tiptoe • zane hijazi

i

i know what it's like to be broken and be bold

•

phoebe hale stepped out of her car, heading towards the gym. her long brown locks swung as she walked and her petite figure was shown off in her sports bra and yoga pants.

nate budding was standing across the street from her, his blue eyes shimmering in the sunlight. he was talking to a girl he had been seeing for several weeks behind phoebe's back.

phoebe turned and saw her boyfriend kissing the unknown girl. her eyes went wide and she started to tear up. she was in utter disbelief and needed some time to process what had just happened before even looking at nate.

as soon as the 19-year-old stepped foot into the gym, she sat down against a wall and began to quietly sob, her head in her hands.

that was when a silver-haired boy took notice of her cries. phoebe hale had quite an average life - until she met him.

he crouched beside her and whispered " are you ok?" as he gently touched her shoulder.

she took a while to answer because she was trying to stop crying "I'm not the best" she smiled slightly with tears rolling down her cheek

"is it ok if I ask why?" the boy said with a concerned look "my names scotty... what's yours?"

"hi, I'm ... phoebe. " she paused "its just y'know the normal douchey boyfriend that you've been with for 3 years that you just caught cheating on you but you were too scared to react so you hid in the gym problem" she rambled sarcastically

"ah... I get that all the time" Scotty smiled.

he reached out his hand to pull her up from the floor.

"thanks." she sniffled.

"anytime."

"i have no clue what I'm gonna do now" she looked sheepishly at the floor. "i live with him. I can't go back there now... not anytime soon for that matter" she stated.

"ok, you might think I'm creepy for saying this but do you want to go back to my house for a bit? you can think everything through"

"and don't worry I have a girlfriend I'm not hitting on you or anything that would be weird" he added quickly, scratching his head.

phoebe nodded. she couldn't believe what she was agreeing to, she had just met this guy and now she was going back to his house.

for the whole car journey to scotty's, phoebe looked out of the window, completely engulfed with sadness. the kind-hearted boy didn't mind the silence. he never got enough silence in his life.

the pair arrived at a completely empty house. it was quite large and phoebe was impressed.

"nice place" she commented quietly.
she had always been quite shy and was finding it challenging to talk to scotty. he was practically a stranger to her - a kind stranger at that.

"so what do you do for a living?" scotty tried to make small talk as they sat on his couch.

"i'm a model ,you?"

"well... ah" he hesitated "it's kinda hard to explain"

"spit it out," she said, twirling her hair between her fingers

"well, I guess you could call me a youtuber... or a social media star as cnn would say" he joked.

"so you basically do nothing all day?" Phoebe retorted back.

"well i pretty much post mate everything I need to survive"

"that just means you're smart" phoebe uttered, "so... do you live with anyone else here? it's a pretty big place to live on your own in."

"oh yeah, i live with my girlfriend, kristen, and my two roommates, todd and jason. they might be back soon."

"should i leave then?" phoebe cringed at the thought of all the socialising she'd have to do if she stayed.

"oh no, I think they'd really like you" scotty admitted.

phoebe smiled at the thought of people actually liking her.

"anyways -"

phoebe was interrupted by the door swinging open.

"who wants coffee?!" a tall, bearded boy yelled as he walked through the door. "oh, who dis?" he sassily asked.

"zane, phoebe, phoebe, zane"

"hi" phoebe waved.

zane sat in between the two and started to talk to scott.

"you know you have a girlfriend right?"

"i am aware of that, yes" Scott laughed

phoebe chuckled awkwardly "no no we're nothing like that we only met like -"

"an hour ago" the two said in unison.

"woah woah calm down. what is this, the shining?" zane retorted, lightening the mood.

the three laughed at zane's antics and phoebe began to warm up to both zane and scotty.

"look how famous phoebe is" scott said while waving his phone in zane's face.

zane squinted to focus on the rapidly moving screen and proceeded to yell, "10 mil?! ooh baby i could do with a friend like you!"

phoebe blushed "thanks" she replied while laughing . "but you're the famous ones, social media stars as cnn would say" she mocked scotty , speaking as deeply as she could.

scott snickered at their new inside joke.

phoebe spent the rest of the day getting to know the two new guys in her life. she laughed and didn't have a care in the world. toddy, kristen & jason still hadn't shown up by 10pm.

•

hey! thanks for reading the first chapter

hope it was enjoyable since i made a big effort to get it as good as i possibly could

please comment any improvements i could make as a writer, i'm really trying to improve my style of writing.

words: 952

much love :)

(song: plastic, moses sumney)