The Heaven I Found In Hell

by Ashley Andrews

  "Ouch. What was that for?" He asked, rubbing the spot I hit.

  "You know I don't eat ribs! One whole slab of it for that matter!" I said, throwing my hands up in the air in mock-annoyance.

  Rick simply laughed at me, before he told me to settle down. Immature and every adjective related to that word, I crossed my arms over my chest, before I gave him a frown. He pouted back, probably trying to make fun of me, before he reached his arm out to me and patted my shoulder. Both of us knew we were just teasing, so after a while we stopped acting like children, and decided to talk about business.

  "So, how's my career going?" I asked him, my voice sounding apathetic and caring at the same time. "Is it still okay?"

  I had been out of that world for a couple of months now, and I was starting to worry. Before I went to boarding school, I settled a lot of projects, but in the world I was living in, there was really no certainty if I’d still be earning a lot since the fashion industry itself was very fast paced. New clothes here...new designers over there...one had to have something that he could claim his for his work to remain different from all the rest.

  "It's going well..." he said in casual tone of voice.”But it'll be better when your Winter Break starts."

  I sparked up.

  "Yeah?" I asked brightly. "How so?"

  "I talked to your mom and dad, and forced them to let you model during your breaks. They said yes definitely since they still have their hearts, and of course they know how much you love to model."

  The both of us were definitely smiling like a pair of Cheshire cats, and we couldn't help it! Rick wasn't just doing this because he earned through me. He knew how I enjoyed my work, even though it could get tiring at times. But before we could continue talking, our food came, and with that, we thanked Matt, before he left us with a smile and continued with his work.

  "So do I have anything lined up?" I asked him, and immediately he answered with a wide grin.

  "Of course. I got you tons of projects, and with those magazine articles I’ve been reading about you...you're slowly becoming a public figure."

  I didn't know if I should smile with what he said since I didn't really appreciate the lives of those who were being followed 24/7. It's just too crazy, and I'm surprised how come those teen stars aren't stopping with their hard ways yet. I mean they get more bad publicity than good. I wouldn't want that to happen to me. That's the good thing about keeping it low key actually, you can party all you want without the whole world describing you as one messed-up kid. Uh-huh. I like the way I live. Just keep the modeling contracts coming.

  "Well, I just want to model that's all," I told him, a little bit of uncertainty heard in my voice. "I don't think I’d be able to handle more paparazzi. I get enough of them already."

  Before he answered me, he took one big bite of his ribs, and munched it down his throat. With my stomach growling, I decided to start eating too, but of course, I took baby bites, if you could put it that way. This dinner was definitely good...but with good came fattening!

  We continued talking about my career, and he told me that once my break starts, I should fly to New York to get things going. He told me I had projects with Victoria's Secret, Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli, and Monique Lhuillier, but he also said that I could finish those things within a week so the rest of my break I could just rest and spend time with my family. Yay! I ended my night stuffed, and unable to breathe properly, so I decided to jog once I get home, just to burn a few calories.

  * * *

  I stuck to my word, and when the clock struck nine, I left my dorm clad in sweats, a pair of jogging pants, and my Adidas running shoes. I left the building, before I made my way to the soccer fields to jog. When I got there, I gave myself a couple of minutes to think it over, and when I finally made my decision, I started to run. At first my pace was fast, and I thought that maybe I could have a career in running, but a while after, I realized that my running skills weren't any better than my talent in soccer...Oh, I forgot...I don't even have a talent in the sport to start with.

  I sighed heavily, and thought about what I was doing. I knew the reason I was jogging right now was just to burn what I had eaten earlier, but because of the silence that surrounded me while I ran, I began to contemplate about my life and me. I wanted to be good at something. I did not want to be known simply as 'that supermodel.' I wanted to earn something I’d be truly grateful for while I was here in Ridgeway. Soccer, math, running...anything...

  But before I could even think about what specific area of study or sport I could better myself in, someone knocked me hard, making me fall on my butt. I groaned at my sudden fall, and when I regained consciousness, I took the hand of the person who knocked me over, and stood up. I soon realized my consciousness wasn't at its best yet since I took Nathan's hand. Yes, I took Nathan's warm, soft hand.

  I looked at him with my mouth open, making a fool of myself, and when my brain finally decided to function, and take in the view in front of me which was a fine specimen of creation (a.k.a. Nathan Adams), my lips started to curve upwards and move.

  "Stalking me?" I asked with a sly smile, my heart rate and pulse probably going like mad.

  His eyes widened, before he grinned at me, and before I knew it, I was smirking back at him. We remained standing on the cemented pathway surrounding the school's fields, just staring at each other, but not in the 'my-eyes-only-see-you' kind of way, it was more of a, 'woah-you're-jogging-during-the-night' look.

  "Maybe." He replied, turning the I-Pod that was strapped to a leather case around his arm off. After doing so, he looked back to me, before he furrowed his eyebrows. "You're the one who should be called a stalker. I jog here every other night..."

  I thought about what kind of answer I was going to give him, but when my brain didn't process anything reasonable, I decided to change our topic of conversation.

  "I heard you're not taking Cindy to the dance anymore?" I said going way out of the topic. I started to walk, and he followed me from behind.

  I took small steps, and a couple seconds later, we were walking side by side. Our shoulders would brush from time to time, and when it did, I’d feel a tingling sensation coming from the lowest part of my stomach. I tried to brush away the certain feeling I’d been encountering for the past week and a half, but when it didn't leave, I just let it rest there at the back part of my head.

  "I see news travels fast." He said, and I nodded. "Why? Concerned?"

  I turned my attention to his eyes, and gave him a questioning look. I raised one of my eyebrows up at him, before I looked away, and settled my sights on the floor I was walking on. I didn't want to look at those hazel green orbs of him. They were slowly hypnotizing me, and that before I could even realize it...I might end up falling hard and what's going to hurt is if his two feet remain standing firmly on the ground.

  "Why should I be concerned?" I asked, sending him a look of mischief.

  "If you're not concerned...maybe you're jealous...?" He said, before he returned my smile with a playful, but suspecting one of his own.

  I literally felt myself stiffen when he mouthed out the word 'jealous,' so I ended up stopping in my tracks, as I tried to take in what he just said. He nudged my shoulder when I didn't answer right away, and just to save myself from embarrassment, I decided to run away from him. I started to walk briskly, and when I was a few feet away from him already, I hastened my walk into a jog, but unsurprisingly, he caught up with such ease. I stopped, and he followed suit.

  "Why are you following me?" I asked, panting heavily.

  God, give me talent...

  He laughed silently, probably amused with my words, before he said, "Because you left my question unanswered...!"

  I replayed what happened only a few seconds ago in my head, asked, "You weren't asking. You were assuming."

  "No, I was asking." He said, his turn to correct me.

  "Nuh-uh, you were assuming, and I’m sure of that."

  He gave me an enter
tained smile, before he crossed his arms over his chest. We started walking again, and during our so-called exercise, I only kept thinking about one thing...or one person for the matter, him.

  "I was assuming? Yeah, right." He said, with a small gesture of the hand, waving my answer off.

  "You were..." I said, my voice sounding childish. "You were assuming I was jealous or something near that..."

  He laughed politely at me, making me slap his shoulders. It took him a while to give me a response, and when he did, it made my brain start working overtime...again.

  "Well, are you jealous?"

  Am I envious of Cindy? No duh...hella I am...she got to kiss Nate!

  I didn't want to give him an answer since I had two reasons. First, because I didn't want to lie to him, and second, because I didn't want to admit to him I had feelings for him. I've been embarrassed enough, and I have no plans of adding another mortifying event in my life to my book of Worst High School Memories...

  And when I didn't open my mouth, he simply sighed to himself before he switched to another topic and told me he wanted to ask me something. I nodded at him, and gave him the 'go' signal. I became surprised because for no apparent reason, he started thinking that I was just playing with him. I cocked a brow up at him, before he decided to be a copycat and raise his own.

  "What?"

  "What?"

  "Alex, it's almost nine-thirty, and I'm kind of tired. I don't want to play games right now." he said firmly

  I truly had no idea what he was talking about, and I kind of sensed that he was starting to believe that I didn't really hear him because he asked me if I wanted him to ask again. I quickly nodded at him with my head looking down at the cemented pathway. Then, I heard him let out a sigh, as I waited for him to speak.

  "Do you want to go to the dance with me?"

  Huh?

  "Did you become sick all of a sudden that your voice just changed?" I asked, looking up when I heard a voice that wasn't his.

  We now stopped walking, as I continued to look up at him while he started staring far off at a distance. I tried to open my mouth and speak, but he immediately 'shush-ed' me off. He was listening to something barely audible.

  "What's that you wanted to ask?"

  He held a hand in front of my face, and motioned me to stop. I immediately quieted, but added a soft 'hmph' that was good enough for him to hear. I crossed my arms over my chest, as I waited for him to do something. While nothing was happening, I thought about the question I heard out of nowhere. I wished he had that. I hoped Nathan was sick, and that his voice just became deeper and raspy all of a sudden. But of course life was life, and it sucked.

  My thoughts were suddenly put to a halt by Nathan grabbing my arm, and pulling me off somewhere. We stopped behind a tree, as I rested the palms of my hands on its trunk while Nathan stayed behind me...and damn...! His chest was against my back, and every time he breathed, I'd feel it move. I tried to stop my mind from processing dirty thoughts about him, but when I looked at him to ask what was going on, my train of imagination decided to weave a story all about Nate with him being Prince Charming...and me...I was the girl who desperately wanted him.

  "Look over there." He said very quietly, as he leaned even closer to me.

  He rested his chin on one of my shoulders, and pointed to two dark shadows in the view ahead of us. I followed where his finger pointed, and saw a familiar female figure leaning against a guy. I looked up at Nathan, and asked who they were.

  "It's Cindy and Scott."

  I widened my eyes at him and he nodded. Being the eavesdropper we were, we continued looking at the two, as thoughts about what was going on clouded my brain. They looked very intimate from my perspective. With Scott's arm around the blonde's waist, they could be mistaken as a couple; they looked exactly like how Kendra and I saw them earlier. I looked at Scott, and took in his features. He had jet-black hair that matched his thick eyelashes, and what I heard from other people, he had some of the most amazing eyes. Someone told me his orbs were a shady brown, chocolate color with light blue specks, very rare if I must say, but yet captivating. To match his physical characteristics that were comparable to those of Nathan's (hehe...yep...he was that hot), his personality as I take it from my first impression when I met him during soccer practice (Yes, I watched the guys' practice one time with Riley and the others) was likeable, but not loveable. He was mysterious like Anthony, but somewhat outgoing like Nathan, and he also had Blake's effect on girls. As I quote my Sociology seatmate, Aimee, "Not only the bimbos go ga-ga over him." But of course he had flaws. As I learned from Kendra, he was dumb as dumb could get, was a third stringer in the football team, and he was also getting detention for always being caught making-out with his latest conquest, but to make up for all of that, he was Ridgeway's Best Rocker. He played the drums, and from what I heard, was a legend (in this school) in the field of music. No wonder...all the girls love him...except for me.

  "He asked her to the dance."

  I blinked a couple of times just to take in what Nathan had said before I started to speak.

  "Aww...I'm sorry Nate..." I said, trying to be as sympathetic as I could get, but I just couldn't. I didn't want him to become sad just because of...of...Cindy. It wasn't because I hated her; I'm actually starting to like her, but...

  I'm sorry if I’m harsh...but...I want the guy, see!

  "No worries." He said with a small laugh that showed discomfort, and that teeny weeny bit of emotion made me intense.

  What was he feeling awkward about? Was it because he regretted not taking Cindy to the dance? Or maybe it's me bringing up Cindy into our conversation...but how couldn't I? She was just a few feet away from us! Damn how I hate beautiful, smart, rich, and egotistical girls! They always have to get all the good ones!

  "So...what's happening?" I asked since I got a little sidetracked.

  The two of us remained hidden behind the somewhat willowy tree with our position still the same. Yep, his chest was still thumping softly against my sweats, and it made me feel kind of jumpy and that it made me grin like a madman.

  "What are you smiling about?" He asked, oblivious to my all of a sudden excited behavior.

  I looked at him, before I shook my head, and said, "Nothing..."

  "Are you getting all excited because of the view in front of us?" He asked, nudging my shoulder.

  No.

  "Yes." I said, smiling like crazy, though I was just lying. "Imagine if they were us and we were them."

  "So that means we'd be making-out."

  "Huh?" I asked quickly, as I gave him a questioning look.

  "That's what they're doing."

  With that said, I turned my attention back to Cindy and Scott, and saw them frenching while they touched each other in all the wrong places. They were probably trying some position they found in the Kama Sutra and decided to test it out here. Hahaha. Just kidding. Their tongues were just dancing with each other. That was just it.

  "Should we break them up?" I suggested, and immediately laughed softly because of Nate's horror-stricken face.

  "I take the expression on your face as a no."

  "No, shit." He said, as he ran a hand through his hair. "They're probably going to murder us if we do that."

  I slapped his chest a little bit hard, before I hugged him loosely as an apology. "That might've hurt."

  "What do you think?" He said in mock-anger, as I just simply ignored the pretend-annoyed tone of voice he used.

  He simply laughed our shallow conversation off, before he rested his hands on my shoulders, as we continued watching Scott and Cindy going at each other. Oh, and by the way...I could still feel his chest. After a few minutes, they finally pulled away from each other, and decided to just talk, and thus we listened to their conversation.

  * * *

  Cindy was absolutely enjoying her night. Her kiss with Scott could definitely be called incredible, but of course, it couldn't beat Nathan's, never in a million years. B
efore she started to think about him, and the way he dumped her, she stopped herself, and instead, contented herself with Scott. Cindy pulled away from the kiss which had been going on for at least ten minutes, as she leaned herself on Scott's body. She felt his body heat, and definitely liked it. The ebony-haired guy wrapped his arms around the blonde, as the two of them remained leaning on a tree as they talked intimately.

  "So, you're my date to the dance?" Scott asked just simply reassuring that the blonde bombshell was definitely going to be his for a night.