sharkbait \\ h.s

5

Somebody made brownies.

Or so I assume, considering that there is one sitting on my bedside table under a purple napkin. The black on the bottom doesn't make it seem very appealing.

My head is throbbing.

"God dammit, Harry," I hear my dad say from the kitchen. "This is what we were trying to avoid happening."

"I know, Mick," Harry replies cooly. "My daughter kind of, like, got pissed and ran away- Oh wait. That was you."

"I told you to ask her to lunch to keep her from leaving."

"That's, like, kind of your job, man, you know, as her father."

The pain in my head increases with every word between the two of them, the smell of burnt chocolate not helping, and I feel like crying. My dad told Harry to ask me out.

Of course this feeling of stupidity isn't new; my father often had, sometimes payed, people to do things for me, and they usually did them out of pity. I mean, who wouldn't take the girl who got attacked by a shark to lunch if they were getting paid a hundred dollars?

My dad leaves the house, like he does when he's running away from his problems (especially ones caused by him) before he notices I'm awake. When Harry comes into my room, I pretend I'm still asleep. My eyes burn.

"Hey," Harry whispered. "You're dad's, like, kinda pissed of at you. For, like, fainting, ya know. Or maybe for leaving. Both, I guess."

I don't open my eyes.

"Okay, well I hope you're not pissed off, too, 'cause I'm gonna tell you something that you might not like..."

Now I pop up. "What, Harry?" My voice is quieter than I want it to be. "That my dad told you to take me to lunch?" His eyes go wide. "Jesus, dude, are you that dumb? I heard you talking to my dad."

"That's not... It wasn't like that..."

"Oh? You mean I'm not some charity case to you?" I scoff. "How much did he pay you?"

The bed creaks when I stand up, and Harry stands up straighter. "Cali," he says, sounding irate. "Are you that dumb? Seriously, you go around acting like everyone is just feeling sorry for you! That shark take the right side of your brain, too?"

I step back, hitting the wall. Tears are pooling in my eyes, threatening to spill. "For a second, for a fucking second, I thought you were into me," I say.

"Cali-"

"Get out."

"I read your blog." He starts to walk out of the room, but I step forward to grab his arm. For the first time, I take in how much taller than me he is.

"What the hell do you mean you read my blog? How do you even know about my blog?"

The corners of his mouth twitch. "Big fan of the whole 'Kent family miracle'. Have been since--"

"So you read my blog? That's kind of sick, actually. What, have you been stalking me or something?"

He laughs at me. "Jesus, Cal, you sound, like, retarded right now."

"Get out."

"I would..." His face inches closer. "But, babe, you're kind of latching onto my arm."

My face heats up and I let go. "You can go now."

A smile breaks onto his face and he winks at me before he leaves the room.

The burnt brownie is still sitting there. "What the hell." I pick the brownie off the table and shove the whole thing in my mouth at once.

-

hey guys, so first off, did the end of the last chapter make sense? like, the whole "the thing came closer/pulled of the boat thing". it was a memory cali was having because the thing in the water from the restaurant reminded her, she freaked out and fainted lol.

second, if youre wondering why her name is california and not a normal fanfic name like rose or izzy or something , it says later.

last lol, i kind of would like to know how this story is going ? feedback on it would be neato... if its bad tell me why and ill fix it, if its good just comment its good so i can sleep at night :)) pls vote , also , it makes me really happy when i see people actually voted for me ...

love you all and thanks :))

~mel