who I thought you were // pickdaisy

6.

   It was the day of the barbecue at Faye's friend's, Jeremy's, house, and I was stoked. My usual straight hair was wavy and flowing down my back due to the shower I had just taken. I didn't normally wear much makeup since me and my friends back home were always surfing or worrying about sunburn, but I decided for today, a little mascara couldn't hurt anyone. I didn't know what these people were dressing like so I just kept it pretty casual with a tank top and ripped jeans. Since the party would still be going on after the sun went down, I also had a thin jacket, just in case. A girl has to always be prepared.

   It was 4:48 pm when Faye pulled up into my long driveway, and I couldn't wait to meet new people. I shot my dad a quick goodbye and hopped in the car with my new friend. She handed me the aux cord, and from that alone, I knew that this day could only get better.

"You excited for this barbecue or what?" She asked eagerly.

"Hell yeah. I haven't eaten all day, so I hope there's some good food there." I said as my stomach growled. We both laughed at the audible rumble of my stomach, and drove out of the neighborhood. I queued up a bunch of different song varieties, since I didn't know what Faye was into yet. Turns out, we have super similar music tastes. She's just more a bit more into country than I am.

   After 5 minutes or so, we arrived outside of a magnificent house. The garage had doors that looked straight out of a barn and were painted the classic red color. The pathway leading the backyard was lit with yard lanterns and peppered with large stone slabs. The house was a stunning dark blue that stood in contrast to the orange mountains and bright blue sky above us. When Faye unlocked the white picket fence, I followed suit with the fruit platters. Immediately, I saw lots of faces give me friendly smiles, probably aware of my arrival making note of someone new to town. Small town things I guess. 

Faye grabbed my arm and dragged me to a group of cute looking guys over by the grills. The multiple grills. The multiple cute boys, by the multiple grills. Oh dear lord I think I'm seeing double.

"Hey guys this is Corinne. She just moved in a couple streets down." Faye nudged me.

"Hey guys. This is a super nice house by the way." I said, smiling at the very cute boys. I looked around for while longer, admiring the beautiful house.

"Thanks. Coming from you that's even more of a compliment." Someone said. Looking up, I met the face of an extremely cute guy. He had blonde hair and pretty grey eyes; really, really pretty grey eyes. He looked pretty muscular, as if he were an athlete, or a gym buff. Either way, nobody was complaining. I was nobody. I was not in fact complaining.

Saying thank you for a compliment towards the house, I assumed that this was Jeremy: "Thanks" I grinned, "You must be Jeremy, I'm Corinne. You must be loaded to afford this place." I chuckled.

He laughed. "Not me, but my parents, sure. These are our other friends; Striker, Dylan, and Avery."

I looked up at them in confusion. I guess it was noticeable from my face so Avery spoke up: "Yes, Avery is my real name, and a guy's name too, ya know." He said with a thick New York accent. Immediately, I noticed how stylish Avery was. Being from New York, in my opinion, the fashion capital of the country, I sort of expected it. His dark skin paired with his hazel eyes were truly eye-catching and mysterious.

I laughed pretty hard, for a while, about how upset he looked over that: "I wasn't doubting your name, or making fun of you," I began with a few giggles still left in my system, "I was more curious about the name 'Striker'."

Striker spoke up from behind Avery: "It's my nickname, since I play soccer with some of the guys here. At our school, soccer and football are state champs, and overall just a really big deal." He was tall, taller than all of the boys standing near. He had dark eyes and dark hair like Avery, but a lighter complexion. He must have loved the sport with the passion he exuded just talking about it.

All that was left, was Dylan. He, however, was your average great-looking guy. He was cute, but not flashy in other ways that these guys were. He didn't speak up, just smiled at me. I smiled back. I definitely want to get to know him and see if he is always quiet, or if it's just a new person. I actually would really like to get to know all of them. As I was thinking of different things to talk about, since neither soccer or football had been super big at my school in Santa Monica, I was interrupted by a voice:

"Here's your soda, Jer." Someone says. I look up and see that Cameron is standing there, holding two sodas.

Immediately, I see Faye run and jump onto Cameron's back: "Hey Cam! Have you met Corinne? The boys seem to take to her in already!"

"Yeah this is my new girl." Striker says, slinging an arm around me.

"What the hell are you talking about? She's only been here for like three days." Cameron asks confused, and a little harsh I may add.

"Bro, how do you know that?" Jeremy adds inquisitively.

"She lives down the street from me." Cameron says, bored of this conversation. He turns his head towards Faye, still on his back, and says, "Hey you're kind of hurting me." Faye, then, hops off his back and motions for me to come with her. We go on the deck and head towards the coolers.

"So... what did ya think?" She asks curiously.

"About what?" I stood their confused.

She tilts her head at me: "About the guys? Do you think they're cool?"

"Yeah they're actually really fun." I smiled back at her, and she looked happy with my answer. She then grabbed a couple drinks and handed one to me.

"So you're okay if we stay? I really want you guys to be friends. You're fun. They're fun. Everybody's fun." She laughed.

"Of course! I'm super glad you asked me to come tonight. I would probably be stuck with my dad, watching reruns of SVU." I gave her a small hug.

As we walked back to backyard, I saw that the boys were no longer by the grills, but over in the other corner of the yard. They had all gotten their food already and sat down on several overlaid picnic blankets, with lanterns hanging from the trees above them: It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Faye walked over to save us some seats, telling me to bring her a plate of just watermelon. When grabbing the food, I noticed Jeremy had out the good silverware, not the cheap plastic stuff that we had at barbecues at Kacie's. I could make a fortune selling these. I thought to myself, chuckling over how ridiculous that would be. Thinking about the barbecues back home, I shot Kacie another text telling her that I missed her and to text me when she got the chance.

I slid the phone in my back pocket and walked over to where Faye was. I handed her a plate and sat down between her and Striker.

"So you and Corinne already met?" Striker directed at Cameron with a smirk, wrapping his arm over my shoulders.

"Yeah. Our dad's are good friends, and Andrew needed help moving her heavier stuff in" He said nonchalantly. I looked at him for a second too long before our eyes met briefly. I immediately whipped my head in the other direction, hoping he didn't think I was staring at him. Not much to stare at either. Cameron was tall, almost as tall as striker, with dark brown hair and striking blue eyes. He was extremely tan and athletically built. Okay, he was something to look at, but there was literally not one bad looking person here. Not one damn, ugly soul.

As the night went on, I got questions and had conversations with almost everyone in the group, including some that I saw when coming into the backyard earlier. There were a couple girls that I really liked, pretty much reminding me of all my girlfriends at home. Or my old home? Only one person I did not strike up a conversation with. Cameron stayed predominantly quiet throughout. He even acted like I wasn't there at times, striking up a conversation with someone I was currently talking to. He was quite the guy. I thought sarcastically.

At around 10:30, Faye decided it was time to head home, dropping me off along the way.

"Thanks for the ride, Faye" I said grateful.

"No problem, chick. We do these things all the time, and I am really glad that we another person to invite to them." She winked. I smiled and closed the car door. As I opened the front door, I turned back and waved goodbye.

What a good night.