pretty in pink → baxter radic

o.3

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It's currently 4:00 pm, still Tuesday, and I can feel all the blood in my body rushing to my face.

"Long time no see?" Baxter retorts. His tall stature towers over me. God, he looks a lot different. I forget that I need to respond to him, trailing my eyes down his body. "My eyes are up here, sunshine," one side of his lips pulls up into a very pleasing smirk. You just look different," I reply back, shrugging it off, trying not to look crazy. Bax takes the seat next to me, leaning his arms on his legs.

Now that I have an accurate view, I might aspirate from his blue eyes sinking into mine. "Well, It has been five years, Carmen," I love how he says my name, "Why didn't you text?" He asks me, leaning back on the chair. "I was embarrassed," I sigh, looking out onto the wave pool, "Of my mom." He looks at me confused, "Car, we were best friends. We knew everything about each other, and you couldn't simply tell me you were leaving?" He looks almost hurt, "No?" I reply with a question, wanting to avoid getting into it.
"I'm here now, aren't I?" I turn back to look at him and smile. He drops his head and chuckles, "I guess so, Bauer,"

We sit in silence, neither of us knowing what to say next, "You're amazing, Bax," I say genuinely, "I know," He retorts, giving me that should I say signature smirk. He oozes confidence, "A lot has changed since you left," I raise an eyebrow, "We left Queensland," Shocked, I now raise both my eyebrows, "Why?" I question him. Before we can finish, the pool crasher runs up.

"You guys know each other?" She points between the both of us. "Yeah," we both say in unison. "Well, Ari is having a little get-together to see if we made it on the team. Are you guys down?" She stands there waiting for our responses. Baxter looks at me, questioning. "Uh, maybe I'm still getting settled in," I shrug. Baxter rolls his eyes, "She's coming, and so am I," He looks behind him at the brown-haired girl and smiles curtly. "Great," Summer puts a thumbs up before turning on her heel to return to her friends.

"So you just make decisions for me now?" I roll my head to the side of the chair to look at him. "I guess so," He shrugs.
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I went home, immediately calling my aunt to tell her I had come out first. She's very excited and said she would make me a cake when she gets home. Changing into a different outfit, I sit on my bed. My mind drifts to Baxter and how breathtakingly beautiful he is now. How did that happen? He used to be the runt of the group. I hear a motor pull into the driveway. I peek out the window to see if my aunt is home early, but I only catch a glimpse of pink hair making its way up to the front door.

"How the hell did you know I was here." He is now standing in front of me, leaning on the door frame with his arm; I almost moan but decide against it. He pulls up his phone, shaking it, "Still have your aunt's number," He smirks before pushing me aside to come in, "Come on in, Baxter," I say to the now air in front of me, and I roll my eyes and shut the door.

"You have quite the cocky attitude now," I say, crossing my arms over my chest. "It's always been in here," He says, arms behind his back as he scans my aunt's house. "Cute place," He returns his focus to me, "Yeah," I respond as he stares at me. Someone hold me back. "So why are you here?" I ask; he raises an eyebrow at me, "Did you forget about our little get-together?"
I huff out a sigh and slap my hand across my forehead. Oh yeah, that. "I don't want to go; I don't know anyone," He looks unamused, "Now's the best time," He smiles at me, scanning up and down my only t-shirt and booty shorts, body. I cross my arms again. "Are you wearing that?" He looks back up at my eyes. I turn on my heels, stomping to my bedroom before calling, "No."

I change into a more fitting outfit: jeans and a knitted crop top. "God, hurry up, Car." I love it when he calls me by a nickname. "I'm almost done," I call back, touching up my makeup and hair and walking down the hallway to meet him. He again scans me. "You clean up well," his lips pull up into a smirk. "I know," I respond curtly before opening the front door.

I never really put much thought into the motorcycle in my driveway until I had to ride it, "You're not serious," my jaw drops to the floor, "Oh, I very much am," Baxter responds, pushing a helmet into my hands. I don't protest. He offers his hand to help me get on but ignores it and jumps on the back myself. I wrap my hands around his toned chest. I could get used to this, "Stop feeling me up, American," I could feel his smirk through the helmet. "I am not American," Shocked at his very hurtful words, I smack him on the side of the helmet. "But you were feeling me up,"
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Everything is good, riding down the street at sunset. My hands wrapped around the boy I used to know as my best friend. It feels like we picked up where we left off. Expect him to be much taller, muscular, hotter, and a voucher.

A sweet house pokes out in the distance, and I see fairy lights in the backyard. Cute. Baxter pulls up, pushing down the kickstand. Getting off, I first pull the helmet off, and my hair is all over the place. I hear a muffled laugh as I try to put the pieces back in the right place; I roll my eyes. Bax takes off his helmet, and I have to stare. His sun-kissed face was under the light of the dimming sun. He offers me a hand, "You ready?" He questions, and I take his hand. "Yeah,"

Bax leads me to the backyard, where everyone is already mingling. I see a few familiar faces, like Poppy, Bohdi, and, of course, Summer. Summer runs up to us, taking my hand and leading me to the group of girls. I look back at Bax as he mouths, "Have fun," before walking his separate way.

Before we know it, the emails start rolling in about who made it and who didn't; I hear Wren squeal, "Team captain," or something like that. I couldn't care less as I opened my phone, hoping and praying I got in. When the "You're in!" message pops up on my screen, my smile moves from ear to ear. "Thank you, Dad," I mutter, holding my heart. I feel a presence behind me; a smell of wood and mint fills my nostrils. "Did you get in?" I can feel his hot breath on my neck as he looks at my phone. I quickly turn to face him, "Of course I did," I smile proudly, "And you?" I, of course, already know he got in. "Duh," He smirks before patting my shoulder, "It's good to have you back,"

Afterward, I mingled with everyone and enjoyed my time with these girls. It's nice to feel like I have some people around me.
"So how do you know Baxter?" Poppy questions, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Oh, we used to be best friends before I moved." Poppy nods before engaging in another conversation. Getting tired of not knowing what anyone is talking about, I try to find Baxter as he's disappeared again. I walk into the house and glimpse Summer and Wren talking. Should I even say talking or something more like Wren threatening? Having known the girl for years, I'm not shocked, but seeing that she hasn't grown out of the mean girl stage hurts a bit. Before Wren can leave the scene, I grab her wrist from around the corner.

"You have got to cut the mean girl act, Wren; It's gross," I say blatantly while crossing my arms. She smiles at me, "I don't know what you're talking about," before turning on her heel to return to her boyfriend. I have to know what's going on with that. I scoff and return to my mission. I find Bax sitting on a rock in front of the house, looking beyond the tree line; I frown, "Hey, you good?" My eyebrows raise in question, and he turns his head to me, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be," He puts on a fake smile. Growing up together, I know he's hiding the truth, but I decide not to pry. We aren't that close anymore.

"Are you ready to go?" He says, his back turned to me once more. "Yeah," he gets up to grab his helmet, mine. "I told you, it was the best time to make friends." Smiling at his small comment, I grab my helmet as he starts up the bike. Soon enough, we are returning to my aunt's house.

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I hope you guys liked this one; it's going to be a slow burn, so don't get impatient with me;)

-cat