Next to me | #Wattys2019

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

BANNER: PICTURE OF KOTA

I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing, I grabbed it while groaning and said "Hello?"

"Hello my friend, I'm Kota, I'm with Lea. We're about to go shopping for tomorrow," I sighed. "First day of school, yay!"

"Don't digress," I snapped.

"So..." Kota coughed awkwardly "We're on your front door."

I cursed under my breath and got up from bed, really... why did I have friends like this?

"I'll be there in five," I said as I hanged up, then I peeked through the window and saw Lea's white SUV parked in front of my house, I quickly changed my clothes and ran downstairs.

I didn't do my make-up, not because I didn't have time but because I never do my make-up. I've never even tried it, and I think it's better like this. All those lipsticks and eyeliners are really bad for health...

I grabbed an apple and pulling my house keys into my pocket I left the basement.

I got inside the car and Lea turned backwards to face me.

"Do you know why we're really here?" She snapped.

I shrugged.

"Well Kota likes this guy called Graham and he is at the mall right now. Kota thought it would be a good idea to go shopping, why? You can answer yourself." Lea crossed her arms and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Why are you so mad at me?" Kota chuckled.

"You know how much I hate shopping, and if you like the guy just tell him!" Lea rubbed her forehead. "You know he likes you back, everyone likes you Kota."

I watched the scene without saying a word. Lea and Kota used to argue constantly, they were great friends, it was just they had different points of view about nearly everything.

Lea started the engine and Kota turned the volume of the radio up, and without saying anything else they started talking about cute outfits for the following day.

~☆~

As soon as we arrived at the mall Lea and Kota made their way to Urban Outfitters, I really like that store, by the way. But I didn't need any clothes, I had just came to hang out for a bit. The thing I really needed was to buy the last book of Harry Potter, The Deathly Hallows. Can you imagine I hadn't read it yet?

"Girls, I'm going to the bookstore for a sec, meet me at Starbucks in 15 or so?" I asked them checking the time in my phone.

"Sure," Kota said, then she suddenly approached to me, "Oh, if you see Graham, don't mess with him, he's my future boyfriend."

I let out a little laugh. Me? Flirting with guys? That never happened. Guys acted like if I didn't exist, so, I never even had the chance to flirt with 'em.

I made my way across the mall and into the bookstore, I started wandering around the tiny shop, books have so many secrets inside them... It's crazy how people dedicated so much time to write them, only so I can read them.

With the fingertip of my index I caressed every single book across the Juvenile section, trying to find what I wanted. 5 minutes passed by and there was no luck, a guy was standing next to me, looking for some book in the Fantasy section. Normally I wouldn't care about it but when you're nearly 16 and you're looking for a Harry Potter book... well, that's kind of embarassing, Harry Potter books are recommended to kids age 12 or so. But I like'em so... yeah.

I then looked at the guy's face and for my surprise it was Graham, he was dressed again with his black leather jacket, his gaze was tough, he was always pressing his lips, always looking so serious and even a little bit... scary. without noticing me he grabbed some (really big) light blue book, which I immediatly recognised. The deathly hallows.

"Yo!" I exclaimed being the weird-ass I am. "You gonna buy that?"

He suddenly tensed and put the book back on its shelf, his cheeks were a shade brighter of red.

"Hey," He muttered. "Uh... um, no. I was just l-looking..."

"Great! I'm going to buy it then," I smiled grabbing the book he had left on the shelf.

"No, no, no," He stopped me " I am indeed going to buy it."

"So now you are going to buy it?" I arched my eyebrows. "Then why did you tell me earlier you weren't?"

"'Cause you scared me, I was c-confused..." He bit his lip.

"Are you sure it wasn't because you were ashamed of buying a book addressed to ages 9-13?"

He chuckled. "You win, you can have the book."

I shook my head laughing. "Nah, it's fine, you found it first," I gave it to him "And I'm not going to accept a No for an answer."

Graham looked at me deeply. "Oh, thank you very much!"

"Have you received your schedule for tomorrow?" I answered changing the subject, not because I wanted to flirt or anything, just because I was interested in him being new and all...

"Yes, we have english for first period, then Physics, History and Latin," He explained, then he passed a hand through his hair "I think."

"You got it," I nodded. "Hey, I must go, see you tomorrow?"

"Of course," He assured me, then I left the bookshop.

~☆~

"Hey! You're 10 minutes late, where have you been?" Lea asked me.

"Bookshop." I answered grabbing my Venti White Mocca.

"Yeah, but I don't see any book with you." Kota observed.

"Someome grabbed it before I could buy it," I explained avoiding having to mention Graham.

I sipped my drink and unlocked my phone.

Instagram: You have a new follower G R A H A M . F.

It surprised me how fast he followed me since I left the bookshop. I followed him back, he only had one post, 2 weeks ago, 105 likes, a family picture, he was smiling widely to the camera while holding a little girl's hand (his sister, I supposed), she was grinning at the woman behind her (Graham's mom, I supposed) and no one else, did that mean he didn't have a dad?

Someone kicked my leg under the table, I looked up and groaned looking at Kota.

"Laus, Laus," She whispered "Graham is here, look." Kota pointed at the entrance of the coffee, and there he was, once again, accompained with Carter, and some other friend, his name was Neal, he was the school's quarterback.

As soon as Graham noticed me he arched his eyebrows and smiled, then kept walking.

"Did he just...?" Kota muttered in disbelief. "Why?"

I blushed. "He... um... he was the guy at the bookshop."

"What?" Lea snapped. "Since when do you talk to guys?"

"That hurts!" I rolled my eyes. "I do talk with guys."

"Teachers, priests and family don't count." Lea continued.

I lowered my head. "Okay, so I don't talk with guys..." But that was about to change completely.

1187 words.

Author's Note
Well hello, here I am, eating chocolate ice cream at 9:45PM, sitting in the couch... just chilling and I thought HEY, LET'S UPDATE THE BOOK! And here you are now, reading this...

Hope you're liking this book, it really means the world to me:):):)

See you soon!!! I will be updating the update schedules haha lol

LOVE YA

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