“Oh my gosh, Stella. I’m so glad we get to hang out,” said Tori excitedly, as we looked around the old, local coffee shop. Her older brother Jace snagged us a four-seat table, draping his brown leather jacket over the back of a chair.
“Yeah,” he agreed, glancing around the large front room. “It’s just like old times. Nothing’s changed since we left.”
I cracked a grin, sitting across from him. “Well, there’s a new couch in the back, but that’s about the only thing that’s different. I haven’t been here that often since you two left. Too many memories.”
Tori frowned. “You didn’t want to remember us?”
“No, not at all,” I replied, defensively. “It was right after you left, and I already missed you guys enough. I didn’t want to make things harder on myself. It’s not that I didn’t want to remember you; it’s just that I didn’t want to remember that you weren’t here.”
The sophomore grinned. “Okay. I’ll buy that. But still, you shouldn’t have boycotted the place just because we left. I mean, seriously. They have so much awesome stuff here. Oh, dude, they sell sandwiches now? Beast!” Tori dashed for the counter, clearly hungry. I chuckled a bit while a smile crossed Jace’s face.
“We don’t really have much to eat at the house right now, what with the moving in and all. Tori’s starving for something that isn’t crappy veggie burgers from Burger King,” Jace explained. I raised my eyebrows.
“She’s still a vegetarian? I thought that was a phase or something.”
The gorgeous heartthrob shook his head, his smile turning proud. “Nope. She held onto it. She’s always been herself, you know? Never put on a show, especially after we moved. She constantly quoted you. Ah, what did you say back then? Something along the lines of ‘be yourself, ‘cause no one else will do it for ya’.”
I grinned. “Yeah, I remember that. I used to be so outgoing, so… nonconformist.”
“I guess that was the phase, huh?”
I laughed. “Yeah, it definitely was.”
Jace then suggested we get in line before it got too long. Since it was Open Mike Night in the back, people were starting to show up, and we didn’t want to get stuck waiting behind twenty people.
Once we’d gotten our drinks (and Tori got her sandwich), we resumed our seats at the table. After a moment of awkward silence as we sipped our drinks, Tori spoke through a mouthful of lettuce, tomato, cheese, and bagel. “What’ve you been up to, Stella?”
Setting my smoothie down, I shrugged. “Not much really. I read, write, do my schoolwork.”
Jace gulped down some hot chocolate. “Don’t have a life, huh?”
“I do, too!” I defended, a blush forming on my cheeks. “I just joined the swim team this year.” I wisely left out the part where my friend forged signatures to get me in.
YOU ARE READING
Hooked ~A Student/Teacher Love Story~
Подростковая литератураAmaranthine Stella Lawson is just a book-loving outcast in her junior year. She doesn't like sports and she's not involved in any after school activities. In fact, Stella has no desire to have any sort of excitement in her life whatsoever. That i...
