Familiar Faces (ON HOLD)

Chapter One

I remembered that time like it was yesterday.

"Amanda give it to me!" I yelled at my old best friend. It was the summer after sixth grade. We were practically neighbors, living a block away from eachother. I was outside my house, running after Amanda. "I'm serious!" I scream. "He talked to me today, I could barely get the words out of my mouth!" Amanda said, mimicking my voice. She held my diary above her head, running towards the dreaded house. "Ethan! Oh Ethan!" she yelled, approachin his door step. "Stop!" I screached at the top of my lungs. The front door opens, he steps outside, my heart racing to get my sluggish frame closer to Amanda. Ethan, the guy I had a major crush on, stepped outside, his hair wet and his shirt pressed close to his flat stomach. He pushed his wet brown hair out of his emerald colored eyes and stepped down his porch steps. "Hey Amanda...Cami?" he said, seeing me approaching. "I know someone who likes you!" Amanda said, holding out the journal. I reached out to grab it but she pulled it out of my reach, handing it to him. "You?" he said, raising an eyebrow at me. "Amanda!" I stomped my foot. "Don't worry, Cam. We are friends with him you know, it's not worth keeping a secret, it was already obvious enough." my face flooded red with anger and embarrassment. Ethan opened the book, flipping through a few pages and smiling to  himself. Then he snapped it shut. "I think this is yours." he smirked and then turned away, placing the journal in my hands. "What was that for?" I asked Amanda, furious with her. "Come on, its not that big of a deal." We walked away from Ethans house, going our separate ways down the street. I guess I couldn't expect anything less. My friends, Amanda and Sarah were always like that. They were closer that anything and always seemed like they were out to get me, but they were my only friends.

That was the summer of pure torture. My friends and I hung out with Ethan practically everyday, and most of the time one of them hinted at my crush on him. He led me on, too. Calling me pretty and hugging me and putting his arm around my shoulder. He had me fully under his char, and I was falling faster than ever. I thought he was too, but I was justa tool. A tool for him to push around, do whatever he wanted with, and tease like I was a whinny three year old. 

But there was the time that he almost kissed me. Which looking back, I still don't know if it was real, or just part of his act. But we were at the beach one late afternoon, Sarah and Amanda splashing in the ocean. He had tilted my face towards him and looked into my eyes when Sarah splashed us with water, interrupting the whole thing.

But there was no way in hell I was ever going to ascociate with that guye ever again. Because as soon as seventh grade started, and he realized all the hot girls in our school, he dropped me like a hot potato. Acting like we had never been friends. He still hung out with Sarah and Amanda, because thet had transformed themselves, but they ignored me too. I was left alone, with nobody. It was agonizing pain just to think abou it.

I looked at the boy standing on my front porch, unable to respond. Thankfully, my mom cuts in, obviously not remembering. "Why, hello! My names Kate and this is my daughter, Cameron. What can we do for you?" my mothers hpeful face almost made me want to gag.

How could she not remember Ethan Grey, the boy I hung out with all summer of seventh grade. But then again, if it wasn;'t for this emerald colored eyes, I probably wouldn't remember him myself. His hair was still brown, but in a shaggy cut, he had grown to almost six feet, and the flat stomach he used to have was now full on abs as well as large arm muscles.

He stammered, looking me up and down, obviously remembering who I was by name. "I'm uh, Ethan. I heard you just moved in, I brought you this." he held out the basket I justnoticed he was holding and gave it to my mom. 

"Oh! How sweet of you! Actually we just moved back. We've been gone, three years is it now Cam?" I nodded my head. "And we're back to stay. Cameron's starting at the high school next week. It's good to know someone nice lived nearby."

"Just down the street." he said, guesturing to the left.

"Do you remember us? It hasn't been that long. You must remember Ethan, do you Cameron?"

I looked at him straight in the eye for a total of two seconds, then looked over to my mom.

"Nope. Name doesn't sound familiar." I said, turning back to Ethan. "It was nice meeting you, but I have to unpack my things, so if you'll excuse me." 

I turned to go upstairs to my room, not wanting to look back at Ethan. I can't believe that had just happened. I flopped in to my bed and looked up at the ceiling fan. The tears leaked out fo my eyes. it was bad enough that I had zero friends here, but now Ethan had to remember me, which made the thrill of going back to school so much worse.

The day had been long and emotionally exhausting. After dinner, I set my money in my ourse and decided to go shopping for more school clothes tomorrow. I looked at my brand new license, realized it was only a month old and I would have to get a new one that said New York and not California. 

I washed my face, getting all the makeup off and then looked around my room I was pretty satisfied with everything I had unpacked. Most of my stuff was rearranged to my liking and there was just a few boxes left to unpack.