Chapter 9
The New Girl
TJ
ONE WEEK EARLIER Man, I couldn’t believe how long coach dragged out morning practice today. There was no way I was going to make it to my locker and back in time for class! It was all the way on the other side of the building, and I couldn’t afford to be late for chemistry again. The teacher had warned me last time that I’d get detention if I was late again. I had football practice after school, so detention was a no-go.
You’d think I could just tell coach I had detention because practice ran long, or tell my teacher that I was late because of practice, but no. Neither one of them wanted to hear my excuses, even when they were the cause of the problem. It was so frustrating.
Suddenly, I had a brilliant idea. Tracy’s locker was on this side of the building. I could borrow her chemistry book instead of trekking all the way to my locker. She didn’t have that class until the afternoon, so I doubted she would mind. Perfect!
I quickly dashed over to her locker, put in the combination, and grabbed her book. I did leave her a note, so she wouldn’t worry.
As I turned around to head to class, I was stopped in my tracks. Just down the hall was the most breathtaking girl I had ever seen. She had curly brown hair pulled up in a bun and was wearing tight jeans and a fitted T- shirt that highlighted her absolutely perfect figure. She was petite, no taller than five foot three, but curvy. She was the type of girl that made you want to hold her tightly against you to protect her.
I noticed that she was walking down the hall alone, not talking to anyone. She just had her head down as she headed to class. I wondered if she was new and didn’t have any friends yet. I would gladly be her friend.
“Hey.” I stopped one of my classmates who was walking by; I thought his name was Steven.
“Who’s that?” I asked, pointing to the girl.
“Oh, she’s new, but I don’t know her name. She doesn’t seem to talk to most people, so no one really knows anything about her. If you’re curious, you should ask your sister. That’s the only person anyone has seen the new girl with. I think they’re friends,” Steven replied before quickly walking away.
Oh, shoot, class. I needed to run if I didn’t want to be late. I would have to remember to ask Tracy about this mystery girl later.
Or not. Tracy wasn’t likely to share anything about her friends with me ever again.
Thankfully, I made it to chemistry just before the bell rang. While making it to class on time kept me out of detention, it didn’t help me learn the material. I couldn’t pay any attention because my mind was consumed with wondering about the new girl. I felt a desire to know everything I could about her.
I looked for her between each class and over lunch, but I must have completely the opposite schedule from her. The only time I was able to see her was when I returned Tracy’s textbook. She was walking toward me, heading to her locker. Once again, she was looking down, so I couldn’t really see much of her facial features, but what I did see was stunning.
She had large, brown doe eyes, a cute button nose, and soft-looking, pouty lips. The more I stared at her, the more I wondered what her lips would feel like pressed against mine.
This was insane. I didn’t even know her. I’d never been this infatuated over a girl without knowing her. Maybe my attraction was because she was the only girl in the school who didn’t stare at me as I walked by. In fact, I was not even sure she realized I was standing there. She just walked by as if I didn’t exist. It hurt my ego just a little, to be honest.
· · ·
It had now been a week since I’d seen her for the first time, and I still knew next to nothing about her. I was able to find out that her name was Charlotte—what a beautiful name—but that was about it. I honestly felt like a bit of a stalker. I’d made multiple excuses to come to Tracy’s locker in the hope of catching a glimpse of Charlotte as she walked by.
Most of the times I’d seen her, she’d been with Tracy. It always seemed as if Tracy was talking her ear off. I had not heard Charlotte say a thing.
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised. Tracy talked enough for two people; she really needed to work on that.
I kept asking people about her, but no one seemed to know a thing, and no one had ever heard her talk either. I wondered if she couldn’t talk because Tracy talked over her, or if she was just shy. I really wanted to know more about her, but it seemed the only way to do that would be to ask Tracy myself. The only problem with that plan was I didn’t want Tracy to realize I was interested.
The last time I dated her friend, it turned out to be a disaster.
Apparently, her friends were just pretending to like her because one of them wanted to date me. As soon as we got together, they dropped Tracy like yesterday’s garbage.
Of course, I instantly ended the relationship—family first—but the damage was already done. I couldn’t understand why anyone would treat another person that way. It was disgusting. Tracy was absolutely crushed.
She really thought they were her friends. They had all been together for years. They were still on the cheer squad together, which sucked for Tracy.
The whole thing made me hesitant to talk to Tracy about any friend of hers, and hesitant to talk to any of them directly. I guessed I would just keep being a stalker at a distance—how pathetic.
We didn’t have a football game for once, so I decided to go to a party that Neal, one of my buddies, was throwing. I was really just trying to get my mind off Charlotte, so hopefully this would be a good distraction.
I still didn’t understand why I couldn’t get her out of my head. I didn’t even know her.
I asked Tracy if she wanted to come with me—she normally came to these parties—but she declined. I guessed she didn’t want to run into her former friends, not that I blamed her. I asked if she wanted me to stay home and keep her company, but she seemed almost eager for me to leave.
“Yo, TJ, bro! Glad you could make it!” Neal greeted me as I walked into the house.
“What up?” I responded while giving a bro hug.
“Ya know, chicks and booze. Want a cold one?” he asked, tossing me a
beer.
“You read my mind!”
After popping the top on my beer, I followed Neal into the living room and took a seat on the couch between two chicks. I was pretty sure they had no problem with me sitting between them, at least based on the way they kept rubbing their legs against me. Not happening, girls, not happening.
“Hey, TJ, you’re looking a little bored. Want to go have some fun?” the girl on my left asked.
“Yeah, ever had fun with twins?” the one on my right added.
Whoa, that caught my attention. How had I missed that I was sitting between twins? I quickly looked from one to the other. Yup, definitely twins —identical twins. I was in the middle of every red-blooded teenage male’s biggest fantasy. Not just twins, large-chested, blonde-bombshell twins. I was pretty sure I’d seen this played out in a porno before.
I wanted to take them up on their offer. I wanted to make males everywhere proud, you know, take one for the team, but I couldn’t. If they had asked me a few weeks ago—heck, maybe even one week ago—I would have been upstairs with them in a heartbeat. But now, as much as it pained me to admit it, I had no desire to go with them.
All I could think about when I looked at them was how curly brown hair was cuter than straight blonde hair, and how brown eyes seemed more captivating than blue. Basically, everything about them was not Charlotte.
Dang it, get this girl out of my head.
“I’m sorry, ladies, I’m flattered, but I’m going to have to decline your offer,” I politely told them.
To distract myself from Charlotte and the two girls still rubbing against me despite my rejection, I watched as a group played truth or dare. I didn’t really feel like playing, so I just sat back, laughing at the dares. When I played, my dares always seemed to involve kissing someone, and I didn’t feel like doing that tonight.
The truths were generally pretty lame, like “Who do you like?” or “Who have you been with?”—not really anyone’s business. This game was similar to all of the others—people making out or stripping. Not surprisingly,
however, it became more entertaining as the night went on, but that was due to the beers. I began to realize that there wasn’t much to do at a party if you weren’t trying to hook up with a chick or play lame games. This really wasn’t working to take my mind off Charlotte. I guessed I needed to drink more.
Several hours later, I had a pretty decent buzz going but still wasn’t finding the distraction I was hoping for, so I decided to call it a night.
“Neal, great party, man, but I think I’m going to head out. I have some things to do early tomorrow,” I lied. I didn’t want him to catch on that I had other things distracting me.
“I get it, drive safe, man,” he replied.
“Actually, I’m gonna call for a ride. I’ll come grab my truck in the morning,” I replied.
My parents didn’t really care if I drank, but were very strict about drinking and driving. My mom was a nurse at the local hospital, so she’d seen way too many people injured in drunk driving accidents. She had drilled it into our heads since we were kids: don’t drink and drive. I pulled out my phone to order a ride to come get me, then drank one more beer while I waited. Hey, might as well keep this buzz as long as possible.
About twenty minutes later, I finally got out of the car at my house. I paid the driver and walked up to my room. Man, was I tired, but I smelled like cheap perfume from those chicks I was sitting beside. There was no way I’d be able to go to bed with that on me. I stripped out of my shirt to see if that was enough, but I still reeked. The only solution was to take a shower before bed, so I made my way to the bathroom down the hall.
I was almost to the door when someone walked out of it and straight into my chest.
