The Boy Next Door

Chapter One: My Ex-Bestfriend

It all started this morning. I have just opened my door to leave for school and guess what I see. I see my ex-best friend and neighbour, Jason Sanders standing outside my door waiting for me. This is very odd, seeing as he was usually out for his morning training by now.

"Hurry up Celia! Let's go! We might be late." He says to me as he closes my door and drags me out my apartment building by the wrist and onto the route I usually took to go to school.

"What are you doing? Why are you still here? Aren't you supposed to be at school for training?" I sputter, as he continues to drag me along.

"I was waiting for you. Yeah, I have training but I'm not feeling well so I didn't go." He replied to me with a short laugh, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

This is very weird, he usually doesn't talk to me nowadays because he was one of the popular and cool kids now and I just avoid him so...

"Whatever. You didn't have to wait for me," I reply in a cold voice as I shrug off his hand which was still holding my wrist.And with that we continue to walk in an awkward silence. I look straight ahead, avoiding eye-contact with Jason who was walking next to me.

"So..." He drawls out, trying to make conversation as he looks at me.

"Jason. You don't need to talk to me if you don't want to." I say, speaking my mind about the sudden interaction between us.

"No, it's not that I don't want to. I really want to actually. I just want to ask you, why?" He says to me all too quickly.

"Why? What?" I reply as turned to look at him, utterly confused about the current situation. He was the one who suddenly got snobbish popular friends and the incident was his fault.

"Why did you stop staying with me and talking to me? See, this is actually the longest conversation we ever had ever since you stopped minding me," He tells me almost pleadingly. I notice his eyes are just filled with sadness which is very bizarre to see since he's always happy and joking around.

"What do you mean? We talk during group activities," I say, fully avoiding the topic.
I am not in the mood to have this conversation now. I don't think I'll ever be in the mood.

"Besides school work you always avoid me now. Why?" He asks in the same pleading tone, showing all his sincerity.

"We're gonna be late. Hurry up..." I say, dodging his question again.

This left us back in an awkward silence with me thinking about what just happened. The way he looked at me and the sincerity, it's all surreal. To think he still actually wants to talk to me.

We finally walk through the school gates and Jason is instantly greeted by his friends who were waiting by the gate. They immediately approach him and they began doing that weird man-hug things that guys do. At this point I turn away, heading towards the entrance of the building. It takes me a few minutes to reach my locker so I can dump all my heavy books, leaving only the ones I need in my bag.

As I close my locker door, I hear someone calling my name.

"Celia! Celia! Celia!" A loud voice calls to me.

I turn around and I am shocked for the second time today to see Jason, running towards me.

He finally gets to me and says questioningly "Why didn't you wait for me? I didn't take long."

"I thought you would stay with them," I say back to him with an eye roll, stating the obvious.

"Well in exchange for leaving me you'll let me walk to class with you, so let's get going," He says and gestures me to start walking into the direction of our classroom which was coincidentally one that we shared.

"What? Why?" I say in an exasperated manner, feeling slightly like a brat for whining.

I refuse to walk with him to class. I'll have to deal with all the rumors his stupid fangirls will start about me, which is a big pain. Why doesn't he just get the hint that I don't want to talk to him anymore?

"What's with that reaction? It's just I wanna stay with you more," He says to me obviously hurt because of my repeated rejection of his company.

"Do whatever you want." I reply coldly, effectively ending the conversation leaving us in a somewhat awkward silence again as a we walk to our first class.

We get into class just as the bell rings and I am right about my thoughts earlier. All Jason's fangirls were glaring at me which makes me very uneasy. I quickly walk to my seat at the back of the room and my mind begins to wander towards Jason.

Why didn't he go training? I've known him since we were kids and I know he would never skip swimming. Jason seemed totally fine, so why didn't he train? He usually trains all day everyday, even when he has a cold. There is something weird going on here.

________

School was finally over and I am almost near my apartment, when I hear someone calling my name. I turn around and find out that it's Jason again.

"Celia! Celia! Wait up! I wanted to hang out with you. It's been so long," He says, panting slightly as he approaches me. He must have ran the whole way.

"Jason you should start going to training again. You don't even seem sick," I tell him, partly concerned for his swimming.

"It's fine," He says with that cute smile of his. I swear that smile will be the death of me, his dimples which I find absolutely adorable. Wait! What am I thinking? This is your ex-bestfriend you are thinking about.

"What's up with you? You never skip your training and you suddenly want to hangout with me?" I ask back, putting emphasis on the hangout part.

"What's wrong with wanting to get close again? Come on, it's been forever." He exasperatedly tells me.

"Fine. What do you wanna do?" I reply, finally giving in to his sudden desire to hang out with me.

"Anything. Why don't we just stay at my place? I'll make dinner," He say with one of those adorable smiles of his.

"Okay? I guess..."

With that said, we make our way to his apartment which he shared with his older brother, who was at work right now. We got there fairly quickly seeing as I was already halfway there when he ran up to me. This is not going to end well.