Soulless (Justin Bieber Love Story / Fan Fiction)

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Song of the chapter:
Girls by The 1975
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It happened in the eighth grade.

It was one of the last days of the school year, meaning our first year as high school freshmen was just around the bend. The weather was warming up, so we had the option to eat outside at the picnic tables for lunch in the courtyard. A majority of students went outside seeing as they didn't want to be locked in the tight, stuffy, sweaty building all day. We needed some fresh air desperately.

I was sitting with Elena Martinez, a friend of mine that moved in the middle of freshman year. She was the closest thing I had to a best friend before Anna, who wasn't my friend until the summer before sophomore year.

Anyways Elena was a beautiful girl, much like Anna. She was much prettier than I ever was. In fact, it seemed like she skipped right over the dreaded "awkward middle school" phase that ninety-nine point nine of the world's population had, but not her. She had tan skin and dark wavy hair and dark brown eyes and a strikingly stimulating smile. Her parents were fully Latina. And because of her physical luck, she was graced with wonderful confidence and a stand-out personality.

So when Brandon Oliver, the boy I had a crush on since grade school (but moved to Wisconsin later that summer), was staring over at our table, I figured he was looking at Elena.

But I was wrong.

"Brandon keeps looking at you, you know." Elena stirred the chocolate pudding her mother packed in her brown paper lunch bag.

I laughed. "No, he is not. You're sitting next to me, so he's definitely looking at you."

"Is not!" she whisper-shouted, a gentle smirk played upon her lips. "Besides, I heard he told Kelly who told Carly who told Kyle that he liked you. That's how I found out."

My cheeks flushed to my dismay, but I continued to eat the cut up celery out of my Ziploc bag in an attempt to ignore it. "He doesn't like me, Elena."

"That might be true," she shrugged her shoulders. "But I'm just saying, that's not what I heard."

For the first time during that lunch period, I lifted my eyes to find him across the cafeteria. I knew for a fact that it was me he was looking at because as soon as our eyes locked, the corners of his lips lifted ever so slightly.

But instead of smiling back like any normal human being would have, I looked back down.

"I, uh- do you have any garbage? I'm going to throw my stuff out," I quickly changed the subject to avoid any further blushing that I couldn't afford.

Elena laughed quietly, not expecting much different from me. I was always hiding from any romantic feelings towards anybody. I didn't think I was good enough, I suppose.

She handed me a couple of empty Ziploc bags and a straw rapper which I took, then made my way to the trashcan set up by the corner of the school building's brick wall. And just as I tossed the trash, none other than Brandon just happened to be throwing out his garbage too.

"Hey Kennedy." He smiled down at me. I didn't see it, but I felt it in the way he spoke.

I swallowed and forced my mouth into a nervous, tight-lipped grin. "Hi."

"Uh, it's nice out, isn't it?" he said. "I'm just surprised they finally let us out of there. I kind of felt like a prisoner."

Surprisingly, I laughed and looked up at the dark brown eyed boy. He had hair to match that just covered his eyebrows and a set of perfectly straight teeth (seeing as he had his braces removed earlier in the school year).