doors opened smoothly without a noice and I swear, any highschool romance movie couldn't have prepared me for the next scene.

I found him, I guess.