𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 || 𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢

| 𝚝 𝚑 𝚛 𝚎 𝚎 |

Stella didn't want a tutor. So what if she hadn't been doing well in math lately? She'd figure it out. She always did. Her mother disagreed, and so that was why Stella found herself in a tutoring session on Friday night, instead of watching a movie at Tara's house.

Stella sighed, and pushed open the door to the tutoring center. It wouldn't help her to mope around. She'd just go and get it over with.

That was when she saw the last person she expected to meet in a tutoring center. "Camp Carter," she said, grinning when he rolled his eyes. "Although, maybe I should call you Tutor Carter from now on," she added thoughtfully.

He laughed. "Just Carter is fine."

"Just Carter it is," she decided, smirking as he shook his head. "So, Just Carter, are you my tutor?"

"I suppose I am."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

He directed her to a desk in the very back, then asked her: "So, do you have any homework that you need help with?"

"Of course."

He was a surprisingly good teacher; he never got upset or lost his patience with her even when she didn't understand something, and had to ask for an explanation multiple times; he'd give her example problems and show her how to work through them; and by the end of the session Stella could safely say that she actually understood the material.

"Thanks," she said as she packed up her belongings. He waved her words away.

Stella finished packing, pushing open the door to leave, but the sound of his voice stopped her. "Wait," he said.

"Yeah?"

"I need your number." She raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Not for me," he clarified. "For your file. And because we need to be able to contact each other for scheduling stuff." Stella nodded, then typed her number into his phone, which he handed to her. He did the same to hers.

_ _ _

"We're watching a action movie," Stella declared.

Tara shook her head. "No, we're not." They were at Tara's house, with Tyler, and the two of them had been arguing about which movie to watch for almost fifteen minutes.

"Then what do you suggest we watch? One of your rom-coms?" Tara was currently going through a phase, as she liked to call it. Stella called it an obsession.

"What's wrong with them?" What was wrong was that they were too sappy, and completely unrealistic. Who fell in love after just one glance? Stella had been looking for love her entire life, and she hadn't even come close to what happened in the movies.

Stella sighed. "Okay, you go and get the popcorn, and Tyler and I will pick out the movie."

"Fine." Once she was out of the room, she walked over to Tyler and gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.

"Please," she begged. "Can we please watch the action movie?"

Tyler gave her a dry look. "You do know that Tara will be mad at me forever, right? And I'm not risking that."

"Please." She was pleading now. "I think I'm gonna go crazy if we watch another romantic movie."

He gave her a sympathetic look. "So am I. Fine. But you're gonna take the blame."

"I can deal with that." She nodded, and selected the horror movie. When Tara came in with the popcorn, she gave Stella a reproving glance, but didn't say anything.

The movie was amazing. The dramatic plot twists, the heart-pumping cliffhangers, and the incredible action sequences were exactly what Stella needed to feel that was when she looked over at Tara and Tyler: Tara was curled into his side, and his eyes weren't even on the screen, he was murmuring something into her hair, his arms around her.

Jealousy seared into her heart: she wanted that. Wanted someone to look at her, and only see her. To look past all of her flaws, her insecurities, and just stay with her. She wanted someone to make her laugh when she didn't feel like it, someone to stay with her and hold her when she was down. Sure, she had Tara, and she was her best friend, but it wasn't the same.

She wanted somebody to die for.

—

Heh, did anyone catch the Sam Smith reference? (Ami, I'm sure you did lol.)

So, Stella is more of an action movie stan than a horror fanatic bc I'm not making her exactly like Bri. This is an original story now, and I can take my liberties.

Thank you all for reading, and please vote!