Whoever She Is (John O'Callaghan/ARTTM)

Chapter 1

A/N: Please tell me if you like this so far! Its super short, I know. Comment and let me know what you think/what you would like to expect in the future! (Not sure how often I will be updating just yet or if I will be keeping this title or not...) Enjoy! (:

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Lauren's POV:

"Cara, please, don't make me go inside," I whined to my best friend, who was trying to get me to go to a party filled with people I'd never even spoken to. It was summer vacation, and some student from our college, ASU, was throwing a huge bash while his parents were away. Cara and I didn't even know the guy well, but she insisted we crash it "for fun."

"Are you kidding me, Lauren? This party's gonna be epic! It's the first party of the summer! There's no way we're missing it. Now get out of the car!" Cara exclaimed.

I groaned, and slowly dragged myself out of the car parked along the side of the yard of a huge, exquisite house, home of Eric Halvorsen, one of the richest people I knew in Phoenix. I shot Cara a glare, and she flashed me a grin.

"We don't even talk to this dude! What if he sees us and kicks us out?" I questioned.

"Yeah, like he's gonna tell us to get lost when he's guzzling down beer and getting drunk with his buddies," she replied sarcastically.

"Oh, great, alcohol. I totally want to spend my night surrounded by crazy drunks," I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just go inside already!" Cara said impatiently.

So, we began to walk up Eric's long, paved driveway. It was around 8pm and the sky was clear, speckled with bright, white stars. I wore dark blue denim shorts, a mint green shirt, and gray Vans, with my long, blonde hair tied into a side braid. Cara looked more like she was dressed to go clubbing, with a short, black dress and black pumps. When we reached the top of the driveway, we walked in through the huge, three-car garage filled with people dancing to music blasting from the biggest boombox I'd ever seen. No one really paid attention to us, probably because they were too buzzed to care or notice, so we slipped inside the house with ease.

Eric's house looked even nicer on the inside; fancy leather furniture, a giant flat-screen mounted on a wall, and an enormous amount of space everywhere I looked. A beautiful spiral staircase swirled around a pole, leading upstairs, where I guaranteed couples were, doing who-knows-what. There were even more people inside, people I either didn't know or rarely saw around campus. Some were watching TV, yelling at some sport game, some danced, some were making out, and almost everyone had a red plastic cup in their hand.

"So, what the hell do we do now?" I asked Cara, who was heading to a long table stacked with plastic cups and various types of vodka and soda, along with huge pitchers of beer.

"We have some freakin' fun!" she replied, grabbing a cup and filling it with beer.

"Uh, I'm not drinking if you are. One of us needs to be able to drive us home without getting us arrested."

"Oh, come on, what's one beer gonna do to you? Live a little, Lauren," Cara urged. I sighed and looked away. I'd always been the shy, quiet type, which had gotten me pretty much nowhere, and Cara was the exact opposite. I'm surprised we became friends in high school, because she was the complete opposite of me, always doing crazy things and being a daredevil.

I picked up a can of orange soda and began to drink it slowly, while Cara was probably already halfway done with her beer. Just then, a group of laughing guys came inside from the garage and made their way to the table, and Cara and I backed up a little. They didn't look too buzzed, but definitely weren't fully sober. I watched as they began refilling their cups with more beer, and one guy, the tallest, accidentally dropped his empty cup, which rolled towards me. I bent down to pick it up.

My god, he was hot. He reached out and took the cup from my hand, looking at me with his beautiful green eyes. "Thank you," he said softly, smiling, revealing straight, white teeth.

"Oh, n-no problem,"  I stuttered, returning a small geeky smile. He then turned around and grabbed a pitcher, filling about 3/4 of the cup. He glanced at me from over his shoulder, noticing I was watching, and I quickly darted my eyes away. He looked down, smiling again. I blushed. His friends were watching, waiting for him to finish and go back into the garage with them, but he gestured towards the door and told them he'd be out in a minute. Without questioning, they shuffled back outside, looking slightly confused. Once he put the pitcher down and took a sip of beer, he spun around, looking at me.

"Hey," he said, kindly. "What brings you here on this fine summer evening?"

I pointed to Cara, and he chuckled. "Gotta love best friends who like to drag you wherever they go," I joked, giving Cara a wink. She rolled her eyes and answered sarcastically, "Well if that's how you feel, I think I'll go look around for some people we may know and let you complain about me in peace." With that, she walked off, her heels clicking away on the hardwood floor.

The tall, gorgeous human in front of me took another sip of his beer and said, "Wow, you guys seem nothing alike," he stated, observing the drastic differences between Cara and I. He continued to stare at me seriously for a few moments, and I soon grew a bit uncomfortable. Then, he broke the silence and continued, "I mean that in a good way," and we began to giggle. Since I hadn't really contributed to the conversation, I asked, "And you are..?"

"John. My friends call me John-O sometimes." I nodded. John. Pretty sexy name. I must have been staring off into space because I snapped back to reality and saw John looking at me intently as if waiting for me to introduce myself to him. He smiled and I blushed. "Sorry, um, I'm Lauren."

"Well, Lauren, its extremely nice to meet you. How would you like to come outside with me and meet my friends?" I agreed, and he rested his hand on my shoulder as we walked through the door into the garage. Holy god, I must be dreaming.