A/N Thanks so much for 144 reads! Sorry for the late update. I'm just really lazy. I'll try to be better about updating at least once a week, but since I did almost no homework in June, I need to work for most of the rest of the summer. Chapters will also be shorter, because those are easier to write in a short amount of time.

I also probably won't switch POV's as much anymore, if at all. I will occasionally do Drew's, but only if necessary. (Knowing me, there will be a lot of his POV :))
I'll stop rambling now.

Ashton Hunter above!

As terrible as this update is, enjoy!
<.><.><.><.><.><.><.><.><.>
*Drew McCarthy*
I release Kaitlyn's shoulders and stride away from her, in the opposite direction of the office. Once I'm almost to the end of the hall, I hear light footsteps running towards me, and I pause with my hand on the door.

"Why did you get me out of class? Why not just yourself?" Kaitlyn asks. I sigh, and take my hand off the door, turning around to face her.

"Because, doll, it's more time to spend with you." Bullsh*t. I know it, and she does too. She frowns, but doesn't say anything.

I push open the door to the stairs and walk down to the junior lockers, Kaitlyn following behind. After a few minutes, she breaks the silence.

"I'm still mad at you for the car thing." I smirk, but don't say anything.

"I mean," she continues, "how hard would it have been to drop me off at the entrance to my neighborhood, at least? This is a small city. We couldn't possibly live that far away from each other. Were you even going home?"

I wasn't.

"No, I was actually going to Ashton's house. He lives in Bluewater Ridge, by the river. So you see, I couldn't have possibly given you a ride home." We pause when we reach our lockers, and I lean on mine, facing Kaitlyn. I'm surprised to see she's red in the face, her eyebrows furrowed as she glares at me. What did I do?

"You... You jerk! That's my neighborhood! I can't believe this! You should have at least asked me where I lived! I hate you!" She moves toward me, and I can't help but lean in.

"You're cute when you're mad." I whisper, smirking.

She slaps my face and walks away from me, towards the office. As I see her retreating backside, and it is a nice backside, mind you, the sting on my face is considerably less noticeable than the sting in my chest.

*Kaitlyn MacDonald*
I can't believe it! Of all the ignorant, stupid, asinine people on this planet I had to get stuck tutoring, why Drew McCarthy?

I fume through the rest of the day, determined to never let Drew get the best of me again. Let's see how that turns out.

Detention was half an hour after school. Drew didn't show up.

When I get to Beth's house, I've cooled off a little bit. Why bother with Drew anyway? I'm just going to enjoy tonight, make an awesome costume for the Halloween dance, and stuff myself silly with food.

I open Beth's front door without bothering to ring the doorbell; I've been coming over to Beth's house since we were in diapers. I've long since stopped announcing my arrival.

I kick off my shoes by the door and hoist my duffel bag over my shoulder, stumbling up the stairs as I avoid Beth's little brother's toys. Knocking on Beth's door, I peek my head in only to see her bathroom door is closed, and I hear her shower on.

"I'm here!" I yell, and I drop my bag on her bed. "I'm going to go make some food for us!"

I hear a "Make popcorn!" from the closed door, and I head back downstairs.

An hour later, Beth and I are huddled on her couch, tears streaming down our faces as we watch The Fault in Our Stars. When it's over, I blow my nose and toss the tissue in the ever-growing pile on the table in front of us.

The final credits roll on the screen as I flop down over Beth and bury myself in a couch pillow. We sit there for a bit composing ourselves until Beth pushes me off her and pulls a blanket over her legs. Cuddling up to a pillow, she looks at me.

"Okay Lyn, real talk. Who is your locker neighbor?"

I sigh, and take a deep breath.

"Drew McCarthy."

Beth's eyes grow wide and her mouth drops open.

"No way. So he's one of those hot guys that was with Mack! Who are the other two?"

I frown as I try to think of their names.

"I actually don't know," I admit, playing with my fingers. "But how hard can it be to find out? From what I know of him, he only hangs out with three people, Mack being one of them.

"Hold that thought," Beth says. "I'll get my computer." She jumps off the couch and runs upstairs to her bedroom, leaving me by myself.

Beth is on the yearbook staff, and has access to all the school photos before the yearbook comes out in July.

She runs back down after a few minutes, laptop in hand, and plops down on the couch next to me. Opening it, she quickly logs in and pulls up her yearbook account from Green Lake's website. Once she finds all the junior pictures, which are arranged in alphabetical order, she starts scrolling down.

"When you see them, tell me."

I nod in agreement and train my eyes on the screen. Beth scrolls past the As, Bs, and Cs, until I stop her at D.

Blake Daniels, reads the picture caption. Above is a picture of a dark-haired, dark-eyed boy with tan skin. He's wearing a football jersey, and there's a twinkle in his eye.

"No way!" Beth exclaims. "You made human contact with The Blake Daniels? You lucky duck!"

I roll my eyes.

"I didn't actually make contact with him, Beth. We just happened to be in the same space at the same time."

She shakes my shoulders back and forth, almost knocking over the popcorn.

"Okay, okay, but even being in the same space as Blake Daniels is incredible. Your popularity ranking probably shot up a ton, because everybody prob-"

"Whoa there, hold on. You were there. How come you didn't recognize Blake before?"

Beth blushes.

"I may or may not have been infatuated with Mack at the time, and may or may not have been paying complete attention to him." She twists her blonde curls around her index finger, which is what she does whenever she's nervous. I roll my eyes for the second time in the span of as many minutes.

"Just date the kid already. He obviously likes you." Beth blushes harder, and turns away.

"Anyway," she says, skillfully avoiding my question. "Let's find out who the other guy is."

She scrolls through the pictures again until I stop her at H.

"That's him, right there."

Beth squints at the small lettering, and reads out loud.

"Ashton Hunter. Oooh, the DJ! He's super cute." I have to agree.

With light brown hair and blue eyes, Ashton definitely is attractive. All three of the boys are, in fact, but I think Drew is the hottest.

Wait.

Bad Kaitlyn.

You're not allowed to think he's hot, or attractive in any way. You're just making sure that he won't fail his classes. That's all.

After listening to Beth obsess over the Big Four, as she calls them, we migrate upstairs to her room, where we change into our pjs and flop on her bed.

I FaceTime Parker on my phone, and we discuss good Halloween costumes for the dance.

After an hour, we finally came up with a perfect trio costume, but only after getting distracted by loud music from a few houses down. We are going to be The Three Musketeers. (A/N Any TGGBB fans?)

I'm Athos, Beth is Aramis, and Parker is Porthos. This is going to be fantastic.

<.><.><.><.><.><.><.><.><.><
It's around 12:30, and Beth and I are watching Doctor Who. Suddenly, our binge-watching session is interrupted by a loud thumping at the door. Beth pauses the episode, and we look at each other. Her parents went with her brother Luke to her grandparents' house for the weekend, so we're home alone.

With a nod to her, I run to her garage and get her old softball bat from freshman year. When I get back to her front hallway, she's waiting right in front of the door, which someone is still thumping on.

"On the count of three," I whisper.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

She yanks the door open and I raise the bat. I'm about to swing when the person speaks.

"Kaitlyn?"

I blink and lower the bat, seeing who it is.

"Drew?"
<.><.><.><.><.><.><.><.><.>
So.... Yeah

I don't really have anything to say right now. *smiles*

Vote, comment, share with a friend

Coming at you from the OBX,
-craving a graham cracker crust