Later that night...
Today was a bit of a stressful day for Chaz; his work was overly busy, his dad was a drunk pain in the ass, and his car was nearly damaged by some punk on a skateboard who thought it would wise to jump onto the hood of his car; because that was really how he wanted to start the day, and that was probably his main gripe with this entire day in general; that girl. Who even was she? He hasn't seen her walking, or skateboarding, the streets of Simport before in his entire life; and if she's a new girl in town, then she didn't much of a first good friend impression on him by doing what she did to his car, let alone her attitude when he confronted her about it. Hopefully, he never has to face her again; but then again, considering how lucky he usually is when it comes to stumbling upon people he knows randomly in the town, it seems like he might; God, he hoped not, he really didn't like that girl.
Now that it was night, he can just enjoy life and spend some time with his girlfriend; currently, he was actually on his way to his house to watch a movie with her and for some champagne, and hopefully for him, have some spicy alone time with her. Her house wasn't so difficult to find, as she lived just across the street from the Boardwalk, just like most of the people who'd work at the beach with her; not to mention, she has a really sweet home to live in compared to some of the people that he knows, not even his own house can compare to a house like hers. The only downside is that her house is pretty far away from both his home and his workplace, but this was minor as it was actually quite fast and easy to get there by car.
As he drove down the street his girlfriend lives on, he couldn't help but notice the moving-truck that was parked outside one of the houses that were around here. Outside said house, a mover was talking to another new person that he's never seen in this town before; he's just some guy with extremely messy blonde hair, a white t-shirt, and baggy light blue cargo-shorts; presumably, just from this description alone, he appeared to be a total deadbeat; but then again, he seemed rather friendly too. For now, he wasn't going to bother trying to figure things out about that guy; because right now, he has a date to be focused on more than him.
Upon arriving at his girlfriend's house, he parked his car by the side of the road and decided to take a gander at her house for a second. As previously stated, it was a pretty nice house, through and through; it was one of those houses that has the garage on the first floor, while the rest of the house was primarily on the second; and, because of her love for the ocean, some of the windows had some visible curtains that had fish printed on them. There was nothing special in regards to what the front yard and the back looked like; but that really didn't matter all that much, especially not to Summer, since the beach was practically her front yard anyway; despite distance and both the road and grass blocking the way. All in all, it was a beautiful house; and he certainly hoped that this is where they choose to live in if they ever decide to get married.
After taking a few moments to take in the glorious atmosphere, Chaz finally got out of his car and made his way over to the stairs; where once he got up to the door, he gave it a firm knock. "Hey Summer, I'm here!" He shouted, hoping to get her attention.
"Just one second, Chaz!" Summer shouts from inside her house. After a few seconds of waiting, she finally answered the door. "There you are, sweetie; I'm glad you made it. Are you ready to get our night started?"
Chaz gave his girlfriend a smirk. "You bet." He answered, before giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Awesome." Summer then held onto the biker's hand, guiding him into her house.
The interior of her house was just as beautiful as it was on the outside, even though there's only about four rooms in this entire house, not including the garage down below. Her living room was the first one that anyone would see whenever they'd go through the main door; there was a nice looking couch, a flat-screen TV, a mini-bar, and even a fish tank that was next to one of her windows. Her kitchen was right next to it; there was just the usual stuff that you'd normally see in any kitchen, from the refrigerator to the sink, with the only thing missing being the chairs and table; so, presumably, she most likely eats in the living room or something; but, it was still nice-looking, and so clean even. The two other rooms were her bathroom and her bedroom, and just like the previously-mentioned two, they were just as nice.
"So, babe; what shall we be watching tonight?" Chaz asked as he was guided over to her couch.
"I was thinking that we could watch 'The Notebook', since Stacy recommended it to me when I was at the salon getting my hair done; so, what do you think?" Summer asked as she sat him down.
"Really?" Chaz asked his girlfriend, clearly disinterested in this idea. "Come on, babe; you know romance movies make me hit the 'Snooze' button. Why don't we watch something with some action, or maybe even a comedy movie?"
"Okay; one, we're not watching an action movie on a night where it's suppose to be romantic between you and I; and second, the last time we had to watch a comedy movie on a night like this, you thought it would be romantic for us to watch 'The Hangover', and you know I hate that fucking movie."
"Oh, come on, you laughed at some parts." Chaz stared up at his girlfriend, seeing the cold stare that she was giving him, not being convinced to watch anything else apart from the movie she picked. "Fine, 'The Notebook' it is."
"That's what I thought." Summer said happily, before handing her boyfriend the TV remote. "Do you mind if you put the movie on for us while I go get our champagne ready?"
"Yeah, sure." Chaz then reluctantly took the remote from his girlfriend and went off to prepare the movie, while his girlfriend went off to the mini-bar to get them their drinks.
Summer opened the door below the bar-counter, then began searching through the row of bottles to pick out the best one for an occasion such as this one; but unfortunately, she wasn't so sure which one was the right one for both of them to drink tonight. There were multiple bottles in this small counter, many that she had forgotten the actual amount overtime after buying so many during grocery-shopping trips; some she had already tried before, others she still hasn't tried yet; and she still wasn't sure which one was best for tonight. It's gonna be a night like this that's going to make her wish she hadn't decide to live on her own, since her father worked as a bartender and has a lot more experience with wine more than she did; and here she thought she would've inherited his expertise when she entered adulthood.
It wasn't until Chaz finally got the disc in the CD-player that Summer finally picked out which wine she wanted to drink tonight; which was a Bordeaux. She pulled out two glasses from underneath the counter and then poured themselves their drinks, while her boyfriend made his way over to her. "Here you go, sweetie." Summer says as she hands the biker his glass. "We're drinking some French wine tonight."
"Neat." Chaz complimented, as he took the cup from his girlfriend's hand. "Thanks."
"Your very welcome, sweetie." She took a sip from her drink, before wrapping one of her arms around his neck, pulling him into a kiss; after it lasted about nearly a whole minute, she backs away and then smiled. "Shall we take this to the couch?"
"Oh-" Right before Chaz could finish his sentence, his phone started to ring on the coffee table, causing his girlfriend to angrily frown.
'Well...that killed the mood; and should I even ask who's even calling him at this time?' Summer asked in her own thoughts, watching her boyfriend pick up his Smartphone and answering the call; and when he did, the name of the caller that came right out of his mouth was exactly the person that she was predicting it was gonna be.
"Hey Crystal, what's up?" Chaz asked to the caller.
'Of course it's her...' Summer said in her thoughts again, now downing her entire drink after realizing that it was the girl she hates the most. 'How am I not even surprised at this point?'
"Well, I'm kinda in the middle of a date here; but...okay." Chaz said on the phone, now walking over to the front door. "Hey babe, I'll be back inside in just a moment, okay?"
"Yeah, sure...whatever...take your time, if you really need to..." Summer then muttered as her Chaz exited her house. Once her boyfriend was outside, she grabbed the bottle of Boudreaux that she still had placed atop the mini-bar counter and starting to down the entire bottle, hoping to get drunk enough to forget Crystal was ever apart of her life.
"Seriously? Tomorrow?" Chaz asked on the phone. "Why tomorrow?"
"Well, because the next day after that is when my best friend officially starts working at her new job, meaning that tomorrow will have to be the day that I finally get to make you meet her." Crystal said on the other line. "I know this idea seems very last minute, but I said I was going to make you two meet one day, and that's exactly what I'm going to do; by the way, you and Summer don't have any, like, huge plans tomorrow, right?"
"No; because despite I have the day-off, she doesn't."
"Oh, good; because I doubt the skatepark would be a place she'd be thrilled to go to."
"But your dentist friend would?"
"Hey, I already told you that despite her studious behavior and her skills at dentistry, she's a totally cool girl who knows how to skateboard. I thought I already told you this, dude."
"You did, but I probably blanked it out immediately after; also, and...this might seem sudden for you to hear too, but...I don't know if I really want to be going to the skatepark anyway."
"Seriously? Why not?"
"Well...let's just say that after I picked up Tim to go to work today, some bitch decided to skateboard down the street and nearly crash into the side of my car; not only that, but they thought that it would've been wise to jump on top of it too, nearly denting it in the process."
"This all happened earlier today?!"
"Yeah, I just said that."
"Shit...do you know what this person looked like?"
Chaz sighed, before leaning against the rail of the platform that he was standing on. "I don't remember." He muttered through an irritated sigh. "The only thing I remember about them is that they were a girl, and that's about it. The day was too stressful for me to fully remember what they looked like."
"Well, damn...that sucks..." Crystal remained silent for a minute, before deciding on another idea instead. "Well, fuck whoever that bitch was; if they're pissed with you, then I'll just have to let you guys meet at the park's entrance. Does that sound like a better option?"
"Yeah, totally." Chaz then glanced behind himself at his girlfriend's front door, now deciding to end the call. "I'm just gonna give you a call tomorrow morning and I'll meet you at the park; besides, I need to get back to my date anyway, Summer's probably wondering what's taking this call so long."
"Good idea; because I was going to give Ray a call soon after we're done here, long story there; anyways, bye."
"See you, Crystal." After that, the phone-call ended there and Chaz re-entered his girlfriend's house...only to see his girl was drinking right out of the bottle that she served to both of them. "Damn, save some for later, at least."
Summer lowers the bottle from her mouth, glaring over to her boyfriend. 'Or I could just empty all of this and bash it over Crystal's head! How about that?!' She asked in her thoughts, before suddenly faking a smile.
"You're right, sorry." Summer said while putting the Bordeaux bottle aside. "Anyways, shall we finally watch that movie together?"
"Sure thing." Chaz kisses his girlfriend on the cheek, as both of them made their way over to the couch.
Meanwhile...
"So, Ray, has anybody came up and said to you that your buddy, Stacy, is a complete total Hellspawn whose probably only born into this world to damn those who oppose her?" Crystal asked on the phone, much to her friend's annoyance.
Ray didn't respond to the rebellious goth's question after it was asked, as he's been already asked this before in the past; and dare he say, he had been complained at about it to him before too, mostly from one person though. Honestly, he didn't want to answer Crystal's question, knowing that agreeing with her about this would satisfy her, but also upset Stacy in the process; and that last one was something he really didn't want to do. He thought that staying silent and just rock on his girlfriend's porch-swing would cause her to just accept that he didn't want to answer and simply hang up; but unfortunately for him, she took notice of his silence.
"Dude, are you still there, or did that she-devil hypnotized you to keep quiet about her?" Crystal then asked, now forcing him to answer her question.
Ray sighed, before deciding to ask a question of his own. "Do you really want to know if someone asked me such a question?"
"Well, duh..."
"Then...yes, someone has told me this: James; but it's not like he's completely innocent in their quarries either; if anything, I one-hundred percent agree that he shouldn't be sitting there and playing video games during class, or reading comic-books during it either-"
"Yeah; but is it really detention-worthy? I mean, I'm not defending the dude since he's a loser, but...really?"
"Well, if he's throwing a fit about it, then yes." Ray groans in irritation before continuing to speak. "Look, I personally think James is a good guy; but when he's disobeying the rules, then he's disobeying the rules, there's no two ways around it; and besides, despite everything that he's previously said, and you now, Stacy's not a bad person deep down-"
"Deep down?! Deep down?! Did you not just hear the words that just came out of your mouth?!" Crystal then asked, now clearly outraged that her friend was actually saying all of this to her. "Dude, Stacy Verily is literately the devil; I mean, don't you even know what she was about to reveal to Goth Boy before you got out there?!"
After hearing that last part, Ray went from completely disinterested to confused within seconds. "No...what was she about to reveal to Goth Boy?"
"I-"
It was at this moment, Crystal relented herself on telling Ray about the kiss. She thought that telling him about it would get him on her side and possibly turn against Stacy too if he knew about the context behind it; but now that she was thinking about it some more, there was probably going to be more bad than anything good coming out of it if she did; for example, she knew Yuki wouldn't be happy with her if she were to mouth off about it to another person, and Ray probably would just reveal it to Goth Boy anyway since he'd probably confront him over standing Yuki up at that party last year. She knew she couldn't tell him, she just couldn't.
"I-uh...it's nothing..." Crystal then utters in defeat. "It's...actually quite petty, really..."
"Really?" Ray asked in disbelief. "It's petty?"
"Y-Yeah, it...is..."
"Well, then I don't see why I should take your side in things when it comes to Stacy; and like I said, she's a entirely a bad person, not on the inside, or the outside; and she has been nice to everyone else in the drama-club apart from James, especially me."
"Yeah; but that's only because she wants to put your 'Big Ben' into her mouth."
"I beg your pardon?!" Ray then asked, completely flabbergasted by such a statement coming out of the rebel's mouth. "What the actual fuck does that mean?!"
"Dude, it doesn't take a genius to know that Stacy Verily has a thing for you; and I'm not talking about 'friendship' here, I'm talking above that, I'm talking about you and her a relationship together."
"Me and Stacy don't have that kind of relationship together, we're just friends."
"Yeah, you say that, then days later you wake up in the same bed as her-"
"Yeah, you're incorrect about all of this; and this is the part where I hang up the phone." After that was said, Ray immediately did just that and then put his phone back into his pocket.
"Who was that, sweetie?" A female Goth with red-haired tied in a single braid and a black dress asked as she walked out of the house to sit beside him; obviously, this girl was Raven Wright, Ray's girlfriend and an expert poet, just like Goth Boy.
"Oh, that's just Crystal, she was just calling to...you know, envy over the fact that most of the clique has a partner, and she doesn't." Ray answered as he wraps an arm around his girlfriend's shoulder.
"So, Crystal being...Crystal, I guess?"
"Yeah, you could say that..." Ray agreed with a nod, before deciding to change the subject instead of continuing any further about his previous conversation with the rebel. "Say, I was thinking about what the both of us want to do tomorrow; and...I know this is a bit last minute, but do you mind if I invite along one more friend with us?"
Raven's causal expression soon became a look of suspicion after she heard that her boyfriend was inviting another person to their rendezvous downtown. "Well...I guess it depends who it is; so...who is it?"
"Her name's Stacy Verily; you know, the leader of the drama-club, the one girl whose locker is just across the hall from you, who wears the beret with the feather sticking out of it."
"That girl? The one who wears pink everyday, and at any occasion, regardless of what it is?"
"Yep, that's her alright."
"What the hell are you doing inviting a girl like her with us anywhere? Pink is probably one of the worst colors that I have ever laid my eyes on; because it's too bright, and because it's too-"
"I get it, I get it; really, there's no need to go on and on about why the color pink is the worst color to you...again. The only reason I'm inviting Stacy along is because she and I used to be close back in the twelve-grade whenever you and I aren't hanging out together during school-hours."
"Really?"
"Yeah; but, for the most part, we just practice for rehearsals together; and sometimes, we'd usually sit with each other during lunch and talk about literature together too; at times, we also do that in the library on rare occasions." He chuckled at all of the fond memories that were coming to his mind, remembering each and every one of them as if it was only yesterday. "I believe we had one instant in P.E. together out on the field; that girl's not very fast a runner, but from she told me out there, she is good at bowling thanks to her father taking her there for her birthday once."
"Bowling, you say?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow. "Then how coincidental is it that my uncle owns a bowling-alley downtown?"
"Your uncle owns a bowling-alley? I didn't know about this."
"Well, I've told you about this before, back when we first started dating; I mentioned it to you as an option on where we wanted to go on our first date, but you turned the idea down. How do you not remember this?"
"Well...we've been dating for...who knows how long; and...well, sometimes, I just forget certain things, you know?"
Raven sighed, deciding not to argue with her boyfriend; instead, she decided to just let it go since she did only mention this once to him, and it wasn't really information that would honestly be much of a detriment to their relationship anyway. "Oh well...do you think Stacy would be interested in doing a round or two at it tomorrow?"
"Well, I just have to see what she says; but, yeah, I'm sure she'd be down with it."
"What about it?" Raven then asked, raising an eyebrow at her boyfriend now. "Considering that you turned down going to uncle's bowling-alley the first time-"
"I-I'm cool with it this time." Ray insisted. "I'd do anything to make an old friend of mine happy, including my girlfriend."
"Alright then; so, bowling it is."
"Awesome." Ray then stood up from the porch-swing, pulling his phone back out once again. "Be right back, I'm gonna give Stacy a call."
"Yeah, sure." Raven replied, before her boyfriend went off to the sidewalk to call up with his friend more privately.
In complete silence, Raven just sat there watching her boyfriend talk on the phone like a hawk. Something she took notice of while she was watching him was that, despite being a bit far from him, he seemed pretty happy to be talking with Stacy; in fact, this was probably the first time she's ever seen him smile in general, as her boyfriend wasn't much of a smiler, not even when one of his friends takes a picture of him. She didn't know much about this Stacy girl, other than the fact that she's British, wears pink, and is the leader of the drama-club; but whatever history she had with her boyfriend back then, whatever happened between them that's making him this happy, she was probably not going to like this; hopefully, the two just remain friends, and there's really nothing to worry about when it comes to both them hanging out together and her relationship with Ray.
Once the phone-call had ended, Ray walked back over to his girlfriend and then spoke aloud. "Well, I told her what we've planned to do tomorrow."
"Yeah; and what'd she say?" Raven asked with an eyebrow raised.
Ray gave his girlfriend a smile, before giving her a simple answer. "She's on board."
Note: So, this one took a bit to make; because originally, I had the idea of continuing the whole thing at the mall, but changed my mind after the first time I posted this chapter; so, I went back and changed it to this one instead (also, I do apologize to anyone who's seen chapter 13 posted beforehand and went and found nothing, totally my bad).
Anyways, let's see the reviews...
lordgemini: I'm just going to say this in regards to Brandi specifically: she may have more appearances here; but just like Derek, they're probably going to be minor than anything major.
That's it for now, my fellow readers; see you all in the next chapter.