"There all staring at me," I said, barely moving my mouth.
"Just ignore them, it's what I always do." I rolled my eyes and glanced over at Josh through the sunglasses I hadn't taken off all day.
"Yes, because you've always had a hundred bikini-clad girls staring at you at one time, and I've [i]always[/i] had a hundred horny 14 year old guys staring at me." I couldn't believe where I was. Sitting on a chase lounger next to Aaron's pool, I mean. Because Aaron and I are two of the youngest people in our grade, our birthday parties are usually kind of the last hurrah of the summer. Except, mine usually don't include kegs snuck in by my older brother (if I had one) or a bunch of girls that could pass for playboy bunnies all over me (well that would be just gross). But here I was, glamourless, my new brown-almost-black, jagged cut hair and all (I had gotten it done yesterday at the salon, just not the way I had originally planned), sitting in one of Aaron's chairs, with almost ever guy in the grade staring at me, wondering who the hell I was. I mean, sure, the girls were doing the same thing to Josh, but with his skater/nerd/hot prep thing he had going on, what with his long side bangs and non-prescription Versace glasses, fitted with transitions so he could go outside, I had to admit he looked good with his six-wait, eight-pack gleaming for all the world to see. Once I had finally convinced Aaron that it was really me (by relaying all the particular equations I knew he had had trouble with in tutoring), I had headed strait for a shaded lounger with Josh at my side, holding my hand, still posing at my pseudo boyfriend (which explained to all my friends why I would be hanging out with him so much, since it didn't really matter to my parents anymore).
"Hello, good lookin." I looked up and pushed my glasses onto my forehead. Michael Attwood was looking me over, one hand on his hip and the other holding a drink (alcohol, probably). I flashed over some mental replays of my relationship with Michael to Josh, so he'd know who exactly who we were dealing with here. I heard his jaw clench. See, Michael had been one of those guys that you absolutely hate, but you can't be mean to cause their girlfriend would trash your social reputation or kick your ass (or both), since about fifth grade. He's a player, an asshole, and as of June 14th, the most eligible bachelor in our grade aside from Aaron, who wasn't much into playing the field (a rare thing in our generation). In my middle school, the eighth-almost ninth-graders acted more like high school kids than 14 year olds. The drama and relationship crap we deal with happens in like senior grade at most schools.
"Michael, what can I help you with?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. He looked confused.
"How'd you know who I am?"
"Michael, I've known you since about third grade." Even more confusion. "Michael, it's me, Holly." His eyes widened.
"No way!" I rolled my eyes.
"I'm not playing this game. It's me, get over it."
"Holy shit, it really is you." Josh was shaking his head too. As he said this, someone else slid into place next to him. Crap. Todd Fuller. The local total perve, as we like to call him.
"Well who might this pretty young lady be?" Todd asked in an innocent voice.
"Dude, that's Holly Pevency." Some of Michael's drink sloshed out of his cup as he gestured to me.
"Damn, girl you got [b]hot[/b] over the summer." I rolled my eyes again. Josh stood up quickly and stood in from on me, holding his hand out to Michael.
"I don't believe we've met," he said, his accent strong in his anger. "I'm Josh, Holly's boyfriend." Josh shook Michael's hand, looking slightly fearful. Did I mention that Josh is about three inches taller and a lot more muscular than Michael? Yeah didn't think so. Anyways, as Michael and Todd scurried off, Lizzy and Bree scampered towards us.
"Ohmigosh, Holls!" Lizzy said, pulling me into a three-way hug. "You said on the phone that we wouldn't recognize you, but this is awesome!" I knew I'd have to tell them eventually why I had changed so much, but, for now I'd just let them think it was a good dye job and a lot of working out.
"Thanks," I said, returning the hug. They pulled out and immediately looked over at Josh.
"And who is this?" Bree asked. I smiled and grabbed Josh's hand for the added effect.
"Girls, this is Josh, the guy I was telling you about on the phone. He's my….well he's my boyfriend."
"Ohmigosh, tell us [b]exactly[/b] how it happened!" Lizzy pulled me into the seat after her proclamation and I tried to come up with the best story I could. Right then, right where I was, with Josh just standing behind me on the look out, talking to my girl again, it was the first piece of normalcy I had had in a while, and it was the last I was going to have in a while, too.
"Remind me again why we're doing this?" I asked Josh, swing-kicking at his head. He ducked and stepped away, motioning for me to do it again.
"Because, when you're one of us, you tend to run into trouble along the way. And especially for someone like you, you want to be repaired for whatever comes along." I rolled my eyes and kicked up again, just grazing his forehead as he ducked. "Ow, son of a-" He cut off after he saw me glaring at him. At almost midnight the Tuesday after Aaron's party, even though I was supposed to be some Energizer-Bunny vampire, I was really tired. And after about four hours of this kickboxing practice, I was pissed off too.
"Someone like me?" He shrugged and motioned for me to come at him.
"You know."
"No, I don't."
"Oh, come on."
"Spit it out."
"Oh, whatever, like you could hurt me. I've had almost two hundred years to practice this stuff." I rolled my eyes.
"Really." I thought for a second, and then widened my eyes and cheesily pointed to a vague area behind him. "Oh my god, it's Jessica Alba!!" Of course, being a boy, he turned around, wide eyed, and at that second, I jumped on his back, making him topple forwards. Before he could react, I pinned his arm behind him and straddled his waist from behind.
"Is that the best you've got?" he asked cheekily, and I twisted his arm harder. In the blink of an eye, he was out from under me, and in another blink, he was on top of me, his hands pinning my arms above my head. "That's why you don't get cocky," he said, his breathing slightly heavy. I looked up at him in disbelief and tried to move out from under him. He smirked and held my arms tighter. [i]Asshole[/i], I thought. He smirked still, and I started to feel myself blushing. "Awww, is wittle Howwy a wittle embewassed?" I rolled my eyes.
"No, Wittle Howwy is a wittle pissed off because some perve won't get off her." He laughed.
"So I'm a perve now, am I?"
"You're a thirteen year old boy. What thirteen year-old isn't a perve?"
"Ahh, but I'm not thirteen. I'm almost 200."
"Obviously not in the mental area. Cause the things I'm picking up off your feed sound pretty thirteen year old-ish to me." I could feel him trying to slam his mental door shut. I laughed. "Now can you let me go? My stupid sports bra is riding up because your knees are pushing it up. And it's really uncomfortable." I noted to myself never to work out in just a sports bra and shorts again.
He let go of my arms with one hand, still pinning them with the other, and pulled the bottom hem of my bra down, almost a little too far, with a slightly shaky hand. We don't really need to breathe, but I was still getting used to not using oxygen, and I could hear my breathing become shallow and shaky and his face moved closer and closer to mine.
"[b]Josh? Holly?[/b]" I mentally cursed the mansion's intercom system as Josh rolled off of me quickly and I sat up.
"Yeah, Dad?" Josh said, standing up and offering me a hand, not looking me in the eye. I stood up without his assistance and adjusted my top.
"You and Holly need to finish getting everything loaded into the car so we can head to the airport. I know it's our plane, but we still don't want to keep people waiting."
"Ok, Caleb. We'll be right down." I headed for the door, pulling my hair out of my ponytail and running my hands through it.
[i]What was that?[/i] I looked back at Josh, and he was still standing in the middle of the room, his arms crossed.
[i]Teenage hormones coming to play? I don't know. Just forget it. We're just pretending to date. [/i] Before I could think anything else, Josh pushed past me and out the door. Was this what it was always going to be? Every time something happens, we fight, and then we pretend to be all happy about it and it goes away? Gah. I went and changed quickly in the room I had set up upstairs in the house, a few doors down from Josh's, and then finished helping loading the car.
"You two OK?" Caleb asked from the front of the car as we headed to the airport. "You're awfully quiet."
"Fine," Josh and I said in unison, both of us with our arms crossed.
"Well you two better get your attitudes together, or Holly might not get what we've planned for her tonight." Another surprise? Oh, great. I raised an eyebrow but didn't ask anything. We were already getting ready to take off when the pilot came on the overcome.
"Mr. Carlson, we're ready to take of for Las Vegas International."