Operation Bang

Serena woke up the next morning totally hungover. She still couldn't believe her parents totally had no idea that there was alcohol at the party last night. That's what they were like though, they were completely oblivious to everything.

She leaned over on her side grabbing her cell phone to check her messages. There were a bunch of text messages saying thanks for the great party and that it was awesome. It was Serena Rhodes! Why wouldn't she host an amazing raging party?

She scanned her messages more trying to see if she had a text message from the one person she really cared about: her boyfriend, Austin. But there was nothing from him. This was the typical morning for Serena. She always woke up to a dozen text messages but none of them were ever actually from her boyfriend. All she wanted was a simple good morning text from him every once in a while. Was that too hard to ask for?

She decided to send him one herself:

Good morning, babe! :)

"We'll see if he replies," she muttered to herself.

But it wasn't just that. Austin was never a reliable boyfriend. He never wanted kiss or hold hands in public. Sometimes Serena was lucky enough to have a small peck from him. And now that they've been together for a while now, Serena finds herself wanting to take the next step in their relationship. But whenever the moment comes, he finds an excuse to not do it.

Her phone started ringing and she jumped up, excited to hear from Austin. She answered the phone so fast she didn't even check the caller ID. "Hey, babe! So glad you called."

There was a chuckle on the other end of the line. "Well I've never been called babe by a client. But, hey, there's a first for everything, isn't there?"

Serena's eyes widened. She pulled the phone from her ear and checked the ID. It was her personal trainer, Andrew Levitt. "Oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I thought you were-"

"Austin?"

"Yeah," she sighed.

"Nope. It's better," she knew he was smiling. Andrew had been chasing after her for the longest time even though he was so much older than her. But she had to deal with him, he was the best personal trainer in town.

"So why'd you call, Andrew?" Serena sighed, sitting up in her bed.

"Just wondering if you're still coming in to the gym this morning." Serena out her head into hands, totally forgetting about her appointment with him. "Unless you are too hungover from last night."

"No," she shook her head. "I'll be there. Give me 20 minutes."

"See you when you get here." He then chuckled and added, "Babe."

She rolled her eyes and hung up the phone. She liked working out with Andrew. But each time she did, all he tried to do was hit on her. She had to admit though, she really liked the attention, but she constantly reminds herself that she had a boyfriend and its very inappropriate.

Serena rolled herself out of bed and changed into her gym clothes. She brushed her teeth and washed her face and then headed down the stairs in the kitchen for a quick breakfast.

"Morning, Sunshine," April chuckled as she took a bite from her toast. "Did you have fun last night?"

"Wipe that smirk off your face, April," Serena rolled her eyes and poured herself a glass of orange juice.

"Are you sure you don't want some vodka in that glass?" April joked.

"Oh my god, at least I know how to have fun, Miss Party Pooper!" She set her glass down and put two pieces of bread into the toaster.

"I'm sorry, I have fun in different ways," she shrugged her shoulders as she went back to reading her book. April was always reading a new book each day.

"Oh yeah? By reading every second of the day?" Serena scoffed.

"At least it got me into college," she shrugged her shoulders and looked back down at her book.

"College isn't for everyone!"

"Girls, stop!" The two of then could hear their father yelling at them through the halls. He was probably sitting in front of the TV on his laptop and just didn't want to get up.

The two of them grew quiet for a moment as Serena finished making the rest of her breakfast. April broke the silence, "Are you going to see Andrew?"

Serena turned around glaring at her. April always joked about her and Andrew because he was so in love with her. "Yes I am."

"What are you going to do?"

"Work out. What else would we do at the gym?" Serena sat down next to her.

"Oh... I don't know," she winked.

"What has gotten into you?” Serena had never heard her sister ever imply something in a sexual way. It was starting to scare her.

Their conversation was ended by the ringing of the door bell. Neither April or Serena went to go answer it. Serena didn’t like to do things when she knew other people were home that would be glad to do it. April, on the other hand, was always too nervous to answer the door if she wasn’t expecting anyone. That’s how paranoid of a person she was.

Soon enough, their mother walked in with - surprisingly - Daniel, who was carrying a basket of a variety of different vegetables! April’s eyes went wide when she saw him. She looked down noticing she was still in the same clothes from the night before. She didn’t even brush her hair! Quickly, she ran her fingers through her hair to fix herself then wiped underneath her eyes just in case any make up had smeared during her sleep.

Serena couldn’t help but notice how different April was acting around Daniel.

“Isn’t Daniel a sweetheart?” Serena and April’s mother smiled giving a small pat on the shoulder. “He brought over some vegetables from his mother’s garden.”

“That’s really sweet of you, Daniel,” Serena said, nudging April hard in the shoulder.

“My mom really wanted you guys to have some, so I offered to bring them over. She told me to tell you they are very fresh,” he set the basket onto the counter. He looked up, making eye contact with April. Her face felt flustered and she looked down, trying to hide her face.

“It’s nice of you to take the time to do that, we know you’re busy with work,” Mrs. Rhodes said. She always put on the pouty tone whenever she talked to a teenager like as if she felt bad for them all the time even though there was nothing to pity them for. Especially Daniel, who came from a family that had everything. Seriously, the Ford family was rich.

“I wasn’t doing anything really. Just killing zombies,” he pointed his index finger out like he was pretending to shoot a gun. April giggled seeing the confused look on her sister and mother. “Oh, it’s a videogame,” he awkwardly put down his hand looking at April with his eyes wide. How embarrassing for him. “Well, I should get to work.”

“April can walk you out!” Serena spoke quickly.

April stared daggers at Serena as she slowly moved out of her chair.

“Okay!” Daniel’s lips curved into a smile pleased to know that he would get a chance to talk to her today. It was, in fact, the only reason why he brought over the vegetables.

April and Daniel made their way outside. “I’m sorry my family is so weird. My mom tends to put on this whole act with younger people and it’s just... weird.” April found herself asking why she was talking so weird. She really didn’t know how to speak to a boy. “So how was the zombie killing?” Ugh, that so didn’t help.

Daniel knew she was struggling, but he liked it a lot. He found it cute. “Oh, you know, just the usual zombie killing,” he mimicked himself shooting another zombie, which he tended to do quite often, but April didn’t mind all that much. She found him really funny and that’s one quality she really liked in a guy.

Daniel fidgeted with coins in his pocket. They both were nervous and unsure of what to say to each other. But Daniel spoke, “So, April, I know this is kind of out of the blue, but would you maybe want to go-”

“APRIL!” Their heads darted to the side seeing Ana running as fast as she could down the street. “I HAVE NEWS! I HAVE NEWS!”

April looked at Daniel shrugging her shoulders apologetically.

“The best thing that could ever happen to me just happened to me! You won’t believe it!” Ana was nearly jumping up and down from excitement. It took her a moment to collect herself and finally speak. “You remember that stage management job I applied to? Well, I got the job!”

April grinned happily for her best friend. “Oh my god, I’m so happy for you! That is such exciting news!”

“Thank you! I start tomorrow! I just cannot get over how excited I am.” Ana was still breathing heavily from the running she just did. She was skinny, but that didn’t mean she was in shape. Ana awkwardly stood there before she even noticed Daniel still standing there. “I’m interrupting something, aren’t I? I’ll talk to you later,” Ana walked around April, bumping her butt into April pushing her towards Daniel. She was sneaky, that girl.

“I should actually get going,” Daniel muttered. He didn’t want to, but he felt like now wasn’t exactly the best time to ask her out on a date. He noticed the bummed look on her face and he couldn’t stand disappointing people, especially her. “Tell you what, why don’t you come visit me at work later? I get pretty bored sometimes and it would be nice to have someone there to have fun with.”

April’s eyes lit up. It was exactly what she wanted to hear. “I’ll be there,” she grinned.

“Good,” he smirked leaning against his car door. “I’ll see you later, then.”

“You will,” April blushed.

Daniel knew he was pushing it, liking one of his sister’s best friends. But he’s always had something for April ever since the ninth grade when she moved to Laguna. She may not remember, but she dropped her school books at orientation day and Daniel was the first one at her side to help her out. That was the first time he saw her, and since then, he’s always had a thing for her. It just took him so long to finally act on it. Maybe it would be worth the wait.



Serena was panting. She didn't know how much longer she could take of this. She was sweating profusely and she knew it was almost time to give in.

"Three... Two... One!" Andrew shouted.

Serena groaned. "Good lord, I never knew lifting weights would be so hard." She sat up sitting on the bench crouching down to place her head between her legs. Andrew came up behind her placing a towel on her neck and rubbing her back.

"You did good," Andrew sipped from his water bottle. "I don't know many girls who can do that. You are truly one of a kind." Andrew playfully winked at her, checking out her sweaty body.

Serena chuckled to herself, trying to pretend she didn't notice him checking her out. She turned around on the bench placing her right leg on the opposite side to face Andrew. "A girl's gotta look good."

"You always look good," he bit his lip leaning in closer.

Serena leaned back with her arms support, "I have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, who never talks to you," he pointed out. He had a point there, but Serena still didn't want to believe it. She stood up and grabbed her gym bag. "Oh, come on, I didn't mean it like that."

She turned around, "I'm paying you to help me work out, Andrew. Not to hit on me." Andrew rolled his eyes, but he couldn't think of a reason to explain himself. The truth was, he really did like Serena. He liked her a lot more than her stupid boyfriend did. He knew he could treat her better. Andrew always swore that if he had the chance to be with her, he would treat her like a princess.

Serena waited a moment for Andrew to answer her, but it wasn't going to happen. "I'm going to go shower."

She immediately left the training room and into the girl's locker room. She couldn't believe how stupid he could be. He was always hitting on her and sometimes she wondered if it was even worth it going to see him anymore. She was seriously considering quitting her gym membership and just working out at home.

She scuffled through her gym bag to find her cell phone. She turned it on to check her text messages. Finally! A text back from Austin... Three hours later...

Hi!

Hi?! That was it?!!!

Sometimes it seemed as if Austin wasn't even in on the relationship anymore. Serena constantly was always making assumptions of the worst things. Seriously, though, he wouldn't sleep with her, he hardly ever said he loved her, and he never spoke with her unless it was in public or if he desperately had something to say. She wanted someone that wanted to show her off and didn't just want to stay inside and watch a boring old movie.

She thought about it, and wondered if Andrew would be able to give her those things. Andrew would want to flaunt Serena around every single chance he got. He would kiss on every spot of her body. He definitely would sleep with her in a heartbeat. The only thing that Serena wasn't so sure about was that he was such a player. Not to mention the fact that he was twenty-three years old!

There were so many pros and cons to the list. But there was one question that mainly stuck in her mind: would it all be worth it?

She finished showering and getting dressed and she began heading out to her car. She couldn’t help but notice Andrew loading up his large chevy pickup truck. She hesitated and wasn’t sure if was she was about to do was the most appropriate thing. But after thinking about it for a very long time, she came to the conclusion that it was the only thing she could do.

Serena slowly made her way over to his. He didn’t notice her. Serena could tell that he was still bummed about earlier. She was now right in front of him and he still didn’t look up. She started to realize that he was only doing that because he was mad at her.

“Hey,” she muttered.

Hey? Really? That’s all she could do?

Andrew stood up, squinting his eyes from the brightness of the sun. “Hi,” he replied, not looking her in the eye.

“Look, I’m just gonna come flat out and say this. Are you busy tonight?” Serena let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t believe she was asking him out.

Andrew was ecstatic on the inside! The girl of his dreams was standing in front of him asking if he had any plans. Things were going well for him! “Woah, is Serena Rhodes seriously asking me out?”
“I’m not asking you out, don’t get yourself too excited,” she rolled her eyes. Andrew made pouty face. “I just want to hang out. I still have a boyfriend, remember?”

“Not for long,” he winked. “Why don’t you come over to my apartment tonight? I’ll make you dinner, and we could watch some tv... maybe a movie?”

Serena’s heart was racing. Was she really going to do this? “I’ll be there at eight.”

Tonight was the night for no worries. She wasn’t going to think about Austin and the problems they were having. It was all about her tonight. And tonight, was going to be the night where Andrew was going to show her what she’s been missing this whole time.