Chapter 14 A Date?
Chris wasn't happy when he couldn't find Hazel on Saturday. He even had to walk around the park hoping to see her but he didn't.
Did she run away?
Could she have left to avoid further conversation with him?
A girl?
Not wanting to have a conversation with him?
That's a first.
Now it's Monday and he hopes he sees her. He's walking through the hallways with Jason who is telling him about Piper.
"She's pretty, you know," Jason says.
"I know," he replies.
"Stephanie!" He hears someone yell.
What the fuck?
He and Jason stop their conversation and turn in the direction of the voice like everybody in the hallway is doing.
Chris sights a brunette not far away with her back to them. It came from her.
Why yell when the person is right in front of you?
The name registers and he recognizes the person who yelled.
He doesn't realize when his legs start to move towards them. As he suspected, Hazel is standing in front of her. They seem to be arguing and their hands are joined.
"Hey girls," he greets them as he reaches them.
Hazel stills and Brooke lets go of her hands that she was holding on to.
"Hi," Brooke grins as she turns to face him.
"Is there a problem?" Chris asks looking at Hazel who has a frown on her face.
"No. Not at all," Brooke smiles.
"I'm Brooke. I don't think I've introduced myself before," she offers her hand.
He takes it.
"Chris."
"Who doesn't know you?" She asks rhetorically, laughing lightly.
He sighs internally.
Of course everyone him - as a player.
Only heaven knows what Hazel thinks of him and his reputation.
Wait, why does he care?
She hasn't uttered a word since he came.
"And this is Stephanie," Brooke tells him even though she knows they've met.
"We've met before," he answers bemusedly.
Hazel didn't tell Brooke about meeting him?
"Hi," he says to Hazel.
"Hey... uhm... I have to get to class," she says and hurriedly walks off before either of them can utter something in response.
Well, that was just awkward.
"Is she okay?" Chris asks in concern.
"Yeah. I just pissed her off. Where's Jason?"
Chris just notices that Jason isn't beside him.
"He must have gone to class. See you around Brooke."
He begins his walk to his first class and sights Hazel looking through a locker.
So that's her locker?
He thinks about approaching her but he doesn't think that would be a good idea so he continues his walk to class.
He hopes it isn't because of him that she walked off.
Things don't seem to be working out the way he wants it.
He enters his first class and notices Ivy sitting in the front row, busy with her phone.
Great!
The heartbreaker is in his class this morning.
Bitch!
She walked away.
She really did walk away to avoid a conversation with Christopher.
If he didn't directly say hi to her, she wouldn't have said anything to him.
Brooke just had to make him come over, didn't she?
But she walked away.
Can you blame her for walking away?
We're talking about Christopher Hayes here.
They've been in the same school for three years now. This year is the fourth and they have never had a conversation before.
Get that?
They have never spoken to each other before.
Not even a simple 'Hi'.
Well, that was up until last Saturday at the park.
She could swear that he didn't even know she existed before then.
Now he's suddenly trying to talk to her?
After a week of them sharing a kiss in a stupid game of 'spin the bottle'?
Why now?
What changed?
She'd like to know.
Could it really be the kiss?
Brooke says it is but she doesn't believe that.
As stated before, it's Christopher Hayes we're talking about.
He's the subject matter.
The protagonist.
He probably kisses new lips every night.
Better lips.
More experienced lips.
So NO, it can't be because of a kiss that he notices her now.
A kiss that originated from playing that stupid game at the party.
Stephanie walks to her locker to get ready for class with all those thoughts in her head.
And Brooke?
She'll get her for this.
She heads into her first class and settles in a seat towards the back.
Luke walks in and scans the room. He sights Stephanie and walks to her.
"Hi Stephanie," Luke says.
She looks up and sees Luke standing.
"Hi, Luke."
"How are you?" He questions.
"I'm good. You?"
"Same," he shrugs. "Someone here?" He gestures to the seat to her right.
"No," she replies and watches him take the seat.
Is Luke really sitting beside her?
Things are really changing around here, she concludes.
Though Luke is in the same category as Christopher, it's still different.
Why?
Well, she approached Luke first at the party because of drunk Cole.
And Luke is the polar opposite of Christopher.
Luke is not a PLAYER as Chris is.
That is a very solid reason.
Luke isn't cocky but Chris is.
The only thing they have in common is their popularity and good looks.
Chris is probably more popular.
But there's no denying one fact - Christopher is hotter than Luke.
Any girl - scratch that - literally, anybody can see that.
Luke is handsome in a kinda dorky way. His looks scream good boy.
Christopher's on the other hand, scream bad boy and model worthy.
He's one of those guys that would end up as a model soon.
But the most important fact to Stephanie is that she feels comfortable talking to Luke while she doesn't feel that way with Chris.
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It's lunch break and most students are seated in the cafeteria having lunch. Chris is seated at the table with his friends. He can't stop thinking about what happened in the morning.
Why did she run off?
Is it really because she was pissed off?
Or because of him?
They were in the same class for third period and he saw her. Before he could decide whether to approach her or not, she was out of sight.
He looks around the cafeteria and sights Hazel and Brooke at a table. This is the first time he's seeing her in here.
He turns around to continue his food and listen to the conversation going on.
"I feel sorry for Luke, you know," Max says.
Max isn't exactly like them but he's friends with Chris and Jason.
Max doesn't like to party. He has gone to a few parties in the past then he got tired of them and both Chris and Jason respect his decision.
Jason laughs. "Me too."
"He's dating Ivy, that spawn of Satan. Everyone feels sorry for him bro," Jason adds.
"Everyone keeps wondering why such a nice guy is dating the mean bitch who is also a bully," Jason continues.
"But Luke doesn't know that she is," Max states.
"Yeah, he's fucking oblivious," Jason points out, shaking his head.
"Yikes!"
"Uh-huh. He's really dumb."
"He's not dumb," Chris can't help but say, defending Luke.
"If he isn't, why hasn't he noticed, huh?"
"It's because the bitch's a good actress," Chris tells them. "I dated her remember?"
"Uhm....yeah."
"I keep forgetting that."
Jason and Max say at the same time.
They know Chris doesn't like talking about it. Talking about the time he dated Ivy gets him angry.
Chris doesn't know why he defended Luke. It's not that he did a bad thing, he just spoke the truth.
Ivy is like that. That's what she is - an actress.
She was cheating on him yet still pretended to love him until he found out. She didn't even care that he did.
Though Ivy's dating Luke, Chris doesn't loathe him. He just feels sorry that Luke is in Ivy's trap.
If Ivy isn't Luke's girlfriend, they'd probably be friends.
Maybe they would be friends eventually - when he isn't dating Ivy anymore.
Chris looks in the direction of Hazel's table and finds her smiling at whatever Brooke's telling her. Then she throws her head back in laughter. He feels entranced as he watches her for a minute. Until a name draws his attention.
"What did Brooke do?" He asks them with curiosity. He just heard her name from them.
"You know Cole, right?" Max asks.
Of course he does, he's Luke's best friend.
Chris nods.
"Well, people think he might be dating Brooke," Jason answers.
"Brooke Dawson?"
"Yeah."
"Whoa! I expected him to date, Aspen," Chris cringes.
"Obviously, he isn't buying their act like his best friend is," Max sniggers.
"That's good for him," Chris comments.
Stephanie and Brooke are heading out of school toward the parking lot when someone calls out Brooke's name.
They both stop and turn around to see a smiling Cole walking towards them.
Payback time, Stephanie decides in her head as she puts on a smile of her own.
"Hi," Cole beams.
"Hey," Stephanie answers first.
"Hey," Brooke says a little timidly.
"You came at the right time. Brooke was just talking about you," Stephanie tells Cole as a smirk makes its way to her face.
"What?!" Brooke exclaims turning to face Stephanie so fast that it's a surprise she didn't get whiplash.
Stephanie smirks mischievously.
"I was not," Brooke denies.
"You so were. You were going on and on about him that I was starting to get bored," Stephanie continues to taunt her.
"I WASN'T. Don't listen to her, Cole." Brooke says looking flustered.
Cole who has been watching has an amused look on his face.
"Believe me, I'm telling the truth," Stephanie rolls her eyes.
"I'm flattered to know I'm a subject for discussion between you two," Cole chuckles and raises his right hand to his heart dramatically.
"Don't be," Brooke manages to huff in her flustered state.
Cole laughs lightly and Stephanie joins him. Brooke glares at her.
"So," Cole begins after his bout of laughter. "I was thinking maybe we could hang out sometime?"
"Uhm...sure, I guess," Brooke replies trying not to sound too ecstatic but Stephanie can see right through her.
"This Friday or Saturday, yeah?" Cole questions and before Brooke can respond, someone interrupts.
"What's happening on those days?" Luke asks as he joins them.
Cole smiles.
"Brooke, this is Luke, my best friend. Luke, Brooke," he introduces them to each other.
Luke offers his hand for a handshake.
"Oh you're the Brooke I've been hearing so much about, huh?"
"Stop it, Luke." Cole chides, it's his turn to look flustered.
Stephanie wants to burst into laughter while Brooke is trying her best not to blush.
Luke laughs lightly.
"Hey, Stephanie."
"Hi," she smiles.
"You too know each other?" Brooke and Cole ask in unison.
"Yeah," Luke answers and Stephanie nods.
"So Brooke, you in?" Cole inquires.
Brooke nods, smiling. She doesn't want to embarrass herself if she decides to talk. She has the feeling that would blurt out something stupid.
"What's happening?" Luke asks.
"Well, Cole and Brooke want to hang out," she does air quotes with both hands, "-this weekend."
Steph feels at ease talking to both guys.
Luke smirks, wiggling his brows.
"Oh, they're going on a date?"
Cole glares at him and Steph laughs.
"No, Luke. They're gonna hang out," Steph does air quotes again.
"Stephanie! It's a date," Luke grins.
"Ugh! You guys," Brooke groans.
"You can even tag along, you know." Cole offers.
"Yeah. You too, Steph." Brooke agrees.
"Nope. We don't wanna ruin your date. Right Steph?" Luke declines.
"Yup."
"No, we insist," Brooke says.
"We could go see a movie," Cole suggests.
"Okay. If you insist," Luke gives in and everyone looks at Stephanie for her answer.
She shrugs. "I guess."