Welcome to New Haven (7 page)

She knew that she was attracted to Hot-guy.
 
She could tell because the thoughts that entered into her head, when she first saw him, were not the kind of thoughts a person would have for another if they weren’t.

Holly felt drawn to him, but her feelings had terrified her because they weren’t something she had experienced. She’d been trying to avoid him during the morning classes and, luckily, they didn’t have any together that day but as she didn’t know his schedule, she had no idea if, and where, he would show up.

Holly had been relieved when her Mum had sent her a text, saying that they needed to go to the College Administration department to sign her new application forms.

As she had been a late application, and from England, she needed to take in original ID, have them photocopied for her file, and sign the declaration forms.
 
That day was the only one they had available for her to go in.
 
Holly and her Mum had still had to wait almost an hour because of the amount of late applications that had to be processed.

Holly got to school and parked her car.
 
There were already students there, and she was worried if Hot-guy had already shown up.
 
She didn’t know what car he had so she just got out of her own and walked straight through the main doors.

When she got to homeroom, Dev wasn’t there and neither was anybody else.

Holly breathed a sigh of relief as she sat down.
 
There was still fifteen minutes to go before school started so she got out her Spanish textbook try to take in some of the basic words.
 
She’d been sitting for about five minutes when Dev sat down next to her.

“Hola chica!” She said and beamed at her, when Holly jumped with a fright.

“Hola!”
 
replied Holly, with a hand on her chest, heart hard pounding away.
 

“Cómo estás?” Dev asked as she noticed Holly’s Spanish book.
 

“Um…”
 
Holly said as she looked in her book for an answer.
 

“Muy…bien…graçias…I think.”
 
She said.
 

Dev giggled.
 

“That’s good, well done! Try saying ‘Estoy muy bien’ or just ‘Estoy bien’ instead.
 
It’s a lot better than saying ‘very well’.” Said Dev as she looked over the page Holly had been reading.
 

“What does that mean?”
 

“It means ‘I’m good, or I’m very well’.
 
If somebody asks a question about yourself, it’s better to answer with ‘I’ or ‘I am’ instead of just the answer. Those books are super basic. I mean, I don’t know why they teach that stuff. Nobody talks like that. How many times have you asked somebody how they are, just for them to say ‘good’ or ‘very well’?
 
They most
always
say ‘I’ or ‘I’m’ first.”
 

Holly looked over the page again and saw exactly what Dev was talking about.
 
The book was basic, but then again, Holly needed to learn the basics first.
 

“I’ll try to remember that, thanks.”
 
Holly said as she closed her book and put it away.
 

More students were filing into class and Stacey with her friend, Cerise, walked in and took their seats, but not before throwing some fierce daggers in Dev’s direction, and Holly’s too.
 

“I’ll help you with your Spanish on Friday, after school, if you’d like.”
 
Dev offered.
 

“That would be great thanks!”
 
said Holly, pleased that she would get help from the beginning.
 
That way, any mistakes could be rectified straight away.
 

“I’ll help you with your algebra, if you want.”
 

“That would be amazing! Thank you!” Said Dev with a huge smile.
 

“Do you want to go to your house or mine?”

Holly thought about it for a second before she told Dev that it would be better to go to Dev’s.
 
There was construction work going on at Holly’s and the guys who were doing it were idiots, in her opinion.
 
Gawking at her and elbowing each other, whenever she would walk up the path to the house.
 

If they carry on, I’ll have to do let their manager know
exactly
how they were behaving on the job.

The previous owners of her house had had the huge garage converted to an indoor pool.
 
Holly’s parents were having it converted back into a garage, with a separate room for Holly so she could watch TV or hangout with friends.
 
She didn’t think it necessary at first, but now she was grateful because she would like to have Dev and the girls come over.

The smaller garage to the side was going to house Holly’s gym equipment.
 
She had a cross-trainer, a treadmill, and some weights.
 
She’d preferred to work out at home but, because of the work that was being done, she’d had to store, and use, her equipment in one of the extra bedrooms.
 
Her sister, Emily, had one and there was also a spare.
 

“Ok cool.
 
We’ll have so much fun.
 
I’ll teach you some curse words first.
 
They can be
really
useful.”
 
Dev chuckled.
 
“So…I know you’ve only been here for a few days, but have you seen any guys you like?”
 

Holly’s eyes snapped to Dev’s and she felt her face heat.
 

Jakes’ interest in her, and the fact that some of the other guys had been staring, was Dev’s reason for asking.
 

“Uh…It’s only been three days…”
 
Holly began to say in defense.
 

“Well, there are quite a few cute guys in this school.
 
Some are just cute but as soon as they open their mouths…boring!
 
So immature.”
 
Dev then told Holly the names of the guys she thought were cute.
 

Holly didn’t know who Dev was talking about so she just listened.
 

“So nobody then?”
 
Dev added at the end of her list.
 

“Well…”
 
Holly began and Dev smiled, propping her elbow on the table and resting her chin in her hand, leaning closer when Holly lowered her voice.
 

“The guy Stacey was all over…he was cute…I don’t know his name though.
 
We have one class together, but that’s it.”
 

“Ooh what does he look like?”
 
Dev said with avid interest.
 

“He’s really tall, dark hair and eyes.”
 
Holly tried to be as vague as she could with the details.
 
Describing the features of a whole lot of the guys in the school. Dev wasn’t fooled though.
 

“You’ve got to give me more than that.
 
How can I find out who he is if you don’t give a detailed description?”
 

“He has a great smile.”
 
Holly added, hoping it would be enough to satisfy Dev’s curiosity.
 

“That could be any of the tall, dark haired guys here. The girls who like my brother
always
go into a lot of detail when they gush about his “hotness”…” Dev held up her fingers in quotation marks.
 
“Like I really want to know how they fantasize about him.
Ugh
. Too much information!”
 
Dev wrinkled her nose, which made Holly laugh.

Once homeroom was over, the girls had to go their separate ways.
 
They’d meet up for lunch, and Holly was looking forward to meeting the rest of their group of friends.
 
Anything to take her mind off Hot-guy and his lips…smile…eyes…hair…

Wednesday morning went straight forward.
 
Well…Stacey hadn’t found him…yet, and he’d missed Holly coming into school.
 

When he’d walked Dev to homeroom, Holly was already there and reading a book.
 
They’d been on time today, rather than a few minutes early, because Dev couldn’t find her other converse sneaker.
 
When he’d tried to rush her along, by suggesting just wearing something else, she’d asked why he was so eager to go.
 
He said he wasn’t, but he’d wanted to make sure that they missed the busy traffic, you know, just in case they got caught in it.
 

When they’d finally gotten out and picked up Ben, they’d gotten to school two minutes before the first bell went for homeroom.
 

He was about to walk in with Dev when Stacey had walked down the hall, aiming right for him.
 
He and Ben had walked away quickly and gone to their own homeroom.
 
That was
twice
now that she’d made him miss talking to Holly.

Between lessons, Alex had caught sight of Holly.
 
Her long shiny hair swishing in her ponytail.
 
Her pink lips shining when she ran her tongue over the bottom. He’d tried to catch her attention saying ‘Hi’ as she neared him, but she seemed to speed up and walked straight past him with her head down, without replying to him.
 
The scent of coconut hitting his nostrils.
 

He’d tried to go after her, but he always managed to get stopped by somebody or, the last time, Holly darted into the girls’ bathrooms and didn’t come out.

Alex, and the guys, had a message from the Phys.Ed coach.
 
They had to go see him before lunch.
 
They were discussing their workout sessions for that semester.
 
Why he had to see them then was beyond him.
 
They could have discussed that
during
Phys .Ed.
 

After the time with the coach, they guys quickly bought their lunch and went outside to their table.
 
The girls weren’t there.

Again?!

It was getting ridiculous now.
 
He was beginning to get paranoid, thinking that Holly was trying to avoid him.
 
The way she would walk straight past, looking down. Going into the bathrooms and not coming out.
 

He hated to admit it, but he felt as though he was doing to her, what Stacey was doing to him.
 
Pursuing him enough that he would hide out to get away from her.
 

He felt bad.
 
Nauseated even.
 

But he only wanted to officially meet her… right?
 

There was nothing wrong with that…right?
 

She was his sister’s friend after all and he would probably, eventually end up talking to her at some point.
 

His behavior was starting to make him on edge.
 
Not once had he been like that.
 
He would
never
have thought to go out of his way to talk to someone, especially a girl.
 
He just didn’t understand it.
 
His rational thoughts were telling him to ‘leave it alone,’ but he couldn’t.
 
His heart wouldn’t let him.
 
Thinking of her sent his pulse racing and his pants tightening.
 
He couldn’t get her out of his mind, no matter how much he’d tried.
 
He’d even gone to the gym, the night before to exercise himself to exhaustion, so he didn’t have the energy.
 
That didn’t make the slightest bit of difference.

He decided to text Dev.
 
See where they had gone.

A: Had to talk to the coach.
 
Where are you?

He kept his phone out of his pocket, just in case he didn’t hear her reply, even though he had the vibrate function switched on…

D: Knew you had to go, thought you’d be a while, sorry. We had our lunch at the new coffee shop.
 
Back soon. X

Well that explained why they’d gone out.
 
But why now?
 
Whenever any of them had to do anything, they’d still be there when they’d finished.
 
Why were they choosing to go out now?

Oh great, I am
so
paranoid!

Any more of that and he’d have to have a serious word with himself.
 

“Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?” asked Ben as they finished up.
 

“What are you talking about?”
 
he replied as the three guys were staring at him.
 

“Look, we know Stacey pisses you off and you get mad, but man, this is some serious bad mood shit you’ve got going on.”
 
Ryan said.
 

“
It’s nothing”
 

Alex tried to brush them off with a shrug.
 

“It’s not
nothing
when you’re sitting there, all quiet, and having a stare down with your sandwich.
 
Growling at it isn’t going to help either.” Kyle added.

I was growling?
Fuck!

Alex really needed to get a grip.
 
His hormones were off the charts, and he was feeling pretty messed up.
 

He took a deep breath and decided to say something to; hopefully, throw the guys off.
 

“Dev’s been spending time with the new girl, Holly.
 
She normally has lunch with us, and now she’s off out with the girls. She would normally wait for us to get back.”
 
Alex knew he sounded like a spoiled brat, but he’d prefer the guys think that he was
that
rather than a love sick teenager.