Chasing Alana

06 | The Confrontation

"I can't believe I'm standing in the same room as the Alana Sommers."

One of Marianne's cousin whispered excitedly, causing Alana to turn her attention to the girl. She looked over at the young girl who looked to be Kimberly's age and smiled at her.

"What's your name?" Alana asked, causing the girl to freeze as her eyes widened.

Tristan Pierce, the youngest of the Pierce siblings, rolled his eyes and nudged his cousin.

"I- I Um-," stammered the girl, too surprised to even speak.

"Her name's Celine," sighed Tristan, feeling the embarrassment for his cousin. "Sorry, she's normally more... talkative."

That snapped Celine out of her trance as she glared at her cousin. "Sorry, I just- I'm such a big fan and I don't want to come off as weird, but I seriously look up to you."

"Yeah like that's not weird at all," muttered Tristan. Celine punched her cousin on the arm causing the latter to rub his arm to soothe the pain. Damn, his older brothers must've taught her how to properly punch.

"Stop bullying my best friend, Tris," muttered Kimberly. Her head was resting on Celine's shoulder and her arm was wrapped around the wide-eyed girl, who was still in a daze after Alana had addressed her.

"It's not my fault she's being so weird," Tristan eyed Kimberly. "And how are you on her side instead of mine?"

"Why would I be?" Retorted Kimberly, scoffing. "She is my best friend."

"Damn, Sommers, you're really just going to do me like that?" Tristan asked sarcastically. "I thought I was your best friend."

"In your dreams, Pierce," Kimberly rolled her eyes. When she had complained to her mom about dad embarrassing her in front of the Pierce brothers, she meant to exclude Tristan.

The youngest Pierce brother went to the same school as her and more than often got on her nerves. He would go out of his way to tease her and when in the same room, there was constant bickering. They weren't exactly friends— no, they had a more frenemy type of relationship despite their families being extremely close.

"Ah, so you're the Celine that Kimberly always talks about," Alana chuckled, eyeing her sister and Tristan as they continued to bicker back and forth. "And you don't have to apologize, Celine. I've heard so many great things about you."

"I- what?" Celine remained starstruck, as Kimberly giggled at her best friend's reaction. "You did?"

Alana nodded with amusement. "Noodle talks about you all the time— she's definitely lucky to have a best friend like you."

"Aww, you talked about me to your sister?" Asked Celine excitedly in a not so hushed whisper.

Kimberly nodded with a gleaming smile. "Of course I did. You're my best friend— how could I not talk about you?"

"You don't think it'll be weird if I ask for a picture later right?" Celine asked, biting her lip in dilemma.

"I'm sure Lani won't mind," encouraged Kimberly. Celine was the shyer one out of the two and had always looked up to Alana. It was why at the moment, she was so starstruck.

"She's probably weirded out by you," grumbled Tristan, feeling the need to irritate his cousin further. Kimberly glared at Tristan, wondering what exactly crawled up his ass.

Celine frowned at her cousin's words and stormed away from the group. Both her and Kimberly couldn't understand why he was being such a douchebag.