I Went to Sleep Thinking About You, And I Woke Up Just the Same.

Brandon and I pull up to the beautiful castle-like house, and he stops the car.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ! You weren't kidding when you said this place was a castle, weren't you!?" I ask my cousin as he gets out of the car. The three of us walk up to the front door, and Brandon opens it up for Ville and I.

We walk inside, and I hear the sound of pool balls being cracking after another ball is hit to start off the game. I follow my cousin inside, with Ville right next me me.

I grin at the sight of the Heartegrams on the walls, the HIM posters, the Bloodhound Gang stuff. All my favorite bands are on these walls, which is extremely exciting.

"GUYS!" Brandon yells, interrupting my thoughts. I see that everyone looked up at my cousin to see what he was yelling about. "This is my cousin Raven! WORSHIP HER!" He yells, and I start laughing, and wave at the guys.

"Dude, your cousin's hot!" I hear one of the guys say, making me blush.

"Well, Ray. The one that says your hot is Raab. And I guess I'll name them all from left to right..Uh, that's Raab, Rake, Bam, Dunn, Novak, and Glomb!"

The truth is..I actually stopped listening to Brandon the moment he said 'Novak'. The two of us made eye contact, and I couldn't look away from him..his eyes were just so blue..so beautiful. It lasted about a minute, and then I feel someone poke my stomach. "What?" I ask giggling.

"We're going to shoot some stuff for Bam's TV show! You down with being on camera, and stuff?" He asks me.

"I'm down for anything really!" I reply. Ville runs over to Bam and jumps up on him.

"Oh, what's this little guy's name?" Bam asks as he kneels down to pet him. After lifting him up off the floor, Ville begins to lick Bam's face making him laugh.

"That's my dog, Ville!" I say to him with a smile. "And he likes you a whole lot."

"HIS NAME IS VILLE?" He asks happily, and I nod. "Raven, I believe you just became my new best friend!" Bam says as he walks over to me and hugs me. With a smile, I hug him back. I look over Bam's shoulder to see Novak playing with Ville, stealing glances at me. I smile at him, and he smiles back and waves. Bam finally lets go of me. "OKAY! WE'RE GOING TO THE MALL." He says pulling me towards the door.

"BAM! Be careful with her! She's tiny as fuck!" I hear Brandon say behind us.

"Calm yourself, Dico. I'll take good care of her!" Bam says as he lets go of me the moment we get outside. I turn around, and see that all the guys were making their way towards two different cars. "Alright, I'll take Raven, Dico, and Raab in my car. Dunn, take the rest of the guys in your piece of shit car."

"You got it, Bam!" He says rolling his eyes as he walks over to his beat up car...of course, after he kicks Raab in the nuts. I, of course start hysterically laughing. I make my way into the back of Bam's red Hummer along with Raab. Brandon gets in front, and Bam begins to drive away. I get kind of upset after realizing that Novak wasn't in the car with us.

"So, Raven! Tell us about yourself!" Raab says with a huge smile on his face.

"Well, I'm Brandon's cousin..I'm three years younger than him. I love H.I.M, Bloodhound Gang, and other shit. I speak sarcasm as a second language. I went to Hofstra, graduated with a BA in Music Ed, and now I don't really have a use for it. I work at a Bar in Phili a couple nights a week! This one, not being one of them, and..yeah, that's really it. I'm kind of boring!" I say with a smile.

"You're not that boring, Ray!" Raab says patting my back. "But we're all going to make your life exciting now, aren't we!?"

"Hell YEAH!" I hear Bam shout from the driver seat, stepping really hard on the break, causing me to hit my head on the back of his seat. "What the fuck just hit my seat!?" He asks.

"My head.." I say rubbing it while laughing.

"Shit, Raven! Are you alright?" Brandon asks. I nod, still laughing..but harder than before.

"Alright, I'm going to the mall..not knowing what the fuck we should do," Bam says. "And..sorry, by the way," He adds turning around to look at me.

"Don't worry about it. But..why don't you do some sort of thing with teams?" I ask.

"That's usually what we do!" Brandon says laughing. "So, we'll roll with that."

"Yeah, like one time! We spent like..one hundred dollars in the most useless way possible!" Raab states. "Dunn won, I think..because he bough a coffee..and gave the guy the whole hundred and told him to keep the change."

"OH YEAH! I remember that!" Dico says laughing. "But..how about this! Everyone is given..five hundred dollars, and they have to spend all of it, and meet at a certain checkpoint."Dico adds.

"Alright, but what does the winner get?" Brandon asks.

"The shit that everyone else bought!" I say to them. "Hence, you've got to use your money to get like..nice stuff. Or even like..candy..God, Five Hundred Dollars worth of Candy! Can you IMAGINE THAT!? That would be heaven," I sigh looking out the window.

"Sweet! Ray, here! Take my phone, look in my contacts for Life Partner, and call him and tell him the plan for today," Bam says tossing his phone to me in the back. I start to call the number, and I hear a low and soft voice on the other end.

"Hey, life partner!" I hear them say.

"Hi! This is-"

"Raven?" I hear him ask. "Oh, shit! You don't know who life partner is do you? Hah, it's Novak, sweet heart!"

"Oh, okay!" I reply with a nervous chuckle following it. "H-hi, Novak!"

"So, what's up?" He asks. I'm still smiling at the fact that he called me sweet heart.

"Uh, we're going to the mall, and we're splitting into teams of two, and we're going to be given five hundred dollars to spend on like..cool stuff, and whoever reaches the checkpoint first..gets all the shit that everyone else bought." I say to him.

"Ah, okay! So sweetheart, when do we find out about these teams of ours?" He asks.

"Well, sweetheart. You're just gonna have to wait!" I reply with a grin. I hear him laugh on the other end.

"Alright, Raven. Can't wait to see-AH, FUCK!" I hear Novak scream, and chuckling after wards.

"What just happened?!"

"Dunn stopped short, and I hit my head on the back of his fucking seat," He says.

"That literally just happened to me!" I reply laughing.

I then hear the sound of someone being smacked, and some 'groans of pain the other end. "I'm still on the phone with her, ass! ANYWAY, can't wait to see you!" He says.

"Bye, Novak!" I reply and hang up the phone, throwing it to Dico.

How is Novak able to give me chills and make blush via phone..after knowing me for not even a half hour? I thought to myself.

Novak's POV
I heard the phone click, and I sighed as I closed my phone and put it into my pocket.

"Novak, you fuckin' like her!" I hear Dunn say.

"Dude, I'm not going to get into this with you now!" I say laughing as I look out the window.
I looked out thinking of Raven..how sweet she was..how..beautiful she was. She's not even hot to me..she's beautiful.

"Dude, you weren't being perverted at all throughout that entire conversation. It was kind of creeping me out..Novak, you like her," Dunn states, turning around to look at me.

"DUNN, WATCH THE FUCKING ROAD!" Rake yells.

"I'm going to have to agree with Dunn on this one, Novak. You like her. I don't blame you, though. She seems like a sweet girl, and she's fucking hot."

"She's beautiful.." I say quietly to myself.

"YOU JUST CALLED HER BEAUTIFUL. Not fuckable, not hot, not sexy as fuck..but beautiful. Novak, you like her. Accept it," Ryan says as we make it into the shopping mall.

"I..I guess I do..I mean, this is the first girl that I actually want to..get to know..and..I guess be with before I fuck 'er, you know? Like..sex isn't the first thing on my mind, right now. FUCK, I'm scaring myself!" I say laughing. Dunn parks the car right next to Bam's hummer, and we all get out. I see Raven walking by herself behind the guys, so I walk away from the members of Dunn's car, and walk over to her, my arm bumping into hers.

Raven's POV
Eventually, we park the car, and I see Dunn's car pull up next to us. We all get start to get out of the car, and I walk into the Mall with all the guys. I feel something bump into my side, and I turn to see Novak walking next to me.

"Hi," We both say at the same time. The two of us quicken our pace, trying to race each other by speed walking to the mall entrance behind everyone else. I eventually give up and run up behind Brandon and jumping on his back. I hop back down, and Novak comes up behind me grinning.

"Cheater!" He whispers in my ear, making me laugh even more. "Alright, what the hell are the teams Life Partner?" Novak shouts to Bam, who's in front of the pack of us. He gives the money to everyone with a grin on his face.

"We're getting into teams of two. So, group one..is me and Dico! Group two is Dunn and Glomb. Group three is Rake and Raab, and group four..Raven and Novak!" Bam says out of breath. He laughs and continues. "We'll meet at the big ass water fountain at the other end of the mall! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!" He yells as he punches Ryan in the back of the head and runs off. Everyone else runs off in different directions. Novak grabs my hand and we start running.

And so it begins.