Finding Love
This fic is based on a book titled "More than a Friend" by Elizabeth Winfrey.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything!!!
Chloe Lane is on a mission to find true love. She's tired of hearing her best friend, Brady brag about how easy it is to get a girl. Chloe says she can find someone special- someone she could love-before Brady ever could. Sure, Brady's dated lots of girls, but Chloe's not worried. Brady doesn't know the first thing about love. Winning will be easy.
But after weeks of dating misery, both are ready to admit defeat. Until Brady suggests that love may be a lot closer than they thought.
Ch.1
A/N: Brady and Chloe are both seniors in high school. Every chapter will be in either Brady or Chloe's point of view. This is mainly a filler chapter.
"You know what your problem is, Chloe Lane?"
"Yeah. The fact that you're always asking me if I know what my problem is," I responded to my best friend and harshest critic, Brady Black.
"Wrong again"
Brady shook his head and rolled over in the grass. We were having a picnic at the park and I could tell he was getting bored.
I sighed as dramatically as I could.
"Okay, Mr. Black. Please enlighten me"
Brady sat up and looked at me. " Simply put, you're strictly a diet iced tea kind of a girl. Even worse it's always lemon flavored, never peach or raspberry." He grinned and lay back down. By the way he was acting you would have thought he solved world hunger or something not babbled some nonsense about iced tea.
If I had half a brain, I would have put my headphones on and ignored him. But Brady had this way of always sucking me into his ridiculous theories.
" Is there more?" I asked " Or should I just stop drinking iced tea and assume that my senior year is going to bring me fame, fortune, beauty and true love?"
"Aha! So the little lady wants to know more!" Brady said in a dramatic voice "You see, Chloe, when we went to the store, you have numerous beverage choices, even within the iced tea section, there were at least twelve different flavors"
"So?" I prompted
"So why didn't you chose Mango Passion? Or Lover's Fruit Punch?"
"I don't think Lover's Fruit Punch is a flavor," I said
"That's not the point. The point is you don't say, 'Hey! Mango Passion seems interesting, I'll try that' Instead you plod drearily along, a diet lemon iced tea as your only companion."
" Iced tea isn't my only companion. You are"
Brady grabbed my half empty iced tea bottle from me and took a huge gulp. "Chloe, I'm talking in metaphors here. Work with me"
"I'm working, I'm working," I said with a sigh
"In any situation you always take the safe route. You're afraid to try new things. Face it. You need to branch out"
"Why?"
"Why? Why? Because if you did, incredible things could happen"
"Like.?" I told you before, Brady always had this way of sucking me into his theories.
" Like you could, I don't know be some famous inventor, or be a doctor and cure disease never thought curable.even become the greatest opera diva alive. Even more exciting you could fall in love. Or even find a boyfriend. Or at least go on a date."
I groaned. My love life, or lake thereof, was Brady's favorite subject. At the most unexpected moments, he would bring it up. For example, when we were doing math homework, he would say, " Look Chloe, This equation is just like your love life, lots of uninteresting factors that equal zero."
I mean Brady isn't as bad as I'm making him out to be. It's just that he doesn't understand how we normal people get through the day. By "normal" I mean those of us who weren't taller than six feet, had blond hair, blue eyes, and incredible bodies. In case you don't know, that's the exact physical description of Brady Black. He also has tons of charm, endless one-liners, and an annoying way of making everyone instantly like him.
But what he was saying about fear made some sense. I am afraid- of doing lots of things. Most of all, I live in terror of rejection. I mean, I've seen girls crying in the bathroom because some jock decided to dump them. Then I see those girls reapply their makeup and head back into the hall and make themselves available to even more torture. I mean is it really worth it all? Is it worth feeling pain every time you see him with another girl? In my opinion, no way.
As Brady was saying, I'm pretty much paralyzed with fear. Then again, who isn't?
" Fear, huh?" I narrowed my eyes and looked at Brady.
He nodded. " Look at you. You're almost eighteen and you've never been in love. Do you really want to spend your senior year alone?"
It was time to turn the tables." What about you? You have this endless string of girlfriends. Are you telling me when you are making out with one of these girls you don't feel alone?"
" At least I try."
" I try," I insisted. " I just don't succeed"`
Brady laughed. " You are so full of it. The perfect guy could come along, white horse and all, and you would let him pass by"
"That is so untrue" I said
As this conversation went further, I got a feeling that Brady was going somewhere with this. I just wished he would get to it already and let me eat my BLT in piece.
" Prove it," he said
" Prove what?" I looked at the ground and wished I could rewind the whole conversation.
" Show me you really want to fall in love."
"How?"
"How do you think? By falling in love, of course"
"Brady, this is not like getting an A in history. I can't just go out and fall in love."
"How do you know of you've never tried?" This was getting ridiculous and I could feel my face turning red. He loved to see me flustered.
"Forget it," I said firmly. I took a bite out of my BLT and put my headphones on. If I didn't pay attention to him, he'd get bored and give up.
Brady reached over and pulled off my headphones. " I mean it Chlo. I dare you to fall in love."
"Earlier, turning the tables on him backfired. But what choice did I have? " Fine. I dare you to fall in love. And I'm not talking about some two- week romance with the girl who works at the movies."
I was getting warmed out now, thinking of all the conditions of Brady's falling in love. " And I'm not talking about a few dates with Jan Spears, the cheerleader with the big chest. I'm talking about commitment"
He shrugged. "Okay. You got it."
"What?" I didn't think he'd actually do it.
" I dared you. You dared me. Whoever succeeds, wins." His expression was unreadable, and I was hoping he was joking.
" You honestly want us to dare each other to fall in love?"
"Why not?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest.
But, I was getting interested with this concept. Maybe Brady was right. Maybe it was time to show the guys what I was made of. If I made a fool of myself, the worst that could happen was that I'd have to suffer the rest of senior year and never see those people again.
But if I was going along with this crazy thing, then I wanted the stakes to be big. I wasn't about to get my heart crushed just because Brady said I should.
I nodded slowly. "You're right."
"I am?" For the first time, he sounded uncertain.
"Absolutely. But let's make this a bet."
Brady's eyes lit up. He loved bets. " Now you're talking Chloe. And let's make this big"
I sat up straighter. " Any ideas?" "Loser has to make the winners lunch for a month?" I shook my head. The stakes had to be big. If wining didn't seem important that we would probably just both drop the whole thing.
" Umm. Loser has to wear a kick me sign for a week?"
" Nah. That loses points on originality."
"Fifty bucks?"
"Come on, Black. You can do better than that."
Brady rolled over in the grass. And closed his eyes. " Let me think for a minute," He said " I'll come up with something that'll make that hairs on your back standup."
I lay down on my stomach and focused on coming up with a bet.
Brady suddenly sat up and clapped his hands. " I've got it. If you're up for the challenge, that is."
I propped myself up on my elbows. " Try me."
"Okay. If you lose, you have to cut your hair short and bleach it blonde." He looked at, wiggling his eyebrows.
"What!?" I yelled.
I think he's insane. He knew perfectly well, that my hair was very important to me; it was probably my best feature- thick, dark, and long. Almost every time I go into the bathroom at school, some girl would look at my hair with envy and say to me," I wish I had your hair" or "Your hair is so beautiful"
I guess he saw the stricken look on my face." What's wrong Chloe? Are you that sure your gonna lose?"
I hate pride. It makes you say and do stuff that someone without pride would realize it was lunacy. In this case, pride made me agree to Brady's terms.
" All right, Mr. Black. What happens if I win?"
" Simple, I get my ear pierced. '
" No way! You already want your ear pierced!"
" Fine, you think of something."
" If I win, then you. Brady Black have to get the word Loser shaved in the back of your head, and I'll even shave it myself." I grinned triumphantly at him.
He whistled. I could tell he hated the prospect of letting the world know he was a loser. But he couldn't back out, it's not is style. "Let's shake on it," He said. We shook hands, and then I realized we didn't come up with a time frame.
Brady must have read my mind. " We'll settle this the night of the winter ball, " He said. "Whoever shows up with is or her true love wins." A new thought occurred to me. " Hey, what if we both fall in love?" I asked
He looked up into my eyes." Then we both win."
As Brady and I packed up our stuff, I began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I needed a miracle.
Ch. 2
I woke up this morning with one thought on my mind- the stupid bet I made with Chloe. I never would have made the whole thing up if I thought she would actually go along with it. Unfortunately, whenever I think I know Chloe's next move, she decides to surprise me. So now I had to fall in love.
You would think that falling in love would be easier for me than Chloe. I've never had problems getting dates. I'm confident, and I'm anything but shy. Chloe, on the other hand, likes keeping to herself. She is one of the best looking girls in school (if not the best), but if anyone told her that to her face, she would think they were crazy. She would go off on some tangent about patronizing, condescending males who thought they could make a woman feel good by telling her something that was untrue. What can I say? My best friend has a complex.
But now that she's decided to fall in love, you can be sure she would. She's the kind of person who doesn't rest until she achieves her goal.
Chloe would probably look across the room in one of her classes and lock eyes with some loser and fall madly in love. Meanwhile, I'd be stuck making out with a girl who couldn't care less about me. To top it off, I'd have the word Loser shaved in my hair.
As I walked down the halls of Salem High, I searched for Chloe. Who knew? Maybe she woke up this morning regretting the whole bet too. If so, I'd let her off easy. Unfortunately, she was nowhere in sight.
Shawn, my best friend next to Chloe, came bounding next to me.
"Don't look now, but Jenny Clark at three o'clock" Shawn said nudging me.
I groaned. Jenny had been my girlfriend for about a month the previous spring. I kinda liked her t first, but then by the end she was driving me crazy. Everything she said came out as if it were a question- except for actual question, which sounded like statements.
I thought about ducking into a locker, but she's already seen me.
"Hi, Brady?" Jenny said, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, Jenny. How was your summer?" If nothing else, I'm polite. And maybe I was wrong about Jenny. Maybe she was my true love, and I'd just been too caught up in punctuation to see it before.
" It was great? I worked as a lifeguard? How about you."
At that moment I knew there was NO future for us. Call me crazy but I like conversations that aren't annoying for me to listen to. I could feel Shawn shaking with laughter next to me.
"It was good. Good." I managed to say. "Well, I have to go now"
" I understand?" Debbie said, turning to go " Do you want to go out sometime."
"Yeah, maybe?" Shawn answered for me. It wasn't nice but I couldn't help but snort out a little laughter.
Jenny gave us a strange look, and then headed down the hall.
Sliding into the back of my homeroom, I shook my head. I'd dated some great girls, but I also dated some girls who shouldn't be out roaming the streets alone.
"Man, there are no decent women at this school," I complained to Shawn.
Shawn shrugged.
"Brady, I've just written down the names of twenty beautiful women in the senior class, all of whom I'd like to go on dates with this year. How can you tell me we haven't got fertile soil here?"
I shook my head again. " I'm talking about someone special, Shawn. Someone I could fall in love with."
"Love? Give me a break." Shawn said while rolling his eyes.
I glanced over at his notebook, scanning his list. As my eyes went down the page, I mentally crossed off the girls I'd already dated. When I got to number eleven, my eyes widened.
"Chloe?" I sort of gasped
"Sure," Shawn said. " She fits all my criteria." He drew a big star next to Chloe's name.
I just stared at the piece of paper. It wasn't that I didn't think Shawn should find Chloe attractive, intelligent, blah, blah, blah. But the idea of putting her name on some list really got to me. It was as if Shawn didn't know that Chloe was unique, special. She didn't fit into some hormonal wish list.
"You're sick," I finally said. "Do you know how mad she'll be, if she finds out about this?" I said picking up the paper.
He shrugged. " I doubt she'll care how I choose to spend my time waiting for homeroom to start." He raised his eyebrows at me. " You're the one that has a problem with this, Black."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Shawn snapped his fingers. "You're jealous."
"You're insane," I answered. For years people have been teasing me about being secretly in love with Chloe.
At that moment the second bell rang. As the teacher was starting to take roll, the door opened and I looked to see who it was. She stood a few feet inside the doorway. Her long blond hair was tied back showing her amazing cheekbones and wide round eyes. I took a deep breath, absorbing her in. Suddenly, Shawn's list was the last thing on my mind.
"Name?" The teacher barked.
"Veronica Johnson" She replied while looking around the room.
"Alright Ms. Johnson, Take a seat." She smiled graciously and slid into the closest seat to the front.
Shawn passed me a note:" Hot Babe, Front and center!" I shoved the note in my pocket. I wasn't about to make her just another name on his list. I could tell she was something special. And I was going to make her mine. Soon.
When the bell rang, I stayed in my seat. I was still deciding how I would approach her. However, I heard our teacher ask her to stay after to tell her about the stuff she missed since she was new.
I headed out the door, but not without a final glance in Veronica's direction. She gave me a little wave. Right then, I knew I was going to win the bet.
Chloe was waiting for me in the hall. "About our bet." she started to say.
I held my hand up, cutting her off. "Don't try and back out now" I said smugly " I just found the girl of my dreams. So you should start getting the scissors and bleach out now"
She made a face "Ha! I was just gonna say that I planned to draw up a written agreement. So you don't weasel out of this."
"May the best romance win," I said.
As we walked down the hall, I was counting the minutes until my next homeroom.
Ch. 3
Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you people that I don't own anything?
As I watched Brady in our physics class, I could tell he was thinking about our bet. His expression kept changing, and the arrogant way he threw back his shoulders gave me a queasy feeling.
It was so unfair. Brady always had an endless stream of good luck, and I had nothing.
When the bell finally rang, Brady handed me a piece of paper he'd been doodling on in class. He drew a picture of himself in a big heart with me outside of it trying to poke an arrow through it. Over my head was a bubble that said,"Bleached blondes have more fun"
"Ha ha" I said sarcastically " Is this all your gonna think about for the next four months?"
He grinned. "Of course not. Pretty soon, I'll be so in love that I won't have time to gloat over my victory" He patted my shoulder and walked away.
I trudged over to my locker. "Bad day?" I heard a voice say behind me.
"Meems!" I yelled, " I tried calling you six times yesterday"
"Sorry. My mom insisted that the whole family go out to do 'family activities' yesterday"
I laughed and gave Mimi a hug. Next to Brady she was my best friend in the world.
We headed towards our creative writing class. Meems and I both love to write and have been waiting to take this class since we were freshmen.
As we were taking our seats, I saw Michael Hensen saunter into the classroom and head over to where we were seated.
I've had a small crush on Michael since I saw him perform in the talent show freshmen year. With thick brown hair, hazel eyes, a dimple in his cheek, and an amazing body, how could I not have a crush on him? He was the lead singer of a band, Radio Waves, and every girl in this school had a crush on him at least once in their life. In the last three years, we've had some classes together, but we never really talked. For one thing, he'd been going out with Kimberley Foster, a beautiful cheerleader in the class ahead of ours. And even if he was single, there was no way he would go out with me.
Mimi leaned close to me. " I heard that Kimberly dumped Michael when she went to college. He's single."
I forced the beating of my heart to slowdown, reminding myself that there was no way a guy like Michael would be interested in me.
As much as I liked writing, I couldn't help but sneak glances over at Michael. The fact that chose a writing class made him seem even more desirable.
At one point during class, Mimi wrote me a note. "How's Brady?" it read. Mimi had a crush on Brady for as long as I could remember, but she never did anything about it. For one thing, she knew his history with girls and knew he wouldn't make a very good boyfriend. She also had this insane theory that Brady and I were destined to be together. As many times as I'd told her that I wouldn't go out with Brady if he were the last guy on earth, she'd just look at me with a little smile on her face like she knew something I didn't.
When class ended, I waved to Meems and headed to my locker. But before I could even take another step, I felt a hand on my upper arm. And I turned around.
"Hey, Chloe. How've you been" His Hazel eyes were warm, and I almost felt as though I was melting.
"Uh, good. I've been good." I could barely utter a coherent sentence.
He took a step closer to me, and I could feel goose bumps on my arms.
" How about doing me a favor?" he asked.
"Sure," I said trying to sound as casual as possible. "How could I help?"
"I don't know a lot about poetry. DO you think you could help me go over some stuff?" He actually looked a little embarrassed and my heart melted.
"No problem," I said" But if you don't know anything about poetry, why are you in the class?"
He made a face." Scheduling conflict."
I nodded. Okay so maybe he isn't some great poet, but his status, as a great-looking guy still hasn't changed.
"I'll meet you at the library after school," I said.
He gave my arm a squeeze, then walked off. I watched every girl give him an once-over, and my thoughts went back to my bet with Brady. Maybe I could win this thing after all.
After school, I found Brady jogging on the school track. He said he liked the school track because he could tally how many miles he'd run. But I really think it's because he likes having all the women's sports teams watch him.
When he saw me he slowed down. I knew I had a big goofy smile on my face. It wasn't often that I had the opportunity to give Brady anything that would qualify as my love life.
"Hey Chlo!" He said while putting his hand on my shoulder, balancing himself so that he could stretch. "What's up?"
"Well, I'm sure this won't come to anything, but Michael Hensen asked me to help him with his creative writing"
For a few seconds Brady was silent. Then he looked at me. "Michael Hensen? Don't tell me you like that loser."
I couldn't believe he just called Michael a loser. "Excuse me?" I said, raising my voice a little. "Michael is gorgeous, talented, sexy.."
Brady laughed. "Get real Chloe. The guy's skull could be used as a storage space. Besides, he's with that airhead Kimberly" I shook my head. "For your information, Kimberly is now in college, far away. Michael is now available."
"Well, luck you." Brady said and started jogging in place.
"That's right. For once, Lucky me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go meet Michael." I stalked off with my head held high. I'd gotten a head start on our bet, and he couldn't' stand the thought that he might lose.
It was almost midnight and I was still thinking of a poem that Michael could read in class. The sound of the phone broke my thoughts.
"Hello?"
"It's me." It was Brady.
"What's up? It's late."
"Yup. And guess what your best friend called to tell you?"
"You've fallen in love already?" It would be just like Brady to think he found his true love in the last couple hours since I'd seen him.
"No. Casablanca is the late, late movie. Channel four."
"I'll call you right back." I hung up, and walked downstairs, turned on the TV and grabbed the phone. I dialed Brady's number and he picked up on the first ring.
"Humphrey Bogart just saw her for the first time. She's listening to Sam play the piano."
" Yea, I know. It's right in front of me." Brady and I watched movies together over the phone, if we couldn't actually get together. Even though we didn't talk much, we liked being able to make comments to the other person when the mood struck. Casablanca was our all-time favorite.
An hour and a half later, I was trying to muffle my sobs, even thought Brady knew I always cried when I realized just how doomed Rick and Ilsa's love was.
"Chloe, are you crying again? You've seen this movie like thirty times."
" I know." I said wiping my eyes. "But it seems sadder every time I see it."
Brady laughed softly. "You're really a romantic at heart, you know that?"
"Ha! I'm just manipulated by sentimental movies," I responded. "Sweet dream, Chloe"
"Sweet dreams, Brady" I hung up the phone, turned off the TV, and crept back to my room.
This fic is based on a book titled "More than a Friend" by Elizabeth Winfrey.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything!!!
Chloe Lane is on a mission to find true love. She's tired of hearing her best friend, Brady brag about how easy it is to get a girl. Chloe says she can find someone special- someone she could love-before Brady ever could. Sure, Brady's dated lots of girls, but Chloe's not worried. Brady doesn't know the first thing about love. Winning will be easy.
But after weeks of dating misery, both are ready to admit defeat. Until Brady suggests that love may be a lot closer than they thought.
Ch.1
A/N: Brady and Chloe are both seniors in high school. Every chapter will be in either Brady or Chloe's point of view. This is mainly a filler chapter.
"You know what your problem is, Chloe Lane?"
"Yeah. The fact that you're always asking me if I know what my problem is," I responded to my best friend and harshest critic, Brady Black.
"Wrong again"
Brady shook his head and rolled over in the grass. We were having a picnic at the park and I could tell he was getting bored.
I sighed as dramatically as I could.
"Okay, Mr. Black. Please enlighten me"
Brady sat up and looked at me. " Simply put, you're strictly a diet iced tea kind of a girl. Even worse it's always lemon flavored, never peach or raspberry." He grinned and lay back down. By the way he was acting you would have thought he solved world hunger or something not babbled some nonsense about iced tea.
If I had half a brain, I would have put my headphones on and ignored him. But Brady had this way of always sucking me into his ridiculous theories.
" Is there more?" I asked " Or should I just stop drinking iced tea and assume that my senior year is going to bring me fame, fortune, beauty and true love?"
"Aha! So the little lady wants to know more!" Brady said in a dramatic voice "You see, Chloe, when we went to the store, you have numerous beverage choices, even within the iced tea section, there were at least twelve different flavors"
"So?" I prompted
"So why didn't you chose Mango Passion? Or Lover's Fruit Punch?"
"I don't think Lover's Fruit Punch is a flavor," I said
"That's not the point. The point is you don't say, 'Hey! Mango Passion seems interesting, I'll try that' Instead you plod drearily along, a diet lemon iced tea as your only companion."
" Iced tea isn't my only companion. You are"
Brady grabbed my half empty iced tea bottle from me and took a huge gulp. "Chloe, I'm talking in metaphors here. Work with me"
"I'm working, I'm working," I said with a sigh
"In any situation you always take the safe route. You're afraid to try new things. Face it. You need to branch out"
"Why?"
"Why? Why? Because if you did, incredible things could happen"
"Like.?" I told you before, Brady always had this way of sucking me into his theories.
" Like you could, I don't know be some famous inventor, or be a doctor and cure disease never thought curable.even become the greatest opera diva alive. Even more exciting you could fall in love. Or even find a boyfriend. Or at least go on a date."
I groaned. My love life, or lake thereof, was Brady's favorite subject. At the most unexpected moments, he would bring it up. For example, when we were doing math homework, he would say, " Look Chloe, This equation is just like your love life, lots of uninteresting factors that equal zero."
I mean Brady isn't as bad as I'm making him out to be. It's just that he doesn't understand how we normal people get through the day. By "normal" I mean those of us who weren't taller than six feet, had blond hair, blue eyes, and incredible bodies. In case you don't know, that's the exact physical description of Brady Black. He also has tons of charm, endless one-liners, and an annoying way of making everyone instantly like him.
But what he was saying about fear made some sense. I am afraid- of doing lots of things. Most of all, I live in terror of rejection. I mean, I've seen girls crying in the bathroom because some jock decided to dump them. Then I see those girls reapply their makeup and head back into the hall and make themselves available to even more torture. I mean is it really worth it all? Is it worth feeling pain every time you see him with another girl? In my opinion, no way.
As Brady was saying, I'm pretty much paralyzed with fear. Then again, who isn't?
" Fear, huh?" I narrowed my eyes and looked at Brady.
He nodded. " Look at you. You're almost eighteen and you've never been in love. Do you really want to spend your senior year alone?"
It was time to turn the tables." What about you? You have this endless string of girlfriends. Are you telling me when you are making out with one of these girls you don't feel alone?"
" At least I try."
" I try," I insisted. " I just don't succeed"`
Brady laughed. " You are so full of it. The perfect guy could come along, white horse and all, and you would let him pass by"
"That is so untrue" I said
As this conversation went further, I got a feeling that Brady was going somewhere with this. I just wished he would get to it already and let me eat my BLT in piece.
" Prove it," he said
" Prove what?" I looked at the ground and wished I could rewind the whole conversation.
" Show me you really want to fall in love."
"How?"
"How do you think? By falling in love, of course"
"Brady, this is not like getting an A in history. I can't just go out and fall in love."
"How do you know of you've never tried?" This was getting ridiculous and I could feel my face turning red. He loved to see me flustered.
"Forget it," I said firmly. I took a bite out of my BLT and put my headphones on. If I didn't pay attention to him, he'd get bored and give up.
Brady reached over and pulled off my headphones. " I mean it Chlo. I dare you to fall in love."
"Earlier, turning the tables on him backfired. But what choice did I have? " Fine. I dare you to fall in love. And I'm not talking about some two- week romance with the girl who works at the movies."
I was getting warmed out now, thinking of all the conditions of Brady's falling in love. " And I'm not talking about a few dates with Jan Spears, the cheerleader with the big chest. I'm talking about commitment"
He shrugged. "Okay. You got it."
"What?" I didn't think he'd actually do it.
" I dared you. You dared me. Whoever succeeds, wins." His expression was unreadable, and I was hoping he was joking.
" You honestly want us to dare each other to fall in love?"
"Why not?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest.
But, I was getting interested with this concept. Maybe Brady was right. Maybe it was time to show the guys what I was made of. If I made a fool of myself, the worst that could happen was that I'd have to suffer the rest of senior year and never see those people again.
But if I was going along with this crazy thing, then I wanted the stakes to be big. I wasn't about to get my heart crushed just because Brady said I should.
I nodded slowly. "You're right."
"I am?" For the first time, he sounded uncertain.
"Absolutely. But let's make this a bet."
Brady's eyes lit up. He loved bets. " Now you're talking Chloe. And let's make this big"
I sat up straighter. " Any ideas?" "Loser has to make the winners lunch for a month?" I shook my head. The stakes had to be big. If wining didn't seem important that we would probably just both drop the whole thing.
" Umm. Loser has to wear a kick me sign for a week?"
" Nah. That loses points on originality."
"Fifty bucks?"
"Come on, Black. You can do better than that."
Brady rolled over in the grass. And closed his eyes. " Let me think for a minute," He said " I'll come up with something that'll make that hairs on your back standup."
I lay down on my stomach and focused on coming up with a bet.
Brady suddenly sat up and clapped his hands. " I've got it. If you're up for the challenge, that is."
I propped myself up on my elbows. " Try me."
"Okay. If you lose, you have to cut your hair short and bleach it blonde." He looked at, wiggling his eyebrows.
"What!?" I yelled.
I think he's insane. He knew perfectly well, that my hair was very important to me; it was probably my best feature- thick, dark, and long. Almost every time I go into the bathroom at school, some girl would look at my hair with envy and say to me," I wish I had your hair" or "Your hair is so beautiful"
I guess he saw the stricken look on my face." What's wrong Chloe? Are you that sure your gonna lose?"
I hate pride. It makes you say and do stuff that someone without pride would realize it was lunacy. In this case, pride made me agree to Brady's terms.
" All right, Mr. Black. What happens if I win?"
" Simple, I get my ear pierced. '
" No way! You already want your ear pierced!"
" Fine, you think of something."
" If I win, then you. Brady Black have to get the word Loser shaved in the back of your head, and I'll even shave it myself." I grinned triumphantly at him.
He whistled. I could tell he hated the prospect of letting the world know he was a loser. But he couldn't back out, it's not is style. "Let's shake on it," He said. We shook hands, and then I realized we didn't come up with a time frame.
Brady must have read my mind. " We'll settle this the night of the winter ball, " He said. "Whoever shows up with is or her true love wins." A new thought occurred to me. " Hey, what if we both fall in love?" I asked
He looked up into my eyes." Then we both win."
As Brady and I packed up our stuff, I began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I needed a miracle.
Ch. 2
I woke up this morning with one thought on my mind- the stupid bet I made with Chloe. I never would have made the whole thing up if I thought she would actually go along with it. Unfortunately, whenever I think I know Chloe's next move, she decides to surprise me. So now I had to fall in love.
You would think that falling in love would be easier for me than Chloe. I've never had problems getting dates. I'm confident, and I'm anything but shy. Chloe, on the other hand, likes keeping to herself. She is one of the best looking girls in school (if not the best), but if anyone told her that to her face, she would think they were crazy. She would go off on some tangent about patronizing, condescending males who thought they could make a woman feel good by telling her something that was untrue. What can I say? My best friend has a complex.
But now that she's decided to fall in love, you can be sure she would. She's the kind of person who doesn't rest until she achieves her goal.
Chloe would probably look across the room in one of her classes and lock eyes with some loser and fall madly in love. Meanwhile, I'd be stuck making out with a girl who couldn't care less about me. To top it off, I'd have the word Loser shaved in my hair.
As I walked down the halls of Salem High, I searched for Chloe. Who knew? Maybe she woke up this morning regretting the whole bet too. If so, I'd let her off easy. Unfortunately, she was nowhere in sight.
Shawn, my best friend next to Chloe, came bounding next to me.
"Don't look now, but Jenny Clark at three o'clock" Shawn said nudging me.
I groaned. Jenny had been my girlfriend for about a month the previous spring. I kinda liked her t first, but then by the end she was driving me crazy. Everything she said came out as if it were a question- except for actual question, which sounded like statements.
I thought about ducking into a locker, but she's already seen me.
"Hi, Brady?" Jenny said, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, Jenny. How was your summer?" If nothing else, I'm polite. And maybe I was wrong about Jenny. Maybe she was my true love, and I'd just been too caught up in punctuation to see it before.
" It was great? I worked as a lifeguard? How about you."
At that moment I knew there was NO future for us. Call me crazy but I like conversations that aren't annoying for me to listen to. I could feel Shawn shaking with laughter next to me.
"It was good. Good." I managed to say. "Well, I have to go now"
" I understand?" Debbie said, turning to go " Do you want to go out sometime."
"Yeah, maybe?" Shawn answered for me. It wasn't nice but I couldn't help but snort out a little laughter.
Jenny gave us a strange look, and then headed down the hall.
Sliding into the back of my homeroom, I shook my head. I'd dated some great girls, but I also dated some girls who shouldn't be out roaming the streets alone.
"Man, there are no decent women at this school," I complained to Shawn.
Shawn shrugged.
"Brady, I've just written down the names of twenty beautiful women in the senior class, all of whom I'd like to go on dates with this year. How can you tell me we haven't got fertile soil here?"
I shook my head again. " I'm talking about someone special, Shawn. Someone I could fall in love with."
"Love? Give me a break." Shawn said while rolling his eyes.
I glanced over at his notebook, scanning his list. As my eyes went down the page, I mentally crossed off the girls I'd already dated. When I got to number eleven, my eyes widened.
"Chloe?" I sort of gasped
"Sure," Shawn said. " She fits all my criteria." He drew a big star next to Chloe's name.
I just stared at the piece of paper. It wasn't that I didn't think Shawn should find Chloe attractive, intelligent, blah, blah, blah. But the idea of putting her name on some list really got to me. It was as if Shawn didn't know that Chloe was unique, special. She didn't fit into some hormonal wish list.
"You're sick," I finally said. "Do you know how mad she'll be, if she finds out about this?" I said picking up the paper.
He shrugged. " I doubt she'll care how I choose to spend my time waiting for homeroom to start." He raised his eyebrows at me. " You're the one that has a problem with this, Black."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Shawn snapped his fingers. "You're jealous."
"You're insane," I answered. For years people have been teasing me about being secretly in love with Chloe.
At that moment the second bell rang. As the teacher was starting to take roll, the door opened and I looked to see who it was. She stood a few feet inside the doorway. Her long blond hair was tied back showing her amazing cheekbones and wide round eyes. I took a deep breath, absorbing her in. Suddenly, Shawn's list was the last thing on my mind.
"Name?" The teacher barked.
"Veronica Johnson" She replied while looking around the room.
"Alright Ms. Johnson, Take a seat." She smiled graciously and slid into the closest seat to the front.
Shawn passed me a note:" Hot Babe, Front and center!" I shoved the note in my pocket. I wasn't about to make her just another name on his list. I could tell she was something special. And I was going to make her mine. Soon.
When the bell rang, I stayed in my seat. I was still deciding how I would approach her. However, I heard our teacher ask her to stay after to tell her about the stuff she missed since she was new.
I headed out the door, but not without a final glance in Veronica's direction. She gave me a little wave. Right then, I knew I was going to win the bet.
Chloe was waiting for me in the hall. "About our bet." she started to say.
I held my hand up, cutting her off. "Don't try and back out now" I said smugly " I just found the girl of my dreams. So you should start getting the scissors and bleach out now"
She made a face "Ha! I was just gonna say that I planned to draw up a written agreement. So you don't weasel out of this."
"May the best romance win," I said.
As we walked down the hall, I was counting the minutes until my next homeroom.
Ch. 3
Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you people that I don't own anything?
As I watched Brady in our physics class, I could tell he was thinking about our bet. His expression kept changing, and the arrogant way he threw back his shoulders gave me a queasy feeling.
It was so unfair. Brady always had an endless stream of good luck, and I had nothing.
When the bell finally rang, Brady handed me a piece of paper he'd been doodling on in class. He drew a picture of himself in a big heart with me outside of it trying to poke an arrow through it. Over my head was a bubble that said,"Bleached blondes have more fun"
"Ha ha" I said sarcastically " Is this all your gonna think about for the next four months?"
He grinned. "Of course not. Pretty soon, I'll be so in love that I won't have time to gloat over my victory" He patted my shoulder and walked away.
I trudged over to my locker. "Bad day?" I heard a voice say behind me.
"Meems!" I yelled, " I tried calling you six times yesterday"
"Sorry. My mom insisted that the whole family go out to do 'family activities' yesterday"
I laughed and gave Mimi a hug. Next to Brady she was my best friend in the world.
We headed towards our creative writing class. Meems and I both love to write and have been waiting to take this class since we were freshmen.
As we were taking our seats, I saw Michael Hensen saunter into the classroom and head over to where we were seated.
I've had a small crush on Michael since I saw him perform in the talent show freshmen year. With thick brown hair, hazel eyes, a dimple in his cheek, and an amazing body, how could I not have a crush on him? He was the lead singer of a band, Radio Waves, and every girl in this school had a crush on him at least once in their life. In the last three years, we've had some classes together, but we never really talked. For one thing, he'd been going out with Kimberley Foster, a beautiful cheerleader in the class ahead of ours. And even if he was single, there was no way he would go out with me.
Mimi leaned close to me. " I heard that Kimberly dumped Michael when she went to college. He's single."
I forced the beating of my heart to slowdown, reminding myself that there was no way a guy like Michael would be interested in me.
As much as I liked writing, I couldn't help but sneak glances over at Michael. The fact that chose a writing class made him seem even more desirable.
At one point during class, Mimi wrote me a note. "How's Brady?" it read. Mimi had a crush on Brady for as long as I could remember, but she never did anything about it. For one thing, she knew his history with girls and knew he wouldn't make a very good boyfriend. She also had this insane theory that Brady and I were destined to be together. As many times as I'd told her that I wouldn't go out with Brady if he were the last guy on earth, she'd just look at me with a little smile on her face like she knew something I didn't.
When class ended, I waved to Meems and headed to my locker. But before I could even take another step, I felt a hand on my upper arm. And I turned around.
"Hey, Chloe. How've you been" His Hazel eyes were warm, and I almost felt as though I was melting.
"Uh, good. I've been good." I could barely utter a coherent sentence.
He took a step closer to me, and I could feel goose bumps on my arms.
" How about doing me a favor?" he asked.
"Sure," I said trying to sound as casual as possible. "How could I help?"
"I don't know a lot about poetry. DO you think you could help me go over some stuff?" He actually looked a little embarrassed and my heart melted.
"No problem," I said" But if you don't know anything about poetry, why are you in the class?"
He made a face." Scheduling conflict."
I nodded. Okay so maybe he isn't some great poet, but his status, as a great-looking guy still hasn't changed.
"I'll meet you at the library after school," I said.
He gave my arm a squeeze, then walked off. I watched every girl give him an once-over, and my thoughts went back to my bet with Brady. Maybe I could win this thing after all.
After school, I found Brady jogging on the school track. He said he liked the school track because he could tally how many miles he'd run. But I really think it's because he likes having all the women's sports teams watch him.
When he saw me he slowed down. I knew I had a big goofy smile on my face. It wasn't often that I had the opportunity to give Brady anything that would qualify as my love life.
"Hey Chlo!" He said while putting his hand on my shoulder, balancing himself so that he could stretch. "What's up?"
"Well, I'm sure this won't come to anything, but Michael Hensen asked me to help him with his creative writing"
For a few seconds Brady was silent. Then he looked at me. "Michael Hensen? Don't tell me you like that loser."
I couldn't believe he just called Michael a loser. "Excuse me?" I said, raising my voice a little. "Michael is gorgeous, talented, sexy.."
Brady laughed. "Get real Chloe. The guy's skull could be used as a storage space. Besides, he's with that airhead Kimberly" I shook my head. "For your information, Kimberly is now in college, far away. Michael is now available."
"Well, luck you." Brady said and started jogging in place.
"That's right. For once, Lucky me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go meet Michael." I stalked off with my head held high. I'd gotten a head start on our bet, and he couldn't' stand the thought that he might lose.
It was almost midnight and I was still thinking of a poem that Michael could read in class. The sound of the phone broke my thoughts.
"Hello?"
"It's me." It was Brady.
"What's up? It's late."
"Yup. And guess what your best friend called to tell you?"
"You've fallen in love already?" It would be just like Brady to think he found his true love in the last couple hours since I'd seen him.
"No. Casablanca is the late, late movie. Channel four."
"I'll call you right back." I hung up, and walked downstairs, turned on the TV and grabbed the phone. I dialed Brady's number and he picked up on the first ring.
"Humphrey Bogart just saw her for the first time. She's listening to Sam play the piano."
" Yea, I know. It's right in front of me." Brady and I watched movies together over the phone, if we couldn't actually get together. Even though we didn't talk much, we liked being able to make comments to the other person when the mood struck. Casablanca was our all-time favorite.
An hour and a half later, I was trying to muffle my sobs, even thought Brady knew I always cried when I realized just how doomed Rick and Ilsa's love was.
"Chloe, are you crying again? You've seen this movie like thirty times."
" I know." I said wiping my eyes. "But it seems sadder every time I see it."
Brady laughed softly. "You're really a romantic at heart, you know that?"
"Ha! I'm just manipulated by sentimental movies," I responded. "Sweet dream, Chloe"
"Sweet dreams, Brady" I hung up the phone, turned off the TV, and crept back to my room.