~ON HOLD~ Forget Love (Book One)

~Chapter Two: Get To Know You

After the movie, everyone was still as awake and energetic as they were when they arrived. Everyone seemed like a freshly charged phone, fully charged and ready to go. I on the other hand was tired and beat, and was doing my best to avoid Tristan. Since when do you go around kissing strangers?

"Kasey, where have you been?" Hazel Bowyer asked me, the second I got back into the basement. I caught a glimpse of her dark brown eyes and orange hair as I looked at her face. I wondered how everyone there just looked so pretty, and why they were the people I had always been friends with. I had been cooped up in my room, waiting for the movie to end. There was no way in hell that I was going to let Tristan do that again.

What ever happened to talking it slow?

I tried my best to answer truthfully, but a lie sounded better. "I went to the bathroom, but when I went upstairs, my brother needed something. You see, he messed up his leg in tra-"

"Oh, sounds painful." Lola Donnelly said, trying to cut me off. She spoke with a thick French accent, but it had elegance in its tone. Her eyes were always different; either bright green, fading green, or hazel. She was always different, and that's why everyone loved her. Her auburn hair was natural, and everyone at school seemed to want that color. "But seriously, Kasey. I didn't know you were into Tristan like that."

Although she said it in a sarcastic tone, it still irked me. I face palmed myself, feeling all of the heat rush to my cheeks, and absorbing all of the embarrassment. "You saw? Ugh. I'm not into him. I don't eve know him." I told them honestly. But they still took it as a joke, which wasn't funny at all.

"I didn't have to see, because I heard. But yeah, I saw." Lola admits, chuckling as she shuffled away.

Lola wasn't always my first choice to hang out with. Despite having all these friends, and a busy social life, I didn't have one close friend. Nobody seemed to want to stick around and get to know me. But once the had, I guess they figured I was a bit much for them. !Everyone tried to be close with me, but they just ended up being fake friends.

It's like they say, "I'll be there when you need me." But when you need them, they're fricken Waldo.

My face flushed, and I felt cold. At that point I really just wanted to sleep, but we all knew what would happen if I slept then; they'd all pull some kind of cruel and unusual prank on me. It wasn't a tradition that I exactly approved on; but there was no way for me to stop them from doing it.

I ran to the kitchen to splash ice cold water on my face; anything to keep me awake. After no luck with finding a napkin in the kitchen, I blindly traveled to the bathroom to get one.

I washed my face. I washed off all of my impurities. I worked hard to scrub away the hidden scars of a girl who had everything, but yet, had nothing. She had nothing to complain about, so she complained about that one thing money could never genuinely get you: Love. At her young age, she wanted love.

My face had been buried underwater for what seemed like forever, but I quickly picked my face up after noticing the lack of air. Breathing and gasping for air because I am still alive, and there's blood still pumping through my veins. I was so deep in thought that I almost forgot that I was drowning. I always got so lost in me, and myself, that I just blocked out everything else.

It's not entirely a bad thing. Everyone's always demanding things from me that I couldn't give. I'm always the girl who has everything, and there's nothing she doesn't have. Funny how people judge by covers, and they know that everyone, including them, have things hidden down under them.

Despite the late hour, I heard Rene Schiff yell, "SOMEONE'S KNOCKING THE CRAP OUT OF YOUR DOOR. JUST SAYING." at the top of her lungs. Rene, my loudest friend, no matter who was watching. Her and Celeste were my longest friends; since 8th grade. They stuck by me, and I was glad that if I could trust someone, it could be them. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone else too - but these two have a special place in my heart.

I dry my soaked face, noticing how my make up was completely erased from my features. Shrugging at the reflection I saw in the mirror - deep brown hair, bright green eyes, freckles and all - I set out to open the door.

Part of me wanted to think that it was my parents. I wanted them to come home so they could finally tell everyone to go to fricken bed, but I knew not to get my hopes up.

I tiptoed into the marble foyer, completely silver and complex in all its greatness. The stairs looked draped, perfect and untouched as if they were artifacts. The huge glass chandelier was glowing on a golden bulb, casting a gold shade over everything. The door was wide and tall, white lined with mahogany, with a silver knob. I never really used the door knob - my parents had installed a new way to open the front door; by pass code. It was much easier and safer, unless you were with a group of people and you had to enter it in....

But anyway.

The front door seemed such a long walk from the bathroom, and I picked up the pace. I almost slid and fell over the slick floor, but I caught myself just in time. It was annoying that you had to enter the pass code from the inside, just like the outside. Was that really needed?

But what was really not needed was the person who stood on the other side of the door.

"Finn?" I asked, giving him a look.

He awkwardly waved hello, and said, "Hi, Kasey. I thought I'd see you again after all that time, huh?"