Login with:

Facebook

Twitter

Tumblr

Google

Yahoo

Aol.

Mibba

Your info will not be visible on the site. After logging in for the first time you'll be able to choose your display name.

Smooth Criminal

twenty-one.

“Is Amanda’s mom behaving?”
I rolled my eyes at my father’s voice as he continued to mercilessly question me over the phone. The fact that I wasn’t within arm’s length for him to order me around was driving him insane, I’m sure. But was it really necessary for him to sit there and ask me all of these pointless questions? Like, who the fuck cares if Amanda’s aunt went to bed past midnight or if she was a herbivore or carnivore? Seriously, he was just knit-picking for one small detail to bitch about.
“Yes, Dad. Everyone is doing fine and I’m alive. I have to go, though. We’re about to go get lunch.” Without waiting for any response from the man, I hung up the phone and let out an annoyed grunt.
“How’s the family?” Alex smirked at me from the spot he’d yet to move from since we woke up that morning. I glared at him through the mirror that I was using to do my makeup for the day.
“I honestly have no idea how I deal with that man,” I answered him as I pulled my eyelid out to the side to wing my liner. “He’s such a pain in my ass.”
“Just move out.” Alex shrugged and looked down at his phone. I fought the urge to roll my eyes, for this was something I had been doing way too often and I was scared that my eyes might possibly get stuck in the back of my head.
“I have a whole year left of high school, love,” I reminded him in a flat voice. “I’m stuck.”
Alex didn’t reply, so I figured the subject was therefore dropped. He was too engrossed in his phone, so that bought me some time to focus on finishing my hair and makeup. The weather outside was humid and slightly hot for it still being November, but I guess that’s what’s expected when in Texas. So I opted on throwing my hair up in a cute ponytail that was slightly poofed in the front for volume. Giving my reflection a once-over, I peeled myself out of the chair I had been sitting in for the last forty-five minutes and shuffled over to my suitcase to grab an outfit for the day. Nothing I brought seemed to be really cute in any way, so I finally settled on a pair of army green denim shorts and a striped tank top that knotted in the front just above my naval.
“I look like a mom…” I thought out loud, yanking my shorts lower on my thighs.
“A smokin’ hot mom,” Alex growled, appearing behind me. “I’d totally hit that.” He spun me around to face him and winked down at me. I laughed and placed my hands on his chest.
“You’re ridiculous, Alexander.” I stood up on my tip toes and placed a sweet kiss on his lips before bending down to grab my black Chuck Taylors from my suitcase. As I bent down, Alex’s hand collided harshly with my rear end and a loud scream escaped my lips.
“Alex!” I gasped in shock.
“Stella!” He mocked me with a sly smirk. I shook my head at the boy and sat down on the ground and put my shoes on my feet.
“That was rude,” I went on, scolding him.
“You liked it,” he argued. I remained silent, having no rebuttal for that. He wasn’t entirely wrong… “Hurry up. I’m fucking starving and Rian said something about grabbing Whataburger.”
I arched my eyebrow at the boy as I continued lacing up my shoes. “We ate Whataburger last night, Alex.”
“It’s so good, babe. I think I’m in love.” Alex let out a dramatic sigh and fell backwards on to the bed, the comforter sounding with an ‘oomph,’ protesting under his weight. I just shook my head and went back to putting on my shoes, ignoring the feeling the word ‘love’ left tugging at my heart. My thoughts rushed back to last night; the concert, the fight in Whataburger, losing my virginity, the possibility of me falling in love with Alex. Wasn’t it too soon for those kind of feelings, though? I mean, we weren’t even an official couple. Yes, we spend a lot of time together and, yes, maybe we do spend a lot more time kissing than two teenagers probably should. But that doesn’t mean I’m falling in love with him, right? I’m seventeen years old. I’ve never even had a boyfriend. I was probably just confusing the feeling of being so infatuated with someone for the first time and was getting caught up in the emotions that come along with someone showing me so much of this new attention that I’d never really had before with love. That had to be it.
Shaking myself from the thoughts racing through my mind, I stood to my feet and grabbed my sunglasses from the desk in the room.
“Ready?” I asked Alex, who was furiously texting someone from his spot on the bed he had migrated back to. He peered up at me with innocent eyes and nodded.
“I’ve been ready. You’re the one who took a thousand years and a half to get dressed.” He pulled himself off the bed and grabbed the room key before taking my hand in his as we exited the room.
“It took you thirty of those minutes to straighten your hair.” I narrowed my eyes up at him. “I don’t even wanna hear it.”
Our playful banter continued on like this as we made the journey down to the lobby where our friends were waiting on our arrival.
“Nice neck.” Kara pointed to a dark spot on Alex’s neck that I seemed to have missed earlier with a knowing smirk and the group of boys all corrupted into a series of “Ooooh!’s while Alex shrugged it off as if it wasn't that big of a deal.
“What? You've never seen a hickey before?” He looked at our friends like they were toddlers being scorned for putting their hands in a cookie jar and simply tugged the collar of his shirt up a bit and fixed his hair to make the blemish a bit less noticeable.
“Sorry,” I mumbled to him as we all made way to one of the vans in the parking lot.
Alex shrugged once more. “It's really not that big of a deal,” he explained calmly to me. “They're just being dumb.” I nodded my head at the statement, catching Amanda’s eyes as I went to take my place by the window.
‘You okay?’ Her expression asked me. I nodded my head coolly and gave her a toothy grin, to which she happily returned.
“Can I drive?” Jack’s voice was heard asking from outside the van.
“No!” Alex, Kara, Rian, Amanda, Zack, Matt, and I all yelled at once, each of our faces overcome with terrified and wide eyes.
“What the hell? Why the fuck not?” Jack protested angrily.
“I love you, Jack. I really do,” Amanda began. “But I also love my life a lot more than that. You're not driving.” And with that being said, my best friend snatched the keys from Matt’s grasp and climbed into the driver’s side. “You can sit shotgun though.”
Jack rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, grumbling and protesting and bitching about how we all hated him and whatnot; but yet he still ended up sitting in the passenger’s side nonetheless.
“Who's pumped for night number two?” Rian suddenly asked, very loudly might I add. I stared at the stalky drummer boy with widened eyes, not sure where this sudden enthusiasm was coming from. Rian was energetic, yes. But rarely was he ever loud. “I've had, like, three and a half Red Bulls,” he admitted when he caught glimpses of everyone's shocked faces.
“Dude,” Zack laughed. “It's only eleven in the morning. Why the fuck have you had so many energy drinks?”
Rian stared at me for a reason unknown to me as he explained. “I was just hyped up on adrenaline last night, I couldn't sleep for shit. And I didn't wanna be dead tired all day today.”
“You're going to die,” Jack mused from the front. Rian’s face fell in an unpleased frown at the comment and Alex flicked Jack in the back of the head.
“Don't be rude!” Jack yelled dramatically.
“Don't be a dick!” Alex yelled back in a similar tone.
“Stells,” Jack said seriously, turning around to face me. “You're not allowed to fuck my best friend ever again. He's mean afterwards.”
My face grew hot with embarrassment at the comment and I felt every single pair of eyes in the van fall on me.
“Wait what?” Zack piped up from the back.
“Nothing,” I mumbled, glaring at Jack as he looked at me with an angelic smile.
“Haven't you heard?” Amanda chirped, sending her million dollar smile to everyone in the back with the help of the rearview mirror. “Our little Stella is all grown up now.”
I rolled my eyes as a series of “Aww’s” went around the van. Alex placed his arm proudly around my shoulders and pulled me closer into his body, as if to protect me from the unwelcome attention. I turned my head around to look at Zack, who met my stare with questioning eyes that said “We’re talking about this later.” I bit my bottom lip and sunk back into Alex’s embrace, not sure what Zack could possibly have to say about the matter. I know Zack didn't have any sort of feelings towards me. I could say that with a great amount of confidence. But what was his deal? Even Parker wasn't this overprotective of me and he was my actual biological brother. But from the looks of it, I guess I'd find out sooner or later what was up with my friend. I just hope it wasn't as bad as the feeling in my gut was telling it was going to be.

Amanda and I sat outside the Whataburger, Amanda taking forever to smoke her damn cigarette, while everyone else sat inside, enjoying their meals.
“So,” Amanda began, smoke flowing out of her mouth and dancing out of her nostrils as she spoke. “Tell me.” Her demand was vague but I knew exactly what she was getting at.
“It was… Painful,” I admitted to her as she took another long drag.
“Well, yeah…” Her voice droning out in an unamused ‘duh’ tone. “Sex isn’t as amazing and effortless as everyone makes it out to be.”
I stared at my best friend as she spoke, finally being able to connect with what she was saying. Never in my life had I been able to be apart of any conversation that wasn’t involved with the subject of school; and now I had all of these stories to share. I could finally say that, yes, I had been to a party. Yes, I had gotten so drunk, I couldn’t stand up or walk straight. Yes, I had legitimately kissed a boy and gave my virginity to him. Yes, I had a group of friends who I would do anything for in a heartbeat… My life was going through all of these changes, and my character was becoming stronger. I could feel the change coursing through my veins when I woke up in the morning, I could feel it in the wind as it brushed and tangled my hair into my face, I could feel it in Alex’s eyes whenever he stared at me. The sense of power this change had on me was unshakable and I had no idea what I was going to do whenever it decided to fully take charge of my personality. I mean, the difference in my personality was already becoming drastically noticeable. It was only a matter of time before I got too lazy to hide who I really am now from my family - to hide it from my father.
I gave Amanda a second once-over and began chewing on my bottom lip as she smoked and talked, taking in the feeling that was building it’s way to my chest. My whole body was overcome with a sudden feeling of calmness as I stood there, saying nothing.
“So are you gonna tell Zack what happened or do I gotta do it?” Amanda finally asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I can tell him. It’s not like Alex and I are hiding our relationship from the world.”
“Well, uh,” Amanda said in a low, hoarse voice that hitched in the back of throat, coated with phlegm from smoking. She cleared the mass away before speaking again. “Now’s your chance.” My eyes followed to where she was pointing with the butt of her cigarette. Zack was coming towards us, his face blank and serious.
“Hey,” I smiled at him as he walked out to join Amanda and me.
“I do believe we have a discussion to have, ma’am,” Zack said with a small smile, clearly attempting to make the moment less awkward. I stared at him, not sure where he wanted me to start with this. “What happened with Alex,” he eventually said with a sigh.
“We had sex,” I stated bluntly.
Zack flipped his hair out of his face with a slight head-nod and gave me an unsure look.
“Stella,” he finally said in a voice I heard come from my father’s lips over a million times. So I did what I do best. I remained quiet and awaited the wrath and punishment to unfold before me. “I love Alex. Trust me, I really do. But I love you, too. Which is why I have to save you.”
“Save… Me?” I asked him slowly, not quite sure what I needed saving from.
“Stells, Alex is a guy. An attractive guy who knows he’s attractive. He is well aware that he’s capable of getting any girl he wants.”
“Do not,” I cut Zack off in a sharp tone, knowing exactly where he was going with this. “Do not sit here and tell me that I mean nothing more to Alex than just sex. You don’t have any right to say that I’m just some ‘experiment’ to him. I know he doesn’t have any real feelings for me, but we’re still something. And I know I mean more to him than just being some goddamn number on a list.”
“That’s not what I meant, Stells,” Zack breathed out. “Just hear me out, okay?” I clamped down on my bottom lip, tugging on it between my teeth as I waited for him to continue speaking. “Alex is the kind of guy who will want something so badly, he’ll do whatever it takes to get it. And then once he has it, he gets bored. And he’ll move on to something new and more exciting.”
“So you’re saying I’m just a phase to him.” My voice came out in a harsh manner as I tried to piece together what was being said to me.
“No other girl has made it thus far, that much I can admit. Most only last for a night. But after it’s all said and done, Lisa Ruocco will always be the girl Alex Gaskarth cries to when it’s all over.”
Keeping eye contact with Zack was becoming more and more difficult as the reality of this statement hit me like a ton of bricks. But part of me still knew I needed to fight through this and prove to Zack (and possibly myself) that, that wasn’t true. Alex and I’s relationship was far from perfect, but we still cared about each other. He even said it himself last night - I’m the only girl Alex wants in his life. So Lisa or no Lisa, Alex still wanted me. And that was the important part throughout all of this crazy bullshit I had to cling to. And I’d show him one way or another that he doesn’t need Lisa in his life anymore. Not with me in it now.
“I love you, Zacky. Thanks for caring for me,” I whispered, leaning my head on his broad shoulder and inching up to kiss his cheek. As much as he was annoying me right now, I had to keep in mind that Zack was just looking out for my best interest. That’s just who he was. But I still believe that he’s wrong. And I was going to prove to him how wrong he was.
“I love you, too, Stells. A lot. I just want you to be careful.”

Notes

Little bit of fluff between Zack and Stella for ya. I thought it was cute. I love Zack's character in this story. He's just so sweet and caring and awh.

So anyhoo. I'm sorry for the wait. I've been dealing with some personal shit and I just haven't been able to throw myself into the story lately. Hopefully 22 will be up in the next couple of days. I love you all and I appreciate you stickin' in there with me.

Comments

This was one of my absolute favorite stories. I am very curious to know if you are going to continue with this? Because I have to know what happens next.

BreaClift. BreaClift.
6/14/21

I want to know if there is going to be sequel to this story?

BreaClift. BreaClift.
3/26/19

I don't remember anything. I need to restart this. Damn, all I remember is loving this. Only more reason to read it all again.

Haha, keepin' it real. :) No worries, the only one that was kind of concerning was the Blink-180 because I think that's the first time I've ever seen that. XD But I figured it was a typo.
:)

Nanook Nanook
1/4/19

@Daydreamers her big reveal will be in the last chapter ;) hang tight.

katybear18 katybear18
1/4/19