Walking up to her is like walking along death row. No exaggeration. I'm practically sweating the alcohol out of my system.

Tonight Claire is wearing some red dress. I'm a guy, not a fashion expert. But, hell, does it look good on her. The kind of material that clings to a girl's hips and hugs her…hum…curves…in a dangerously hot way. Her hair is down, shoulder length, thick and mussed from the heat of the pub. She looks gorgeous and I can't stop staring. I want to, `cus this is just getting creepy, but oh my god I just can't stop.

"Can I help you?"

And she's talking to me. No. She's asking me a question. Shit.

"uhm…yeah…uh…you're Claire right?" I manage to choke out.

Her eyes are brilliant. Big and brown, framed with thick mascacared lashes. Yeah, sure, make-up can be ridiculous on some girls but on her, this stunner, she just looks even more perfect.

"Yup. That's me" she replies with a shy smile.

She smiles as if she has some kind of inside joke. And I wanna be part of it.

"I'm Aaron."

"Hey. I've never seen you round here before…but then I don't get out much." She admits this with a laugh and I literally can't help but laugh back.

"Yeah, no, I don't come here that often either." I'm lying. I'm here nearly every weekend but I'm not letting her know that. Too innocent.

"Nice shirt" she's pointing to my Vote for Pedro T-shirt and I'm instantly chuffed that we have something in common.

"Thanks, one of my favourites. As you can see I go all out on the weekend. It was either this one or my blue one with a marmite stain."

"Well, at least it's good for starting conversation huh?" She's still doing that secret smile thing and I can't help but grin back. We talk for a while, bantering about stupid unimportant things but every single thing we talk about makes me feel as if I have an actual chance with this girl.

And then it happens:

"So, uh, Claire?"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna…I dunno…go out sometime? Like see a movie or bowling or I dunno `cus bowling can be lame so maybe we could go for food….." I'm rambling and it's embarrassing. The kind of rambling when you know you should stop but the words won't stop and you're just digging yourself deeper and deeper into this hole of embarrassment. Know the feeling?

She then puts her hand on my arm and gives me an apologetic smile and begins to say "Oh I'm sorry Aaron but-"

And then he walks up to us. This tall tanned guy. I don't bat for the other team, I'm seriously pro girls, but my god. This guy is better than me. I'm not cocky, well I am, I have admirers but this guy, this guy turns heads, girls and some guys. And did I mention that he has enough muscle to swipe me in a fight?

He grabs Claire swiftly by the waist and pecks little kisses all over her face that make her squeal with angelic laughter. I'm instantly jealous. He then turns to me and I'm struck by who this guy is.

"Hey… Aaron yeah?" he says stiffly.

"He" is Shane Collins. Now all Morganville natives, and even some new kids, know not to cross Collins, son of the badass biker Frank Collins. Apparently he once got in a fight with a group of footballers and sent four out of five of them to A&E…. To say I had competition would be the understatement of the year.

"Uh yeah man that's me. How you doin`? Didn't know you were still in town." Me and Shane used to be mates, not close, but close enough for some seriously brief guy talk.

"Yeah Yeah bro, can't really leave this one can I?" he smiles down at Claire and I'm surprised at the warmth in his face. She beams back at him. Shane then looks at me, I'm instantly aware of the challenging look in his eyes. He'd clearly seen me and Claire laughing and getting on. I'm either in for it, or being told to back the hell down.

He puts an arm round her shoulders and whispers in her ear that they've gotta go. He gives me another challenging look. Yup. I'm being told to back the hell down from his girl.

Before they leave , smiling again, Claire turns to me and says: "It was nice meeting you Aaron. Sorry about that thing you were gonna ask me about but maybe you can come stop by the house somtime. Shane makes a mean chilli".

Yeah I bet he does.

Thank you so much for the reviews. Every single one made me smile like a loon x