3:15 [fezco]

one

O N E — D R E A M S

"your eyes were shining so bright; those lips and that bittersweet smile. i need this forever."

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East Highland – my new home. My mother's job had forced her to relocate, moving us to a new town halfway through the Summer so that she could take a new position as a charge nurse at the local hospital. I wasn't bothered by the move. I knew that her job was important and quite honestly, I welcomed the change of scenery. We moved from Ohio, and although I had grown up there, let me just say: it was boring. Unless cornfields and tornadoes in January were some of your interests, I don't believe anybody would prefer living in the state. But I digress.

We moved into our house around mid-July, and it was now August. I had successfully made a few friends in the girls I met at cheer camp over the summer. The girls, Maddy and Cassie, introduced me to their other friends. Lexi, Cassie's younger sister; Kat, Maddy's childhood best friend; and Jules, who Kat met at summer school. This leads me to today, one day before my junior year commenced, walking to the nearest convenience store while the girls in our group chat tried desperately to convince me to join them at McKay's end-of-summer party.

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mads: u haaave to come

kat: yeah it's gonna be like the biggest party of the year

mads: plus if u come we can def score u some dick ;)

I rolled my eyes at the bluntness of the message. All summer the girls grilled me on my previous romances and sexual partners (which amounted to a dramatic grand total of 2), as well as what my type was, if I was looking for a boyfriend (or girlfriend, as Jules politely interjected), and if I was willing to let them set me up. My answer was no, of course. Not because I hadn't trusted them to find me someone but because I didn't even know what I wanted myself. This hadn't seemed to discourage them though as they spent most of our outings scoping out different guys for me to flirt with.

As I walked under the carport belonging to the convenience store, I was met with a man carefully closing the metal gate that led to the inside, a sight that made me frown. All I wanted was a cosmic brownie.

"Hi, uh, are you closed?" The man's head whipped up almost immediately at my question. He was tall, sporting a dark buzz cut that I imagined was red at one point judging by the color of his beard. His face was covered in freckles, and he had a blunt tucked neatly behind his ear.

"Oh, uh, no. I was just steppin' out to smoke and shit, but you can come in." He smiled widely, stepping aside to re-open the gate. I could faintly smell weed and judging by the glassy look in his eyes and his intoxicated smile (paired with the blunt on the side of his head), I assumed it was him. Still, I smiled as I stepped passed him to enter the store. It was small which helped me immediately spot the shelf full of snack cakes.

"There you are," I murmured slowly, snatching the Little Debbie from its box.

"I ain't ever seen you around before." The ginger-haired man mumbled from his spot on the counter. "You new here?"

"Oh, yeah. I just moved actually..." I hesitated. "...from Ohio. My mom's job uh—they needed a new charge nurse in East Highland, so we packed up and came right over." I couldn't help but mentally kick myself as I rambled. "Sorry, I uh, don't really know why I just explained my whole life story to a stranger."