𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 ✹ 𝐠. 𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐧

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢 - 𝐢 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝

Haven

It was summer break and the sun was beaming down on my bare back. I was absorbing the rays like a sponge does to water. I loved summer, it made my pale skin look less pale and it took my mind away from all of the thousand days of rain that seemed to pour from Irish skies the majority of winter.

I wondered what it would be like to move to a place where you didn't have to leave your house with a goddamned umbrella every time you went out because you were scared a torrential downpour would fall upon you every single day.

The rain is beside the point at this moment and I will decide to place my attention on the sun and enjoy it while I still can. I was sunbathing on a towel while my brother and his friends fooled around with a rugby ball on the sand. They all looked like oversized orangutans running after a ball if you asked me.

"Gibsie get your head in the freaking game lad!" my brother Johnny scolded Gerard when he dropped the ball. His voice was so loud I could hear him over the music in my headphones. I took my eyes off the book I had my nose in to look at Gerard, sheepishly grinning to my brother, and shaking his head to get sand off of it. I would be blatantly lying if I didn't say I found him very cute at this moment, but yet again, I almost always found him cute.

For a split second, Gibsie's eyes moved from his friends to where I layed and his eyes stayed there for a beat too long. I felt a shiver run through my spine and offered him the smallest sheepish smile in the history of small smiles. He gave me one of his own accompanied by a wink and returned to the makeshift rugby game.

I kept looking at them play around for a minute until a shriek of excitement behind me made me look. Whoever made the noise sounded like a seagull. I glanced out of the corner of my eye and found Claire Biggs with the biggest smile ever talking excitedly with her friends Lizzie Young and Shannon Lynch, the latter happened to be my brother's girlfriend. They were talking loud enough that I could hear them and from what I overheard (which was little because I didn't care enough to eavesdrop) was that Claire got all excited because Gibsie 'smiled and winked at her'. I suppressed an eye roll.

Now, it wasn't that I didn't like my brother's girlfriend and her friends. I didn't exactly hate Shannon, she was okay. I've never talked to Lizzie even though we're in the same year and I really don't want to if I'm being truthful. Claire was a different deal. For me she was a 50/50, total wildcard situation. She was okay as long as she didn't open her mouth and direct any sort of nasty comment towards me, which had happened more than once. I sometimes think she hates me.

"I swear you guys I'm like so in love with him" Claire admitted, her voice sounding dreamy as she looked at Gibsie get tackled into the ground by Patrick Feely.
"Claire make a move already Jesus Christ" Lizzie complained loudly, rolling her eyes "You've been saying you like him and shit for ages and you don't do anything about it," she looked at her nails and after a beat, returned a critical eye to Claire "Honestly, it's getting so old"

Claire sighed loudly and laid her head on Shannon's shoulder. I want to clarify that I swear I wasn't overhearing, they just spoke way too loudly. Shannon rubbed her friend's arm as she gave Lizzie a look "Lizzie, knock it off please." She pleaded with the blonde and gave Claire a sympathetic look "I think he really likes you Claire, Johnny says he thinks he likes you too so shoot your shot, you'll never know. Also, have you not seen how he flirts with you all the time?"

I decided that was the second I should turn my attention to my book because, call me immature if you want, I really didn't want to hear my brother's girlfriend's best friend who also happens to like Gerard and also was his neighbor, talk about how fated they were to be. I wanted to tell them that Gerard flirts with everyone, even my mom, and that it doesn't mean anything that he flirts with her. But I bit my tongue and burrowed the feelings I felt into the chest I stored deep within my heart; labeled with big red capital letters 'Gerard Gibson:Do Not Open!!!!!".

I turned my body around to lay on my back because my front would become overcooked if I didn't rotate. Johnny looked to be having a conversation with Gibsie that made him very embarrassingly flustered. His eyes kept darting everywhere but at Johnny and for a minute he turned to look in my direction, his face all red and embarrassed he reminded me of a stop sign. I raised a single eyebrow and narrowed my blue eyes at him. I heard shifting on the towel behind me and I turned to look. Claire got up and, encouraged by her friends, trudged over to talk to Gibsie. I saw the blonde boy whisper something to my brother's ear which made Johnny laugh and pat him on the back. The curly haired girl approached Gibsie, who looked ready to bolt. He flashed me pleading eyes when Claire got to him and began talking and they looked so desperate, I couldn't ignore them.

Against my total better judgment, I slowly got up from my beach towel and approached the lion's den. I prided myself on being level headed, but then again I never seemed to have any sense of sensibility when it came to this boy.

✹✹✹

author's note;

chapter 1 is officially yours!
I hope you enjoyed meeting Haven for the first time. I want to give a quick credit to my friend Sofia for being along for the ride as the official proofreader of the story. thanks so much for reading and chapter 2 will be out soon!

word count; 992