Pay Attention to Detail

New Friends?

    I rolled out of bed to start getting ready for Matts. It was a pool party so I tried to pick out my favorite bathing suit. I always had black bathing suits so I pulled out my favorite one and pulled out a pair of jeans and a crop top. I stepped into the bathroom and took a quick showing keeping my hair from getting wet. I left my face natural even though I had been breaking out really bad. I figure my makeup will come off while I'm swimming anyway so what better way to avoid the whole raccoon look than to just not wear makeup. I pulled my hair out of the bun I had it in leaving my hair wavy. I had straightened it the day before so it wasn't as curly as it usually is. I brushed my teeth and put on a pair of flip flops and my favorite black sun hat. By the time I finished it had already been 40 minutes. I got in my Dads car, a slick black Acura ILX 2015, then drove to Matts. When I got there it looked like things were already getting started. There was a lot of noise coming from the backyard so I could tell everyone had already arrived. I decided to walk through the front door so I could say hello to Matts parents. They were always incredibly kind to me so I tried to extend the same courtesy.
"Hello? Mrs. Garcia?" I called into the large house.
"Hellooo give me a second I'm just finishing up some laundry I'll be right down!" Mrs. Garcia replied.
I decided to take a seat at the kitchen table to wait for her. As I was sitting Mr. Garcia came in and said,
"Hey there you are Zoey. I was worried you weren't coming."
"I'll always come if it's at your house you know that!" I replied casually. The Garcia family is like my second family. I always tell them my problems and hang out here. I even sleep over if they have big parties.
"Well you should head outside all the kids are getting in the pool and I have burgers cooking on the grill" said Mr. Garcia.
"Okay I will just tell Mrs. Garcia I said hi!"
I walked through the house to the patio doors and walked over the deck to the stairs leading to the pool. I saw all my friends jumping around and having fun until my friend Mari and Matt spotted me.
"AHHHHHH" screamed Mari as she tackled me into a hug.
"I haven't seen you in a week! It's been way to long!" Mari screamed.
"Haha I know I missed everyone so much."
"You could have taken me!" Said Matt looking upset. "It was a lot of fun though! And you know I was going to see family I couldn't take you!" I replied.
"Yea yea I know we'll give me a hug anyway." Said Matt as he leaned in for a hug.
Eventually everyone else started coming up to us and giving me hugs hello. I hadn't seen them since school ended a few weeks ago. We had all been busy with traveling and finishing up college things.
"Ah it's so nice to see everyone together again. I feel like it's been forever!" I said to the group. They all nodded in turn to which I followed up with "okay let's get in the pool!" As I walked up the stairs to the pool a really cute kid started coming down the stairs. I looked up at him and introduced myself.
"Hey what's up I'm Zoey. Nice to meet you." I stuck out my hand.
"Oh hey I'm Justin. Just transferred from a school in California." He replied sticking his hand back out to shake mine. I smiled casually and walked past him so I could start swimming. I immediately started to get ready to hop in by taking off my jeans and crop top as well as my hat. Directly after I dove straight into the pool. Soon after everyone joined me. My friends Andrew, James, Austin, and Jaxon were hopping in one after the other and immediately started a game of water basketball. I started doing laps and talked to Matt, Mari and Rose. She was in the bathroom when I walked in and had just hopped into the pool as well. There were other people at the party too like Vanessa and Aurora, but I wasn't really that good of friends with them. They were closer to Matt and we had never really gotten along. I don't like to talk bad about others, but they just weren't the kind of people you would see me with. After swimming for what seemed like hours everyone finally took a break to eat and go inside to watch tv. We were inside for a while before Justin asked the group if anyone wanted to go back in the pool.
"Hey I'm heading back into the pool of anyone wants to go."
I wanted to go back in so I replied "yea sure anyone else?" As I started to get up I realized no one else was coming so I started making my way to the pool. I got in and started doing some laps completely unaware that Justin was just staring at me. I paused after I finally caught him and asked "Are you staring because I've got something on my face or because I'm interesting? What?"
He smirked and said to me with butter confidence "No I was just looking at you cause I think your pretty."
To say I was shocked was an actual understatement. So you can understand let me take you back some time. Guys I always thought were attractive usually never liked me back or they only wanted my body. They would never use terms such as pretty or beautiful but instead sexy and hot. Also my best friends as I forgot to mention earlier, are the hottest girls I know. They always got the guys and I always got seconds. That's just the way it was.
"Uh thanks I guess" I said as a light blush crossed my cheeks.
"So tell me about yourself. What are some things you like to do?" Justin asked me.
"Well believe it or not I really like to read. It's my passion. Day and night you'll catch me with a book somewhere around me. I also really like to travel and go to different places. One day I'm going to live I. Paris. Might be for only a year but I want to live oversees in different places." I responded.
He nodded his head in approval and started "Nice that's pretty cool I want to live in England when im older." I've been there a couple times and every time I've gone it's been a pretty great experience." I thought about his response and how perfect that sounded cause I also thought of living in England too at one point. "That's awesome maybe I'll catch you there cause I might live there too for a short period of time." I responded.
"Alright then we will just have to keep in contact." He smirked at me. "Can I get your Instagram name and possibly your number? I don't want to pass up a chance like this. You seem amazing." Wow I thought. He's a smooth talker. I sat there for a quick moment just giving him an actual once over. He was tall like 6'2 with brown hair and honey colored brown eyes. He had a baby face and was skinny but still had a bit of muscle on him. All in all he looked hot. I hesitated before I thought about how we would be friends anyway eventually. I got out of the pool with Justin following me to grab our phones. We switched information and soon enough everyone decided to come back out from inside. The guys came out first and they all had knowing smirks on their faces.
"Oh common guys don't look at me like that we didn't do anything we just talked." I whisper yelled at them. They started to chuckle until James replied "Suree Zoey." Which made Andrew, Austin and Jaxon crack up. Jaxon started to say something but Mari cut him off and was instantly by my side to ask me how things went and I rolled my eyes.
"Nothing happened," I said. "We were just talking and getting to know each other. He is really cute but I'm not going right into anything remember how I feel about guys right now."
"Oh yea" Mari answered looking at me worriedly.
"Don't worry I'm fine now it's just i don't want to hope right into anything. " I assured her.
"Okay but either way we all thought you guys hooked up. Rose almost tried to go after you but I told her to stay down here so that you could have a chance with him. I know that we all kinda upstage you sometimes." Mari told me.
I pulled her into a tight hug. "I love you. You didn't have to do that but thanks." I told her honestly.
"No problem love anything for you." Mari always had my back. She was my best friend and I could tell her anything. She knew about all my insecurities and all my past relationships. We were inseparable. After a couple more hours of swimming everyone decided it was time to call it a night and head home. We were all exhausted from sleeping and we knew if we didn't leave now we would be sleeping over.