Stella's P.O.V.
"Stel. Hey. Snap out of it!"
"Huh?" I mumbled, blinking. I looked around and realised I was in History class, and Musa was whisper yelling at me.
"Dude, you sure you're okay? I mean you've been kinda weird all morning, and you keeping going off into LaLa land" she said.
"I'm fine, just a bit light headed" I said, before coughing a bit.
"Fine? Sure you are, lean forward kiddo" she said.
"Okay.." I said, as I leaned towards her. She put her hand on my forehead then pulled it back.
"Woah, your hotter than a barbecue" she said.
"Thanks for the compliment" I grinned.
"I'm serious, you're sick Stel." she said.
"Am not." I said.
"Are too" she said. I was about to argue but the bell interrupted us.
"Lunch, finally. I haven't eaten all day" I said, stuffing my books in my bag.
"So that's what wrong" she said, as we left the classroom.
"Nothings wrong, okay." I said.
Okay, I was lying.
I was feeling a bit tired, dizzy, my throat was hurting, my eyes were burning and I was a tad bit nauseous. But that's nothing much, right? I was just ignoring it, because I thought it would go away sooner or later.
"You wanna go home?" Musa asked.
"Nah, I have science for the rest of the afternoon. Can't miss that" I said, grabbing a burger from the cafeteria line.
"You're such a cute little nerd" she said.
"What up people" Liam said, joining us, as he swung his arm around my shoulder.
"DON'T TOUCH HER YOU IDIOT IT COULD BE CONTAGIOUS!" she yelled, making him literally fly back. Not because of what she said, but how freaking loud she said it.
"First of all, mean. Second, it's not like I have ebola, he's not gonna get sick" I said.
"Why what's she got?" Liam asked.
"I dunno, but she's sick and I know it." Musa said, as we went to our usual table.
"Who's sick?" Bloom asked.
"Nobody" I groaned.
"Stella" Musa said.
"I'm...absolutely...fine" I said, between coughs.
Okay, that was just bad timing and irony.
"Whatever you have, give it to me. Because I got a double period of Geography" Bloom said.
"It's probably a cold, it'll go away" I said, taking a bite out of my burger. I put it down and then buried my head into my arms
"What did I miss?" Brandon asked, sitting down on the only empty seat, which was next to mine.
To be completely honest, Musa was right. I was acting unusual, but it wasn't this cold or ever or whatever that was causing it.
This is going to sound completely crazy, but...how do I put this? Well. Brandon's been taking over my brain for the past week. And he won't leave.
Ever since Liam's party, I just can't look at Brandon the same way. Something about the way I saw him changed that night.
I have no idea what it is, but it's been bugging me all bloody week.
I can't seem to get him out of my head, and it's so strange. And whenever I'm around him, I feel all weird.
Plus, the fact that he's literally the only person who knows my secrets makes it even more weird. Although it felt better talkin about it, I'm baffled as to why I told him. Like, Musa, Bloom and Liam are my best friends, they deserve to know. And they will, I don't know when, but they will. Eventually.
Anyways, I just feel so curious, like there's way more to him. Not secret wise, but...I dunno, personality wise? It's as if I wanna get to know him or something because he seems like an interesting person, but then I remember it's Brandon Shields we're talking about here.
We just went from being enemies to friends in one night, back in San Fran, but after the party, it seemed different.
I felt like I cared about him more than I knew. And maybe he did too. I mean the old Brandon would probably tell me to take my whining ass and go cry about it to someone else, ya know. Ugh, I don't know. This is so confusing.
"Someone feel her pulse" Riven said, interrupting my thoughts.
"I'm not dead, moron" I said, which came out muffled since my face was still squished between my arms and the table.
"I've got it! You're preggo" Musa said.
"Try again" I said, unamused, as I lifted my head up and continued to chew on my burger.
"Shark week?" she asked.
"Nope." I said.
"Food poisoning?" she asked.
"You know, it could be the casserole Liam made" I said.
"Rude." Liam said.
"I'm kidding." I said.
"Did you make any physical contact with Mr Jefferson?" Riven asked.
"No, why?" I asked.
"He's literally a walking talking virus, gets sick all the damn time" Musa asked.
"Geez, is it me or is it boiling hot in here" I said.
"Take off your sweatshirt" Brandon said.
"I can't" I said.
"Why not?" Liam asked.
"I'm not wearing anything underneath it" I said.
"Well why'd you wear a sweatshirt in the first place if you were this hot?" Musa asked, as I started to fan myself with whatever I could find, which included plastic forks.
What can I say? I improvise.
"I was freezing cold this morning" I said.
"You have a high temperature for sure Stel" Bloom said, as she felt my forehead.
"And I'm being boiled like an egg in this sweatshirt" I said, leaning back in my seat.
"I have a spare shirt in my locker, you can wear that" Musa said. "And don't worry, it's not the one that makes you look like you had a boob job, I know you hate that one"
"What's so bad about that?" Liam asked.
"Perverts. Everywhere you look, perverts" I said.
"By the way, since I'm kindly lending you a shirt could you give me English text copy. I didn't bother to highlight all they key phrases, and you know how much Mr I worship Shakespeare - aka Mr Robinson, loves his similes and metaphors and whatever else" Musa said.
"Sure. You're lucky I actually bothered to highlight everything, mine isn't due until next Monday - and it's Friday. Just remember not to throw it away coz I need it." I said.
"I will. Which story did you do anyway?" she asked.
"Romeo and Juliet" I said.
"Oooh, someone's feelin' the love" she smirked, nudging me.
"No" I laughed, rolling my eyes playfully. "The only reason I did it was because my teacher told us to watch the movie of whichever story we were doing, so I thought about which one I should waste 2 hours of my time on. Then I saw Leonardo DiCaprio was in it and I was like Romeo and Juliet it is"
"Did you even pay attention to the movie, or were you two busy staring at Romeo?" Musa asked.
"I had to re-watch it because I missed the whole plot and key words and emotional vocab and all that crap. Do you know how hard it is to NOT focus on young Leo?" I asked.
"Trust me, I do" she said.
I was currently in the middle of Science, and we were in our groups, doing experiments and tests for our project thing, the teacher wasn't in the room, you know, the usual. Before lunch ended, I changed into Musa's white and black graphic tee, that actually went with my outfit, which were black ripped jeans and black and timberlands. I was feeling a bit better, I mean I wasn't as hot, but I was still feeling sick.
"Can someone open a window? The fumes are getting to my head" I asked.
"Are you sure it's the 'fumes'? I mean, we're literally just using metal and water, we haven't even started with the bunsen burners and gas and all that." Sky said.
"Right. It's probably a headache or something" I sighed, bringing my knees up to sit cross-legged on the chair.
I decided to stay out of the first couple of experiments because my head was really messing with me, and I trying not to fall asleep on the spot.
"You wanna go to the nurse?" Brandon asked, sitting next to me.
"Nah, she'll probably give me an ice pack" I said.
"True. Did you not get enough sleep or something?" he asked.
"I did sleep late but not late enough to make me this tired. I just wanna take a nap because my head is killing me" I said, looking up. I realised that a good amount of people were staring at us, and as soon as I glared at them, they went back to what they were doing.
"So, you doing anything this weekend?" I asked, trying to start up a convo.
"Nope. Liam's got a date with a certain someone tonight though." he said.
"Oh yeah, he told me that he and Sierra are official now." I said, as my phone dinged. I looked down and saw a text from my mom.
"What about you? You got plans?" he asked.
"Apparently not. My mom and Angelo have a last minute business meeting in San Diego and will be gone until Sunday." I said.
"Well you should come over for dinner tonight." he said.
"Really? I don't wanna be any trouble" I said.
"Trust me, my mom would kill me if she found out I knew you were sick and still left you all alone, practically dying in your house" he said.
"I'm not dying, but fine. Give me a ride though, because my legs are killing me too" I said.
"Geez, pushy - but okay, only coz you're on the verge of fainting. One thing, you have to wait for me, I have an hours detention" he said
"What? Why?" I asked.
"My history teacher has an attitude problem, she told us to discuss our opinions then told me off for being 'disruptive', so obviously I tried to argue my way out of it because I didn't do anything wrong and then she gave me detention" he said.
"Well what am I supposed do for an hour?" I asked.
"I don't know, just go to the library or something" he shrugged.
"Put it out, quick!" Sky said, as a small fire started on the table.
"Maybe this will- oh shit, okay nevermind" Riven said, throwing various liquids at it which only made it flare up more.
"Move aside" I sighed. "All you gotta do is turn off the gas, which is the source, then use water, not rubbing alcohol, that only increases the ignition since it's flammable. It's common sense dude, really"
"How was I supposed to know the difference, they all look the damn same!" Riven said.
"The labels, duh?" I said, as the bell rang.
"Meet me in the history corridor in an hour" Brandon said, grabbing his bag.
"Okay" I said, packing my stuff up.
I texted Musa and Bloom before going to the silent part of the library, behind the bookshelves in the back, where there were beanbags. I finished off some homework while listening to some music for about 30 minutes or something, until someone interrupted my quiet time.
"Stella, I was actually looking for you. Can I have a word?" someone said. I looked up and it was my maths teacher.
Well this can't be good. Anything to do with math is never good. Math is evil. It's the devil's subject.
"Um yeah sure" I said, taking my headphones out.
"I was looking through the grades, and you're really slacking. I know you're smarter than this, and you can do a lot better if you tried. You're currently at a D, and at your level you should be at a B+. I want you to pass, and I have a suggestion, I strongly recommend you should take it." he said. "You'll have to stay after school on Mondays and Wednesdays for an hour for tuition"
"Tuition? Really? Isn't there something else I could do?" I asked.
"I'm sorry Stella, it's either that or you find yourself a private tutor" he said.
"I'll get a tutor then" I said.
"It has to be someone in this school, otherwise you'll get all this irrelevant information that won't help you. My top students are Madison Evans, Dylan Peters and Brandon Shields. You should ask one of them" he said.
"Okay, I will. Thanks" I said, putting my headphones back in as he left.
First, we have Madison Evans. Or as everyone calls her, Maddie. She's really smart and all, but she's also a major bitch. She already hates me for throwing a hot dog at her face. It was an accident by the way, everyone bet I couldn't throw it in a bin that was a couple metres away, and I said I could.
And before you think I wasted it, I didn't, I already dropped it on the floor.
Anyways, I threw it, and she just happened to slip on something right in front of the bin and it hit her mid-fall, right in the face. So she clearly wouldn't even consider helping me.
Second, we have Dylan Peters. Football player, part time jock, part time smartass. Extremely loud. Like, really loud. He kinda scares me to be honest, I mean the last time I talked to him, I almost fell off my damn chair.
Plus, he always makes lame jokes with peoples names, one time he called me Stella Novella, Cinderstella, and Stella Mozzarella all in one day. Which is why I never talked to him again. I mean, why rhyme my name with an Italian Cheese?
Anyways, moving on. That leaves...Brandon.
It would be kinda weird asking him - and ironic, since he used to tease me in Maths. But if I don't ask him, I'm gonna fail, or have to go after school tuition - which I refuse to do. Whatever, I'll ask him later on.
I looked at the time, and the hour was almost over.
Damn, that went by fast.
I stuffed my books back into my bag, then went to the history corridor to find Brandon leaning on the door, waiting.
"How was detention" I asked.
"Eh. How was the library" he asked.
"Eh" I shrugged, mocking him.
"Stella, so nice to see you" Isabel said, hugging me.
"Nice to see you too. I'm sorry for troubling you, I just-"
"Oh honey it's no trouble, really. You're always welcome here. By the way, are you feeling okay?" she asked, feeling my forehead. I was about to respond and deny being sick like I was all day, but Brandon beat me to it.
"She has a fever, poor thing" he said, tapping my head.
"Aw, I'll make you some herbal tea. Brandon, be nice" she said, going to the kitchen.
"I'm always nice" he said. "What do you wanna watch?"
"Anythings fine" I said, sitting on the couch.
"By the way, Mr Rogers paid me a visit today. Said I need to get a tutor, and recommended 3 people" I said.
"Really? Who?" he asked.
"Maddie, Dylan and you" I said.
"Who'd you pick?" he asked.
"Maddie hates me and Dylan's kinda, you know, obnoxious. So I was wondering if...maybe, like, you know..." I started.
"Yes?" he said.
"If you could...um, if it was okay with you that is...if you could possibly.." I stuttered. God Stel, get your words out!
"Yes..?" he smirked.
Is he enjoying this?
You know what, straight up. Just say it.
"Tutor me" I said.
"Is that a request or an order?" he asked, confused by my tone.
"Will you do it or not?" I asked.
"Hm...I'll have to think about it" he said.
"Brandon" I whined. "I'll tell your mom"
"Okay theres no need to go to such harsh conditions" he said.
"Tell me what?" Isabel asked, coming in with a tray.
"Brandon is refusing to tutor me" I said.
"I didn't refuse, I just sai-"
"He'll do it, don't worry" she smiled. "I'm going to go make dinner, it'll be ready in an hour. If you need anything just ask me, okay?"
I swear, the only person that Brandon is scared of is his mom. If you want something done, ask her.
"Well now you're stuck with me" I said.
"Yay" he said sarcastically. "You need to do something for me in return though"
"As if hanging out with me isn't enough of a blessing" I said. "Can't you just think of it as a favour?"
"Fine, you're so lucky I'm such a giving, caring person" he said.
"Yeah, whatever." I said, sipping on the tea his mom gave me.
"Thanks for dinner, I need to get home. Bye" I said to Brandon's mom, before leaving the house. It was almost 10, so it was pretty dark already. I fumbled for my keys, and literally emptied my bag, but I couldn't find them.
"No no no no" I said, feeling my pockets to see if they were there.
"I. Am. So. Dumb" I said, banging my head on my door with each word.
Well I'm fucked.
I left my damn keys inside. And no one is home.
Great, just great.
What am I supposed to do, sleep outside?
I looked over to Brandon's house.
With no other option, I went back to Brandon's house and knocked on the door.
This is so embarrassing. Why am I such a dumbass. Why?
"Stella?"
I snapped out of my thoughts and saw Brandon, who was shirtless, only wearing a pair of grey joggers standing in front of me.
Holy fuckin' shit.
It's even better up close.
Like...god damn.
Wait. Why do I care about how hot he is? I mean-
"Distracted?" he winked.
"Shut up" I muttered.
"Shouldn't you be home? Did you forget something?" he asked.
"I, um...well, you see I kinda sorta..." I stuttered.
Spit it out Stel!
"I left my keys in my house because well I didn't know my mom and Angelo were gonna be gone for the weekend and I forgot the fact that I forgot them before leaving your house and I'm stuck out here now so I'm-"
"You wanna spend the night here?" he asked, cutting my rant short.
"Could I?" I asked.
"Is that even a question anymore?" he said, probably referring to the numerous slumber parties I've had with Liam or the time I had to live at his house anyway.
"Mom, Stella's spending the night because she forgot her keys" Brandon yelled, as I shut the door behind me.
"Enough making fun of me, I'm an idiot I know" I said, nudging his shoulder as he started to laugh.
"That's fine" she yelled back.
"I presume you want something to wear?" he said.
"I have a pair of shorts I left somewhere in Liam's closet, but I'll need a shirt" I said.
"Can't you use one of Liam's" he asked.
"Are you kidding? That boy literally never does laundry" I said.
"Good point. Get one from my room, I'm gonna go shower" he said.
I went into Liam's room first, and after digging in a huge pile of clothes I finally found my grey pyjama shorts. After that, I scurried through Brandon's drawer and grabbed a black adidas shirt. It actually smelled kinda good, unlike most of the guys I know who literally drown their clothes in deodorant.
Once again, I'm making weird remarks. Either I'm crazy or the fevers getting to my head.
After Brandon came out, I went to shower and then changed. I wanted to go straight to sleep, trust me I did, but Brandon practically forced me to stay up and play video games with him for some reason.
And you know what else? He was still shirtless. I mean I couldn't help it and found myself staring at him. Even in the dark, with only his TV screen on, you can see his perfect abs.
What's wrong with me. Honestly, I must be really sick to be looking at Brandon this much.
"Why are you making me stay up again?" I yawned, looking at the time. It was almost 1:30am.
"I told Liam I'd wait up and open the door for him. And I'm being extremely kind and thoughtful, I brought you everything you begged for" he said.
"I didn't beg for anything" I said.
"Brandon, get me juice. Brandon, give me a blanket I'm cold. Brandon, I'm hungry, I want Doritos." he said, mocking me.
"Whatever" I mumbled, realising he was kinda right.
Okay, I didn't boss him around, but when the opportunity came for him to be my slave, I took it. It's not like I was making him cater to my every need.
Note the sarcasm.
"Liam just texted, he's outside" Brandon said, before going downstairs to let him in.
"Hey Stel, whatcha doing here?" Liam asked.
"I forgot my keys and my mom and Angelo are out. How was the date?" I asked.
"Good. You feeling better?" he asked.
"Kinda. But Brandon forced me to stay up so I'm going to bed before I fall asleep on the spot, night" I said, before going the the guest room, or the 'Stella room', since it was literally my second bedroom. I crawled into bed and drifted off to sleep.
Heyy, yup I'm alive. This was kinda late ik sorryyyy. School is eating me alive like no lie we had a maths test on THE FIRST WEEK BACK TF. I survived a whole month, but why do the weekends go so fast :'(
Anyways, did you guys like this chap? So obviously a certain blonde is catching feelings, she just doesn't know it yet. But she will realise it soon. And there'll be a Brandon POV chapter somewhere along the road too.
Love you all 💕