1,2,3 Be with me
Chapter 1
Four years had passed since then and Darien was now the tender age of 16. He had grown into a very handsome young man with perfect midnight black hair, cobalt eyes that you could get lost in, perfectly toned body and a sun kissed tan. He was any girl's dream and boy did he know it.
Along with the looks, he had irresistible charm and charisma, he was every bit the gentle man and smartly knew how to send them away without being too hurtful.
In his faded denim jeans, white t-shirt and black over shirt with black trainers, Darien walked towards the doors of Crescent Valley High School, bag over his shoulder running a hand through his midnight black locks only for them to settle back over his eyes slightly. He would have any and every girl who passed him swoon madly with just a smile.
As he got to his locker Darien found Jed and Nathan waiting for him. They had both grown into good-looking young men too, both just as toned nicely in the body, handsome faces and dreamy appearance. Jed was in white trainers, a red and white-checkered open shirt with a white t-shirt underneath and black jeans. Nathan now had shoulder length chestnut brown hair and was in a green camouflage t-shirt with grey jeans dog tags around his neck and black lace up trainers.
They greeted Darien with a pat on the back "Mornin man!" Jed smiled "Hey you missed one hell of a party last night! Seriously dude, that sweet ass girl Kat? She was totally in to me"
Nathan laughed "Yeah only coz a certain black haired blue eyed stud wasn't there to steal her from you"
"Come on guys! I don't take all of his girls from him!" Darien said with a somewhat serious expression, which soon turned to a smirk "Just some of the slightly hotter ones"
This earned him a hard punch in the upper arm from Jed, making Nathan laugh hard "Dude! That was good!"
"Hey anyone seen the cheer trio this morning?" Darien asked, looking around guardedly
Jed shook his head "No you're safe, Malcolm said they went off to the girl's bathroom a few minutes ago"
"Good coz the last thing I want right now is another of Beryl's 'Go out with me' episodes" Darien said with a relieved sigh
Nathan laughed "But it won't save you from us ripping you about it!"
Jed put on a puppy eyed expression pulling the front of his T-shirt down to imitate Beryl's dress sense "Oh please Darien baby won't you go out with me? Just rock my world once I promise I'll be bad!"
Darien shuddered as Nathan cracked up laughing to his left "Hahaha Dude that was perfect!" Nathan laughed as he bumped knuckles with Jed who was laughing with him.
"Tell me Jed did you recently get a Hormone implant because you just became a girl!" Darien teased
"Dar don't hate because I'm in touch with my feminine side" Jed laughed
Darien chuckled "Yeah that's what I'm worried about!"
"Hey!" Jed shot back only bring on more laughter from them all.
Walking into their home room class for the morning, the group were sitting in class Darien was sitting at the back of the class as usual with Jed, Nathan, Malcolm and Zach, when Beryl came in with her fellow cheerleaders, Emerald and Anne.
Beryl was now the most popular girl in school, mostly because she was cheerleading captain and her family was loaded to the eyeballs with cash. She had a generously curvaceous figure, was on the taller side of 5'6, long auburn red hair, hazel eyes and flawless pale skin. The only problem with Beryl was this…she was rumoured to be the school's slut. She was wearing a black mini skirt that was way too small, a baby T vest top that was showing a lot of cleavage and knee high black boots with fishnet stockings underneath. Her friends Anne and Emerald were of a similar physique to Beryl but were slightly shorter in height and where as Beryl had auburn red hair, Emerald had long bright green hair, green eyes, a bright green mini skirt and with matching top and jacket...safe to say she had a thing for bright green. Anne had chestnut brown hair, with brown eyes and wore a denim mini skirt with a white vest top and denim jacket.
Many rumours and scandalous stories went around about Beryl and very few of them weren't untrue.
Walking seductively over to Darien, Beryl pushed Jed out of the seat next to Darien and sat, almost too close to Darien as she wrapped her snake like arms around him "Hey baby, miss me?"
"Back off will ya Beryl! Like I've said before I don't want to know!" Darien stressed throwing her off of him
Beryl gave the classic baby pout look the on Jed mimicked earlier "But Darien baby we're meant to be together, I know I could give you what you want so please give me a chance huh?"
"Look you're just not my type!" Darien said agitatedly
Beryl scoffed "Oh for God sake's Darien girl is your type, I've seen you date a number of the little girl losers in this school...so why not give a real woman a try...I swear I'll make it fun for you" she purred in his ear as she pulled on his collar
Shivering in disgust, Darien shoved Beryl away "for the last time Beryl! No means no! Leave me alone…and give Jed his seat back!"
Beryl gave an audible 'Hmph!' as she stormed off to sit with her friends on the other side of the classroom
Down the front of the class Darien saw Serena's old friends Raye, Lita and Amy sitting chatting to each other about something. They had definitely grown into the cutest girls at Crescent Valley High.
Raye was now a graceful 5'4, with perfectly proportioned curves in the right places, long black hair with purple high lights that suited her well, purple eyes and sun kissed tanned skin. Raye was wearing a red sundress, with quaint little red dolly shoes and a rose hairpin. She had grown into a fiery passionate young woman who stood up for all she believed in, that and she was as stubborn as an ox. When Darien tried asking Raye where Serena had moved to she basically told him that a jerk like him didn't need that information. Jed hated to admit it but he loved her fiery attitude.
Amy was the smart one of the group and a subtle, gentle beauty at that. Zach described her as the goddess of all geniuses. She was about 5'3 and had short blue hair, ocean blue eyes and dressed in a pretty water patterned tailor shirt and white pleated skirt with blue ballet style flats.
Lita had grown to a stunning 5'8 and was pure model material with just the right amount of attitude, she had chestnut brown hair, with forest green eyes, and sun kissed skin. She was wearing a green long sleeved t-shirt with a tan coloured waist cost and matching jeans that clung to her tall slender legs. Nathan couldn't help but stare whenever she was in the room.
Malcolm cleared his throat to draw his friend's attention "Looks like we've got a group of pervs in the classroom"
Malcolm laughed as all three of them punched him in the upper arms. Nathan sighed as he said "You know what it would rock if Lita would go out with me, I'd definitely show her a good time"
"Forget it dude, it's the cutie with the blue hair is the one I want" Zach sighed contentedly
"Funny how only a few years ago you guys tormented those girls like crazy and now you're expecting a date? This should end well" Malcolm turned to Darien with an amused smirk "Anyone you got your eye on then stud?"
"Nah! I don't know what it is but the girls at this school just don't seem good enough, I can't stay interested for longer than 5 minutes" Darien huffed agitatedly
"What? Did I just hear the D man say he's bored of girls?" Zach asked turning his attention back on them.
Nathan and Jed both gasped clinging to each other's hands and said in a frightened tone "Our D Man is going gay?"
Darien rolled his eyes and smacked both of them upside the head "No you idiots! I just need some fresh meat that's all"
"Well there's a cheer off against some academy school girls coming this afternoon" Nathan suggested "Maybe we can check it out and do a little 'Window shopping'"
"Dude that is the best idea you've come up with all week" Jed laughed high fiving Nathan as they teacher came in "Alright class settle down please"
Beryl smirked as she glanced back at Darien who was hard at work on their class assignment as she thought "You wait Darien, I'm gonna show you what cheerleaders can really do"
So that afternoon Darien, Jed, Nathan, Zach and Malcolm all sat watching the girls from their school cheerleading routine against the only other school near Crescent Valley. Darien didn't know the name of the school but he did know that it was a very prestigious school where the students all wore posh uniforms and most students who attended there went on to the best colleges and even became famous.
Jed, Nathan, Malcolm and Zach all gagged as they saw Beryl, the cheer captain for their team pull off a really slutty and downright dangerous flip and splits move. After landing back on her feet, she turned and winked over her shoulder in Darien's direction who hung his head in his hands and groaned with displeasure "Dude tell me that wasn't aimed at me"
"I could tell you Dar but lying only makes it hurt more" Jed winced as yet another slutty and dangerous move took place.
Zach shook his head "Seriously there are rules against that kind move isn't there"
"Yeah but you can bet Beryl found any and all ways of 'bending' rules" Nathan smirked earning a smack upside the head from Malcolm and a high five from Jed.
After yet another sickeningly flirtatious wink Darien had taken about as much as he could and stood from his seat in the stand "Man I can't take this gag fest anymore! I'm goin to get some air be back in a sec"
"Ok dude don't worry we'll send ya a message when the horror is over!" Nathan laughed
Shaking his head, Darien headed down to the football pitch outside the doors to the right of the gymnasium. The sky was clear and bright and the stands around the pitch were clear of everyone and anyone. Walking amongst the stands, Darien thought back to a particular day in his early childhood.
Flashback
It was a beautiful sunny day and the sky above was clear and bright as little six year old Darien Shields came running out of his house dressed in a football jersey jeans a red baseball cap and trainers. Racing across the street he started knocking heavily on the door, Darien's eyes lit up with delight when the door opened to reveal his best friend in a pretty pink t-shirt and denim dungarees her hair tied up in her signature golden bunny ear pigtails.
"Hey Serena you ready to go yet?" Darien asked excitedly
Nodding enthusiastically Serena took Darien's hand and followed along happily as Darien guided her over to his Dad's car waving bye bye to her mother and brother. All sitting comfortably with their seat belts fastened, Serena and Darien smiled excitedly playing travelling games like car colour football and I-Spy and singing songs. Darien's dad soon parked the car and said to them excitedly "Here we go Kids let go watch some really football!"
Sadly when they got inside the grounds the game had been cancelled and the kids were so disappointed that the kindly old manager offered them a free tour of the grounds for their trouble. Soon they were sitting in the stands having the picnic lunch that Darien's dad had packed. Serena taking a small football out of Darien's backpack, Serena threw the ball as high as she could and laughed "Last one to catch it is a rotten egg!"
So they played on stands of Crescent Valley football grounds and played catch until dusk that evening...which ended in a long telling off for Darien's dad!
End of Flashback
A long sigh escaped his lips as Darien relived some of his childhood memories with the one person he had missed for the last four years. Although Darien was made out to be one of the biggest players in school, he actually was a pretty decent guy when it came to being honest with a girl. Whenever a girl confessed he would tell her that he was flattered by her and that he would love to hang out as friends but he wasn't looking to date anyone just yet. It was partly true but it was also because in the four years since she had left, Darien had been thinking of no other girl than Serena Silvers, that bright, warm, fun loving little ray of sunshine that he made the mistake of leaving behind as a young boy.
Just as he was about to slip off into another of his Serena induced memories, Darien felt a heavy hand slam down onto his shoulder.
"Arggh! What the...?" Darien exclaimed in shock as he turned to see Malcolm looking back at him with a mischievous grin "Got ya Dar!"
Giving Malcolm a good punch in the arm as he sat down Darien scowled "Dude you scared the hell out of me! I thought you were Beryl"
"Ok...Ouch!" Malcolm said with sham hurt on his face
Darien raised a cynical eyebrow as he laughed "Don't act like your hurt you brought that one on yourself!"
"I guess so but dude don't compare me to that harpy" Malcolm laughed as he playfully punched Darien in the arm "You've been out here a while Darien, something wrong?"
Shaking his head, Darien thought on it for a moment before Malcolm spoke up "You're thinking about that blonde again aren't you?"
"Huh?" Darien exclaimed in confusion
Malcolm shrugged "You know who I mean dude, the little blonde that use to live in your neighbourhood, she was kind of close to you wasn't she?"
Darien clocked on to who Malcolm was talking about "Oh you mean Serena? Yeah we were close, in fact we were best friends for years before Jed came back and introduced me to all of you but not long after that things changed and I became so wrapped up in being cool and hanging with you guys I ended up hurting one of my favourite people in the world"
"I think me, Jed and the guys are half to blame for that, we sure did love to pick on that girl...and her friends" Malcolm admitted "I didn't see how much she meant to you until that week after she left, you walked around in a weird kind of dazed mood for days"
Malcolm shook his head with a smile "I still remember you harassing Raye and her friends to tell you where Serena was but they just blanked you all day or just plain told you to get lost"
"Yeah and when I tried to intimidate Lita into telling me why Serena wasn't in school that day she kneed me in the balls" Darien winced
Malcolm laughed at the memory of Darien doubled over in pain with his hands between his legs. "You don't know this but I was...actually watching you the whole week"
"What? You mean you stalked me?" Darien laughed
Malcolm shook his head "No Man I was watching you...because you were really down in the mouth and you know...I wanted to make sure you were ok"
Darien looked at his friend with new found respect as Malcolm explained "I knew after that whole bowling alley scenario how much you cared for her just by looking at your face that and I hated what Jed and the others said to her especially after Beryl showed up out of nowhere and decided for herself she was hanging out with us, if anything Serena was being really cool to us, in fact she was always cool to us"
"Yeah Serena was always like that with everyone she met, always so warm and welcoming, with her it was always about making new friends even with people she didn't know well" Darien smiled warmly "one time when we were little, we were playing in the street and she saw our old neighbour Mrs Hepburn sitting on the rocking chair of her porch by herself just staring off into space, Serena felt bad about having fun when Mrs Hepburn was lonely so she dropped the ball we were playing with, ran over to Mrs Hepburn and just sat talking to her for hours on end smiling and telling random stories about her week...I think it's the first time I ever saw the poor old gal smile in the years we knew her"
Malcolm smiled and said "Serena sounds cooler than we thought she was"
"Dude you have no idea, she's able to brighten up any day just by being near you and I drove her away all because I was to scared that you, Jed and the others wouldn't want me around if I hung out with her" Darien shook his head and laughed "The stupid things we do as kids"
"Yeah does make you want to go back and smack yourself really doesn't it?" Malcolm said causing Darien to laugh. They sat and bantered with each other about sports and other stuff and Darien commented "I wonder whether Serena's changed at all since we last saw each other"
Little did he know he was about to find out.