Welcome to New Haven

by Dawn Doyle

  Then, he saw her mouth. Her luscious lips had parted slightly, and he had a sudden urge to run his tongue over them.

  What the hell?!

  He knew he had to say something instead of just staring at her like an idiot.

  He’d said ‘Hi; you must be one of the new people.’ He knew that two girls and two guys were starting late in the school year. But, he hadn’t known where they were coming from.

  The gorgeous creature in front of him didn’t say anything and he thought that maybe she was a foreign student. When he’d asked her, he had to put his hands in his pockets to stop himself from reaching out to touch her face. He’d thought about doing it, when his hand lifted.

  When she didn’t reply and her cheeks grew pink, he asked her whether she was ok.

  She’d said ‘um…I’ and walked away quickly.

  “Well hi there.” He heard the southern accent coming from his left. Bringing him out of his thoughts.

  “What’s your name?” Kate said when Alex turned his head in her direction.

  “Alex” he said, without offering any more information.

  “Howdy Alex…I’m Kate.” She purred as her eyes openly roamed over him.

  “I know.” He said as he turned back to the front of the class.

  “Oh…uh…” Kate seemed to be taken aback at Alex’s dismissal of her.

  He thought that was the end of it when she started up again.

  “Alex, do you have a girlfriend?”

  His head snapped to her, surprised that she would ask that when she’d been introduced to the room less than five minutes ago.

  “Look, darlin’” Dev said as she mimicked Kate’s accent. “Since you’re new let me be the first to give you a head’s up. My brother’s not interested.”

  Alex inwardly sighed with relief when Dev came to his rescue.

  He always tried to be polite, and he didn’t like to resort with saying bad things, as if he had plenty of times to Stacey, but sometimes, polite didn’t get him anywhere.

  He heard Dev telling Kate, again, that he wasn’t interested and he tried to block everything out so he could concentrate on his work. Yeah, he tried, but images of a dark haired, green eyed beauty kept popping into his head.

  The bell signaled the end of the lesson and he and Dev picked up their bags.

  “The girls and I are going to lunch with the new girl.” Dev said to him.

  “Um…OK.” He said, a little confused. It was only half an hour ago that Dev was keeping her from going after him, and now she was having lunch with her?

  Before he could say anything, Dev kissed him on the cheek and walked away in the opposite direction of the canteen.

  Alex met Ben at the canteen, along with their other friends, Ryan and Kyle.

  Where Alex and Ben were best friends, Ryan and Kyle were best friends.

  “Hey dude, what-up?” Said Ryan in his usual quirky manner.

  “Nothing much” answered Alex with a little shrug.

  Ryan was the joker of the group and often got on the faculty’s nerves with his antics. Once, he had sung to the teacher in History class, because he’d not done his homework. The marks for the paper would have an effect on his midterm, and it had been important.

  Failing that class would have meant him missing out on his choices, senior year, and he would have had to repeat Junior History. Ryan wouldn’t stop singing until the teacher gave him an extension. He was singing ‘Please forgive me’ as he was on his hands and knees at the front of the class.

  The teacher finally gave in, more out of embarrassment because people were walking by and were stopping to see what was going on, and gave him two extra days to get it done.

  He made a show of getting up and hugging the teacher hard before sitting back down in his chair.

  “That’s how it’s done gentlemen.” He’d whispered to the rest of them.

  Kyle, on the other hand, was the quieter of the two. He didn’t go above and beyond, like Ryan, but he had his moments. When he got going, he could be hilarious. He’d come out with some great one-liners, seeming not to be aware of just how funny he was.

  “Have you met the new girl yet?” Ryan spoke to Alex again.

  “Yeah, both.” Alex replied. His stomach flipped at the mention of ‘the new girl’ automatically thinking about Holly. Kate, he didn’t have any interest in.

  “Both?” asked Kyle. “There’s another?”

  “Yeah. Who have you met?” asked Alex, curious as to whom Kyle was talking about.

  “Kate. The Texan.”

  “Oh, yeah. She’s in our Algebra class” Alex said with a frown.

  “What did you think of her?” asked Ryan with a smirk.

  “Not much. Dev spoke to her a bit. That’s all. They’ve gone to lunch with the girls” He answered.

  The guys were passing looks to each other.

  “Not much huh?” Said Kyle. “Not even a little bit of…anything?”

  Alex looked at Kyle with an eyebrow lifted. He knew what he was doing. Asking whether Alex had an interest in her.

  It was well known, between them, that Alex hadn’t been interested in any of the girls at school. Or anywhere else for that matter.

  “Nope.”

  Alex hoped the one word answer would end the discussion regarding ‘Kate’.

  “Hey, she’s actually pretty hot, dude” Ryan said, as his smile got bigger.

  “Ask her out then. I’m sure she’ll be more than willing.”

  “She asked you out already didn’t she?” asked Kyle with a laugh.

  Alex looked down at the floor and bit the inside of his cheek.

  “Oh my God, she did!!” laughed Ryan.

  “Shut up you two” Said Ben.

  Ben knew how uncomfortable Alex felt when girls came on to him, especially the way Kate had done.

  “We’re just saying…” said Kyle.

  “Well just don’t.” Said Ben as they paid the cashier for their lunches.

  They walked outside to their usual lunch table and sat down.

  As their conversation picked up about the two new male students, Alex heard a voice that turned his stomach.

  “Hey there Alex…Boys.” Stacey said in a voice that was supposed to be sultry.

  Nails being scraped down a chalk board sounded far more attractive than that!

  Dev, why did you have to go?

  Whenever Dev, and the girls were there; Stacey wouldn’t bother them as much. Now she’d gone out to lunch with Riss, Kayla, and now Kate, he didn’t have all of his defenses there.

  “What do you want, Stacey?” Alex practically growled between his gritted teeth.

  “Oh, baby, you know exactly what I want” Stacey giggled as she ran her fingers over Alex’s shoulder, making him flinch away from her.

  “Well look somewhere else, tramp, because you’re not getting it here” Alex retorted.

  “You know you’re only making me more determined to get you… and your cute little ass…so you’re just wasting your time trying to resist me, Alex. I know you want me”

  Alex choked on air as the guys burst out laughing.

  “Wow, you really are a crazy bitch.” Howled Kyle. Stacey’s thunderous expression only made him laugh harder. Ryan stood.

  Here we go

  “Gurrrrl…you crazy. Like suuuper crazy…” Ryan was winding his fingers by his temples, making ‘insane’ signs, and he was talking in a stereotypical ‘sista’ tone.

  “Ain’t no man gonna want your hoochy ass! Uh uh! Hellll no!” He finished with a click of his fingers in a ‘snap’ moving his head side-to-side.

  “Amen!” Chorused the guys, including Alex.

  “Just you wait…Honey” Stacey spat. “You’ll soon stop fighting me, and when you do, you’re gonna feel so good; you’ll be begging me!”

  “Begging? You do realize you just admitted, in front of all of these people that you’ve been begging Alex to hook up with you? Wow, a begging bitch. I don’t know whether to b
e disgusted or to throw you a dog biscuit.” Said Kyle, cocking his head to the side.

  Everybody, within earshot, cracked up laughing at his line. Stacey walked right up to Kyle, poked him in the chest and looked up at him with fury in her eyes.

  “Don’t you fucking dare say that to me you fucking gimp. You’re just jealous. Oh no…wait… you’re not jealous because you’ve been too busy riding Ryan's cock!” she screamed and the students fell silent.

  “Yeah. Because it hurts so good!” Joked Ryan as he stood behind Kyle and dry humped him.

  “Only because you didn’t use lube!” added Kyle.

  The students who had heard the exchange, erupted once again.

  Alex could barely catch his breath from laughing so hard. Stacey turned back to him and said, in a low growl…

  “I will have you Alex. Nobody can stop me.” She turned, flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and walked away.

  Her words sounded a lot like a threat, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to give anything up to her.

  There was only one girl he’d had those thoughts about, and he’d only met her that day.

  What’s wrong with me?

  He took a deep breath as his friends’ eyes had now focused on him.

  When lunch was over, they left the table and headed to the last class of the day.

  Dev had a free period so he wouldn’t see her until school finished when he would give her a ride home.

  As he walked through the door, his phone beeped, alerting him to a text message.

  D: Hey Alex. I’m not coming back to school because the girls, and I are going to grab some supplies at the drugstore. Riss and Kayla will drop me off at home. See you later.x

  So, Dev and the girls would be out for their free period.

  As they were in Senior year, they were allowed to go early if their free period was at the end of the day. Unless they’d taken on extra classes. If anybody had signed up for any of the classes, they couldn’t decide that they were suddenly didn’t feel like going’. Once signed up, they were treated like any of their other scheduled classes. He texted her back.

  A: No problem. See you at home. Text me when you get there.x

  His phone beeped almost immediately.

  D: As always. X

  “Dev’s gone to the store with the girls, so she won’t be back. Riss is going to give her a ride home” Alex said to Ben as they headed into their class.

  “Cool. My ears will get a rest.” Ben said with a smirk.

  Alex just shook his head as he took his seat.

  He noticed Kate sitting near the front of the class, and she winked at him when he saw her looking at him. He looked away and down to his books. He’d thought she’d gone to lunch with Dev. Unless they’d dropped her back off at school before shopping.

  He dismissed it and started to read his textbook. He didn’t even finish a sentence when his thoughts were taken over by a pair of green eyes…

  Later that day, when Alex had gotten home from school, he’d gone to speak to Dev but she was busy talking on her phone.

  “I know! I can’t believe he actually said that to you! What a creep. I don’t know why some guys think they have a right to speak to us that way, I mean, ugh! It was disgusting!” she was saying to whomever was on the other end of the phone.

  “Well what you said back to him was hilarious! My milkshake almost came out of my nose!” Dev started to laugh. “Well, I’ll let you go and do your stuff. I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Bye.”

  Dev ended the call and Alex went into his room, not letting Dev see that he’d been listening to her conversation. Maybe she’d been speaking to Kate. He didn’t think so. From the way she’d approached Alex, and her constant staring at him in class, he didn’t think she’d have a problem with a guy saying something ‘disgusting’ or whatever Dev had meant. Probably Riss or Kayla. They could shoot a guy down with just a ‘look’. He’d seen it himself.

  Some guy, a senior from last year, had approached the pair of them and had suggested the three of them get ‘busy’ together. The girls had just stood still, deadpan looks on their faces and didn’t say a word. The guy had just turned and walked away. As soon as he’d gone, they’d picked up their conversation again if nothing had happened.

  “Alex, ¿Puedes ayudar a poner la mesa, por favor?” His mom shouted.

  They spoke a lot of Spanish at home, unless there were guests who didn’t speak the language. He rarely spoke Spanish to Dev at school though, because it attracted attention to them. People would listen in on their conversations. Regardless if they could understand them.

  There were comments about them sounding ‘hot as fuck’ when they spoke. Guys would be looking over Dev, they did anyway because she was pretty, but even more so when they heard her talking in Spanish.

  He hated their drooling over his sister. He’d heard how the guys talked about girls, around the school, and he’d gotten pissed on more than a few occasions when his sisters’ name had been mentioned in said conversations. He’d even beat up a guy who had grabbed Dev’s ass during their discussion.

  Alex had been suspended for a week, due to fighting, but he’d never heard anything mentioned about Dev in front of him again, so it had been worth it.

  “Sí. Yo voy a estar ahi.” He called back.

  Alex walked down the stairs to the dining room to set the table for dinner.

  Dev walked in, still smiling happily from, he assumed, the phone conversation she’d just had.

  “Hola. Qué pasa?” She said as she grabbed some drinking glasses from the cabinet.

  They continued to talk, in Spanish, about their Mom and Dads day. Their Mom was a Doctor and their Dad, a surgeon. They both worked at the same hospital but Evie, their Mom, ran the clinic department.

  She’d been one of the doctors that had done the usual rounds on the wards, diagnosing people, getting them set up with medication, etc. But, the long hours had meant she would be spending too much time away from him and Dev, so she transferred to the clinic department and was the main practitioner there.

  Their Dad Ramiro, ‘Rami’, as he liked to be called, walked in and began helping Evie with setting out the food for dinner.

  “So…” he said, but keeping their conversation in Spanish. “How was school today kids?”

  “Oh it was great!” Said Dev excitedly. “There’s a new girl, in my homeroom that started today and she’s really great. She moved here a few weeks ago with her Mom and Step-Dad.” She said as she sat down at the table.

  “We went out with Riss and Kayla for lunch time, and they like her a lot too. She’s so funny and her accent is awesome! Not like the usual English accents you hear on TV.”

  That caught Alex’s attention.

  “English? Kate’s from Texas.” He said as his heart began thundering in his chest.

  Calm down, man, get a grip!

  Images of Holly, looking up at him, in the hallway flooded his mind.

  Her back as she walked away and her ass…

  “Kate? Why would I be with Kate? Ew that girl’s a ‘horreh’…” Dev said with a smile.

  Alex sipped his water as Dev continued.

  “…I was with Holly. The English girl in my homeroom. She taught me some slang words. ‘Horreh’ is the way she says ‘horror’. So funny!”

  Alex choked on his water at the mention of Holly’s name.

  “Alex, are you ok?” said Evie as she patted Alex on the back.

  “Yeah, it’s just…I thought Dev was talking about somebody else.” He replied.

  “Who else would I be talking about?” Dev asked.

  “When you said you were going to lunch with the new girl, I thought you meant Kate.”

  “Oh God no!” Said Dev, shaking her head. “I meant Holly.”

  “I thought she was foreign at first.”

  “Why? Couldn’t you understand her? Her accent isn’t that thick. I could understand her easily.”

  “It’s not that. I
said ‘hi’ in the hallway, and she didn’t say anything.” Alex told them about the one-sided conversation he’d had with Holly in the hallway.

  “She’s a little shy, I guess.” Dev said with a shrug. Alex shrugged his shoulders with indifference, and finished his dinner.

  Once they’d helped clean up, Alex went to his room.

  “Holly.” He whispered, with a face splitting grin.

  The rest of dinner had been filled with conversations that Alex hadn’t been able to pay attention to. All he could think about was Holly. He’d been trying to replay the scene over in his head. The way she’d looked up at him as she’d nearly walked into him. She’d stared right into his eyes, before lowering them to his mouth. Possibly because he was openly staring at her with his mouth hanging open before actually speaking to her.

  She probably thinks I’m an idiot. I just stared right at her and assumed she was foreign. Stupid. Stupid!

  Alex double checked his schedule, to see when his next A.Eng class was. He didn’t know whether any of his other classes were with Holly, except for that one. Thursday. He would definitely see her on Thursday.

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “What the fuck is wrong with me?” He quietly to himself.

  One girl, one chance meeting and he was undone. His heart rate had doubled that day. His pants had gotten tight in the groin area every time a thought of Holly entered his mind.

  “Shit…What has she done to me?”