Chapter Four—What a Girl Wants

Christian and I walk over to the group, me wondering where these girls came from and why they're on Westwood property and Christian apparently a nervous wreck as we approach his lifetime crush. I inwardly roll my eyes. Now that we're getting closer I can see her face better, and you know what, she's not even that pretty. Yeah, look at that nasty beauty mole under her right eye, and her lips look like they've gotten too much silicone put in . . . and, and, oh who am I kidding she's freaking perfect. She looks like someone took DNA from a young Courteney Cox and Blake Lively and centrifuged it together and out came Victoria Spencer. Is it possible to hate someone you don't even know?

Drew turns around and spots us approaching them. He smiles at me, and when he sees Christian walking next to me his smile falters but it's still there nonetheless.

"Hey, Andy. Christian." He nods at both of us and scoots to the side to make room for us.

"Hey, Drew. What's up, Luke?" I ask turning to him.

He smirks at me. "Not much, you know, just sitting in the courtyard at this all-boys school, you know, because we're guys, right?"

Drew laughs and once I realize he's teasing me and not making fun of me, I blush a little but can't help my small laugh. He even tried to imitate my voice, but since he's a real guy he can't quite get the pitch right.

Luke laughs and then turns to the girls sitting across from him and Drew. "This is Katherine Kavanagh."

"It's Kate," she corrects him, but smiles at me. "Nice to meet you."

I give her a cautious smile and a nod.

"And this is Victoria Spencer. They both go to Tampax Prepatory," Drew finishes with a bright smile at the girls. My eyes widen at them and I see Victoria roll her eyes, but an amused smile is on her lips.

"Ha ha, so funny, Drew. We go to Pacific Coast Prepatory. It's an all-girls school just across the street, believe it or not," Victoria explains. Her eyes shift subtly to Christian's and I see a flicker of irritation, I think, in her eyes. "Hey, Christian," she says smoothly.

He gives her a nod. "Tori."

She turns back to me and her eyes crinkle in the corners as she smiles at me. "So how do you like Westwood so far? Everyone's being nice to you, right?" Victoria asks.

I give her a halfhearted shrug. "For the most part, yeah."

"Yeah, everyone but Ethan and Colten," Drew says throwing a look towards Kate. "Tried to send him to the janitor's closet in Jackson building."

Kate sighs and rolls her eyes. "He's so annoying. I swear, he's going to have the mentality of a seven year old for the rest of his life. He hasn't done anything else to bother you, has he?"

I shake my head.

"Good," Kate says, and then turns to Christian. "I love my brother, but I honestly don't know how you can stand to hang out with him and Colten so much. I mean seriously, they're worse than the girls at our school, which says a lot."

"That's what I said!" Luke says excitedly. I smirk at him, he's so cute.

I feel Christian shift next to me. I look up at him and see him giving Victoria obvious glances but she seems to be completely oblivious to him.

"They're not bad when it's just us three; they're honestly pretty cool when they're not being assholes."

Victoria scoffs. "Which is practically all the time. You know what Colten asked me the last time we hung out? When was he going to test out the goods? Like who asks someone that, and we don't even know each other well enough for him to speak to me so casually like that!" she exclaims, flipping her long shiny black hair over her shoulder.

"He seriously asked you that?" Christian asks, his voice low.

She nods his head.

"And he knows how I feel about you . . ." he mutters and his breath.

"What was that, Christian?" Victoria asks.

I see his hand twitch when he lifts it up to run it through his hair. "Huh? Oh, nothing."

She gives him a weird look and Kate turns to me. "So where'd you move from, Andy?"

"Came all the way from Nevada, this one," Drew answers, placing his gigantic hand on my shoulder and squeezing it. Hard. I try to hide my wince, but I'm unsuccessful.

"Really?" Victoria asks, leaning over the table. "Which part?"

"Las Vegas," I answer.

"Ooo, I love Vegas! My family used to go every year until I turned ten. I think we stopped going because my dad always spent too much money." Her hazel eyes all but sparkle as she giggles at her little theory.

I give her a small smile, feeling uncomfortable at the way she's gazing at me, so I bring Christian into the conversation since Kate, Drew and Luke seem to be arguing about the merits of chicken nuggets over chicken strips.

"So how do you and Christian know each other?" I ask.

"Oh we're neighbors back in Bellevue," she answers dismissively. "So did you leave a girlfriend back in Vegas, Andy?"

My eyes widen and I nervously shift in my seat. "Girlfriend?" I scratch the back of my neck and look away from her inquisitive eyes. I laugh nervously. "No, no, I've never had a girlfriend . . . or boyfriend." My eyes widen when I realize my slip up. "Not that I like boys. I mean I like boys, but not like that. Like I think Christian is pretty cute . . . uhh, I mean he's alright looking, I guess, but I don't want to date him or anything."

I cough and of course by now everyone is looking at me like I've lost my mind.

"Bro, she just asked you if you had a girlfriend. All you had to say was no. And did you call Christian cute?" Drew asks with laughing eyes. I turn crimson.

"Uh . . ." I'm sure my face is even redder now and everyone starts laughing, except Christian, surprise, surprise. Even more of a surprise is he's looking at me like I'm from a different planet.

Jeez, I really know how to screw things up easily, don't I? Yup, pretty much. Nice going by the way.

Victoria is grinning at me and I have no idea why. It's making me more uncomfortable than Christian's impassive stare, which is a lot to go by since his gray eyes are unnerving when they burn holes through me like they are now.

"Aww, look at your cute blush!" Victoria teases. "Don't worry about them; I think it's pretty hot when a guy's comfortable enough with his own sexuality to admit when he finds another guy attractive."

She winks at me and I'm literally completely at a loss of what to do. I've barely had a boy flirt with me before and I didn't know what to say back. How am I supposed to flirt with a girl when I am a girl?

I cough nervously and shift in my seat again, accidently knocking knees with Christian.

"Oh, um, sorry," I tell him, but he's not looking at me, or anyone else for that matter. I wonder what's wrong with him.

"So what are you doing next weekend, Andy? It's the annual fall fundraiser that our schools set up to help raise money to fund extracurricular activities our tuition doesn't cover. We should totally go together!" Her smile is so bright the sun would be pissed he has competition. And she's looking at me with those hazel eyes that have so much determination.

Is she serious? I wonder if this is some kind of joke, but then when I look at her I feel like she's waiting for my answer. Maybe I can put her down gently?

"Um . . . I—"

"Great! I'll meet you there at five, okay? Don't be late." She giggles and stands up, her dark hair falling down to her waist. "See you soon!" She giggles again, winking at me, then pulls Kate up, rudely pulling her away from the deep conversation she was in with Drew and Luke and sways her hips.

"Uh, nice meeting you, Andy! I'll see you guys later," Kate all but shouts as Victoria pulls her out of the courtyard.

Drew and Luke turn to me with smirks.

"You haven't even been here a week yet and you got girls asking you out." Drew laughs.

I run my hand over my crazy hair, feeling totally overwhelmed for no reason.

"Technically it was only one girl," I mumble.

Luke laughs then stands up and slaps me on the back. "Dude, like that matters. You got Victoria Spencer eating out of the palm of your hands. Tons of guys would kill to be in your place right now."

My eyes unconsciously trail over to Christian and he looks like he's swallowed something sour. I'm sure he's one of the guys Luke was referring to.

"I didn't even agree to go," I tell him as way of an apology.

He shakes his head and stands up. "It doesn't matter anyway. I'll see you back at the dorm."

"I . . ." My words die in my mouth as he continues to walk away back to our room.

Great. He said he had no reason to dislike me earlier, but I'm pretty sure he has a very clear reason to dislike me now.

It's short I know, and I promise you guys I'm still working on this, but I don't like leaving you all hanging too long, so I'm using this as an olive branch to stick with me a little bit longer. I promise I will finish this, I know how irritating it is reading a story you like that never gets finished.

If you find any inconsistencies please let me know, but don't do it in a way that makes me feel less than human. We all make mistakes, so keep it respectful or rant to someone who is paid to care what you think.

I hope all of you have a very happy new year and had a wonderful Christmas!

SS&G xoxo