Notice Me
Chapter Three: In the Real World
Westley Kingston had known Corrie Santos for as long as he could remember. He was born into a boring life with a boring, conservative family consisting of an overly religious mother, a cold military father and five siblings between the ages of five and twenty-five. Wes was one of the middle children and would often blend into the background and be forgotten. Due to this lack of attention, he was hungry for it.
Wes could remember the first time he met Corrie Santos. It was at a church meeting and their mothers had shoved them together, hoping for love at first sight. Instead, Wes had spilt punch on her pretty dress and she cried. After sobbing with thick tears for about two minutes, Corrie shoved him harshly and he clumsily spilt the entire bowl on himself. By the time the meeting was over, both were in matching pink ensembles. Although she hated him, he respected her.
To their mothers' disappointment, the two never felt the sparks. They carried on a brother-sister hate-love-then-hate-again relationship. She was annoyed by his constant affinity to acting out. Wes hated how Corrie could be so hesitant and he often hid her Ritalin just to see her in reckless, hyper mode.
On the other hand, they always had fun when in the company of the other. They'd never admit to it but they were rather attached to each other and extremely protective of their other half. Wes was always there to chastise the boys who made her cry and Corrie was the one who got him out into the real world after spending three days straight in bed, nursing a broken heart and writing bad breakup songs.
Due to his curious nature, Wes seemed to land himself in unpleasant situations. After taking a single look at him, one would immediately think he was a bad seed that lacked morals. No one would guess that Wes was strong in his decision to wait till marriage for sex, his no stealing policy and a dedicated vegan. He wasn't afraid to talk about it and simply brushed off the "Crazy Christian" commentary. Wes was a walking contradiction and he loved it.
"Wes, you're staring."
"No I'm not," he quickly denied with a chuckle rolling from his lips. Blinking and gulping, he ran his fingertips down the dusty spine a random hardcover book. Corrie rolled her eyes, unconvinced by his act. "I'm looking for a book."
"Nu-uh," Corrie childishly argued while leaning against a shelf in one of the library's many aisles. She looked past the books and followed her friend's gaze. She spotted Maddie sitting at one of the library tables with a girl who looked much younger than them. An array of books, pencils, papers and calculators were scattered across the table between them.
Corrie couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy surge through her body at the sight of the beautiful blonde. Of course Maddie also had the time to tutor underclassmen before school startsed. Maddie was the definition of perfection. It wasn't only her ability to multitask that had Corrie slightly jealous. She noticed how boys were always staring at Maddie. First the boy she liked and now her best friend.
"What are you even doing here? I thought we don't know each other during school hours," he reminded her. Corrie simply shrugged her shoulders, remembering the stupid policy they had made during their freshman year. She had her friends. He had his. They didn't mingle during school hours.
"Idiot, you're the one who texted me and told me to meet you here," Corrie groaned, ready to pull her phone out if he requested evidence. Instead, Wes ran his fingers through the silk blonde tresses that fell across his forehead, pushing the strands away from his blue-green orbs that were reminiscent of the ocean on a clear summer afternoon.
"Probably just to ask you to remind me to check out a book from the library," Wes responded, choosing to continue with his charade. Corrie didn't understand why he couldn't just step up and admit that he was completely entranced by the blonde goddess. "See yah around, Core."
"Wait!" Corrie called out, embarrassed when hearing the volume she decided to speak in. Her hand found Wes' shoulder and her voice lowered to a whisper. "Why were you checking out Maddie?"
He raised a dark eyebrow. "So her name's Maddie?"
Corrie tilted her head to the side in confusion. "So you've never noticed her before?"
"Ha, she's tutoring a kid, Core. Peppy and bright isn't exactly on my radar. You know you're the only Goody Two-shoes in my life," Wes laughed and motioned to the girl safely out of earshot. He gave Corrie a charming smile before pulling a book from the shelf, not even caring to see what it was. "Oh look, I found it."
Wes walked past his friend with the corners of his lips pulled back in a large grin. It was one of those smiles that when a girl saw it, she instantly blushed and thought he was interested in her. Not with Wes. Corrie knew Wes and she knew that look. The gears in his head were turning and that was never a good thing when it came to Wes Kingston.
"What are you trying to pull, Westley?"
"Tryouts for my band are on Friday!" Wes excitedly bellowed in a voice that practically echoed in the Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow library. He didn't even try to keep his voice down, already on the librarian's hit list. Pulling a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, he handed it to Corrie. "I'm getting it copied fifth period. This kid in the copy room owes me."
"There's a mistake here," Corrie pointed out, shoving the paper in Wes' face. He laughed and gently lowered Corrie's wrists so he could see where her finger was pointing. "It says you're holding tryouts at the Tipton."
One of his gorgeous lopsided grins surfaced. "Oh does it?"
"Wessss," Corrie groaned irritably. "You can't."
"Don't worry. It's all gonna pay off in the end. You'll see what I mean," he told her and tapped the tip of her nose with his index finger. Corrie flinched with eyes dropping tightly. He laughed before turning to the library checkout counter and drumming his fingertip against a little gold bell.
"Mr. Kingston," a tired voice sighed with dread. Both teens turned to find one of the Sisters dressed from head to toe in the traditional black and white. Wes leaned over the counter with his classic smile and the stress was evident on the Sister's face. "How may I help you?"
"I'm checking out a book, Sister Bernadette," Wes announced with such satisfaction in his loud voice. Many heads turned to watch the scene unfold. With elbows resting against the counter and slouched posture, Wes nudged his head to the side in mock shyness. "It's my first."
"And I thought I'd retire or even die before I'd ever hear those words from you," the elder woman spoke dully with a palm pressed to her chest. He simply nodded with eagerness and Corrie stood there, sighing exasperatedly. She knew something was wrong when the Sister eyed the book, her mouth dropped and eyes turned to angry slits. "Not funny, Mr. Kingston…"
Corrie grew curious when she saw the smile fall from Wes' usually smug face. She leaned over and squinted to read the title. Corrie drew back, no longer conscious of the surrounding students trying to study or read. In true Corrie style, she broke down in a fit of giggles till she could feel the delightful pain in her belly.
Wes Kingston spotted, trying to check out Pregnancy: the Miracle Within.
Where was GossipGirl when needed?
…
During lunch, Corrie sat with her usual group of Mary Margaret, Maddie and London. She spent the entire time staring down at the crumpled piece of paper in her tiny hands. Wes had made copies like he told her and somehow swindled some underclassmen into posting them all around school. Making sure that no one saw a thing, Corrie had taken one and now was staring at Wes' cheesy graphics and messy font.
"Core," Maddie called to her friend with concern evident in her voice. "You aren't eating."
"Oh yeah," Corrie laughed as looked down at their table. The entire surface was covered with plates and bowls except for the space in front of Corrie. She plastered on a cheerful smile when she noticed that all but London were eyeing her with worry. "I, um, ate earlier."
It was true. She stole most of Wes' bagel and strawberry cream cheese.
"Want some of this?" Maddie offered while motioning to the plate with her metal fork in hand. The blonde made a face and had to double-take at the food, wondering if she paid actual money for the gray blob. "Um…whatever this is."
"Caf food isn't exactly my thing," Corrie declined with the shake of her head. She crumpled the flier in her palm and smiled up at her friends who remained unconvinced. "Oh, so when I bring food from home you guys poke fun at me and then the one day when I'm not eating you pull out your anorexic and bulimic speeches?"
Mary Margaret shook her head sternly. "One, you brought up anorexia and bulimia. Maddie just asked why you weren't eating. Two, that stuff you brought for lunch was nasty."
"And that's why I didn't have a sweet sixteen. My mom would have cooked for you and no one would have appreciated it! Whatever. I'm sorry if you don't get my ethnic food. I for one love it," Corrie fumed defensively.
She wanted to add how when Andrew Zimmern completely disrespected her culture in the Philippines episode of Bizarre Foods. Just because he didn't agree with ube ice cream eaten in a pandesal bun doesn't give him a right to be an ass. Seeing her friends already looking at her with alarm, she held her tongue.
"Whoa, hold on, Core. I totally get the whole ethnic food thing. If you forgot, I'm Irish," Maddie stated quite proudly. "Colcannon, Irish Stew, potato cakes, coddle, black and white pudding. Come on, Core, scrapple. I'm too scared to even ask Granny what's in that!"
Corrie found herself laughing softly. Her shoulders relaxed and her defenses disappeared as quickly as they materialized. "Really, Mads, the Philippines is a completely different world."
"Keep it at home, Core," Mary Margaret directed, still a bit traumatized from the last time Corrie brought food from home. "I mean no disrespect, really. Just keep it at home."
"I'm good as long as you're eating your six major food groups," Maddie made certain with such a nurturing voice. Corrie practically melted in her seat. She could easily see why the boys always fell for Maddie. Not only was she beautiful and smart but she was also caring and nice. To make things even worse, Corrie could never hate her. Not even if she tried.
"Relax, Mads, of course I'm eating but probably more of the sugar food group than the other five," Corrie laughed at the ridiculous idea of abstaining from food. She smiled appreciatively at her apprehensive blonde friend. "You know I can't resist a Cocoa Crunch bar when Moseby takes his break, especially with Zack there. I swear that kid's the devil on my shoulder."
"I'm glad you get along with everyone at the Tipton. We're like one big happy family," Maddie said with a small sigh of relief. She seemed to relax with a soft smile gracing her beautiful face. She sat back in her seat and resumed eating. She was oblivious to Corrie whose lips were twitching uncontrollably.
"Yeah," Corrie agreed. "Family…"
No! A family member shouldn't have a crush on another family member's boyfriend! Corrie thought to herself, still enforcing that uneasy smile. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mary Margaret eyeing her with suspicion. Corrie could literally feel the beads of sweat building at her hairline and the room suddenly felt like an oven.
"Corrie, why are you so nervous?"
"Nervous?" Corrie repeated perkily. "Who's nervous?"
"She has a point. You do seem a bit on edge," Maddie seemed to agree with Mary Margaret and leaned in to get a better look at her reddening friend. Knowing that it wasn't just her imagination and they really were staring at her with skepticism make Corrie fidget even more.
"Do you deny being in the library fraternizing with our own personal Jesse McCartney at 0800 hours?" Mary Margaret interrogated the girl across the table, pointing a finger accusingly. Corrie almost flew back in her seat and her eyes shot open.
"If by library you mean lobby and 08-whatever you mean yesterday then yah. I saw the new Maddie talking to the fake Jesse." London, who'd been quietly filing her nails, finally piped in absentmindedly. Her dark eyes shot to Corrie who could only remind herself to breathe every few seconds.
"Wes?" Maddie questioned with furrowed brows. "What was he doing at the Tipton?"
"I—um—" Corrie was at a lost for words. "Yay me?"
Mary Margaret looked from London to Maddie with such exhilaration in her dark eyes. She couldn't wait to run her mouth off and it was obvious. "I knew it! That boy is in love with our Corrie! I saw him touch your nose! Core, girl, I know you have slower moments in the morning so let me spell it out for you. Hon, Mr. Gorgeous was totally flirting with you!"
Corrie's eyes fell to the table, feeling rather awkward. "No, it's not like that at all…"
"If you're looking for my permission then I say go for it," London erupted before Corrie could finish explaining herself. She stretched her hands out in front of her face and smile when inspecting her nails. "Psshhh, you can have the wannabe. I'm holding out for the real Jesse."
"Don't listen to London, Core, you don't need anyone's permission to talk to a boy especially one that's apparently into you," Maddie encouraged her with a bright smile. "Maybe we could go out on a double date sometime, you, me, Trevor and Wes. It'll be fun."
Corrie blinked. "So wait…Trevor and you…are a, um, couple?"
"I wouldn't say couple," Maddie fought while dragging a fork through the air with her exaggerated hand motions. "I mean we've been hanging out a lot and we've gone on a few dates but I'm not sure how serious things are between us."
"Oh."
"Wow, we all have boyfriends!" London shouted excitedly after a light bulb went off in her head. "Maddie has the Meteor Scholar! New Maddie has the wannabe! I have Jesse! Oh, wait…it's just you, Merry Martha."
"It's Mary Margaret for the millionth time," she corrected with scorn. "And I'm content with being single."
The girls went on to bicker for the last few minutes of lunch and Corrie found herself staring off into space. Mary Margaret, London and Maddie all had such big personalities and constantly voiced their opinions. When Corrie wanted to, she could easily fade away into the background and allow the other girls to go on, arguing about one thing or another. She liked it that way.
Corrie cures her lack of eloquence now that her friends thought she was in love with Wes of all people. The thought of being attracted to Wes left her with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was constantly acting as his den mother or a concerned sister, not a lovesick puppy or even a crushed best friend. The assumption seemed rather incestuous and wrong.
The rest of the day seemed to pass in a blur. It was sitting through classes that couldn't keep her attention and drifting off to the land of daydreams. It scared her to realize that Trevor played a large part in many of these fantasies. She didn't know his favorite color or where he's from or if he had any siblings. All she knew was that there was this deep underlying connection she wished she could explore.
Once school was over, when majority of the student body was racing off campus, Corrie stayed behind. She grabbed a few books from her locker before heading over to the library and settling in her private, exclusive corner cubical. It took every ounce of energy within her to focus and get all her schoolwork done. She liked having her homework done so after work she could go home and straight to sleep.
Disregarding her relatively short attention span, Corrie's routine worked. By the time the bus came around, Corrie had all the schoolwork completed to the best of her ability. By the time she reached the Tipton, she was a good fifteen minutes early. She walked into the grand hotel, suspecting Zack trying to flirt with Maddie but was met by a different sight.
Wes was spotted, talking with the one and only Trevor.
This couldn't have been good. Corrie thought back to the other day when Wes had visited her at work and Trevor came back to retrieve his wallet. That was when Wes started acting weird like he planning another one of his schemes. Only trouble could come from an unsupervised Wes talking to a clueless Trevor.
"Hey!" Trevor was the first to initiate contact, spotting Corrie still standing by the Tipton doors. With a wide smile, he jogged towards her and Wes coolly followed.
"H—hey Trevor," Corrie stuttered, trying to calm her nerves. She tried her hardest not to be charmed by his optimistic smile or lose herself in those mind-blowingly blue eyes of his. Instead, she chose to stare at Wes whose expression drove her insane. "You're early."
"So are you," he pointed out. Trevor then looked between Corrie and Wes whose eyes were locked. He could pick up on Corrie's unease and Wes' amusement. "Um, you two know each other?"
"Oh, we go way back. School mostly," Wes answered before Corrie could even think up an answer. The boy with dirty blonde hair turned to the brunette and nodded to emphasize his words. "And we can't forget church choir."
"How do you two know each other?" Corrie wondered aloud.
"We just met," Trevor explained, throwing a glance at Wes before looking over at the raven haired candy counter girl. "A bus full of tourists just got here and Maddie's got her hands full so I've just been sitting around. Wes was handing out fliers for his band tryouts and we started talking."
"Trevor plays the keyboards," Wes exclaimed with such enthusiasm in his voice.
"Well, piano, actually, since I was six and not professionally or anything," Trevor added with a timid expression taking over his extremely attractive face. "I mean spending all your time memorizing the unit circle, all trigonometric identities, most area and volume formulas, derivatives and integrals to the point where you can pull it pretty much off the top of your head can get pretty intense. Music…it's how I relax and resist abusing my TI-84."
Wes and Corrie didn't even blink. They had no idea what he had been going on about.
"Wes, I, um, need that book," Corrie started though she didn't know how to continue. She smoothed down the strands of her hair with her palm, trying to think of what else to say. "It's in your car, right? That book I need. Um, Trevor, why don't you wait here while we get that book? It'll take like five seconds."
"Cool," the blue eyed boy agreed. "I'll go check on Maddie."
Corrie nodded with a pageant girl smile. Once she saw Trevor carry out his plan and stand by while watching the blonde help a customer, the smile faded until her face was completely blank. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed and she grabbed Wes roughly by the collar of his uniform shirt. She dragged him out the door and onto the busy Boston streets.
"What do you think you're doing, Westley?" Corrie asked while throwing her hands up into the air. She began pacing back and forth with her school shoes shuffling across the wet pavement. Without knowing it, a string of obscenities left her lips in mumbled Ilocano.
"Would you relax?" Wes asked with his large hands falling to Corrie's shoulders, steadying her. "I was just talking to the guy. He seems like Mr. Perfect if you ignore the fact that he's condescending and pedantic but if that's what you're into, boo."
"He's sweet."
"He's my keyboardist," Wes spoke as if he was talking about a prized show dog or something of that nature. "So you ready to hear my new proposition or what?"
"Or what…"
"You like him," Wes said with humor in his voice. Corrie turned away, deciding to stare out at the passing cars instead of her best friend. It was the second time today that she was accused of this sort of thing and for the first time the accusation was correct.
"No," Corrie denied though she was sure it was clearly spelled out across her face. "Trevor is my best friend's boyfriend. I can't like him as anything other than…my best friend's sweet boyfriend. I'd never do that to Maddie."
"Tutor Girl," Wes nodded in understanding. He sighed dramatically and leaned coolly against the side of the hotel. "I want you in my band. You want Smarty. If you take up your bass again, I'm willing to break my rule about not dating blondes and break them up."
Corrie's eyes widened. It finally made sense why Wes had been watching Maddie in the library earlier that morning. He wasn't hopelessly admiring her from afar. He was studying her, picking up on anything he could use in this scheme of his. She felt foolish for not seeing it earlier. "No, Wes. Just…stop."
"Come here," Wes murmured and linked his arm with hers, pulling her back into the Tipton. Instead of marching into plain sight, the two positioned themselves between one of the fake trees near the door. Looking through the plastic leafs; they saw Trevor and Maddie talking quietly at the candy counter.
"Now I like to see myself as an expert on the topic seeing as I'm the only boy of six," Wes explained with slight exasperation. Corrie giggled. She loved his sisters. "Now, they've got enough copies of Cosmo lying around that I know how to read people especially in relationships. Those two probably will date a couple times but it'll never amount to anything. It'd be easier to split em' up now rather than later when there might be some attachment."
"They're perfect for each other," Corrie sighed, crushed. "He's a merit scholar. Maddie's the smartest girl I know. She gets things he talks about, like what the hell is a derivative? With Maddie he can talk about that stuff and she gets it. It also doesn't hurt that they're both unfairly gorgeous!"
"What happened to opposites attract?"
"It's all a fairytale, Wes," Corrie sighed, tried of hiding and walking out from behind the tree. "How often do you see aristocrats marrying commoners in real life? It's so rare you only see it in movies. Plus, educated people don't date stupid people. If anything, likes-attract."
"I can't agree with that, Pocahontas. I may not be into finding a soul mate at seventeen, but I like fairytales and I like thinking they can happen," Wes protested. "When it comes to dating, people look for someone who complements them, not some identical twin."
Corrie shook her head sadly. "Maybe it's time to grow up, Peter Pan. We're in the real world now."
Author's note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to tell you the truth, I'm amazed people are still reading this. Don't forget to leave me a review and tell me what you thought about this chapter! Thanks everyone!
