Sunshine || Jai Brooks

chapter one; babe

Her best friend was looking around her as she walked through the crowd, while Aileen just tried to keep track. It wasn't easy, especially since most of the people were partying hard and under the influence of alcohol. They didn't bother to step aside, or apologize when they bumped into her. Some guys even tried to dance with her.

If it wasn't for Kristina she wouldn't be here - she met a guy at the beach and he invited her to come. She was afraid to go alone and needed her as support. The funny thing was that she actually believed she was the right person for that role. Boys, parties and anything related to that made her uneasy by even thinking about it.

But it was fine. She was fine following along with what she had planned - or whatever - and to step out of her comfort zone just for her. If that meant having drunk people jump in front of her and grab her waist to dance with her, then that was also alright. She just hoped it wouldn't last too long.

"Oh, there he is!" the redhead squealed, suddenly grabbing her arm and pointing in the direction of two guys. Aileen was pulled after her, but quickly was let go when one of the guys noticed and walked up to hug her best friend.

He had this wide grin on his face, gazing down at her. Kristina just smiled back, and then awkwardly waved at the other guy.

"Hi, how are you? I'm Kristina."

"Hey, Kristina. I'm James."

"Hi," she bit her lip and turning to the blonde, sending her a look. She was still uncomfortable standing in the back and tried not to draw too much attention. She could feel the eyes on her though. Wow, and unfortunately Kristina took a step back to introduce her. It must've jumped into her mind - which she really could easily ignore, but whatever. "Oh, and this is Aileen. I ehm-... She's my best friend."

"Hey, Aileen. I'm James."

"Daniel. Hi."

Heat flowed to her cheeks and she giggled. "Hi."

Oh my God. This was bad. Very, very bad. She wanted to leave this place. She wanted to spend her Friday night at home, perhaps in her room with her laptop. She wanted to watch movies while she cuddled with her cat, listen to music or scroll through Tumblr and laugh at stupid puns.

"You want to get something to drink?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure." Aileen couldn't care less if her best friend couldn't seem to remove the smile from her face, or even to stop staring at the guy. She was considering on leaving her alone with this guy she only knew the name of to be alone with him. "Is that alright?"

No, it's not alright. Just no.

"It's fine. Honestly."

"Thanks." Daniel had grabbed her hand, entwining their fingers while they started walking away from them. Better said, her. James was still calmly leaning against a wall, sipping from his beer and as if everything was normal, he sent her a smile.

"So, what's up?" The corners of her mouth tugged up by the sound of his accent, and looking back at when Daniel talked she remembered he had one too. It was adorable, and so interesting. She had never met anyone with an accent, besides her sister's boyfriend. "You know what? We can gossip about how whipped Daniel is and was too nervous to see her to even eat dinner. It was the worst, trust me."

She bit her lip and nodded. "Tina couldn't stop talking about him, and worrying about what she had to wear. Once I tried to help, she got all cranky and wanted me to shut the hell up. I figured it was best to just sit and... well, do nothing, I guess."

"Kristina does look like a nice girl, though."

"She is. She's great." Her mouth left an embarrassingly weird giggle, causing her to hide it with her hand. It wasn't smart, blurting things out at the moment she was supposed to brag and show off her friend. "Ehm, well... she's a nice person, really funny too. And-..."