A Thousand Miles

Chapter 1

Stormy days aren't really my thing, but this one seemed different. This one seemed a little less saddening.

I kicked my leg off my bed, still feeling half asleep. For some reason, this day didn't seem quite as bad as I thought it would. I feel like those typical morning persons who love awakening to the sound of birds chirping outside their windows. Except that there weren't any birds.

So I guess you guys were wondering why I'm being semi-sentimental today. Well, as you guys don't know, my best friend and I got into a tiny argument last night. Then it grew ... and grew ... and grew.

A little tip for you guys who have girls as your best friends: If she's pissed, she's pissed. Do not try-on self-pity.

Don't do what I did, basically.

So anyway, since I said that I was semi-sentimental, I might as well tell you why I'm also semi-not.

Brittany finally noticed me.

Yes, you read that right! She knows I exist. Finally, after checking and rechecking her Twitter profile day by day for the past five months now ... she knows I exist ... and that's one step closer to us being a 'thing'.

So right now, I've finally decided to actually take a shower and get ready for school. Still semi-sentimental and semi-not.

After I've done all the stuff that I'm supposed to do, I head downstairs to eat breakfast. The scent of newly-cooked pancakes wafted around the kitchen and I could already taste those delicious strawberries and maple syrup that always had to go with it.

I seat myself on the chair facing the rest of the table, and my four other siblings sat on the other chairs. Of course, Scarlett, being the early bird she always is, was finished eating and all-set for school.

Did I mention that Scarlett and I were twins? Except that I'm a lot less punctual and she's a lot more of the good child.

I have other other siblings, if you guys were wondering. One's at Yale, and the other one graduated college already.

I guess I forgot to introduce myself. My bad.

My name is Declan Harris, but people call me Dec. I'm sixteen years old. I stand 5'10" and I'm really not a jerk. In fact, the jerks pick on me for not being one of them.

I have six--or seven--best friends. The seventh one is the one I mentioned earlier.

I'm the third in a family of eight children. Pretty chaotic house, I would say ... but that's alright. I'd rather not be alone.

I'm single. In fact, never dated a girl in about a year. And I have a huge crush on this girl named Brittany Wallace, who's apparently a thousand miles away.

We met over the internet. Well, I wouldn't say that we know each other now. She still doesn't know that I have an insanely huge crush on her. Also, I don't think she'd actually care.

I head to the car and seat myself on the driver's seat. Lee--I prefer calling her Lee because firstly, it's way shorter than 'Scarlett'. And secondly, it's her middle name--called shotgun.

Stefanie, Spencer, Gill and Lachlan are still busy eating and doing their usual morning routines so Lee and I head to school before them.

As I enter my first class, of course I have to deal with MacKenna ... who is apparently the ex-best friend I have to get back.

I tug her left sleeve and she looks at me confused.

"Um hey," I greet her. "Sorry for pissing you off last night."

"It's fine, I guess it wasn't that good to lash out on you either," she responds calmly. She gives me a warm smile and continues whatever she was doing.

Okay, good. She's not mad anymore.

Mr. Hughes comes in and he heads for his table right away, without even smiling or anything.

He completely ignores the class, doing his own stuff as if we weren't there watching him and waiting for him to say something teacherly.

It was about five minutes later when he finally gets up and starts lecturing us about the House of York.

Things went by pretty fast and before I even knew it, I was helping myself to a gigantic slice of pepperoni pizza in the cafeteria surrounded by my group of friends.

Not all of them are guys, as you might think.

"MacKenna," Colin says stiffly.

I look up from the pizza that I was supposed to take a bite from. "Huh?"

He chuckles and pats me on the shoulder.

"I said, MacKenna. She's pretty hot. Too bad she doesn't hang out with us anymore," Colin whispers as he points to MacKenna who's wearing a huge knitted sweater and skinny jeans.

"Dude, she has a boyfriend," I reply oddly. That's the reason why she left. She chose her boyfriend over us.

"I can work with that."

I guess you could say that my guy friends are pretty much those 'Hmu if you got Kik,' types.

Meanwhile, I decided to go on Twitter to check on Britt. She's not active yet. So I scroll around my Timeline a bit and that's when I spot her last tweet which was about 18 hours ago.

I check what time it was on her side of the country. About 9 am, which meant that it's 10 am where I'm at.

She'll probably go online soon, I thought to myself.

"New tweet from brittany" my notification stated. A rush of excitement filled my whole body. Not that I placed her and her retweets on notification ... well actually, yes, I did.

Hey, let the guy hope!

Then I decide to tweet to her again. "@xBritts Hi lovely x" And in a few minutes, I get a new notification. Can't this day get any better? "@DecHR hi bby x"

This can't be happening. She just called me 'bby' oh God. Is it possible for a guy to fanboy this hard?

A huge smile grew on my face. I had to talk to her. I know it. I can't help it anymore ... seriously.

"Cute af @xBritts"

"@DecHR nawww you"

A few tweets later, I get a notification that made me head-over-heels happy.

"brittany and 2 others followed you"

Forget the two others, Brittany fucking Wallace followed me! Not only will I be on her Timeline now, but she's gonna be reading my tweets starting from this point. Life is fucking amazing.

I spend the rest of the day still mesmerized by what just happened this morning. I really can't get over it. I guess I should start acting more Brittany-worthy now.

The moment I reach home, I hurry to my room and turn my laptop on. God, I have to delete all my embarrassing tweets now.

Snap out of it, man. It's not like she's into you, my subconscious hissed. I shake my head. I don't need any type of negative thought right now.

What if she unfollows me?

What if her friends think I'm a loser?

What if she doesn't like me?

Goodness. Shut up Dec. Don't be a child.

But I don't know how to do this. I need help. I need help fast.

MacKenna.