Candance O’Brian sat at her window seat, staring out at the gloomy meadow outside. ‘Twas a very depressing day in early October, and Candance, also known as Caddi, was in a rather down mood. She had been rejected again by a magazine she applied at. Candance was obsessed photography, and was exceptionally good. She truly had an eye for photos. At the tender age of 16, she was like any normal teenager, looking for any way to make a buck or two. And one way she tried was applying to photography magazines, looking for any sort of job she could get. But she always seemed to be turned down for some odd reason.
The O’Brians lived a rather difficult life - the two children, Candance and Benji, were left home alone a lot since their mother, Roberta, worked two jobs just trying to make ends meet. Roberta had been married but she never got along well with the man. And so shortly after their second child, Benji, was born, on his 3rd birthday, Mr. O’Brian walked out the family, never to be seen or heard from again. And so poor Roberta was left to raise two young children on her own. She had friends that helped out when the two kids were younger, but as they got older, her friends slowly stopped coming over and offering to help. So Candance has on many a night been taking care of the house, her brother, and her self, while their mum was at work. And at 16, that wasn’t the most desirable job, trying to juggle all that plus school and friends, and trying to get a job.
And so here she was, sulking, as she always did when she received the awful letter which was enclosed with “we regret to inform you we reject your offer” and other such sad news. She had just returned from school not 30 minutes before, read her the letter, and went to her room to wait for her mother to return from work. Suddenly her cell phone began ringing. Grabbing it from her pocket, Candance answered it calmly.
“Hello?” answered Candance.
“Hi honey! It’s Mum. Work scheduled me to work late again tonight. You and Benji can have the leftovers in the fridge for supper. I’ll be home around midnight or so,” said Caddi’s mum on the other end.
“Oh, ok…thanks for telling me,” said Candance gloomily.
“Yup. Love you, sorry I couldn’t be home sooner. Tell Benji to clean his room, and make sure to do your homework,” said Ms. O’Brian.
“Will do. Love you too Mum. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Candance closed her Slide, and headed out of her room to her brother’s bedroom. “Benji, Mum said to work on your room. And I agree…this place is looks like you are trying to build a nuclear bomb or something. You have crap lying EVERYWHERE! And we are having leftovers again for supper,” shouted Candance to her brother. Benji was 14, and was at the age of not wanting to put away anything where it belongs. So his room seemed to be in the constant state of a disaster zone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day, all went as it normally did. I woke up just as Mum was going out the door. And so I ate breakfast alone, then took a shower, did my long scene-like black hair, and rushed off to school with my brother. School was very dull, and I could not wait till it was over. After all the classes were done for the day I was waiting for Benji to arrive so we could go home together, when suddenly a guy walked up to me.
“Are you Candance O’Brian? The junior?” the mysterious emo-looking guy asked me.
“Yes. Why? Who are you?” I said cautiously.
“My name is Alexxandre Jasper LeRousse. I’m a senior, and one of the projects in our {Social Studies}# class is doing the Understudy Project with this year’s graduating students. What it is is that every senior in the class has to pick a name out of a hat which contains names of random juniors. And the name you choose, you have to for the rest for the year mentor to that person and try to befriend them and help them out with school and whatnot. Kind of like the school’s version of the Big Brothers Big Sisters thing. So anyways, the name I chose was Candance O’Brian. So, it must be you, eh?” finished Alexxandre.
“Oh…I see. That makes sense,” I replied, fidgeting with my pink Chucks in the grass.
“Yeah. So, are you willing to give it a try? I think it will be fun!” said Alexxandre, giving me the cutest grin I had ever seen before.
“Sure! I’m game if you are!” I responded excitedly.
“Sweet! Only please don’t call me Alexxandre. Alexx or Jasper works, but NOT Alexxandre…it sounds too…French. Not that it helps any since my last name is just as bad. My dad came to Portland when he was in his teens. My mom lived in Ohio for most of her life, so yeah…I am French-American. Joy. Anywho…” at this Alexx began trailing off.
“Oh ok. That’s really cool! Most people call me Candance, and a few call me Caddi. And my mum calls me Cupcake…don’t ask. So yeah...I’m game for anything pretty much,” I said
“Oh haha…ok I won’t,” said Alexx, grinning again.
With that, Benji came running up and stood next to me. He kept being rather rude and impatient, so finally Alexx and I said goodbye, exchanged phone numbers, and went our separate ways. Which we came to find out weren’t too separate. Alexx lived on the block behind our apartment. So we walked home together. When me, Alexx and Benji walked through the door, we were greeted by Mum, who came out holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies and glasses of milk. Both me and Benji looked at her with our mouths open. What on earth could be going on? Why was Mum home so early? And she never had time to bake anymore.
Benji was the first to regain his composure, while I was still in shock and Alexx standing there looking very confused.
“M..M..Mum? W…what is this? Why are you home so friggan early? And what’s with the cookies? You never bake anymore…” questioned Benji. At this my Mum chuckled.
“Well, this is in celebration! I was promoted today at my one job! I am now just under the CEO! So we won’t have anymore financial issues! Aaaand…I can quit my second job and I will have better hours and be home more!” Said Mum in a very excited voice.
“Ohmygoshreally?” said both me and Benji in unison. At this all four of us laughed. I introduced Mum to Alexx. Then we all went into the tiny family room and watched movies for the rest of the night, enjoying the company of each other and the delicious cookies.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Several weeks later -
I woke up with a start. I rolled over and turned off my alarm clock, irritated that anything had the nerve to wake me up so freakin early. Still half mummified, I pushed my blankets off, and swung my feet over onto the chilly wooden floor. The sudden sensation of cold on my bare feet sent shivers up my spine. It was unusually cold for the Portland, Oregon area. I got up the nerve and ran to my closet and dressed as quickly as possible. “Ahhh…that feels so much better,” I thought to myself. “Hmm…it is so cold this morning. It doesn’t usually get this chilly. Oh well.” I went downstairs and was greeted on the way by Benji. He seemed to be as shaken by the low temperature as I was. He was wearing his thermal PJ bottoms, two shirts, a hoodie, socks and wrapped in a blanket. I couldn’t help but chuckle, which resulted in a glare from him. “Good morning sunshine. You’re in a glorious mood today,” I quipped. Finally I reached the stairs, where Mum was at the table drinking some coffee and reading the paper. Gosh I couldn’t remember the last time I seen her do that. It seemed so out of place, and yet, somehow, it felt like it belonged. Like the perfect photo. I stared at the scene for a few moments before revealing myself to her. She welcomed me to sit with her while Benji got out something for him to eat.
“Good morning Mum!” I said cheerfully.
“Good morning hun, how did you sleep?” She asked me.
“Pretty good thanks.”
I told her I was going over to study after school with Saffira and Alexx, and that I would be at her house for supper.
“Who is Saffira?” she asked curiously.
“My best friend. I don’t talk about her much, since she used to live quite a ways away and was home schooled. But her parents decided to move here, and so she transferred to my school,” I said.
“Oh, ok. Have a fun day dear,” said my Mum.
“Thank you,” I said to her in reply.
With that, I ate a quick breakfast, went upstairs and brushed my teeth, and did my hair, grabbed my bag and ran outside. I turned around and looked over my shoulder to see if Benji was behind me, and as he was, I continued running until I reached Alexx’s house. He was waiting for me on his porch as normal. I grinned and asked him how his morning was, brushing his long black and red streaked hair out of his eyes. He chuckled and said everything was well. He then grabbed me by the waist, and looked deep into my brown eyes with his gorgeous green ones. I was scared, my heart pounding in my chest.
“Alexx? What are you-” I began saying before he covered my mouth with his fingers.
“Candance…hush…I…-” Alexx started saying but then Benji cam up beside us then and said nothing but politely pulled me out of Alexx’s hold. Alexx looked down at the floor, then back up at me, and walked off the porch and we were on our way to school.
We arrived with not a moment spare, and school went extremely slowly or so it seemed. The hours dragged on and on. Finally at least one good class - art! But what a surprise met me at the door. Alexx was standing there, at my place in the room, going through my stuff!
“Alexx! What the heck do you think you are doing!” I yelled at him. All eyes turned to me.
“Caddi, calm down. My teacher said I had to take one class with you, and I knew how much you liked art so I thought-” he started but I didn’t want to listen.
“I don’t care! That is all my personal stuff! I mean you are my friend and I trust you, but you could have at least told me you were going to be in class with me today and ASKED that you could look through my stuff!” I shouted at him. By that time our teacher was walking towards us, and began trying to calm things down. Eventually my head cooled off, and I was ok, but I was still a tiny bit irritated. The class went well, and Alexx turned out to be really artistic. Especially people. He was for sure gifted.
Finally the school day was over, and onto Saffira’s house! Sassafras, as we all call her, is an extremely sweet girl, kind of a polar opposite of me. I am wild an rebellious, she is nurturing and innocent. I am very pale with dyed black hair, with bleached bangs and pink and black streaks. She has naturally brown hair in tight curls and a tan complexion. I am short, she is tall. I’m Christian, she’s Catholic. I have Benji, she is an only child. But yet, despite our differences, we somehow clicked perfectly. We could tell each other anything, we could be in the worst moods ever, and somehow manage to laugh till we hurt. We were sitting on her bed talking, and looking over our science project, when Sassy’s(another nickname) mother called, saying there was a freak-ish looking girly boy at the door saying he was here to help study. We both laughed and went downstairs to greet Alexx.
We had been studying for a couple hours when Saffira’s mom said she had to run to the store and she needed her daughter to come with her. Sassy groaned, pleaded and complained, but it was no use. She had to go. Telling us she would be back soon, she left with her mother, and me and Alexx continued to study. I started to reach for a pencil without looking up, and apparently Alexx did the same. Not realizing it, our hands touched softly on the same pencil, and I suddenly drew in my breath and brought my hand back quicker then lightening. Alexx, still looking at his book, began sporting his World’s Cutest Grin Ever, and suddenly looked me straight in the eye. Again I got nervous, and looked away. I had never had a crush, and had never been too interested in the idea of being “in love” and such. Alexx seemed to know I was avoiding his looks for that reason, and bluntly asked me why. I stuttered, not knowing how exactly to answer, all the while he was slowly creeping closer and closer to me on the bed.
“Candance…Babe…please…don’t be scared. I will never hurt you. I promise. I…I love you, with all my heart. These past weeks have been torture, trying to act like normal friends, when I wanted so badly to be more. Please, trust me. Let me…let me be your lover.”
I had no idea what to say. I was in total shock. Alexx? Love me? Why? What was it that he seen in me? He then sat right next to me, our thighs touching, and grabbed my hand and tenderly put it in his. With his other hand he gently held my face, and put his cheek next to mine. My heart was pounding so hard, I thought the whole world could hear it. He then put his lips next to my ear and whispered “I love you” in such a quiet voice I barely heard him. Then, without any notice, we heard someone coming upstairs. Saffira was home! Faster then I could say the letter “a” he moved back to his spot, and we began reading as if nothing had happened. My cheeks were so flushed, my heart was racing and I could barely talk. How on earth could we cover it up? How on earth would our friend know nothing happened?
But either she knew and said nothing, or she took no notice of my state. When we finally finished our studies, and had a delicious supper, we said our goodbyes and Alexx and I walked home. We had to go by the park on the way, and as we neared the beautiful tall trees and lovely gardens, with all of the soft lights lit, Alexx grabbed my hand. He led me to a little spot by a bunch of tall oaks and a flower garden, with the fall leaves all around us.
“I’m sorry about earlier. It was dumb of me. I was just so tempted, and once I started I couldn’t stop. If you want, I will never show any affection towards you again, and pretend that never happened. Or, if by some miracle, you trust me, and have feelings for me…I will pick up where we left off. It is your call,” finished Alexx.
Again, my heart was beating and I could barely breathe. I looked down at my hand, which was still enclosed in his. And for the first time, I actually knew what love was. I looked up at him, and simply said “continue” while smiling subtly. He chuckled slightly, and then put his hands gently on my waist, and pulled me close. I reached up and put my hands around his neck, letting them rest on his shoulders.
I looked up at the dark sky above us, and noticed the handsome full moon shining down on us elegantly. I then looked around us, and could barely believe my eyes. Fireflies? In October? It couldn’t be…I looked at Alexx, and seen he, too, had noticed the phenomenon. We locked eyes again, and smiled at each other. He stroked my hair gently, and made his way down my face, barely touching his skin to mine. I loved the way it felt. It sent shivers up my spine. Good shivers, shivers I enjoyed. He then put his nose to mine, and we closed our eyes and tilted our heads down. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. He then moved his head slightly, and put his lips to the corner of mine. I took in my breathe sharp. I was so scared, and yet, I was unafraid. It that even made sense. And before I knew what happened, his lips gently pressed against mine. I could feel his lip rings, squashed between his lips and my lips, and I liked it. He held my face, and his other hand held my waist, and the adored way it felt, my first, real, honest-to-goodness kiss. It was heavenly. After a few moments he pulled back, and looked into my eyes, searching to see if his feelings matched mine. I smiled and confirmed his question.
He hugged me, and asked if I liked it. I was unable to speak, and barely managed a nod with my head against his chest. He then again kissed again, this time more passionately. After a little while, his tongue asked for permission to enter, which it was allowed. The feeling of his tongue inside of my mouth was something to be acquired, and I pulled back. He whispered a faint “I’m sorry. We should be going anyways,” and with one last sweet kiss, we began our journey home, enjoying having our hands together, walking the enchanting light made by the full moon above us.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
i fkn hate it when people tell me how to write. its MY story, and i can write it whoever the heck i want to. "more talking, less description, more this, less that" IDC!!!
