You Belong With Me

Alex’s P.O.V.

Slowly and unwillingly, I opened my eyes. I was surprised to find myself still in Taylor’s bed. I guess we must have fallen asleep together last night. I looked at her face in a peaceful slumber and listened to her deep, regular breathing. Her long blond hair was all over the pillow behind her face. She was laying on her side facing me curled up into a ball. She always looked so beautiful when she slept. I could not take my eyes off of her; I loved watching her sleep.

Then, it dawned on me. I turned my head towards the alarm clock on her nightstand.

“FUCK!”

I got right out of bed. Taylor began to stir. “Alex, what is it?” she asked as she opened her eyes.

“It’s 7:30! We overslept! School starts in half an hour! We fell asleep before we remembered to set the alarm.”

“Oh shit!” she exclaimed which surprised me because usually it takes a lot to get her to curse. She got her clothes together and ran into the bathroom.

“I’m going home to get ready. I should be back to get you in like fifteen minutes, so try to be ready,” I screamed through the closed door.

“Ok I’ll try,” she said and I left. I ran back to my house and up to my room and immediately started getting changed. I decided to wear a blue flannel shirt unbuttoned and a plain white shirt under it with a pair of black skinny jeans and chucks. Considering I did not have the chance to take a shower, the beanie was a necessity. I took a quick look in the mirror to make sure I didn’t look like a hobo, grabbed my backpack, and ran back out of the house. Taylor and I decided that we would carpool to school, so I quickly jumped in my car, started it up, and pulled up to her house. Five minutes later, she came running out the door, her blond hair flying wildly behind her and her glasses almost falling off the bridge of her nose. She usually wears contacts, but I guess she didn’t have enough time to put them in this morning. I looked at the clock: 7:50. We now had ten minutes to get to school.

As soon as she got in, I jammed my foot down on the accelerator and we were off.

“FUCK!” I screamed, jamming on the brakes. “Why can’t these assholes move?” When we got onto the highway, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam. Oh the joys of rush hour. If you can’t tell already, I have really bad road rage.

“Alex, calm down” Taylor said laughing. For some reason, she always found my road rage to be hysterical. “It’s not worth getting into an accident just to get to school on time.”

I pulled up a little bit and then touched down on the brakes again. “Damn it! We’re never going to get there in this traffic!”

“Chill. They can’t be mad at us for being late. It’s only the first day. It’s not like they are going to give us detention or something.”

“But being late on the first day makes a bad first impression.”

“Yeah says the boy who takes like an hour in the shower and then another half an hour just straightening his hair. You’re always late!”

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t still hate it.”

After what seemed like forever, the cars in front of us finally started to move. We finally arrived at school at 8:05, only five minutes late, which wasn’t bad considering the circumstances. Taylor and I ran into the school and split up. Homeroom classes were assigned alphabetically and G and S were nowhere near each other in the alphabet. I was completely out of breath by the time I ran into the classroom.

“Nice of you to show up, Mr. Gaskarth. You’re lucky I didn’t hand in my attendance yet.”

“I’m really sorry, Mr. Hall. I ran into traffic on the way here. There was an accident on the highway.”

“Just go sit down.” Great. I had already managed to piss off my homeroom teacher and it was only the first day. I found a desk in the third row and sat down. I had this sixth sense that someone was staring at me, so I turned around. What I saw took my breath away again.

Sitting behind me was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. She had golden brown eyes and long, layered reddish brown hair to match them. Her pale skin brought out the utter beauty of her face and the redness of her full lips. She was completely captivating. I had never seen anyone so perfect.

Katelyn Gander.

She was the richest, most popular girl in school. As cliché as it might sound, she also happened to be the head cheerleader. Her family moved here from Long Island a few years ago and her father owned a marketing company in Baltimore. She probably had everyone she knew wrapped around her tiny little finger. Damn.

“Hey, Alex.”

I froze. Did she really just talk to me or was I dreaming?

“What’s up?”

She’s definitely talking to me. Holy shit.

“Uhm h-hi,” I stammered out like a moron. “Nothing really. How about you?”

“Oh, nothing. I’m just sad that summer has to be over so soon. It went by so fast. I can’t believe we’re already seniors.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I agreed. My voice still sounded weird to me, too high. “It’s weird to know that this is our last year in high school. Our last summer in high school is officially over.”

“Did you at least have fun while it lasted though?” she asked.

I thought back at my summer of being a lifeguard at a pool during the day and occasionally playing random shows with Taylor at night or going to parties thrown by friends. “Yeah,” I said. “It was definitely a great summer. What about you?”

“It was amazing. I went to the beach and out with my friends a lot. It was very relaxing. So I heard that you and your girlfriend used to play at some small venues at night sometimes. Is that true?”

“Taylor is not my girlfriend. We are just friends, but, yes, we did play together a lot,” I answered. I thought about what she had just said. Taylor my girlfriend? The idea of it was like incest. She was practically my sister. On the other hand, maybe I could see how some people would think that. After all, Taylor and I were together at every opportunity we had. People were bound to notice that.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you two were together because you’re practically attached at the hip.”

RRRRRIIIINNNGGG!

“Walk me to class?” she asked and I nodded. Once we were in the hallway, she said, “You know, Alex, I would really love to get to know you better.”

“Yeah, me too. We should hang out sometime.”

“That sounds great. And maybe you can sing for me. I heard you’re amazing,” she said in an alluring, flirtatious voice.

“Uhm yeah,” I said breathlessly. I could feel myself reacting involuntarily to what she just said and the way she said it. I realized I didn’t have any books to hide what was currently happening in my pants. That couldn’t be good.

We reached her classroom. “So I guess I will see you later,” she said. For some reason, my brain refused to form coherent words, so I just nodded. Her eyes roamed down my body and she smiled. I could feel my face getting hot.

Fuck.

Thankfully, the bell rang signaling the beginning of class, so I did not have to endure the embarrassment for that long. My classroom was right next to hers, so I walked in and sat down next to my other best friend, Jack Barakat.

“Hey, Dude, what’s with you?” he whispered immediately as I sat down.

“You are never going to believe what just happened,” I responded. I proceeded to tell him about Katelyn. When I got to the part about my boner, he had to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.

“Katelyn Gander? Damn. You lucky asshole,” he said as soon as I was done. “She totally wants to suck your dick.” I could always count on Jack to put things in perspective.

Forty minutes later, my first class was finished. Jack and I happened to have a lot of classes together this year, so we were walking to our next class when I felt someone jump on my back. I turned around to find Taylor smiling brightly at me.

“Hey, Stranger,” she said. “How was your first class?”

“Boring of course. Thank God I have Jack to keep me occupied,” I responded.

“Jack!” she exclaimed and ran over to give him a hug. “I’ve missed you! How are you, Barakuda?” Her and her nicknames...

“I’m lovely, Darling, and how are you? I’ve missed you too.” Taylor and I had met Jack in our freshman year when we all had a class together. He had gone to a private school before then, so he did not know anyone. We randomly started talking to him on the first day and we’ve all been friends ever since. We were the three musketeers. Jack had been on vacation in California for the past few weeks, so it’s been awhile since we’ve seen him.

“I’m great now that you’re back,” she said.

“Glad I could help. How has your day been so far?”

“Pretty boring. School sucks.”

“You can say that again,” I said.

“Anyway, I’d better go. I just wanted to say hi. I’ll see you guys at lunch,” she said as she gave us each one last hug and then walked away.

Before lunch, I went to my locker to put some of my books away.

“Hey, Alex.” I turned to see Katelyn standing right next to my locker. Oh shit. I hoped she did not know the effect she had on me.

“What’s up?” I asked, trying to sound casual, but not entirely succeeding.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come eat lunch with me. We can get to know each other better,” she said, throwing that dazzling smile at me.

“Y-yeah I’d love to,” I responded. Why couldn’t I ever speak clearly around her? “Would it be ok if Jack and Taylor sit with us though? I always sit with them.”

She took a step closer to me so that our faces were almost touching. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer if we sat by ourselves,” she said in a sweet voice. “That way we have no interruptions.”

“Uh yeah that sounds great.” I completely forgot about Taylor and Jack. She took my hand and I followed her into the cafeteria. The only thing I could focus on was the beautiful girl in front of me. At the moment, nothing else mattered.