"Gabriella!"
I snapped out of my thoughts and looked over at Charlotte. "Hmm?"
She gave me a weird look before picking up her cell phone, "What's up? You seem distracted. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I tell her. And I am. But for the past 20 minutes, all I've been thinking about is the insanely hot guy that I bumped into. I couldn't stop thinking about him and how attractive he was and how it seemed like he wanted nothing to do with me. And it was slightly disappointing.
I'm mainly thinking about him because I haven't seen him around before. And I know a lot of people. I know everyone at this party, basically.
So, who is he? And what's his deal?
"Are you sure?" she asks again after she's done sending a text message, "Brent Morgan just asked if you wanted a drink and you said no. You said no to Brent Morgan. One of the hottest guys at school."
Okay, yeah, he was hot. But I guess I was just distracted. Normally, I would. I've always found him attractive, but he's had a girlfriend for the longest time and now he's single so he's making his move, maybe? I don't now. I should have said yes, but I don't know. I honestly don't know why I'm acting so weird and I'm thinking about this guy I was literally in the presence of for a minute. A fucking minute.
Before I could even say anything back, I saw Stacy Smith straight ahead talking to the guy I was just thinking about. Oh my gosh.
"I'll be right back," I tell Char before slipping out of the booth.
Think, Gabriella. Think of a game plan.
I walked over to them and stopped when I reached them and Stacy turned towards me with a small smile, "Hey, what's up?"
What was up? Ummm. Oh yeah, okay, I could talk to her about something. "No, nothing, I was just wondering if you have the number of that girl you said should dye my hair. I'm thinking about going tomorrow if she's available."
Oh my gosh. Perfect!
"Oh yeah!" she perked up, "yeah, um, let me go get my phone really quick, I left it at the table."
And with that, she was off. And I was standing here with this hot guy. I usually didn't make the first move, but if I was going to have to, it was going to be in a discreet way obviously and this is it. I hope...
He stood there not really saying anything but sipping on his beer. And I didn't know if I should speak up or not.
I'm going to have to. "Sorry about earlier."
He looked over at me and looked sort of surprised that I was saying something, and I think he was maybe trying to figure out if I was talking to him or not, but who else could I be talking to? "Oh um, yeah, no, I'm sorry. I should have been looking at where I was going instead of texting."
"It's okay," I smiled at him.
And then Stacy came back, "Okay, you ready to jot it down?"
I clicked on new contact on my phone and nodded and listened carefully to each number so I could punch it in. And once I did, I saved the contact and locked my phone, "thanks so much. I really need to dye it before school starts."
"So do I," she tells me, locking her phone as well, "it got so light this summer and I kind of want it to be darker. I think that suits me way better."
"It does," I agree with her, "I'm not sure what I want to do with my hair yet. I'll see..."
She was about to say something, but the hot guy spoke up. "Um, Stace..."
Stacy turned to him and chuckled a bit, "oh my gosh, sorry, Troy. What did you want again?" she asked him but then turned towards me, "Gabriella, this is my cousin Troy. He just moved here from Chicago."
Her cousin?! Ahhhh.
"Chicago, eh," I tell him, "I love it there. I've only been a handful of times, but every time I've been, oh my gosh, best time ever. And best food, ever."
I think this made a little interested. Like he's surprised and interested that I know about Chicago. "Yeah? You've been?"
"Mhmm," I nod, taking a little sip of the drink he got me. I haven't really touched it because I was so distracted searching the room for him and wondering who he was, "I went this past April. Reminds me a bit of here so I'm sure you won't miss it too much."
"I'm sure I will," he chuckles a bit, "but New York's pretty great."
Stacy intervenes a bit and tells her cousin something that had nothing to do with me. Obviously. I mean, why would it? "Just call Tim whenever you want to leave, he'll be in the front to pick you up."
Troy's his name, yeah? That's what I heard her call him, right? Or what?
"Okay, cool," he tells her.
Stacey turns back to me, "Chicagoans don't know how to party like us. They get tired."
I chuckled, but not too much so it doesn't offend him. But I mean, it's true. I feel like no one knows how to party like New Yorkers. Especially Upper East Side New Yorkers where these parties last until 2 or 3, but it's still always classy and stuff, you know? Yes, drunk people. But nothing scandalous.
"Whatever," he laughs as he takes another sip of his beer.
"Troy's starting school with us on Monday," she tells me, "so lucky me gets to show him the ins and outs of our school."
Oh my gosh, he's going to our school now? I've known everyone at our school for the past seven years or so. We've all been to school together for so long that most of the time, I don't care how I look in front of them. Even if there are super hot guy.
But now that he's going to be there, oh my gosh, I have to dress up, right? I have to look good at all times for him. Because he's THAT good looking. Fuckkk.
"Oh cool, I'm sure you're going to fit right in."
"Thanks," he laughs a bit and I'm not sure if he thinking I'm being sarcastic or not, but if he's related to Stacy then I'm sure he'll be just fine. Stacy's pretty popular. People like her. People want to be like her. Not like us, but still.
And then there was a small silence between all of us and I didn't really know what else to say to the guy.
But luckily he spoke up. "I'm gonna go find Matt and the guys."
Matt Smith? Oh well duh! Of course he's his cousin, too. Matt and Stacy are twins. And Matt's one of the most popular guys in school. Okay, yeah, he'll be just fine at school. I'm sure of it.
"So you guys are cousins?" I ask Stacy as soon as he's far enough not to hear.
She turns to me after scanning the room and nods, "Yeah, why?"
I shrug, "No reason. I literally bumped into him earlier and I spilled my drink so that's pretty funny."
"Oh," she chuckles, "yeah, he moved from Chicago and he's staying with us for a bit because his parents still haven't sold the house and his dad can't relocate his job until like the end of November so yeah."
Hmm okay. I want to know more. Like, is he single or what? But I know Stacy and I can't just straight up ask that because she's super protective. She's so protective of her brother and seriously scares like every single girl off. Well, no, not every girl. But some. So yeah, not going there.
Plus, I'm not saying I want to date this guy. I just want to know his deal. Since he is super good looking. Probably the hottest guy here now.
"That's nice of you guys."
"Yeah," she nods while looking over my shoulder, "oh, I have to talk to Jenny. I'll see you later, okay?"
She ran off and left me there by myself. So I turned around and started heading back to my friends but on the way, I turned to the right and saw Troy with Matt in the corner of the room laughing.
And then he turned towards me and our eyes locked. It was almost magical. They locked and my heart skipped a beat. And it was so crazy. So crazy.
I'm not usually like this, ever. What is happening?
Who is this guy?!
"Gabriella!" Cole Peterson called me over as I passed by him.
I looked over at him and gave him a small smile and then walked over and greeted him with a hug, "What's up?"
He shrugged, "Nothing, how was your summer?"
Cole Peterson was a good friend of mine. Him and his group and my group, we'd tend to get together and hang out. It was a nice little friendship. "It was pretty good. Went to the Hamptons, the usual. What about you? Where'd you go, Aruba?"
"Yeah, yeah," he nodded, "went to Aruba and then went to California for a bit actually to visit some family. It was nice, but I'm glad to be home."
And just as I was about to say something , Troy came over to us and handed Cole a beer.
He turned to me and gave me a small smile.
Oh my gosh, he's everywhere. And now I'm suddenly nervous. When it was just Cole and I, I was fine, but now, he's in the mix and he's standing here and looking so good and I'm nervous. I don't know what else to really say.
"This is Troy," Cole introduces me, "Matt's cousin."
"Yeah, um, I already met him through Stacy," I let him know, "but um, nice to meet you... again?"
Troy chuckled and ran his hands through his hair, which made it even more difficult to not be nervous, "nice to meet you, too."
Cole looked like he was distracted by something going on, on the other side of the room and after a minute or so, he hopped off the booth he was sitting on and went over there. "Sorry guys, I'll be right back, I gotta go do something..."
I don't know what he needed to do, but he left me alone with Troy. And I have no idea what to say to him. This isn't how this night was supposed to be.
Like at all.
I was supposed to have fun with my girls and drink and dance.
But no, I'm here, incredibly nervous in front of some new guy. And it's so awkward how people keep leaving us together.
"Gabriella, is it?"
What? He's starting a conversation with me? Or he's just asking for my name? Ahh either way, he's talking to me and that's incredibly exciting. "What?" I play dumb, like I wasn't listening, but of course I was. "Oh, yeah, it's Gabriella."
He nodded and looked away for a second, "do you want me to get you another drink? I think I'm gonna go back and get myself one."
Oh um. I don't really, but I don't think I want to say no to him. "Yeah, sure. Um, I'll take a gin and tonic."
"Sure," he smiles before walking off.
And then I take a deep breath and turn around and see that all my friends are on the dance floor dancing and having a good time. I quickly go over to them to try to figure out what's going on. When are we leaving. If we're all leaving together or what.
I pull Char out of the group of people so we're one on one, "what time are you thinking of leaving?"
She pushes her hair out of her face and looks down at her watch, "Um, oh fuck, it's almost 11:30? Morgan and I were going to stop by her cousin's party she's throwing at her place."
"You're going to that?" I tilt my head, confused, since this is the party to be at right now.
"Yeah, I promised Morgan," she says, "and plus, we've been here for a few hours, it's fine. Her cousin's party is going to be filled with college guys. Why don't you come?"
Nah, I'll pass. Morgan's cousin lives on the upper west side and no. I'm closer to home where I'm at now. "Nah, maybe next time."
I let her get back to dancing and then I search for Cassie, who wasn't too far away and was now talking to some friends. I grabbed her hand and pulled her away for a quick second which she didn't look too happy about.
"Hey, Monique was just about to tell me she knows someone who she wants to hook me up with!"
"Sorry," I apologized to her, "it'll only take a second. I was just wondering when you were going to leave? Where's Savannah, do you know when she wants to get going? Is she gonna come with us?"
"Oh, I don't know," Cassie shrugged, "I know she's with Will so probably not. She'll probably go home with him, and for me, well, I think I'm gonna go with Char and Morgan to her cousin's party. It sounds like fun. College boys. Who wouldn't want to hang around that?"
She laughed but I didn't. They were stranding me here?!
I was a little annoyed. "You guys, I told Martin he didn't have to be on call because I had my ride home situated. You were supposed to take me home!"
"Then just come with us," she says, "what's the big deal? You've been here long enough."
No, yeah, I guess so. But even if I was to leave, I wouldn't want to go over there. Not tonight at least. Any other night, yes. But doesn't seem worth it just going for a couple of hours.
"No," I shake my head, "it's fine. I'll text Martin. He's nice. He'll forgive me."
"He will," Cassie laughs, "but we're leaving in about 20 if you want to come with, okay? But let me get back to Monique..."
I let her go and then I turned back and realized that Troy was getting me a drink. Oh shit. I quickly rushed back to where we were a bit ago and luckily, he wasn't back yet. I had some time to spare so I took out my cell phone to send a text to Martin, my driver.
But Troy came back and he handed me my drink and I completely just stopped what I was doing and put my phone in my purse that was over my shoulder.
"Sorry it took a little while," he tells me looking a little apologetic, "I got caught up talking to someone."
Yeah, yeah, it's fine. "Oh, no, it's fine," I tell him taking a drink.
"What's your deal, Gabriella?" he turns to me and asks me with a smirk on his face.
"My deal?"
"Yeah, what's your deal?" he repeats himself, "I just passed a group of girls who said your name about 10 times and said they can't wait to see what you wear to school on Monday. I mean, don't we all have to wear uniforms?"
Oh fuck. How embarrassing. "Oh um, I don't know who you're talking about, but I'm sure they're just kidding around."
"Nah," he laughs, "they seemed really interested in you. Are you some sort of popular girl who has this whole school wrapped around their finger?"
Something like that.
But obviously I wasn't going to admit to that. No way. I didn't want to come off like some stuck up princess. But honestly, I think if I asked one of those girls to go grab me five bagels from down the street right now, they'd go. NO hesitation. And it's literally so crazy. It's because of my parents. I know it is.
"I mean, I don't have them wrapped around my whole finger."
He laughed, a little harder than I expected him to so that's good, right? "So I'm talking to the Queen B or the school? Wow, I'm honored."
Aw fuck. Don't make me feel awkward now. "Shut up, it's really not like that. I mean, your cousin's popular!"
And then he said something but I don't quite remember because I was too busy staring into his crystal blue eyes and then looking down at his amazing lips. Seriously, he's so hot. I don't think I can say that enough. Like so ridiculously good looking.
But I snapped out of it and continued my conversation with him. And 5 minutes of talking turned into about like a few hours. A few hours of conversation and drinks. Cole joined us, but left. Then Matt came around. But in the end it was just me and him. Talking about I don't even know what anymore.
He didn't have that many, but I had a couple which made me drunk since I had already had a couple before that. And my God, I was for sure feeling it.
"I'm soooo tired."
Troy chuckled, "Maybe you should get home."
I looked down at my phone and realized that it was 1:30. Fuck maybe I should. I then remembered I don't have my ride situated. And I'm drunk. What is a girl to freaking do? Oh Martin! I remembered. I scrolled down my contacts and clicked on this name.
Bu he didn't answer. It went straight to voice mail. Dammit! He turned his phone off on purpose, that son of a bitch.
No, he's nice. I didn't mean to call him that. I'm just annoyed.
"Who are you calling?"
"My driver," I slur, "he's not answering though and it's making me sad because I'm tired and all my friends have ditched me... I think."
I scrolled down some more names and I didn't even really know what I was doing, I called a few people who I don't remember calling, but no one picked up. And I'm so annoyed because I want to just get home.
"Fuck."
Troy looked up at me and grabbed my drink out of my hand, "come on, I'll give you a ride home."
I was in. I didn't care how he got me home. To be honest, I can barely even see straight right now. So I followed him out, I think I said bye to Stacy and some other people then hopped in some car with him and got comfortable.
Seriously, I was so tired. I just wanted to get home already.