I feel like I've always known Gabriella was hot.

But today, for some reason, it just hit me. She's not only hot, she's beautiful. Like breathtakingly beautiful. And it took me knocking her notebook over on accident, bumping into her, again on accident, and seeing her at lunch to realize that.

Which is crazy because I've been going to school with her for the past four years. But I just… I've never had a class with her until this year.

I definitely knew who she was, though.

Gabriella Montez. Smart girl. Not in with the "it" popular crowd, but by no means is she a loser. She has her group of friends and I appreciate that. She's a bit on the quiet side, never really in the midst of everything going on at this school. She just seems like a nice girl.

And all of a sudden, I want to talk to her. I mean. I complimented her bracelet for God's sake.

Sure, it's a nice bracelet, but that's such a dumb thing to say. Especially coming from a guy. Like why am I noticing her bracelet? But I just couldn't think of anything else to say to her. I just knew I wanted to say something to her. And that's what came out. It wasn't embarrassing, but it was probably just really weird to her. And it was really weird to me, too. That's what I say to her? Ugh. Bolton.

Whatever. I don't have time to stress about this girl. A girl who I've never really talked to before in my life. But I always knew was hot. Really hot. Not, like, obvious hot you know? Blonde hair, blue eyes. Nah.

"Dude, let's go," Matt comes up to me, "we have five minutes."

Fuck. I grab my drink, realizing I'm still standing in the same place I was five minutes ago and nod, "yeah, yeah, let's go."

We get outside, go to my car and as we pull out of the parking lot, Matt turns to me, "you okay?"

"What?" I turn to him, waiting for the traffic to pass by so I can exit, "um, yeah, yeah, I'm good. Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged, "no, you just looked a little lost in there. You took, like, five minutes to grab a drink. Were you talking to that Gabriella girl?"

That Gabriella girl. Ha. "No. Well, I said hi or whatever, that's about it."

I didn't say hi. I complimented her bracelet. Ha.

"Oh," Matt switched the dial to some radio station I don't ever listen to so I turned it back to where it was. No way was I going to let him mess with my music even though he's my best friend. Nope. "She's hot. And you wanna know who she's supposedly dating?"

"Who?" I say, almost way too fast. Fuck. Tone it down, Troy.

"Grant Anderson," he laughs, more so than he should, probably, "isn't that crazy? He's the biggest douche, ever. And I don't know her well, but I hear she's a really nice girl. So I don't know how that worked out."

Grant Anderson? The guy I absolutely hate with everything inside of me? The guy who in 10th grade took my spot as starting midfield on my club team?

Fuck him. I hate him. I hate him so much.

This information didn't bum me out. But it just… here I am, all of a sudden really taking her in, really seeing how beautiful she was, and I have to find out that Grant fucking Anderson is dating her? Like how did he even get her? That isn't fair. Fuck him. He's annoying.

"Never would have thought that," I shrug it off, trying not to let him see what's going through my head.

And to be honest, I don't even know what's going through my head. I don't like this girl. I don't know anything about her.

But suddenly, I want to. I want to get to know her. And everything she has to offer.

I probably shouldn't, though. I know that.