Love is a Verb (Riley/Before You Exit)

Stutter.

Kaitlin

I introduced myself and there was silence. I was nervous again. They were all just staring at me like I'm a statue. This is so frustrating that it's scaring my insides. And then the miracle happened.

"Hi Kaitlin ! I'm Toby McDonough. A pleasure to meet you too." I looked at Toby and he smiled. I gave a smile to him . "Welcome aboard!!" He stood in front of me and held out his hand. I gladly shook it. Someone pushed Toby out of the way. Connor.

"Hi ! I'm Connor and I'm 20. Pleasure is all on me to meet you and welcome! Please be comfortable and be friends with us." He smiled and looked at me with those piercing blue eyes that people seem to love. Wow. He does have great eyes.

"And I'm 15. Nice to meet you!" He looked at me. I held out a hand and he stared at it.

"15? Oh wow. Yet calm and composed. I'm impressed." He smiles "but I'm more of a hugger." With that he pulled me in for a hug. I'm not good with hugs but hey this was Connor. I'm not going to stop him.. I pulled away though. That was enough.

"You're 15 too? Oh yay!" Toby squeals and I giggled. I was still waiting for that one guy. But.. He just stood there, staring. I think he hates me . Yes . He does. It's official. Riley McDonough hates me.

--

Riley

Is it crazy if I say that she's so gorgeous that she can light up the whole world with her smile? Just her smile? Or maybe it's just me. She.. Is.. Just.. Breathtaking. I know it's weird and I can say that I feel weirded out too. Oh yea. I'm talking about our new photographer. Kaitlin. What a cute name. No girl should be this pretty. She's causing too much attention. Sigh. She's so pretty that I can't even. My thoughts are going wild. Wow. This is frustrating. I know realized that I'm the only one that didn't introduced. Might as well speak.

"Uhhh.. H-h-hi.. Umm. I'm Riley. And uh yea. Nice to you know um.. Meet you.." I quickly run upstairs not even wanting to hear what she would say. I locked my room.

What happened?

I'm so smooth. Reaaal smooth.. What the hell just happened to me? I'm never like that. Why now? When I needed to be impressive.
Why now and give me the stutter?
What is happening to me? She's the first girl that has ever had this effect on me. It's weird. When she looks at me , I suddenly float and feel at bliss. It was real weird. They way she bats her eyelashes. It was so noticeable. Her natural complexion. No makeup. No nothing. Just plain open face. It has a bit impurities but nobody's perfect but yet she looks so flawless. Her hair is just straight and the color of black mixing with brown. She was wearing purple dress ad black leggings. With some charms and bracelets and converse. That's it. Nothing to eye catching but she looked amazing. Then there goes her pinkish lips and slight rosy cheeks.. I need to stop I just met her And I can't just fall on her feet. I just met her. Focus Riley. She's just a girl that you've met today. Time to go back.

"Focus Riley. Snap out of it. What are you even thinking. She's just a girl and she works for us. Okay." I said to myself.

I went downstairs and everyone was laughing even her. She was quietly laughing but she looked cute. Everybody looked at me. Probably because of my sudden actions awhile ago. I sat beside Connor and Toby.

"What was that about?" Connor whispers beside me as he takes a short glance at Toby and me.

"Nothing." I replied briefly. No time for those questions.

"Stop being rude, dude. She's nice. I swear very innocent and pretty. Stop it before it gets worse. We just met her. You can't cause drama on her."

"Why are you suddenly so protective of her? Do you like her?" I asked, annoyed.

"No. Dude. She's the same age as Toby. I can't like her like that. She a scene stealer, I know. She can steal anyone's attention. Not that it's a bad thing. I'm a proof already but still I want to be nice and be friends with her because she'll be with us for a long time and I don't want her to feel uncomfortable around us. And as I've said, she's really nice.." Connor replies and I just nod. We made our way to the kitchen. We ate dinner. Me sneaking glances at her. It was hard not to. After dinner she offered to help to put the dishes in the sink. I decided to talk to her. Let the flirting begin. She started to talk all the silverwares when I spoke.

"Hey."

"Oh.." She looks up, shocked. "Uh. Hi Riley." I grinned and went beside her.

"Need any help?" I put my charm on and I placed my hand on her arm. But... She did a very shocking action. She sighed and took my arm off of her.. It was shocking to me. Who does that? Apparently her.

"Do you expect me to flirt back with you?" She said calmly as she shook my hand off from her arm. "Cause I seriously won't do that."

She looks at me without any smile on her face. Still she looked pretty.

"You expect me to be okay once you storm off after introducing yourself. Well I'm sorry but your thoughts are wrong and don't go and tell me I'm wrong. Now you act like nothing happened? Fine but don't try and flirt with me then. I don't like it when someone flirts. And the fact that you're standing a little too close for my liking." She stops and sighs again, " I really don't want to be rude but if you wanted to keep it on a professional level, you could've just made it clear. I won't mind. I'm just a photographer for you guys. But don't go and flirt with me cause I don't want it. Let's just forget it ever happened, okay?" She smiled and resumes to cleaning the table. Did ? Yea it did. I got shunned off . Damn it.

"Choice of words. Please don't speak those words when I'm around."

Oh I said that out loud?.

"Yes you did."

I blushed and went back to the living room. It didn't went well as I thought. Now she'll act all professional around me . Great just great. I guess my charms don't work with everyone. Oh whatever. She's not the only girl in the world. I sat on the chair. No more stuttering, Riley..

(End of Chapter 12)**