End Up Here [C.H]

1. Who's That?

"C'mon, Cal, it'll be fun." Ashton said to me as he gave me a good natured pat on the shoulder. All I wanted to do was roll my eyes and glare at him, but I couldn't.

"I don't see how." I replied as we maneuvered our way through the crowd of the halls. There were couples making out in what they thought were secluded corners, herds of people talking in the hallways talking nonstop about what their plans were for the weekend even though it was barely past 8 in the morning and finally those who were at their lockers.

"It's homecoming, what's not gonna be fun about it?" he asked me with his hazel eyes glazed with excitement.

"The drunken idiots there catching an even bigger buzz after the football game we're supposedly gonna win even though I doubt that's gonna happen, let's see, the girls flirting with jocks that don't really want them, drugs, drugs and more drugs. Shall I continue?" I asked, making direct eye contact with him.

"But drinking is half the fun and plus I heard the new girl is supposed to be there." Ash countered, his tone light and playful.

"The new girl?" I echoed, trying my best to show curiosity, not that I was overly excited about the presence of a maybe crush of mine. The new girl we're speaking of had moved here when the school year began, and it's mid November and I still haven't gotten her name. Alright, well maybe I'm a little too far ahead, let's go back a little.

***

It was a perfect sunny day with the guys, Luke, Mikey, and Ash sitting on the bench during first lunch. Luke and Mikey were on the actual bench while Ash and I were sitting on the table, I was leaning back on my hands, gazing at the crystal blue sky when Ash hit my arm with a large hand.

"Hey, Cal, look at her.' Ash said, glancing at me eagerly.

"At wh- oh." I replied as a girl around 5'5" had walked past our table, not taking a second glance as to who we were as she made her way back to class. Her medium length hair had almost touched a little past her chest and fell in natural beach waves. I wasn't one to say things were love at first sight, but I think this was pretty close. She wasn't dressed in a girly way either, in fact she was dressed in a blank white crop top hoodie with black stripes on the sleeves, black skinny jeans (or navy blue, I couldn't exactly distinguish the difference between the two sometimes), and some black and white high top converse. Her neck was adorned with a choker and you could tell that she had meant to match all except her galaxy bookbag.

"Hey, stop drooling," Mikey had said to me playfully while giving my leg a harsh nudge.

"I'm not drooling. I'm perfectly ok thanks" I replied, a little embarrassed that I was obviously staring.

"No problem, you just have a little drool at the corner of your mouth." Luke was the next to comment while Ash chuckled.

I took a second to wipe at my mouth and then pouted at the possibility of me actually drooling over a girl I had never seen before. The three laughed even harder while I felt all the blood rush to my cheeks, but then decided to smile. Why am I getting so worked up over someone I'll probably never see again anyway? There was no point.

Later that same day, I was walking to my class a period after lunch. The guys and I split up into different buildings for third block, having completely different classes. I'm not exactly to be the type to walk around listening to my headphones at a deafeningly loud volume, but for some reason, I was acting as if I was. Not paying the slightest bit of attention to my surroundings, I bumped into a small figure, a girlish one at that.

"Oh shit. My bad. I'm sorry. Are you ok?" I asked as I looked down.

"Yeah I'm fine. I should've watched where I was walking. I'm clumsy like that." she answered. Her voice was light and airy and wouldn't you know, it was the girl I saw not even a whole 30 minutes ago. My brain instantly melted, fried, stopped functioning, just shut down. Her face was pretty with a subtle eyeliner that fanned out into small wings at the corners of her eyes, the gold shadow that complemented it made her mocha brown eyes seem as though they had gold flecks in them. Her eyelashes were long enough to fan to her eyebrow bones and her cheeks were a little chubby.

I didn't even know she was trying to get out of my way until she quietly said, "Excuse me." I moved like the polite person I am and walked straight into my next class, my face set ablaze by an interaction I was convinced lasted a solid thirty minutes when in actuality lasted a good 5 seconds. As I was waiting for the bell to ring, I kept replaying the scene in my head. The more I thought about it, the more I remembered. She had smelled like a vanilla perfume from Bath And Bodyworks, (I only knew that because my sister uses things from Bath and Body Works), when she bumped into me, it felt like a light tap on my chest rather than a push and when she spoke, I noticed her accent. It wasn't Austrailian like mine, but it was American. It then hit me that no one would have an accent as thick as mine. Impatiently, I put my head down on the desk, waiting for class to start so I can get it over with and hang out with everyone after school.

***

"She smelled so nice,too," I said, a heavy, jet black bass guitar strapped around my shoulders. Everyone laughed.

"Be honest, were you expecting her to smell bad?" Luke asked with a teasing smile on his face.

"No, I was just saying." I retorted defensively.

"Was that the first thing you noticed about her?" Mikey asked.

"No."

"What was it then?" Ash questioned.

I hesitated, knowing for sure that they'd laugh.

"Spit it out, son," Ash said again after silence in a mock dad voice.

"It was how short she was" I replied, mumbling.

"What?" they all said at once.

"It was how short she was." I said louder, my face burning.

"Well yeah, Cal, you're kinda tall." Mikey answered with a grin.

I rolled my eyes and smiled, "Alright, let's just do this."

And with that, I smiled and we started band practice.

***

"So, who is she?" Mali asked me, as she opened the door to my bedroom. Mali is my older sister, the two of us looking shockingly alike, she's very pretty, but is also very nosy at times.

"Who's who?" I asked concerned, raising my eyebrow in suspicion.

"This girl that you like." She answered, a certain smugness to her voice.

"It's no one, ok? I don't like anyone. Just a cute girl I accidentally bumped into the hall today."

"So you do have a crush!"

"No. I don't. I just think she's cute. There's a difference."

"No there's not." Mali protested.

"Yes there is!" I argued. "You do it all the time!"

And with that, she closed the bedroom door. Alright well maybe there was a chance I'd see that girl again.

***

That's how I started falling for a girl that had no idea I existed, but I seemed to be noticing everywhere.g your story