370Chapter 1: Rylie's POV
Colton Mathews. One of the most godlike, sexiest human beings you will ever meet. Hit me up ladies. Love ya Ry. (:
I didn't know whether to roll my eyes or chuckle at the charming status on my Facebook page. Like a true idiot, I had given my best friend my Facebook password. It was not the best decision I had ever made, but I felt like I could trust him enough to not do stupid shit. However in the moment, I forgot his name was Colton Mathews and doing stupid shit was in his nature. Rolling my eyes, I glanced at the comments that kept flooding in. He had posted the status nearly five hours ago and already had 100 notifications. I groaned as I glared daggers at the increasing comments on the post. Why could he never for once post on his own wall? My phone vibrated beside me and I groaned even more when I saw the text.
C: You're online! Love my post? ;)
R: Why are you preaching lies on my facebook? Btw you're blowing up my notifications.
C: Ohh come on Rylie! We all know you think I'm drop dead gorgeous. And good, that means I'll be getting me a few dates this week ;)
I sighed as I glanced back towards the screen. Why did I put up with such an irritating human being? Oh yeah because for some reason we were best friends. Colton and I had been best friends ever since we were born. Ironically, our dads had been best friends throughout high school and college, forcing us into a preplanned friendship. Not that we cared. Colton and I were closer than our parents had probably expected. I could not tell you how many times people had asked if he was my boyfriend; we were literally that inseparable. We grew up with each other, we learned from each other, and we experienced with each other. He was like a brother to me; my other half. We shared the same interests. Our favorite genre of music was rock and our favorite band was Skillet. We lived and breathed sports, mainly basketball. We even shared a love for action movies, preferably ones with Liam Neeson in them.
We had one particular difference, Colton was popular and I was not. Every school had particular cliques that made up high school. I was in the athletic clique. Colton was just sort of in between. Our school was different than most. Our cliques generally got along with one another. Most people liked me in the popular clique because they knew I was Colton's best friend. Some people didn't, but there was a good chance I didn't like them either. Generally, I preferred my insanely weird, funny, and athletic friends. Thankfully, sometimes Colton did too. I pulled from my thoughts when I felt the vibration of my phone against my leg again.
C: Hey, I'm coming over.
I glanced at myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite side of the wall from my bed. Thankfully Colton had seen me covered in poop before because I honestly was not looking any better than that at the moment.
R: Sure, make yourself at home. Just so you know, I have family coming over for Sophia's birthday in a couple of hours.
C: What a nice offer ;) your family loves me anyways (: See you in five.
I hauled my ass out of bed, blowing loose strands of hair out of my face as I trailed down the stairs in my black shorts and blue tanktop. I had barely made it down the stairs completely before I heard the front door open. I jumped the last few steps to see that it was in fact my speedy best friend, I slapped my forehead.
"You said five."
"I always say five. Besides, it's not gonna take me long to get to your house, considering I live right across the street," Colton said, pointing his finger across the street like I had forgotten. I rolled my eyes at him as he dropped onto our couch and started flipping through channels. He patted the spot beside him, "Lets watch Red, I hear the movie is bad ass." I opened my mouth to reply, but my mother walked into the living room.
"Rylie Nichole Hayes! You have family coming over in a couple hours! Go get ready!" I looked back over at him with an answer to his question. He smiled and nodded, "Oh, hi Colton."
"Hello Mrs. Hayes."
I left after that and went back up to my room. I turned my shower on and made sure the water was warm to relax my sore muscles. Since our basketball tournament was coming, like I had mentioned many times before, coach had my team running ten times more than usual and practicing longer and harder than usual. I always complained about it, but I couldn't deny that I was still excited. I wanted to get to the championships just as much as anybody on my team.
When I was done with my shower, I wrapped a towel around my body and walked back into my bedroom to pick out clothes. I decided to wear something casual which consisted of my dark skinny jeans and light blue volleyball sweatshirt. I blow dried and straightened my long, dark brown hair and pinned my longer than usual bangs to the side. I added a small amount of mascara and eyeliner to my hazel eyes to complete my typical look. After brushing my teeth, I walked back down the stairs and caught Colton in the kitchen. Apparently he had been given the task to peel potatoes by my mother who obviously did not know just how terrible Colton was at anything food related. Cooking wise that is, that boy could scarf down 10 McDouble's from McDonalds in ten minutes. I leaned against the entry way, laughing as he cursed when a piece flew and hit him in the face. He jumped, whirling around to glare at me.
"What?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows together as he focused on the task at hand. I laughed hysterically, taking satisfaction in watching him struggle.
"Having trouble there?" I asked, amused. He paused to look up at me and glared. I smiled and walked around the counter to help him. I yanked the potato away from him and started slicing off the skin in perfect strips.
"Show off," he mumbled under his breath, "At least I can rely on you to cook me food when we're living on our own."
"Yeah, that's not happening," I mentioned, smirking slightly, "You're just gonna have to fend for yourself buddy boy."
"You wouldn't do that," He mentioned, leaning towards me over the counter.
I raised an eyebrow, "I wouldn't?"
He immediately shut up, "Potato. Slice it. You're running out of time."
"Not my problem it takes you 30 minutes to cut one potato," I teased, "I could've been done by now."
Colton watched me prepare Sophia's birthday dinner for the next 30 minutes. He helped me at times, but I found that it was easier if he didn't help because he didn't know what to do most of the time. He was just in the middle of telling me that I was going to be his own personal chef when we were older when the doorbell rang. I motioned for him to go answer it and he walked away quickly. I was guessing it was my grandparents, they always showed up to special events nearly an hour before they began.
Sure enough, the signature boom of my grandpa's voice echoed in the kitchen. My grandma, grandpa, and Colton emerged into the kitchen shortly after.
"…all the time I come visit my family. Boy, you better be keeping your hands off my granddaughter," my grandpa stated sternly. For some unknown reason, my grandpa's always had this theory that Colton was up to... teenage boyish things when he was around me. I was guessing that it was due to the numerous slightly (okay really) perverted remarks Colton said towards me. Of course my grandpa tooks things too seriously a majority of the time so he distrusted Colton. I could not help but notice Colton's smile as he came back in.
"Grandpa! Grandma!" I called, mostly to wave off the unnecessary conversation. I wrapped my arms around each of them and my grandma put my hair behind my ear.
"How's our granddaughter doing?" She asked sweetly. Her eyes flickered towards the counter and I knew she was already aching to help me cook. My grandma was an amazing cook, I honestly couldn't understand why she hadn't opened her own restaurant yet.
"Great! My basketball team is playing in the finals here soon!" I replied happily. I caught Colton smiling at me from the corner of my eye.
"Oh you'll do great! You and Colton have always had an act for playing basketball so you don't need to worry," she reminded me reassuringly, rubbing my arm. My grandpa had been staring at Colton the entire time and at the mention of Colton, he turned to lecture him more on the unnecessary topic from before. I quickly grabbed his hand and dragged him back into the living room.
"Your grandpa has never liked me."
"I can't say I blame him," I teased, poking his nose with a smirk. I headed towards the couch, but Colton grabbed my hand and turned me back around to face him.
"That is no way to treat your prince, ma'lady," he grinned, winking at me. I scoffed, giving my lame best friend a once over.
"Oh please. You're no prince."
"Why ma'lady, you never should of said that because I can make you take it back," he beamed with a mischievous grin. I backed away from him quickly, realizing what he was planning on doing.
"No you can't..." His eyes lit up as he reached to grab me. I screamed and tried to run the other way, but his strong arms grasped firmly around my waist and yanked me back. I kept repeating "no" as he carried me over to our leather couch. Before I could wrestle out of his hold, he was on top of me, his hands attacking my sides. I was very ticklish and hated being tickled. I was surprised Colton had not learned his lesson after I kicked him in the face just a couple months ago. It was accidental of course, but that kick was a power shot. I ended up giving him a bloody nose; rightfully so if I do say so myself. "Alright … Colton … You're a... Prince," I said between gasps of air and laughter. He stopped but stayed on top of me, clutching his stomach as he bent over to laugh.
"The facial expressions … you make when …you are getting tickled … are priceless," he croaked through fits of laughter. I narrowed my hazel eyes on him, attempting to push him off of me.
"Get off of me."
"I think I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at, thank you," he assured me sarcastically, readjusting himself on my lap with a happy sigh. With the little strength I possessed, I pushed him off of me until he landed with a rough thump on our hardwood floor. I peeked over the side, giving him an apologetic smile.
"Hope the floor is cozy too," I commented in amusement, trying to hold back my chuckles. He slowly sat up and rubbed the back of his head, glaring at me as he did so.
"A little warning might have done me well."
I looked at him with a smirk, "I'll try and remember that next time," I turned my gaze back towards the TV, catching him smiling at me out of the corner of my eyes.
"Scoot over," he motioned with a wave of his hand as he stood up. I scooted over so my back was against the couch wall and he fell down right beside me, "This is wrong. You always lay over here," I jumped over him and waited until he got comfortable to lay beside him. He rested his arm over my stomach, "Better."
"Can we watch Red now?" I asked as I opened the movie guide to search for our designated choice. He nodded, resting his head on my shoulder. I looked down at him with one of my eyebrows raised, "Are you sure you wanted to switch sides because I always lay over here or is it because I make a good pillow?"
"Like I said before, you're pretty comfortable," he reminded me with a smirk. He reached over and shut the lights off as the movie started playing. I couldn't help but play with his hair. It was dirty blonde and softer than a baby's bottom, I was jealous, "You play with my hair too much," He chuckled in amusement. I paused my dog like petting, freaked out because he knew exactly what I was thinking. I guess it wasn't that freaky, Colton and I always seemed to have a bond between us. It was like we were those twins that could say the exact same thing at the exact same time. Colton shifted up so his head rested in the crook of my neck.
"It's very soft."
"You're soft," he retorted in a quiet voice.
"Was that a fat joke?" I replied sarcastically, pouting my lips. Colton laughed, tightening his arm around my waist.
"You're most definitely not fat, that's for sure princess." He commented.
"Princess?"
"Did you forget? I'm your prince, princess," he mumbled into my neck. I could feel the movement of his face as it turned up into a smile.
"Unfortunately for you, I like my prince's muscular…" I placed my hand on his stomach, "You might wanna work on that."
He laughed and patted his stomach too, placing his hand over mine.
"Yeah I know. I think those McDonald's meals are getting to me," he joked, even though it was most likely the truth. The truth was that Colton had a McDonald's addiction, the lie was that Colton had an "unfit body." He worked out in the gym a lot for basketball, football, and track. The boy was fit and he knew it too. The egotistical bastard. I was about to reply, but his phone vibrated in his pocket and we both squinted our eyes as blinding light from the phone invaded our vision.
"Who's it from?"
"Alicia," he said hesitantly, causing me to roll my eyes. I loathed Alicia. She was the bitchiest person I had ever met. And for some unknown reason, or at least unknown to me, she despised me. He texted her back quickly, then slipped his phone back into his pocket.
"What'd she want?"
"To see if I would come over," he muttered like he was bored. Yeah, let's be realistic here. 'Come over' in Alicia's terms meant 'come over so we can fuck.' I was genuinely surprised Colton had refused the offer. I mean, sitting here cuddling with your best friend was better than making out with one of the sexiest, arguably so, girls in our school? I started to sit up.
"You can go if you want. My mom probably wants me in there to talk-"
"No. I'm staying," he said without a doubt, confused why I was trying to sit up. I paused as I was leaning up and he looked at me, gently pushing me back down.
"You don't have to."
"But I want to," he confirmed, giving me a positive look. I left it at that. Colton wouldn't refuse an offer from Alicia like that. They'd had a "thing" a while back and I was pretty sure it was heating up even more between them. I was not even going to go into the topic about how much Alicia disgusted me because I could have a legitimate heated argument over her. I hated seeing Colton with her. Mostly because imagining Colton making out with girls was... not a pleasurable image, plus I did not like her. I mean, is he really saying he'd rather lay here with me and watch a movie? I knew we were best friends and all, but he was a guy. I knew he loved doing unholy things with girls when they offered. I hadn't even offered him anything and yet, he was laying here with me and talking to me like he hadn't even received the text message from Alicia. Hadn't he even posted a status on my account saying: Hit me up ladies?
My best friend confused the fuck out of me sometimes.
Editing this whole story so people can read Change of Heart before reading Growing Up! So the book is going back up :) However, you do not have to read this book first to know what's going on in Growing Up.