Extraordinary: A Kian Lawley Story

Chapter One

There was something exhilarating about being on my own in a new place. I felt as if I could be anyone I wanted to be and do anything I wanted to do. Though I would be lying if I said I didn't feel guilty about leaving home without saying a word to anyone. But it was a bit harder to feel guilty when I was surrounded by warm air and palm trees.

I made my way through The Grove walking down the street alone was somewhat terrifying. I felt like everywhere I looked I was being judged, but perhaps it was the fact that I had just spent roughly five hours on a plane and only stopped at the hotel long enough to drop my stuff off and use the bathroom before I left to explore. I felt my phone have a seizure of vibration in my pocket and stopped to see who it was, most likely mom again but before I could see who it was I felt someone smacking into my back.

"Hey you can't just stop in the middle of walking?" I heard a guy yell in my ear. Good going, day one and I have already made enemies.

"Shit sorry," I said trying to pull myself back together, I turned to see two boys in my face, one somewhat angry and the other laughing.

"Umm, yeah" the angry one said throwing his hands in the air, "Just don't like stop walking right in front of other people. Like you'll get run down by other people, yeah."

"What the fuck did you just say?" the laughing one said poking him in the arm.

"Shut up," he said smacking his friend to stop him from poking him.

"Sorry," I said turning and walking faster. I had always pictured California people as being laid back but maybe that was one of the worst stereotypes in the world.

"Hey he thinks your cute!" I heard being yelled behind me. I glanced back only long enough to see the angry one who had ran into me punching the laughing one. I kept walking, who had I ran into, literally.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, I jumped turning around, it was the angry one. I panicked for a moment, wanting to run away, what was he doing creeping up on me like that. We stared at each other in silence, his brown eyes opened wide and his cheeks blushed. "Umm," he said holding up my phone. "You dropped this."

"Thanks," I said snatching the phone and turning away quickly. I tried to sneakily examine the screen for cracks.

"You're welcome," he yelled after me but I kept walking. My first day in Los Angeles and I was already afraid that I had pissed someone off.

I didn't look back until I had turned the corner, I was afraid the boy was still following me, but when I looked I couldn't spot him or his friend. I was a bit more comfortable and decided to get something to eat. However considering I didn't know my way around, it was proving to be much more difficult. I wondered for a bit longer before settling on some frozen yogurt, I mean it wasn't exactly dinner but it was better than nothing.

I was sitting outside eating some vanilla yogurt coated with sprinkles and mini M&M's flipping through my phone. Missed call after missed call from my parents and social media was exploding with people wanting to know where I had gone off to. What my parents didn't know was that if they had bothered to look in my room they would have found the letter I left for them, depicting where I had gone and what I was doing. But apparently they weren't too keen on looking into things, definitely not what I would have expected. I imagined me leaving them behind like an episode on a crime TV show. Where the parents destroy the child's room in search of evidence or clues.

"Hey," I looked up to see the angry boy from before, this time with a bit of a smile.

"Hi," I said locking my phone screen and watching as the boy took a seat at the table with me.

"Umm, sorry about getting mad about that back there," he said with a smile. "I mean it was part my fault too, I wasn't really paying attention."

"It's ok, it happens," I laughed taking a bite of my yogurt. Maybe he wasn't a total asshole.

"M&M's?" he asked pointing to my yogurt.

"They're kind of my favorite," I was confused as to what he was doing and why he was so intrigued by someone sitting on their own eating frozen yogurt.

"Yeah?" he laughed. "I'm a fan of almost anything on frozen yogurt."

"You can't really do wrong when it comes to frozen yogurt," I laughed.

"I'm Kian," he said with a sly smile.

"Ella." I said examining the boy in front of me. His brown hair perfectly styled, arms covered in tattoos, and a smile that I couldn't help but smile back at.

"Ella, like Cinderella," he laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

"No, Ella like Ella," I laughed.

"Kian!" we both turned at the sound.

"That's my friend Jc," he laughed pointing over at the boy who was with him earlier. "He's about an idiot."

"Dude, what are you doing?" Jc said rushing over to us.

"Talking to Ella," Kian said pointing over at me.

"The movie is about to start you better hurry your ass up," he said waving good bye to me and running off toward the movie theater down the street.

"Well you heard the man," Kian laughed standing up, "Umm do you think I could like see you again sometime?"

"Umm," I thought about this hard for a moment. "Yeah, sure."

"Awesome!" he said with a smile pulling his phone out of his pocket and handing it to me with an open new contact page. I put in my number panicking with each enter of a digit before handing it back to him. Within seconds my phone was vibrating with a new message. "Just text me later, or I'll text you. Ya know whatever."

"Got it," I said saving Kian's number to my phone as he darted off toward the theater.

What was the worst that could happen? I mean he could turn out to be a murderer or some insane person. But I liked to think I had a good judge of character. Plus just because I had his number didn't mean I had to call him. And I could always just bail on him in the moment. I felt a bit guilty but maybe that was from the massive cup of frozen yogurt I had eaten.