CHAPTER 4: The Past

Previously On My High School Life:

"Demi has a crush on someone" Selena kept going.

"But it's kinda someone we don't like" said Taylor.

"Who?" someone said.

Selena and Taylor looked at me asking if I was sure I wanted them to say it. I just nodded. I couldn't even talk.

"Sterling Knight" they both said.

"WHAT?"

Now on with the story.

"Demi! Are you kidding?" Someone shouted at me. I just gave them all a sheepish looked and looked down at my feet. Oh no. Its exactly what I thought would happen.

"Oh my GOSH! Demi actually likes someone!" Meaghan shouted.

"I know, right? This is great!" Tiffany squealed.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, what? I looked up at them finally with a confused look. "What do you mean?" I questioned.

"Demz, we've been worrying you were going emo or something. We thought you just gave up on love or somethin' " AJ explained.

"See, it wasn't just me" Taylor told me.

"Wait, so you guys aren't mad at me?" I looked at them with a hopefully and disbelieving face.

"Why would we be mad at you? Just cus' we don't like Sterling doesn't mean you can't." Miley explained with a "duh" tone in her voice.

"Are you all CRAZY? She likes Sterling! Demi!" Skyler yelled all the sudden with an angry face. Oh gosh, this is the exact thing I feared the most.

"Dude, what's the big deal?" Ferguson asked him.

"Sterling's one of our best friends! She can't just start liking him! It's not supposed to be like this!" He screamed partially at Ferguson, partially at me.

"Dude, you realize that doesn't make sense right?" Nick tried to reason with him.

"Fine. I'm going to his house now anyways. I'll just go tell him now" Skyler said staring at me. What is going on? He can't tell him! Ugh! This is the reason I didn't want everyone to find out! Especially Skyler and Ferguson, Sterling's friends.

Skyler ran off towards where Sterling was walkin with some other friends, like Taylor L. This can NOT be happening! Ferguson looked at me with an appologetic look then took off after him.

All I could do was stand there. Frozen. All my friends eyes were glued on me and I knew it, but I couldn't even move to look at them. Then I felt an arm around my shoulder that knocked me out of my trance. It was Selena.

"Hey, he's just mad. He prob won't even tell. Don't worry" she tried to comfort me.

"This is exactly why I didn't want the others to find out, Sel. I knew this would happen!" I couldn't help it. My eyes started stinging and my throat was tightening with the lump that was slowly growing.

"Hey do you wanna go get ice cream or something to try and cheer you up?" Emily asked me, walking over and hugging me.

"Ya, that might help. Thanks. Lets go."

Not everyone could go. Meaghan, Allison, Ella, Peggy, Grady, Aly, and AJ couldn't make it, and Skyler and Ferguson were still with…him. The rest of us started heading towards the near-by ice cream shop. Once we got there we all ordered different things, Sel and I decided to split a strawberry shake. We sat down in the red booth seats with the granite-looking tables. The place was made to look like an old-fashioned diner; it was one of or groups favorite hangout spots.

"So Demi, we're still on for the party this weekend right?" Kevin asked.

"Totally! It's gonna be awesome! We're gonna take out the slip-n-slide and bounce house!" We laughed. The cool thing about my friends was that we didn't care about acting crazy! In fact, in our minds, we were all still freshman, pulling all the crazy stunts and acting like maniacs. No one could ever make fun of us either because we acted like that on purpose and people knew it.

"Sweet!" Nico cried out. After about an hour, I was feeling a lot better, almost forgetting about the Sterling/Skyler incident. Almost.

We all decided to go home then. We all said bye to each other…except where was Kevin and Brandi again? Oh well, I'll see them tomorrow anyways. Me and Selena started walking home, talking about the party.

"Do you want me to come over a little early and help set up everything?" she asked.

"Ya, thanks. What movie should we watch during the sleepover?"

"Hmmm…OH! I know! Letters to Juliet!" She shouted filled with excitement. Selena's favorite movie at the moment was Letters to Juliet, so I really should have seen that coming.

"Okay. I'll ask the other girls later and see if there's anything else they want to watch, too" I told her.

"So you feeling better?" she asked with concern in her voice.

I sighed. "I just don't know what to do if he tells. You know what happened before, Sel. I don't want to get hurt again" I said, pain evident in my voice.

You see, a couple years ago, Sterling and I were inseparable. We literally talked almost 24/7. Whether it was in person or on the phone or iming on myspace or email, we would talk for hours straight. Then one day, I had a friend come over and I introduced them. They immediately liked each other, and well, he basically forgot about me. We still talked after that, just not as much, saying as he was busy talking to her instead.

And then she just stopped talking to him completely when she found the next cute boy. She basically broke his heart, and when she broke his, he got back by breaking mine. He cussed me out and said he didn't want to talk to me anymore.

That was also when I realized I loved him. Shortly before he broke me. I cried for so long after that, but eventually I got back to a semi-regular life. That's why my friends hated him. They didn't know the whole story, but they knew he hurt me. Selena was the only one who knew the whole thing.

By now, we wee already in front of our houses, so Selena crossed the street as I walked up the steps to my door. I glanced at the clock to see how long we had actually been gone. I was surprised when it said 5:27. I climbed up the steps to my bedroom and took out my binder. Since I had done most of my stuff at the end of classes, I only had the last few problems for math that I finished within 10 minutes.

When I had put everything away, I sat down on my bad and pulled out my laptop. Logging into my myspace, I saw that a few of my friends were online and that I had a new friend request. It was Taylor L. so I quickly accepted it since he was still online.

The next minute after reading a bulletin survey that Grady had done, I got an IM from Taylor L.

Taylor_18: Hey Demi

DemDemz3: hey taylor! What's up

Taylor_18: nothing really, just working on the math homework.

DemDemz3: ugh I hate math. Its so boring XP but I finished it earlier

Taylor_18: really? Wow. Im still trying to get it haha. Ugh its so freaking confusing!

DemDemz3: if you need help sometime, I can always help ya.

Taylor_18: really? Thanks Demi! I thought u hated math tho?

DemDemz3: well ya, but I'm still good at it. Haha. Apparently I had one of the top grades in my class last year.

Taylor_18: wow that's cool! Now I'm really glad I met you. Especially since I met miley because of you. Thanks for that btw J

DemDemz3: Awww I feel loved J no prob!

Taylor_18: haha

DemDemz3: well I g2g my moms gonna be home soon.

Taylor_18: really? Wow when does ur mom get home?

DemDemz3: ya about 7:30ish

Taylor_18: oh wow. Ok bye demi see ya 2morrow!

DemDemz3: see ya!

DemDemz3 has logged off

Taylor_18 has logged off

I shut off my computer and went downstairs with my ipod and headed into the kitchen to find something to eat. I plugged my ipod into the dock we had downstairs with the portable speakers in there and put it on shuffle. As I started searching in the pantry for something appealing, the song Thunder by Boys Like Girls came on. I started singing along with it while deciding on making some macaroni and cheese.

Your voice was the soundtrack of my summer

Do you know you're unlike any other?

You'll always be my thunder, and I said

Your eyes are the brightest of all the colors

I don't wanna ever love another

You'll always be my thunder

So bring on the rain

And bring on the thunder

I couldn't help but think about last summer, when the whole Sterling incident happened. This song was my favorite at that time, and it was true to me and what I was feeling. I really hope Skyler didn't tell him I like him. That could ruin any chance I could have to be his friend again.

I poured the macaroni into the strainer and then mixed in the cheese milk and butter then stirred it till it was done. By then I was singing to a new song, Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. I ate my dinner and saved the rest for my mom who would be home in about 10 minutes. I shut off my ipod and went back upstairs to take a shower and change into my pajamas.

When I was out dressed, I walked downstairs to see my mom eating.

"Hey Mom."

"Oh hey, Sweetie. Thank you for dinner" she told me, "Its very good."

"Thanks. How was your day?" I asked her sitting down across the table from her.

"Long. Tiring. How was school?" she asked.

Amazing! My friends made me tell everyone who I liked, which by the way is that boy that you hate and say he has no future. And on top of that wonderful part, one of them, who is also friends with him, might have told him I like him. So ya, my day was absolutely fantastic! I thought to myself, even my mind was dripping with sarcasm. Ya, she doesn't need to know about this.

"Eh. It was boring. But some of us went down to the ice cream shop today after school" I told her. Wasn't technically a lie. Well except for the boring part, but classes were boring so ya, wasn't technically a lie…

"Oh that's fun!" she said.

"Ya it was! Oh and Miley started going out with one of my new friends in math, Taylor Lautner. He's a senior and he's really cool. I might be helping him with math this year, too" I told her.

"Are you jealous? Do you like him?" she inquired.

"What? No! No no no no no! He's just a friend! I would never like him. He's more of a brother than a friend already" I told her. It was true. I liked Taylor, but I could never picture myself liking him that way. "Besides, him and Miley are so cute together! You can tell they really like each other. Just like Selena and Nick, just not so clueless" I joked with her. Even my mother knew they liked each other, that's how utterly lost they were.

"Oh, okay. Just checking." She finished her dinner and I offered to do the dishes, so she went into the living room and turned on the tv. When I was done, I told her I was going to go up to my room.

I played my guitar for a while, finding music to some of my favorite songs, and even writing out some lyrics to my own. When I finally looked at the clock, my mom knocked on the door. It was 10:00.

"Demi, I'm going to bed, you should soon, too. But no more guitar okay?" she told me opening the door.

"Okay mom. I kinda tired so I'm gonna go to bed now. Good night. Love ya."

"I love you, too. Goodnight."

I went to bed that night thinking about what happened that day and wondering if Skyler told Sterling or if Ferguson was able to stop him first. I fell asleep around 10:30.

Did Skyler tell? Or did Ferguson talk some sense into him? What will happen now that all her friends know? And why do Kevin and Brandi keep disappearing to? Will Nick and Selena EVER get a clue? Find out next time on My High School Life.

Okay. So I know I haven't posted in literally a month but I have my reasons. I have a summer reading thing I have to do for my English Honors class and for the 4th of July, we go up to Tahoe for a week, so I didn't have time to write then. And then every other weekend I have these acting modeling classes I'm in and its an all day thing. I've been really busy so I am SUPER SUPER DOOPER UBER COMPLETELY sorry! PLEASE don't hate me for this. I love you guys though for still reading this and reviewing and all the favorites and subscriptions.

So ya I'm almost done with the reading projects. Kinda. So I should be able to post sooner. Definetly sooner than a month tho. Haha. Oh and when Demi put her ipod on shuffle, its what came up on my ipod cus its what was on shuffle ha. But Thunder was really a song I wanted to use because of what it meant.

In the words of Brittney Spears (kinda. I'm editing some words.):

Love me, hate me, say what you want about me. But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to review the story. J Ya? Sweet! REVIEW!

P.S.: I own nothing but plot. There. that's my disclaimer for last four chapters. Haha.