Pure Chance: How One Person's Love Makes A Difference (Purity Collection)

Chapter One: Shopping is Fun, Right?

Chapter One: Shopping is Fun, Right?

"Watch out!"

I whipped my head to the right, searching for the source of the boy's voice. When I finally spotted him, a pair of the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen met my green ones. Blue eyes that were connected to a boy.

Who was riding in a shopping cart.

Coming straight for me.

My reflexes kicked in and I took three steps back. Then I watched in amusement as the black-haired boy and his cart crashed into my buggy, my few measly items flying threw the air and landing with a crunch.

If I recall, one of the three laws of motion states that an object at rest will stay at rest unless affected by another outside object. Well in this case, the object at rest was the shelving unit. The outside object, you guessed it, was the boy in the cart. So what does that mean?

It means that the shelves started falling down like dominoes.

Shelf after shelf went down. It was like a slow motion scene from a movie. I even added to the effect by standing on the sidelines, slack-jawed, wide-eyed, and completely frozen on spot. Corn, green beans, and soup cans rained down into the isle. In the next lane, cereal boxes had busted open, sprinkling Frosted Flakes and Cheerios all over the floor. People stared. Kids laughed. The staff were giving him the eagle eye.

Never had I seen something more deserving of the title SOL.

The boy was sprawled out among the debris, absolutely fuming. "I'm gonna kill you, Ted! Look what you made me do!"

I noticed a guy in the corner laughing his butt off. I assumed he was Ted. He walked right out of the store, leaving his friend with the mess. I looked back at grocery boy. Feeling sorry for the poor guy I walked over and offered him a hand.

"Are you okay? Need some help?"

He stared at me as if he had never seen another human being in his whole life.

"What's your name?  Are you sure you're okay?"

"Ash." Thanks for avoiding the second question.

"Um, are you just gonna sit there in your mess? Do you need an ambulance? I can call one for you."

Cricket. Cricket. Cricket.

Nada.

"Okay, I'm gonna ring the hospital. Do you need me to call anyone?"

He was still staring at me, and it was starting to creep me out. No one ever looked at me. He must have really hit his head.

Just as I was about to punch in 911, he finally reached his hand up to mine. Before he grasped it, though, laughter echoed down the isle. I looked up and saw the one person I tried to avoid ever since 6th grade.

Brittany.

That's such a stereotypical name. I mean, who gives their kid a name like Brittany and still expects them to come out a good egg?

(A/N: No offense to people named Brittany! I just used it because it's the name of the mean girl in my school.)

"Well, well. Finally getting some action? Look girls, Little Cass-Cass is about to hold hands with a boy! Get your phones out. With Ash, too! I want this posted in the next five minutes. Got that girls? This is going to be so scandal-"

"If you're done with your little rant over there, can you shut up?" Ash questioned her.

Whoa.

I swung my head to look at Ash. You'd think I'd have whiplash from jerking my neck around so much today. That was amazing.

It's not that I couldn't stick up for myself. I could. But if I said anything to her, she'd run to her daddy, who was the principal at my school. Who do you think he would call first? My parents. If my stepdad thought I did something remotely damaging to his and my mom's reputation, I'd be through. And I don't mean educational wise. I mean physically. I just had to suck it up and deal with it.

But it was nice to have someone else say what I wanted, though.

Ash was still glaring at the three girls. Brittany glared right back while the other two cowered behind her. What were they scared of? It was then that I took the time to analyze grocery boy.

He was buff.

Not muscles-bulge-from-your-neck buff. But just the right size. He was wearing a blue Under Armor shirt, which showed off his biceps, and low-waisted jeans that gave a peak of his abs. His jet black hair was styled perfectly to his head with tiny little spikes at the top and a natural wave through it. The hair at the nape of his neck curled just slightly.

I wanted to run my fingers through it. Would it be as soft as it looked? Brittany had been right about one thing: I'd never had a boyfriend. I'd never been close to another person besides Emily, my best friend.

But back to my analyzation.

This time I examined his face. His square jaw was currently sporting a five o'clock shadow, and thick eyebrows framed his blue, blue eyes. Then I realized he was staring at me. Was he doing the same thing I was doing? I heard Brittany and Ash saying something in the background but I wasn't listening. I was in my own little bubble that was probably going to explode in...say, the next five seconds.

"She is scum, Ash. She's a social pariah! You associate with her and you're done.   Don't expect me to-"

Wait, they knew each other? We went to school together? I had never seen him before today. I wonder if I've met him before... I would have remembered those eyes, though.

"She's my girlfriend, Brittany. You can't talk to her like that."

Wait, what?

"Oh yeah? Then prove it," she spat.

He reached for my hand again and, thinking he was getting up, I grasped it. But instead of standing up, he pulled me into his lap.

Before I realized what he was doing, he cradled my face in his hands and put his lips on mine.