Begin Again

Chapter 7

Today I woke up the second time my alarm went off; I have too much excitement to sleep any longer, although sleep is lovely. Since I'm in a good mood, I decide to turn on my music while I get ready. Once Southern Girl by Tim McGraw is playing, I head towards my bathroom to take my morning shower. I grab a white, fluffy towel out from under my sink and turn the water on to the perfect temperature: mildly scalding. I strip off my pajamas and hop into the shower.

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In 10 minutes I'm stepping out of the warm bliss and into the artic cold of my bathroom. I quickly wrap my towel around me, dry off, and head to my dresser to choose todays jeans. Now that I'm back in my room, I can hear that Tim McGraw is long over and now Luke Bryan is dominating my speakers with his Rollercoaster.

I decide on a pair of lightwash, bootcut Lee's and tug them on. While I'm at my dresser, I go ahead and grab a pair of white boot socks from the top drawer and throw them onto my bed; I'll put them on when I'm ready to put my boots on too. I head to my closet to pick out my shirt; I can't decide if I want a fitted tee or another flannel. Or maybe even a fitted tanktop under a flannel.

Before I can decide, Deriks Bently does for me as I hear him start to sing Sideways.

"Hey girl, what's your name? It's so loud in here I can't hear a thing, but I sure do like your style. And I can see you came to rock in your blue jeans and white tanktop; man that look drives me wild."

I grab a white tank top and a red and blue plaid flannel off their hangers as I sing along. Hopefully, this look will drive Erik wild. I'm crazy, I know, but hey a girl can dream. I throw the tanktop on and pull the flannel on over it, but leave it unbuttoned.

I head back into the bathroom to fix my hair, deciding to leave it down and flat iron it. The task takes about a good 15 minutes and once I'm done I admire my handywork in the mirror.

I go back into my room and grab my Ariat cowboy boots to complete my Deirks Bently inspired look. Once my boots are on, I grab my bag and phone and head into the kitchen to grab a s'mores flavored poptart and head out the door to my truck.

I shove the poptart into my mouth, open the door, hop in, and crank up my truck. I back out of the driveway and head to school with Miranda Lambert singing Gunpowder and Lead.

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I'm sitting in my usual spot listening to my music and waiting for Isabel to get here. The doors to the gym bang open and the team flows out after their morning practice. Once again, Luke is telling some stupid story to Erik and a couple other guys and once again, they are only pretending to listen.

As Erik gets closer, he looks my way and our eyes meet like they did yesterday. I feel my breath catch as the world around me ceases to exist. Just like yesterday, I feel like he is looking into my soul.

He looks absolutely breath-taking today; he's wearing darkwash Levi's, a blue sleeveless shirt with the Florida Gators logo on it and it says "I Bleed Orange and Blue", his siganture mossy oak hat with the little gold fishhook, and some old, worn work boots.

He gives me a small smile and I think I smile back. I'm pretty sure I do; I hope I did. Gosh, I'm pathetic. Then he has to break his stare as he gets closer so he can walk by without having to noticably turn his head my way. I stare at the magnificent view he allows as he walks by and man, do those jeans hug his butt just right. If I didn't know any better I'd say they were tailored specifically for him and his fine backside.

While I had been checking out Erik's butt, I had completely failed to notice Isabel's arrival. She makes an obvious fake coughing noise that snaps me out of my trance and I look up at her while simultaneously pulling out my earbud.

I see an amused look on her face. My cheeks must be flamming red as I realize I have been caught redhanded.
"Oh, um, hi.", I stammer, "I didn't realize you were here yet."

She laughs and says, "I don't think you would've noticed a bomb goin' off the way you two were starin' at each other and the way you were eye-grabbin' his butt."

My eyes go wide and my face turns a whole new shade of red. "I was not eye-grabbin' his butt!", I protest, trying to defend myself, even though I totally was just doing that.

"Uh-huh sure you weren't", she says as she sits down beside me, accusation thick in her voice.

"Whatever"' I retort and stick my tongue out at her. She sticks hers right back out at me and we both laugh.

"So who was that and what's the deal with you two? I thought everyone but me ceased to realize you exist because of that Kihanna chick."

I sigh, "His name is Erik Carson and yeah, I thought so too. Until last Wednesday. He came out of the gym after his mornin' practice, just like today, and I had looked up to see what all the noise was and he smiled at me. Then to make it even weirder, he came to the gym yesterday, even though there had been no practice the night before and no one else was in the gym. He came back out not even a minute later empty handed and did that whole starin' thing. Just without the smile."

She sits there for a minute taking it all in. Even though we've only known each other for less than a day, I feel like I've known her forever. We are already so comfortable with each other and seem to know each other pretty well. To any stranger, we would seem like life long best friends.

"I don't know either of you very well yet, but from what I've seen and just now heard from you, I think he might really like you. There's no other reason he would smile at you after everyones ignored you for so long."

"I dont know", I tell her, "It would be amazin' if you're right but I doubt it because of what I've done."

She looks me right in the eyes and says, "Maybe he likes you so much that he is able to put whatever it is you've done behind him. Don't let your past rule your life Trys."

I just look at her for a little bit before responding. "Ok, I'll keep an open mind", is all I can manage to say.

We still have 10 minutes before school starts. "So it's Friday and I was wonderin' if you'd like to come over and spend the night? We could get to know each other a lot better", I laugh and add, "Even though it seems like we've been friends since birth." That makes her laugh too.

"I'd love to. I'll text my mom and ask. If she says yes though, I'll still have to go home and pack a bag."

"Ok, yeah."

She retrieves her phone from the ground beside her and starts to text her mom. "You know, we should probably have each others numbers", I say, "This could've been a little better planned had we already had them."

Without looking up she says, "You're right, I'll let you put your number in and text yourself so that you have my number."

Once she's done sending her mom a message, she hands her phone over to me and I quickly enter it into her contacts under Trys<3 and send myself a message like she said to do. My phone vibrates in my lap and after I hand her her phone back, I add her to my contacts. With that, the bell rings and we head our separate ways.

"See you next period", I tell her.

"Yup, try not to fall asleep!"

"No promises!"

I head to class with a smile on my face.

A/N:
Hey y'all! How is everyone? How's the book? Let me know in the comments what you guys are thinking. Why do you guys think Erik keeps smiling at Trystan all the sudden?

There were a lot of songs in this chapter and I'm gonna post all the links below. Southern Girl is the video up top in the media box, so go check that out too.

Rollercoaster-
https://youtu.be/AxVKTwAkv1k

Sideways-
https://youtu.be/tFnJqYYFABk

Gunpowder and Lead-
https://youtu.be/yHGPmbu3QNk

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-Emmy <3