Chapter one
—————————————————————————————————————
I woke up to my mother screaming at me because I haven’t got out of my bed for the first day of my Junior year, I was already dreading leaving the comfort of my own bed, but as Leila’s caller ID popped on my screen, I knew I had no choice but to get ready to go to another year of hell. I slowly dragged my feet to the bathroom that I shared with my brother and got ready. At this point I couldn’t care less about my appearance as much as people would’ve thought, considering that I’m in a school full of models. Once I changed, I packed my bag and put my phone in my back pocket and ran downstairs to eat breakfast. Luckily for me, my jerk of an older brother named Roman was making butter-milk pancakes, a recipe he figured out how to master in college.
“G’morning kiddo”
“ Shut up, you’re starting to sound like dad” I said, clearly annoyed that he wasn’t offering me pancakes.
He chuckled as he slid the plate of pancakes across the mini island in the middle of our kitchen, topped with syrup and whipped cream. I devoured the stack of pancakes within minutes and decided that it was time to head out. I waited for my ride, which happened to be my best friend, Leila Asfoor. Leila and I have been best friends since middle school, when she walked in with her pure white hijab and confused as ever, I sat next to her and we’ve been inseparable ever since.
Once I saw Leila’s pure black Range Rover pull up, I knew that’s what her parents got her for her birthday. One thing about Leila that everyone seems to know about, she is rich. Leila’s parents are the CEO’s one of the biggest companies in our city. They have always given Leila what she wanted without her becoming a spoilt brat. As I sat in the new car, I turned to see my best friend's face covered in makeup that was foreign to her skin. She never really wore makeup so this was extremely surprising to me. Don’t get me wrong, she was stunning. But seeing her with so much makeup was so strange, it was somewhat intriguing.
“You look like a deer in headlights” Leila states, bringing me out of my daydream. Her smile widens as she realizes that I’m confused at the look of makeup on her naturally beautiful face.
“It’s a one day thing, I wanted to see how people would react and I think it fulfilled my expectations” she said with a giggle at the end.
“It looks great, just a bit surprising” I say, as she drives off to start our junior year.
Once we enter the doors I’ve grown so used to seeing, me and Leila are greeted with a comforting hug from the one and only, Cody Grant. Cody and I met in freshman year at physics and since then, me, Cody and Leila have been better than ever. Cody can only be described as the typical “e-boy”. With his black hair that matches his black and white outfit perfectly, he meets the e-boy standards to a pin.
“I see Leila has found the art of makeup” Cody says as he stands between me and Layla and slings his arm over our shoulders.
“And I see you have officially mastered the art of annoyance” said Leila with her extremely sarcastic tone.
As I ignore their playful banter, my eyes wander to the one person I’m hopeful to see in this place that I call school. And without looking for too long, I see my crush of 2 years now. Connor Stevens
