Before fame; a 5sos fanfic

Chapter 2

Luke:

I hate jocks. Especially ones like that prick, Andy. First, he has a staredown with my best friend, Clarissa's, chest. Then, he tries to punch me in the face and ends up hitting her! The whole situation pissed me off. I get that Clarissa was trying to protect me, because she hated seeing me hurt, but to be honest I really wish she hadn't jumped to my defense. She made me look weak, like some wimp that need his female friend to jump in front of him and take a punch to protect him. The whole schools probably thinks I'm a weak little wimp. Ugh.

When Andy had hit Claire, I had felt a burning urge to run him over with a dump truck. And then resurrect him to do it again. Nobody hurts my girl. We weren't dating, although ever since I met Clarissa we had a...bond. I know that sounds cliche, but it's true. We just understand each other. She understands me better than anyone else ever has. She always seems to know how I'm feeling. If I'm sad, she'll burst into the room and give me a hug or a kiss on the cheek before I even utter a single word. Sometimes she'll bring me candy and order me a pizza, depending on why I'm upset. She even made me a card once. She always seems to know why I'm sad, too, but she always asks me anyway, and asks me if I want to talk about it, to lift some of the weight off my shoulders. She's my therapy. If I'm happy, she'll burst into the room and run to me and ask me to go do something with her. I'll say no, but it's just a joke. I would never seriously say no to hanging out with my Clarissa. We'll go to the park, the movies, we'll go out for ice cream or just walk aimlessly around. I love hanging out with Clarissa. She's my best friend. She's always there for me. As I go through breakup after breakup, she was always there for me, and vice versa. Whenever a guy treats her wrong, cheats on her or hurts her(which they seem to do a lot), there I am. When either of us is sad, we cuddle. Claire absolutely loves my cuddles. She always told me that I was the best comfort in the world, because of my snuggles. After she went through a particularly hard breakup, I would hear her crying at night, or she'd call me. I'd come into her room in the middle of the night, lay down beside her and pull her body up against mine. She was always asking for me to lay down on the couch with her and hold her. Calum, her protective brother and my close friend, wasn't too enthusiastic with all the cuddling. He thought I was just feeling her up, being an ass, whatever. I didn't really care what he thought when it came to Clarissa. The only thing that made her feel better was being in my arms, so no matter what Cal says I'll always do anything I can to make her better. Whenever she was sad, she came to me. Not her brother. Not her family. Not her girl friends. Me. She'd walk to my house on the middle of the night to talk. She'd knock on my door and I'd open it, and if she looked sad, I'd pick her up, carry her to the couch, lay down with her, turn on the T.V and hold her. She'd fall asleep in my arms and god, it felt so good. I loved snuggling with Clarissa. I'd never say any of this out loud, but holding Claire made me feel really good- I might even say I felt strong. She always came to me and it made me feel needed. She felt so fragile in my arms, and laying with her I'd wonder, Why would anyone ever want to hurt someone so perfect? This is the best feeling ever. Who would want to give this up? But, again and again, boy after boy after boy came into her life and ruined it. Snuggling with Clarissa, I felt strong. I felt like the happiest person on Earth, being with her. And not just cuddling- even just hanging out with my dear Claire made me really happy. No girl had ever made me feel the way she did, but I was pretty sure she didn't feel the same way about me, but I wasn't sure. Maybe I was wrong. I guess the happiness I felt around Clarissa showed, because everyone at school thought we were dating. We both denied it, but to be honest, I wouldn't mind dating Clarissa. In fact, I wanted to. She made me feel so special, without even trying, without even knowing it. She stood up for me. The bullys at school left me alone now because of her. People generally liked me because she had made me seem like a really amazing person in front of them, told them of qualities that I honestly didn't see in myself. The other boys, too. She made all of our lives so much better, at school and at home. I loved her, I loved everything about her. Her long, soft, light blonde hair with the tips dyed dark green, courtesy of Michael, that fell down almost to her waist. I have always loved to play with her hair, because it's always really soft. She loved it when I played with her hair, too. She even taught me how to braid it. I loved her eyes, they were never just one colour. They were blue, and green, and grey, and I loved the way they twinkled, like stars. Her smile. Her soft skin. The way she jokingly kissed my scrapes and bruises better whenever I hurt myself. Her lips felt nice on my skin, even though she was just joking around and didn't know how she was making me feel. Her laugh, her voice, both like music to my ears. Her cute little pouty face- Jesus Christ, she was so cute when she pouted. I would never admit that out loud, but it was true. Clarissa had the hottest pout ever. She could be a professional pouter if she wanted. She could probably make money off it. Whenever she stuck out her bottom lip and made puppy dog eyes, I kind of wanted to kiss her. Sure, I had kissed her a couple times, and she had kissed me a few times, but that was just brother-sister kissing. When she made her adorable pouty lips and sad-puppy-dog eyes , I wanted to actually kiss her. A boyfriend kiss. A hold-you-against-the-wall-and-make-your-knees-weak kiss. But I knew I couldn't. I didn't want to ruin our friendship, and I knew if I tried anything, Calum would hate me to the moon and back. And Clarissa had never hinted on liking me. I had no reason to think she would like me, except for the fact that she loved to cuddle with me and she talked to me more than her own parents and she held my hand all the time and we were always hanging out and we talked to each other about everything.... Yeah, I guess I could understand why people at school thought we were together. But when she did these things things, she didn't do it like she loved me, the way I wanted her to. She did those things like she would to one of her other best friends or with her sister, Mali, whom she was quite close with. I knew I was lucky enough to have Clarissa in my life. I know I shouldn't like my best friend this way, because I know she thinks of me as just her best friend, maybe even as her brother. Ugh, why am I being so sappy? Why am I feeling this way? I feel like I'm spinning in goddamn circles. I'll always be stuck in the friend zone.

I'm in math class, my last period of the day. I have this class with Clarissa. She has a little purple/red mark forming on her cheek bone. It's definitely going to bruise. She was probably in quite a bit of pain, but Clarissa always hides it when she's in pain. She says she doesn't want sympathy or special attention.

Clarissa sits right in front of me. We both sit beside big bulky guys from the football team. The guy beside me, Heath, has been trying to get Clarissas's attention for over a month. He tells perverted jokes that he thinks are funny. He calls her name to get her to turn around. He even got her roses and a red velvet box full of chocolate last week. What he doesn't know, is that she ate them with me while we watched Mean Girls and cuddled on the couch at my house.

The guy next to Clarissa was Heaths friend and had been trying to get her to look at Heath and talk to him. She ignored him. His name was Tyler. He had annoying slicked-back hair that always looked really greasy. Clarissa kept ignoring him, and he was visibly getting annoyed. He shook her shoulders for the billionth time today, and she ignored him. His irritation grew and he swatted her pencil out of her hand, sending it flying across the room. Nobody seemed to notice. The other kids in class were focusing on their work. Clarissa looked up at Tyler, shocked. He cocked his head in Heaths direction. She gave him the finger but turned to look at Heath, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Hello, Heath." She said coldly. Heath smiled, oblivious to her strong disliking of him, and said, "Hey, Claire. I've been trying to get your attention! What's up?" Heath was staring at Clarissa, waiting for her to answer. He knew she hated him calling her Claire, everyone did, yet he did it all the time anyway. Asshole. She looked at me and we both rolled our eyes at the same time. She tried to keep a straight face but couldn't and giggled. I loved her giggle.

Ugh, I'm such a sap.

She shook her head and walked to where her pencil had landed, pulling my hair lightly when she walked past me. Oh god. She bent down to pick it up, and Heath whistled quietly. "Damn" he whispered, bluntly staring right at her ass. Tyler nodded in agreement.

I wanted to punch them both right between the eyes.

Clarissa sat down in her seat, back to ignoring the jocks. They were trying to get her attention again. It wasn't working. Heath whispered, "Claire! Hey! Its Heath! Heyo! Look at me! Come on, girl! I know you love me!" She didn't turn around, just gave him the finger with her eyes glued to the paper on the desk in front of her. Heath looked a little hurt. "Clarissa..." He said. He looked down at his work. He actually looked hurt! I loved it when jocks got emotionally hurt. It was rare that they showed their emotions. He deserves it, I thought. He tried to regain his dignity, and began to pester Clarissa again. She ignored him. He kept going for almost the whole period, but 25 minutes from the end of the school day I'd had enough. I decided to rub in the fact that she just didn't like Heath, and she liked me more. What an I say, I don't really like jocks. I reached forward and started twirling Clarissa's hair around my finger, something I did often. I leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "Claire, it's me. Hi. Hey. Whatever. Talk to me. I'm bored and getting a bit irritated."

She turned, putting her feet on the chair, resting her head on her knees and smiling at me. Her eyes twinkled. I loved it when she smiled at me and ignored everyone else. It made me feel important, like she liked me more than anyone in this room. Which, technically, she did. I pushed her bangs out of her eyes, and she smiled even wider. Heath sighed sadly and began to work in his notebook. He kept grumbling how it was unfair that I could call her Claire and he couldn't. I was happy; Clarissa Hood, the popular, beautiful swimmer, liked me better than a football player, who was also pretty popular. She could gain a lot from getting with him; he was good-looking, lots of money, nice house and a fancy car. But Clarissa didn't care. She liked me better.