Love and Hate (4 page)

“Shut up, Dina” Jason snaps back.

“Yeah, Jason that doesn’t make
any sense. We’re rich too.” Emile says.

“Whatever, we’re nothing like
these people, and now that you guys are here we’re going to be running this
place.”

“Jason, it’s high school, not
Vietnam” Christian says.

My brother doesn’t care about superficial
drama. Besides, it’s his last year of high school. He plans to go to New York
University next year. He’s lucky. I’m a junior along with Emile. Dina, Jason,
and my sister are sophomores.

“He does have a point, Christian.
We already have an enemy here, the Assistant State’s Attorney’s daughter. The
same attorney who not only lives here, but also hates our father.” My sister
points out.

“Hey man, she’s hot” Emile says.

“Ugh.” Ella rolls her eyes.
“Whatever.”

“She’s right.” I never agree with
her, but Ella is right. We do have an enemy here. I refer to her as the enemy
because I’m sure she was raised to hate us. “But since he wants to make our
family lives a living hell, we might as well do the same for his daughter
here.”

Everyone smiles and agrees with
me, except Christian of course. I don’t care. I’m a Pierce and Pierces hate
Stonems. Besides, I’m bored and I tend to do stupid things when I’m bored.

“Would you guys listen to your
selves?” Here comes one of Christian’s infamous lectures. “We don’t know this
girl and she doesn’t know us. It’s not her fault who her dad is. Just like it’s
not our fault who our father is. As long as she keeps her distance, I’m keeping
mine. I won’t give them a reason to be right about us.”

“Of course Christian, you always
do the right thing.” I’m annoyed by my brother’s statement even though deep
down I know he’s right. We are being hypocritical and judgmental, just like the
people who judge us. Unfortunately, what my dear brother fails to realize is
that is what people do. It’s no changing it.

“Donovan, one day you’re going to
learn everything isn’t black and white.”

“Whatever, man.”

“Okay, I’m tired of this. Let’s
go to the party.” Ella says, sensing the tension between Christian and me.

“Yes, Lets!” Dina shouts, waving
a wine bottle in her hand.

As we get ready to leave,
Christian stops me.

“Hey, all I’m saying is, no drama
this year brother. We can have a normal life too”

I’ve never believed we could have
a normal life in this family, but Christian does. Maybe he can, but I can’t.
After what happened last time we lived here, I don’t think I can ever have a
normal life.

“Yeah, no drama, I promise.”

Claudia

“Eric is looking for you.” Jade
points out as if I already didn’t know this. I’ve been spending the first half
of this party avoiding him.

“I know. I’m trying to avoid
him.” I tell her.

“Well, I’ve decided to leave Dean
alone if that makes you happy.”

What? She did? Yes!

“That’s cool.” I say nonchalant.

She laughs. “Don’t act like
you’re not happy!”

“Okay.” I direct side eye her and
smile. “I am happy.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m about to
go get another drink, you want one?”

“Sure.”

Yes! I’m so happy something good
came out of this night. My best friend wasn’t going to sleep with that jackass.
Now all I have to do is continue avoiding Eric.

I see all these people and as
usual it’s the same. There is never anything new and exciting in this town. Dawn
is playing some good music from her IPOD, though. The whole school is here and
other schools. There are even college kids here. I did hear Naomi is dating
some Fraternity guy from Madison University.

Boy I could use a drink. Now
that’s a shame. I’m sixteen years old and I could use a drink. Well I will be
seventeen in a month so it isn’t that bad. Yeah, stop making excuses Claudia.
This is what we do here in my little suburban community. We drink, we gossip,
and some of us have sex. As of tonight, I can officially declare myself as a
participant in underage drinking at least. As for gossiping, I try not to be a
part of that. As for sex, I’m a virgin. Probably the only virgin left in
Eastbrook.

My usual brain rant is
interrupted when I see him.

Who is he? I don’t know why he
has my attention, but he just does. Maybe because he’s doing the same thing I’m
doing, watching everyone. From the balcony, I see his golden hair and golden
skin peeking out from his red v neck t-shirt. God, please be cute. I just need
him to turn around just a little bit… Yes! He’s cute. No, he’s hot. He’s tall,
slim, but muscular. I can tell by his shoulders, they are so broad. He
continues looking around the room. I wonder what or who he’s looking for. I hope
he isn’t looking for his girlfriend.

Have someone ever just captured
your attention to the extreme? This boy is for me. It’s like I’m compelled to
watch his every move. I’m curious, I guess and extremely attracted. Wow, I wish
he would look up here.

Oh my God. He’s looking up here.

He just came out of nowhere and
he is looking up here. I think his eyes are blue, but I know for damn sure they
are beautiful. His hair is golden and covers r his forehead. His lips look
plump and very kissable. It’s like a shiver goes through me as his gaze
intensifies. I’m sure he thinks I’m crazy, staring at him like this. On the
other hand he’s staring back at me like he isn’t bothered by it, but rather
intrigued.

Who is this guy?

Donovan

Who is that?

We’ve been here for at least
twenty minutes and so far nothing exciting or special was happening. I’ve been
to parties like this. There’s always a group of kids somewhere doing coke while
a group of jocks, who are secretly gay, compare their muscles. There is also as
usual, a pair of girls who are so drunk, they get talked into making out while
everyone watches and records them. The results is seeing themselves not only on
Pornhub, but also YouTube and Twitter the next day. Damn those social networks.
Of course I was about to entertain the girl on girl action, but that was before
I saw her.

The girl on the balcony in a
white dress, which looks amazing on her, has long, brown hair and beautiful
eyes. I wonder what color they are. Besides eye color, I could see everything
from down here. Her face, her body, damn near her soul. The funny thing is that
she was looking at me first. She was looking at me in a different way, not like
she was confident and wanted to approach me, but more like she was nervous and
intrigued. I don’t think I’ve ever been stared at in that way by a girl before.
Well, maybe the nervous part because people are scared of me and my family, but
she doesn’t know me. Does she? No, I don’t think she knows who I am.

All of sudden she smiles at me
and I am completely enamored. She is smiling at me in such a sweet way. Not
seductive nor fake, just an innocent sweet smile. A smile like its Christmas
morning and you get that one gift you’ve been begging for all year. Yeah,
that’s it. I’ve never received a smile like that before. It’s so overwhelming
that it makes me want to stop looking, but I can’t. I can’t take my eyes off her.

Smiling doesn’t really come
naturally to me, but she is giving my instinct motivation. I really am
literally showing teeth right now. I must look like an idiot.

A blonde in a very revealing red
dress comes out of nowhere and grabs her hand and guides her to the stairway. I
don’t take my eyes off them as they walk down the steps. The blonde leads her
to the middle of the room where everyone is dancing. The lights start to dim.
Emile comes out of nowhere pushing me towards the bar where the drinks are
served, but still I keep my eyes directly on her.

She’s looking around while dancing.
Not to be cocky, but she’s probably looking for me. So what do I do? Do I go
out there? Wait, why am I nervous?  I’m never nervous to approach a girl.  I
guess I’ve found my kryptonite in the form of a 5’7 maybe 5’8, medium brown
haired, beauty. As I intensify my stare at her, I feel my emotions running all
over the place. I feel like my heart beat is matching with the beat of this
song that’s playing through the speakers right now. Get it together, Donovan.
Get it together.

I start moving through the crowd
as another song comes on. As I move through the crowd, a guy that’s smoking
blows smoke in my face, I brush it off. Now usually I would punch a guy in the
face for doing that, but it’s like this girl has turned off the “Don’t be a
dumbass, Donovan mode” and turned on… well something I’d never experienced. I
finally reach the middle of the dance floor and I can’t move. What the hell,
I’m freezing. She’s dancing and moving her body to the beat. I must say, she
moves her body very well.

Before I know it, she turns
around and faces me. She has this shocked and confused expression on her face. Oh
shit. Did I make a mistake? Never mind she’s smiling now. She’s cheesing pretty
hard. This time I’m going to try to keep it cool with the smile. I don’t want
to look like a total dork. She bites her lip which causes my friend below my
belt buckle to jump. How do girls do that? When they bite their lips, we
instantly want to have sex with them. Well, at least that’s how I feel.

She takes a few steps towards me.
I’m still standing here, nervous as hell. I may not look like it, but I am.
Suddenly, I calm down once she puts her arms around me and starts dancing. I
move to her rhythm. I don’t dance a lot, but I will with her. We’re dancing and
it’s amazing. Who is this girl?

I start to get more confident
with my dancing. I grab her hand and turn her around. She leans back on me. I
rest my chin on her shoulder as she grinds on me. My heart is beating faster.
Now I’m nervous as hell again. I don’t want to lose my cool. I don’t want to be
the guy who gets a hard on while a girl grinds on him on the dance floor.

Please, don’t get hard. Please,
don’t get hard. Please, don’t get hard.

She lets me off the hook and
turns back around to face me. She wraps her arms around me and lays her head on
my chest. She must be drunk or maybe she is just feeling the same thing I’m
feeling. The real question is what am I feeling right now?

She lifts up her head and leans
into my ear. “Hi” she says softly into my ear. I hear her voice clearly through
all the music playing.

My I think my heart just skipped a
beat ...  if that’s possible.

Claudia

Hi? That’s all you could come up
with Claudia?! Well I guess that is appropriate. I mean I don’t know the guy.

When I saw him on the dance floor
he automatically gave me the confidence to dance with him, touch him, and I
guess to say hi.

“Hey.” My heart skips a beat at
the sound of his whisper in my ear.

Another song starts, but I’m
tired of dancing. I want to know this guy. Without asking I grab his hand and
lead him through the crowd. I take him out to the back patio of Naomi’s
mansion.

Great. Nobody is out here. I let
go of his hand and look up at the view of Naomi’s family’s huge backyard.  They
have a giant pool and a brick stone path that leads to the pool house. The rest
of the backyard is just green cut grass.

I’m trying to avoid eye contact
with him because I don’t know what I’m going to say. I need to be cool about
this.

Come on Claudia, get it together.

I breathe in and out and turn
around to meet his eyes gazing at me. I was right.  His eyes are blue. They are
baby blue at that. They are so bright and full of color that they leave me in a
trance.

Well don’t just gawk at him,
Claudia. Say something!

“I thought maybe we should get
some fresh air.”  Really? I mentally roll my eyes. I really want to slap myself
for these simple sentences I’m giving him.

“Yeah, it was pretty hot in
there.” He says in a not corny, but very sexy way like he isn’t even trying.
His voice is soft, yet he also has a hint of rasp in it.

“Yeah, it was.” I’m trying to be
sexy. I’m such a lame. Come on Claude be bold, be cool, what would mom do? What
would Julia do? Better yet what would Jade do?

“So, you’re not from here are
you?” I ask.

He sticks his hands in his
pockets. “No, I’m not”

“You go to another school?”

He opens his mouth, than stops. “Yeah,”
Maybe he’s nervous too. “In the city. Me and my friends decided to come out
here and enjoy the suburbs, I guess.” He frowns to himself. He is probably trying
to figure out why he just said that. I think its bothering him more than it
should.

“That’s cool. I bet it’s more
exciting than here.” I love visiting the city. I hope to move there one day.

“Yeah, well, I did think that at
first,” He looks me up and down and arches his brow. “But now I’ve found it to
be very interesting here.” Obviously he’s flirting with me. Yay!