Gradual Love

Chapter 1

{sorry for any spelling mistakes in advance}

Just as I walked into the front lawn I felt as though all eyes where on me. Even though there was no one there, I could feel myself staring as if I was some awakened corpse that recently arose from beneath the muddy surface. My long silky hair now looking frizzy and unbrushed due to the sudden pouring of rain. Hating every moment of this, I tilt my head enough to see Mias semi-smile gleaming at me. So much for a first impression. I think to myself. In this very moment I had the urge to turn around and run back home to my family. Even the people who don't know me personally would know that there was no chance of that ever happening.

Tami had told me stories about growing up with one of the pogues. She said his name was Pope. The amount of laughs they shared since day one and yet I have never met this so called friend of hers.

Everything and everyone looked so elegant. It felt strange. I was dreading the thought of meeting the lot of them but Mia assured me it would be fine.

'Mia!' A booming voice travelled through the humid air and rang in my ears.

'Oh my god, is it really you?' She replied, stunned at what she was seeing. I looked over to see who the loud voice belonged to. A tall, dark skinned individual with a huge smile smeared across his face, slowly jogged towards us. For some reason, at this very moment, I felt no fear. All I knew at that time was that I too had a smile slapped on the lower half of my face.

'I'm so glad to finally see you.' Exclaims the stranger that now stands before me.
'And who might this friend of yours be?' He asks whilst still holding onto his glowing smile.

'This is Sofia and she's not my friend.'

I push my eyebrows towards each other whilst at the same time turning my full body to face the girl who I'm living with.
Without even having to look at my plastered confusion, she just looks down to the ground and smiles. 'She's my BEST friend.' Looking up at me she gives me a cheeky smile before looking back at the boy.

'Are you going to tell me who this is, Mia? Or shall I just be left wondering?' I ask with a devious but perplexed look on my face.

'Oh right, sorry. Sofia, this is Pope. The guy I told you about.' Although I already knew who it was, I decided to have a little fun with the current situation.

'Pope? You've never mentioned a Pope before. Was he the guy you challenged to eat 50 blocks of cheese with or the guy who you used to have a massive crush on?'
I let out a slight chuckle as Mias smile quickly turns into her eyes widely beaming at me and her mouth slowly opening. I cover my mouth to stop any further giggles as Pope looks at Mia with one eyebrow raised.

'Umm you never mentioned me?' Asks Pope, eagerly waiting for a quick response.

'That's what you got from my story?!' All I could do was roll my eyes at him. As soon as I did, I hid my chin into my chest, embarrassed at what I had just done.

As Mia slowly shifts her focused face back onto Pope, she blurts out- 'I did nothing of the such! I challenged no one to a cheese competition and u didn't have a crush on you.'

I smile weakly, looking down at the ground.

Pope looks around with a grin slowly growing. 'We should head inside, the others are desperate to meet the both of you.'

My heart stopped. Others? How many of them could there be?

'Mia. Could I talk to you for a second?'

I tug on her fur coat as she nods her head to signal Pope into going ahead and that we would be there within minutes. My breathing suddenly grew faster and sweat molecules started forming on the back of my neck.

'Others?!' I whisper loudly.
'I was expecting one maybe two more people! Others doesn't sound like just one or two!' I blurt out, hovering my shaking hand over my chest as I start inhaling and exhaling very deeply.

'Listen, Sofia...' Mia begins to say.
'I've told you about the Pogue group before. John B, Kiara, Jj, Sarah and Pope. But you'll be fine. No need to stress.' She adds on the last four words as if it was her fist time communicating with me. As if she didn't know what my past looked like and how much it's affected me to this day. I give her a blank stare as she adds on: 'Pope says they're all great. I look forward to meeting them too.'

Rolling my eyes extravagantly, I finish off the conversation by simply saying two simple letters, 'ok'.

Mia takes charge by walking in front of me as I waddle closely behind her, in my head having a slight anxiety attack.

Approaching the door, I gradually regain my confidence and even skip my way to the front so I could be the first one onto the porch.

'First here!' I yell back with a smile on my face.
That smile vanished as soon as the front lights turned on, the rays of light reflecting off of my smooth skin. Mia just laughed while I was frozen still. She turned around to face me and asked, 'You ok? Ready?'.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

I couldn't move. My mouth opened. No sound coming out. So I closed it back up again.

'I'll take that as a yes.'

I nod briefly.

*knock knock knock*

Those where the loudest knocks I had ever heard.

Footsteps sounding louder with every breath I took, I knew someone was headed to let us in. I just hoped that it would be Pope.

As the handle was suddenly getting pushed down and a creek from the door was heard, my gaze shot upwards to meet eyes with the most charming stranger I had ever met.

'Hi'