The Boys And Her

Chapter 8

*Hazel's POV*

         "Bryan, is it true that the DJ canceled?" Ryan asked. "For your party?" We were sitting at lunch. Apparently the DJ Bryan had for the party had canceled for a better gig. "Yes. It's true. But don't let it get around to much." Bryan sighed.

         "What are you gonna do?" Andrew asked trying to take the granola bar from Mars plate, but Mars took it back and gave him the apple instead. "I don't know. Does anyone have any good music suggestions?" Bryan looked around the table. "How about The Killers?" I say biting into my granola bar. Bryan looks at me in confusion, "You like The Killers too?" "Yeah. I love them." I say. "I'll take that into consideration." He says tapping his head like he's making a mental note about it.

         "Hazel, I heard that the music you make is pretty good. Can I hear some?" Ryan asked. "Um, I guess. I mean I did bring my laptop today." I pull out my laptop and go to my files. I press play and the music starts playing.

         The boys looked like they were really trying to listen to it. "Dang." Andrew says after a moment. "That's good. Like really good." He continues and emphasizes the word 'really'. "Yeah. I bet you'd be good enough to DJ at Bryan's party." Mars jokes. "Ha. Ha. Ha." Bryan says sarcastically. "Just be grateful she's even invited."

         "But seriously. This is really good Hazel. Have you ever tried publicly posting it?" Ryan asked. "No. Not really. I like to keep it to myself because they actually do have a meaning and it's really personal." I shrug "Okay." Andrew agrees.

         The bell rang which meant that it was time to get to class. I put my laptop in my bag and slung it over my shoulder. "Hazel can I still come over to work on the project after school?" Mars asked. "Yeah. That'd be great." I look up at Mars. Bryan let out a cough. Mars and I looked over at him. "What? Hazel, we gotta go. No time for flirting." He looked over at Mars. "It's not flirting." Mars said strongly. "Whatever you say." Bryan said. "But can we go now?" "Fine, Bryan." I said leaving the table. "Bye guys."

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          "How was school today?" Mars asked me. "It was good. How about you?" I reply. "It was okay. Team sports was rough though." We were walking to my house to work on our project from language arts.

         We got to my house and I opened the door and we walked inside. I set my skateboard down and led him to the kitchen. "Hungry?" I asked. "No. But thanks." Mars shook his head. "Okay. Wanna get started?" I ask. "Sure." He grabbed his backpack. "We should probably work in the living room because my room's a mess." I say grabbing my backpack. "Okay. That's fine."

         We sat down on the living room floor and got out the supplies we needed. "Who do you look up to most?" Mars asked. Typing on the document. "My mom." I say as he types it into the document. "How about you?" I ask not knowing how the answer would be. "Probably, my younger sister." He says. I give him a confused look.

         "She's really the only person I have left of my family and a lot of things happen and no matter how bad those things get, she's always really tough and super positive." He said as I typed in the computer.

His story was really sad.

Why doesn't he ever talk to anyone about it?

Wouldn't someone help him?

         "You okay?" Mars asks breaking  my train of thought. "Um, yeah, let's continue." I watch him type the next category. "Okay, Um, what's your biggest regret?" I ask. "It's probably that I would've spent more time with my parents before they left." Mars' eyes got sad. "Mine's probably not getting the last slice of pizza." I say trying to cheer up the moment. He laughed and blinked away upcoming tears.

         "What's one thing you hate about yourself?" I ask typing in the document. "I don't like that everyone in the school thinks we're popular." he shrugged. "Oh." I guess that the guys don't like to be popular. I guess it can be annoying sometimes with all the stares.

         "What about you?" He smiles. "Well, I don't like how tomboy-ish I am. I mean all the girls at my old school made fun of me for it. I wish I could change, I just can't." I frown.

         "But I love that about you." Mars blurted looking me in the eyes. I looked back at him. "What?" I say slowly. "I said: I love that about you." Mars voice got really quiet then he started to lean closer to me.

What is he doing? I don't know him enough for this.

I don't even like him like that.

         But before I could actually say anything I felt myself lean towards him.

         Then the front door opened. Mars jumped back. Terrence. Shoot!

Couldn't he have a job or something!

         "Who's this?" Terrence asked skeptically. I could feel Mars scoot away from me. "We're just working on a project." I say showing him the computer. "Okay" Terrence trails off. "I'm gonna go to my room." Terrence's eyes went my mine to Mars. "Bye Terrence." I say stopping him from staring down Mars. "Bye" Terrence says leaving to his room.

         "Is that your brother?" Mars asked once we were sure Terrence was in his room. "Yeah. He's really cool." I say reassuringly. "Cool." Mars said looking at his computer. "Where were we?" He looked back to me.

Was he talking about our moment?

         "The project." I stutter. "Oh, yeah." He smiled with a hint of disappointment.