There For Me Always

Chapter 1

Looking down at my dirty grey converse sneakers, I had begun to loose myself in my thoughts. Arms casually swinging by my sides, I made my way through the mildly crowded corridor.

Suddenly, I was brought back to reality when I noticed the presence of a warm hand intertwined with mine. My eyes darted to my side, and my thoughts were correct. I trailed my sea green eyes up the golden tanned, fairly muscular arm that was attached to the unwelcomed hand. Finally making my way to the face, belonging to this mystery hand holder, I stared blankly with a confused and slightly pissed off expression. It was a boy. A very pretty boy, may I add. His defined jaw line was clenched, and his hazel eyes that were surrounded by thick black eyelashes were frantically looking around for something or someone. He continued to walk without paying me any attention, hand still in mine, as if that was normal and I knew who he was.

"Uhehhm." I awkwardly said/coughed.

His head shot around and he was then looking right at me and his eyes became wide. Our faces were only a couple inches apart. Too damn close for my liking, might I add. Though I must admit, he wasn't hard to look at. His light brown hair slightly fell into his forehead, and he was biting his thin pink lips. He was certainly above average-looking, and I was curious why I had never seen him before.

He continued to just look at me, and I stared blinking up at him. I don't know how long that lasted, but eventually I looked down, and his eyes followed seconds later. It finally seemed to click in his head that he was still holding hands with me, a total stranger, as we walked out of the school building.

I had expected him to pull his hand away. To say "whoops! So sorry, thought you were someone else. I'll be running along now." Or something like that.

But no.

Our eyes met again, and he still hadn't pulled his hand away. I raised my eyebrows and he flashed me a crooked smile.

"Hi, I'm Matt." He said, as if this was some sort of normal encounter.

"Hello,...Matt. I hate to be blunt, but uhm, may i ask why your sweaty hand is attached to mine when I don't remember consenting to such an action?" I asked fairly monotonously.

To my surprise, he did not react in the baffled manor I had hoped for. Instead, he gave a breathy laugh, shaking his head slightly.

"Cute. You're cute. And to answer your question, the reason I am holding your hand without your 'consent' is because I need you to pretend, for just a few more minutes, to be my girlfriend. I have to get this crazy girl to stop following me around. I told her I had a girlfriend and she didn't believe me, so hopefully this'll work. You're doing good so far, but it would be stupendous if you could tone down the look of pure irritation on your adorable face." He said, and then lightly tapped his finger on my nose. I don't know what made me decide this, but I chose to comply.

However, I could not hide the flourishing blush that was burning holes through my cheeks. He called me cute. I couldn't help it. Moments later, a pretty brunette who looked to be a freshman approached us.

"Hi Matt." Her smile stretched across her whole face, making her mouth full of shiny metal braces visible. She was cute, but I could just tell by the slight twitch of her left eye that she was a bit crazy.

"Melissa! Have you met my girlfriend?" Matt gestured towards me, and it was then that I realized he didn't even know my name.

Glancing at him quickly, I bit my lip then put on my best fake smile. "Hi! I'm Andrea! It's so nice to meet you. Matty never introduces me to his friends, this is so exciting!" I tried my best to be as fake and perky as possible. I was the lead in the school play in 8th grade, and this was as good a time as any to put my acting skills to use.