Ch.1: In the beginning

  I walked into Starbucks with my girlfriend, Danielle, to meet up with a couple of our other friends.

  "Hey Ev, wats poppin'," Ian, my football teammate, asked.

  "Doin' me," I responded.

  I walked up to the counter and ordered a Caramel Apple Spice(I hate coffee). I sat down next to Danielle and kissed her on her forehead. Danielle was my girlfriend of 4 months and she truly made me happy. My friends and I talked for a long time about random things. After about an hour and a half, we decided to walk over to the Borders across the street. When I walked in, I made my way to the Young Adult section.  I browsed through the shelves and stopped in front of the Bluford Series. I started to look at The Bully.

  "That's one of my favorite in the series," a mysterious voice said.

  I looked up to find a guy standing next to me looking at the same book. He stood at about 6'0'. I was only 5'10'. He looked at me and said "Have you read it?" I replied with a simple no by shaking my head.

  "You really should. It got really great reviews."

  He had dark brown eyes. Unique eyes. I cracked a smile and he smiled back. He walked passed me and whispered Nice smile. WHOA! Was he tryna make a pass at me? I didn't go for that. I thought about what he said until the familiar voice of Ian snapped me out of it.

  "Dude, you buyin anything," he asked.

  I looked at the book and then back at Ian. "Yeah, I'm gonna buy this one"

   I got in my car with Danielle and took her home. I gave her a kiss and drove home.
When I pulled in the driveway, my dad was getting out of his car. I met him at the front door.

  "How was your day son," he asked.
 
  "Interesting," I responded

  My Dad was truly my best friend. After my mom left, my little brother, and I, became a lot closer. I'm still not entirely sure why she left, but my Dad told me and my little brother that she was just unhappy. I'm 17 so I know there was something else there. We walked in the house to find my 13 year-old brother jumping on the couch like a dummy.

  "Tavion," my Dad yelled.
 
  "Oh dang, sorry Dad, my bad," my brother said.

  I laughed and worked my way down to my room in the basement. I got on the computer and went to Facebook(OF COURSE). I saw that I had a new friend request. Who is Marcus Atkins?  I clicked on the picture and it was the dude from the bookstore. I accepted his request and went to his profile. His profile pic was him in swimming trunks on the beach. It looked pretty professional. His hometown was Raleigh, North Carolina. We lived in Ohio; He was a far way from home. After a minute or so after looking through his pics, I received an IM from, you guessed it, Marcus.

  "Did you end up buying the book," he put.

  I hesitated to answer.

  "Yes I did. How did you find me on facebook?"

  "One of your friends is my friend. I just moved here over the weekend so I don't know many people," he responded

  "How old are you. You seem like you're about 20 lol"

  "I'm 17, I don't know which school I'm going to yet, but it probably will be the closest one to my house."

  "Where do you live now?"

  "Lewis Grove"

  That's where I live, and the only house in the neighborhood that was up for sale was the one right across the street from me.

  "I live right across the street from you. You live on Dewey Lane right," I asked.
 
  "Yeah, wow what a coincidence l0l. Well at least I know that we'll be seeing a lot more of each other ;)."

  I starred at the computer screen for 3 minutes before I heard my dad call me for dinner. I quickly closed down my computer and ran upstairs. My dad brought home Popeyes. He wasn't much of a cook, so when me and my brother wanted home cooked meals, we had to fix it ourselves. We sat at the table and talked about our day. My dad always found time for me and my brother. He told us "Family comes before everything."
 
  After dinner was over, my dad asked me to take out the garbage. I walked to the edge of the street and put the garbage in the can. I turned around to see Marcus and what looked to be his father working on fixing a car. Marcus had on some ripped up jeans and a black tank top. Marcus was pretty built. So was his Dad. Marcus turned around and looked at me and waved. I waved back and went back in the house.

  I went to my room and plopped down on my bed and watched BET for about an hour and then I unexpectedly fell asleep.

  I woke up the next morning to see that I was going to be late for school. I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. I took the quickest shower I've ever taken. When I got out, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, put on my clothes, and was out the door. I looked at my Samsung Moment to see that I had 20 minutes to get to school. I got in my car and started it. I looked at my phone again. I had 18 minutes. I drove down the street and saw Marcus walking really fast to get to school. I stopped the car about a yard in front of him. He walked up to the passenger side.

  "You're going to be late if you keep walking. Get in. I'll take you," I said.

  "Thanks man."

  "No problem."

  I rode to Chick-Fil-A. I always stopped there in the mornings so I wouldn't be hungry when I got to school. I went through the drive thru and I ordered me and Marcus 2 chicken biscuits. The ride to the school was very quiet. We got there 5 minutes before school started. I parked the car and told Marcus since he was a new student, he had to go to the front office. I rushed to History right before the bell rung. I went to my desk in the back of the class. Half way through class, Mrs. Shlegel, our history teacher, said we had a new student. My stomach began to turn. I looked up and saw Marcus standing at the front of the class. 1 of the girls in the class yelled "Delicious" and the whole class started laughing, besides me. Marcus smiled and threw her a wink. I never looked at a dude in a sexual way, but something about Marcus was different. Marcus was good looking. He was dark skinned, just like me. He wore a semi tight South Pole Shirt,  cargo shorts, and Air Max's. His body was perfect. I started to daydream. "Looks like we're partners." I looked up and Marcus was sitting in the desk next to me. He sat down and pulled out his notebook.

  We started to brainstorm about our project. We had to to pick a symbol of America and explain why we picked it.

  "Well I already had an idea planned out. We're doing the Lincoln Memorial. Since you're new, I can do most of it," I said.

  "Don't you think that maybe the Statue of Liberty would be a better example," Marcus asked.

  I was looking at my papers wen I looked up and saw that he was looking dead in my face with those eyes. WHY DID HE DO THAT? I sort of melted a little in my seat, but quickly readjusted myself.

  "I already have a plan so we can just do the Lincoln Memorial. It won't be that hard," I stated.

  "Well why don't we ask Schlegel. Mrs. Schlegel? What do you think is a better symbol? Lincoln Memorial or the Statue of Liberty?," he asked.

  "Well I'm not suppose to help you, but someone else is already doing the Lincoln Memorial so I would do the Statue of Liberty," she said.

  PERFECT! He just comes in and changes my whole plan. For the rest of the class, I didn't even glance at Marcus, or even pay attention. Luckily today was a half day so I only had 2 classes. After 45 minutes, I headed to my locker. It was right by the cafeteria which made it a lot easier for me to sneak to the vending machines and get a snack in between classes. I was standing at one trying to pick if I wanted Doritos or Lays. I was reaching for the keypad when someone behind me tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and Danielle was standing there with Ian and Marcus. Why was Marcus with them?

  "Hey Baby, since we have Study Hall next, can we just go to The Beat," Danielle asked.

  The Beat was this Urban Hangout spot that very few people knew about. The only way you knew about it is if you knew the right people. When I first met Ian, he took me there and that's where I met Danielle.

  "Actually, me and Evan have to work on our History project and since it's due in 3days, I want to get a head start on it. Don't wanna fall behind being that I'm new," Marcus interrupted.

  "Maybe we can go Later on tonight baby, I promise," I smiled.

  "Fine, but get as much work done as possible," she demanded.

  Danielle kissed me and her and Ian walked out the front doors of the school. Marcus just stood there starring into the Vending Machine.

  "You should really get a nutri-gran bar. It's a lot healthier than all this other s**t in this Vending Machine," he said.

  Who the hell was he to tell me what I should and shouldn't eat. First he completely changes our project and then he acts like a damn Nutritionist.

  "I can walk home if you want me to," he whispered.

  "No, no, that's okay I'll drive you home. We can work at your house. My house doesn't have any food," I laughed.
 
  He smiled and we left out the side door of the school.

Reviews

[Master Aiden]

this is really good so far bud, and i have to agree with him on the list thing though

[Mioki]

Your thoughtful writing immediately drew me in. It's really hard to find writing that goes beyond today's modern 'entertaining but not interesting' genre. You've done that though, and I have to say that I'm overjoyed so far.

My only qualm would be that you seem to be 'listing' things. When you stack sentences such as "I went...I ate...I etc," it feels slightly stale. Try changing up your sentence structure a bit, other than that. I'm enjoying the story~