I'm not desperate. I don't want a boyfriend so badly I'm gonna die if I don't have one. But I do want a boyfriend. Yes, THE Stella Yamada wants a boyfriend.
But that's not the problem. Oh, hell no, not even close. The problem is that I love him. The six foot four inch tall drummer of Lemonade Mouth, also known as Charlie Delgado.
How tragic, right?
Anyway, it all hit me like a ton of bricks that one hot summer day in August, on a Saturday, so we didn't have school. Charlie came over to my house to hang out, and we were swimming in my pool. The 'rents were in South Dakota with the twins for some convention (not the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which my mom won't let me go to even though I have a Harley!), so the house was empty.
"Hey Stell, do you have any lemonade?" Charlie called out, and I nodded.
"In the fridge, top shelf!" I said, and he nodded in understanding, climbing out of the pool.
And then time seemed to stop. His long brown hair was dripping over his beautiful blue eyes, and I bit my lip as my eyes swept over his masculine figure. I saw the tanned six-pack etched flawlessly into his skin, and I could see scars on his stomach from when I threw a hissy fit and broke my guitar on him. Of course, you'd expect the view to be damaged, but no way Jose! What's the right word for it? Oh yeah, that one.
Charlie Delgado was officially the Drum Sex God.
Now, I'm only seventeen, I shouldn't be thinking this stuff, but I couldn't help it as he walked into the house to get our lemonades. I couldn't deny the fact that Charlie was simply a sexy beast!
He handed me the can of lemonade and sat at the edge of the pool in front of me. My dainty fingers brushed over his calloused ones and I bit my lip to try and stop myself from blushing.
"Stella, you have a paper cut on your finger. I can fix that" Charlie said, and I snapped out of my trance. I saw that he was right just as he took my hand gently and lifted the finger up to his lips, lightly pecking the cut. "Better?" I nodded, feeling the heat from my cheeks grow stronger and I hoped that Charlie thought I was just sunburnt.
"We're subterranean, and we're proud!" I said, opening my can and clinking it with Charlie's, making a clink sound with my mouth. We both laughed, and while I was drinking it down, I accidentally bit on my tongue.
"Goddammit!" I said, setting the lemonade can down next to his and swallowed the blood coming from my bleeding tongue.
"What's up, Stella?" Charlie asked, and I shook my head.
"I just bit my tongue." I said, and Charlie smirked, pulling me closer to him.
"I can fix that." He said, and I gulped. Charlie leaned forward and lightly placed his lips on mine I was shocked for a moment until I started kissing back.
And that's when I really started to fall.
His lips tasted like lemonade and pretzels, and I licked his lips to get a better taste. His mouth opened up against mine and Charlie pulled me out of the water and set me on his waist so I was straddling him. I let my hormones take control and I tangled my fingers into his luscious brown hair. When we had pulled away, my tongue had stopped bleeding, and we were both breathing heavily.
"Better?" Charlie asked, and I had smirked.
"Actually, now that I think about it, I think I need another kiss to make my tongue feel better." I said, and he matched my smirk while pulling me back to his delicious lips.
After that afternoon, and Charlie had left me alone, I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling. I wasn't going to deny anything. I was falling for Charlie Delgado. But why now? And why days before graduation?
It's official! Life bloody-FUCKING-hates me.
I was determined to get to him and find out both of our feelings for each other before graduation rolled around.
Of course, that proved to be harder than I thought.
You see, Charlie had decided to start avoiding me after that day at my pool, where we made out the first time for ten minutes, and the second time for a total of forty-six and a half minutes. I wanted to feel his lips on mine again. But how was that going to work?
Monday
I was the first one at practice after school, and luckily, Charlie came in just moments after I did. He completely ignored me as he passed me and sat on his drum stool. Charlie took out his drumsticks and started hitting on his drums pretty hard, and I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Charlie!" I said loudly, but he paid no attention. "Charlie!" I tried again, but it still didn't work. Eventually I plugged my guitar into the amplifier and started playing a completely different song, hoping to get him to mess up. I heard the drums stop, and then start again with a groan, and I smirked. This continued, me playing louder each time he messed up, and soon, we were both playing as loud as possible.
"STELLA!" Charlie stopped and screamed at me. "What the fuck are you doing? I'm trying to practice a song I'm having trouble with!" I just stopped playing for a little bit and turned to him.
"I'm practicing too." I protested, and he threw his drumsticks onto the ground.
"I'm leaving." Charlie said, pushing past Olivia, Mo, Scott, and Wen who were now filing in.
"Stella, what did you do?" Mo said, looking towards me, and I sighed sadly, seeing as my plan wasn't working as well as I thought. He wasn't supposed to leave!
"Nothing." I said, and we continued on with practice as best as we could without our drum player.
Tuesday
I started to annoy Charlie with the little things then. I kept clicking my pen in History, our first class (we share all of our classes and sit next to each other in all of them), to which he gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes.
Not cool.
In Math, I started kicking the back of his chair. I swear I heard a growl coming from his throat, and I froze for a moment, remembering hearing that very same growl when we were having round two of our make-out session. But I clamped my mouth shut and kept on kicking his chair.
English came around and we were assigned to be partners. I was partners with Charlie.
He ignored me the entire time and I eventually took the assignment from him and did the entire thing perfectly, earning us an A but I knew that it made Charlie feel guilty because I did the entire thing and he didn't help out at all.
The scene at lunch, however, was completely by accident.
Wen was telling us perverted but funny jokes, and I was drinking - or as the rest of the band calls it, draining - my can of lemonade when he told us an especially funny one. Since my head was turned in his direction, and Charlie was sitting next to me, I laughed, spitting my mouthful of lemonade ALL OVER HIM.
I had never been more humiliated in my life.
The rest of the week basically continued like Tuesday did (but without the lemonade incident) until Friday came. And then he decided that he wanted to talk. FINALLY!
It was during and practice. Everyone was already here and we were rehearsing some of our songs. When we got to Determinate, I let my mind wander, and then I eventually stopped playing the song altogether.
"Stella!" Olivia waved her hand in front of my face. "Why'd you stop playing?" I glanced at Charlie but he looked away from me, and I shook my head of the thoughts that were gathering in my mind.
"Sorry, I just lost focus." I said. "I was distracted." I looked pointedly at Charlie, and he cowered under my gaze, even though he wasn't even looking at me.
"Well, let's try that again." Scott said, and we made it through all of our songs until we got to More Than A Band.
"Last song, and then practice is over!" Olivia declared, and everyone - except for me - cheered. I smiled at their silliness and exchanged my electric guitar for my acoustic one.
We started the song out fine, until it got to my part.
"You used to brave the world, all on your own.
Now we won't let you go, go it alone." I sang, and I backed away from the microphone.
"Be who you wanna be, always stand tall." Charlie sang, and I tried not to cry.
"Not gonna let you fall." We sang together, and then that's when I stopped playing.
"What's wrong, Stella?" Wen asked, seeing my sad expression, and I took off my acoustic guitar, setting it down in its case gently.
"I'm sorry." Was all I could whisper before I ran out of the practice room in the school.
I didn't stop running until I had gotten to the bleachers, and then I sat down against the wall behind them. I couldn't stand this. Charlie and I had kissed very passionately and intensely for crying out loud, and now he's ignoring me?
Then I let the dam break. My tears came rushing out of my eyes, and I buried my head in my knees, which were pulled up to my chest.
"Stella?" I froze, becoming instantly silent. "Stell, please. What happened?" I heard Charlie's voice, and then the others were calling my name as well. I stood up, still silent, wiping my eyes free of tears and walking up to them.
"You know what happened, asshole." I snapped at Charlie, and everyone whirled around to look at me with confused expressions. But Charlie's face just held sadness and regret.
"Look, I'm sorry. For whatever I did." Charlie said, and I acted on impulse, walking up to him and slapping him. The band gasped, and I heard a tutting sound from Mo, but I ignored all of them.
"You know what you did!" I screamed, thankful that I could finally get the chance to talk to him. "You show up to my house, you KISS me, and then you ignore me?" Charlie was looking down, and I seethed with rage. "And I thought that you were different." I whispered, walking backwards slowly.
"Stella, I..." Charlie trailed off, and I let a single tear run down my cheek.
"I thought that I loved you." I said, and his eyes widened, but I turned around and started running towards my house.
"Stella!" I heard a scream, but I let my tears fall as I ignored it and climbed the tree up to my bedroom, throwing myself onto my bed and letting my tears flow out.
My phone started to ring after about an hour or two of crying.
"Here comes a breakthrough, here comes a day -" I picked up my phone, and answered it.
"Hello?" I said. My voice sounded hoarse and raspy, but I didn't really care.
"Stella, please, don't hang up!" I heard Charlie's voice on the other end, and I sighed.
"Bye Charlie." I said. I could hear him protesting loudly, but I hung up the phone and threw it at my door. I must have really bad aim, because it landed about two feet away from the bed and onto the floor.
I heard a light tapping on my window and I opened the curtains, revealing Charlie crouched on the branch, looking up at me with pleading eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Sighing in defeat, I opened the window and backed up as Charlie came clambering inside.
"What?" I snapped, sitting on the edge of my bed, and he sighed, running his hands through his long hair.
"I know I've been ignoring you lately," Charlie started out, and I snorted. "But I had to think about the kiss. I mean, I've kissed a few girls before, and that was hands-down the best kiss of my entire life." I looked up at him to see those beautiful blue eyes staring at me with the same expression Wen gave Olivia or the same one that Scott gave Mo. It was love.
"But I have to tall you some -" Charlie's sentence was broken off by my lips covering his in a soft and gentle kiss, unlike the other ones we had shared.
"Wow." Charlie said breathlessly when I pulled away.
"I meant what I said." I blurted out after a few moments of silence. Charlie looked at me quizzically, and I rolled my eyes. "I love you Charlie." I said, clarifying it a bit better for him, and he broke out into a grin.
"You may not believe this Stella..." Charlie said, stepping closer to me as he spoke. "But I love you too." His words were spoken just centimeters from my lips, and I pulled his face down to mine, closing the distance in between us. Our lips moved in sync as we clung onto each other like it was the end of the world.
"I told you they'd be playing tonsil hockey by the time that he was done apologizing for being a bastard." I heard Wen's voice coming from the open window, and I smirked into the kiss. Apparently Charlie heard too, because he gently forced my mouth open and explored my mouth with his tongue, causing me to moan loudly.
"You so owe me twenty bucks, Wen!" Scott almost screamed, and I could hear Wen's sigh from up here. "I told you they'd be getting it on by the time Charlie apologizes!" I snickered and looked up at Charlie, getting lost in his eyes.
"I love you." I said.
"And I love you." Charlie said, and our lips met again.
Yep. Life was good.