Our not-so-friendly stance

"ESMER! ESMER WAKE UP!" Today, it was my younger brother who woke me up.

"Hmm…What?" I moaned.

"I'm leaving! You have to leave too!" He reminded me.

"Give me a break! Today's Sunday!" I cried, turning over.

"Hell Nah! Welcome to Monday sis!"

"Monday?" I repeated in confusing, then I remembered.

"Oh shoot! Monday!" I quickly got up and slipped on the first clothes that I found, a sleeveless T and a mid-thigh skirt with tights, school-girl look, I know.

Ace left just minutes before me, I couldn't afford to be late, and in this worry, I left my pink cap. My first mistake.

"Miss Andréa! You really need to fix your timing." Mister Ronald glared at me.

"So sorry, sir." I quickly apologized as I slipped on the badge.

"You're on counter duty today, I'm going to go stack some stuff up." Mister Ronald commanded.

"Yes sure." I replied, as if I had a choice!

I checked out two customers when I heard quarrelling, two guys had got into a fist fight in the food aisle on the last packet of Ramen, Mister Ronald was nowhere to be seen so I went to go take care of it.

"Excuse me...is everything OK here?" I stepped in between of them, and to my shock, surprise and absolute horror, it was the two hot boys I had ran into just a week ago.

The blonde haired one wiped the blood off of his lip before giving me a quick smile, his headphones looked broken and his left fist was also bleeding.

The light brown haired one had a bruise on the left side of his cheek, he shot me a look through his hair, and his hoodie was ripped.

"Nah, its fine." Mr Blonde said, "Innit?"

"Yeah, it's all good Andréa" Mr Light brown hair smiled.

HE REMEMBERED ME NAME!! I was blushing terribly but I managed to keep a straight face.

"Um…OK, that's good." I didn't know what else to say.

"How much for this?" Apparently, Mr blonde had gotten hold of the last Ramen.

"Why don't you come to the counter and I'll check it out for you…" I told him, keeping my eyes lowered.

"My pleasure." He followed me, as Mr Light brown hair glared at him.

"That will be $6." I said as I handed him the bill.

He handed me a 20 dollar note, "keep the change."

"Th-Thank you." I managed.

Then, Mr Light brown hair showed up, holding a bottle of soda.

"Check out for me, will ya?" He threw me the bottle to catch, but I missed and it fell, I bent down to grab it and my shirt went up to my back.

SO EMBARRASING!!!

"$3." I muttered, so embarrassed that I could hardly speak.

As he handed me a $20 bill ('keep the change') our hands touch and his hands felt amazing!

He and Mr blonde exchanged one last, sharp glare before going each in their own way.

By the time my shift ended, plus my extra hour, I found Mr blonde lurking around the driveway, he was leaning against his car and seemed so occupied with his phone. His hand had a bandage and his hair was tucked behind his left ear, and I caught sight of his earring. He had changed his clothes and he had new headphones which were dangling around his neck went ahead to grab my bike which was parked next to him.

"Hey, Andréa, right?" He asked me, barely even looking up from his phone.

"Yes." I replied, I was feeling so overwhelmed and nervous. But I also felt special, that such a gorgeous boy like him was speaking to me.

"I'm Lars, Lars Brandan." He introduced himself.

OMG, Lars Brandan, son of James Brandan? The owner of the BIGGEST and MOST SUCCESSFUL business here in the USA?!

"Thanks for interfering in there, I really couldn't afford criminal record for murdering." He joked.

"Um, you're welcome." I stuttered as I climbed onto my bike, I tried to start up my bike, but it wouldn't start, and the wheels were locked too! No way could I carry it all the way home! Why the hell did this happened every time Mr blonde – Lars – was around?!

He sighed.

"Your bike's a real trouble maker, innit?" He got off his phone and pulled open the door to his red Ferrari.

"You really can't say no this time, the wheels are locked." He gave me a sideways look.

"Are you sure you had nothing to do with that?" I found myself asking with a smirk. He shot me an amused look,

"Who's to say that I wasn't?" He dodged my question.

Having no other option, I climbed in after him, and he was a wild driver! He broke all the speed limits and drifted me all the way to my apartment. That was THE MOST fun I'd had since my first and only semester of Uni. I laughed throughout, he had a rap played in the background, as loud as it would go, and everyone gave us weird looks. I caught Lars looking at me once or twice through the rear-view mirror but I'm sure that I looked at him more than that. Anyone would've thought that we were a couple, and no one would've thought that we hadn't even conversed properly before.

"Thanks." I smiled as I got out of the car. I noticed that his car had some scratches along the side, I had no idea how many cars he owned.

"No problem!" He grinned back. Just as I turned around, I didn't see the step and tripped, just then, a pair or reliable arms caught me.

"You OK?" Lars's concerned face looked at me, his face was just a few inches away from mine, and he was gazing deep into my eyes.

"Um...Yeah." I literally thought we were going to kiss! My heart skipped beats as his hands tightened around my waist and he shot me the HOTTEST smile ever! I closed my eyes, preparing to feel his lips…

Just then, Ace walked out, a coffee in his hand, which he dropped as soon as he saw me in Lars's arms.

"What the hell is going on here?" He asked, quickly walking towards me and pushing Lars.

"Wait, Ace! It's not what it looks like!" I yelled.

"Really? So I didn't just see you about to kiss this dude?" Ace asked me, anger blazed in his dull green eyes.

"No! I just fell, and he caught me!" I protested.

"Oh." Ace calmed down. I got him to apologize to Lars, after all, I didn't want Lars to think that my family was rude or something, especially to the son of a billionaire.

As we walked inside, I explained everything to Ace…but he had already gotten the wrong idea, or maybe the right one…He was sure that Lars and I were a thing, and I was in no state to argue…

Throughout the night, I couldn't stop thinking about what happened earlier. I was lying on the bed about an hour after what had happened. My ear pods were plugged in and I was vibing to the song "call me maybe".

"I know we just met…and this is crazy…but here's my number…call me maybe?" I sang along to the lyrics when I got a notification.

'Hey. Can we talk?'

It was my previous boyfriend, Adam. Adam had been the best looking guy in high school. We dated through High school, college and the first semester of Uni, before I got the call that changed my life. He had grey hair which usually had blue tips. His eyes were an obsidian black and he had a very tempting smile.

Regardless to say, my heart stopped when I got that text. Adam and I hadn't talked in about four months, I had broken up with him with no explanation, and then I hadn't come to the second semester of the university that we had both worked so hard to get accepted in together. I knew that if I told him my situation, he would be understanding, and he would help me, but I didn't want to be helped! I wanted to prove that I was a 'damsel in distress' or a kidnapped princess.

He saw that I had read his text, then he grew persistent. He started calling me, and left hundreds of texts, I sighed. For the last four months, a part of me had been dying to go back to Adam, to feel his lips on mine, to hear him reassure me. Without thinking, I texted him back.

ESMER ADAM

'Hi…'

'Finally! How are you? Where the heck are you? What's going on?'

'I'm fine…'

'Yeah! But where?! I wanna see you Esmer! I wanna talk to you. Pls'

Before I knew it, I texted him 'yes'. I told him where I was and he said he was taking me out to dinner, tonight, and I agreed. Just as I put the phone down, I realized what I had done and cursed myself, I had rushed into things without thinking them out.

I sighed and pulled on a nice dress, some perfume and a touch of makeup.

"I'm leaving Ace! Be back at midnight…latest." I called before shutting the door.

I smiled, I was going to see Adam again. I had wanted to see him for so long. But part of me was scared, what was I gonna tell him? Would I get back with him tonight? I pushed those thoughts aside and he wasn't waiting downstairs, I was a full ten minutes early. I decided to wait, I sat down on the step when I heard the sound of skateboarding wheels.

"Andréa?" Mr Light brown hair looked at me in shock, "I didn't know you lived here!"

"Oh…hi!"

He came and sat down next to me.

"I'm Alex by the way." He held out a hand and I shook it.

"So, whatcha doing out here? All dressed up? You're not going out with my Cuz, are you?" He asked me with an eyebrow raised and a pinch of jealousy.

"Your cousin?" I asked.

"Y'know, Lars."

"Oh, no…I'm not going out with him, I'm going out with…a friend." I looked away, for some reason, I couldn't meet his green eyes.

"Oh, a friend you say." Now he sounded like an overprotective boyfriend, I remembered how overprotective Adam had been and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Did I say something funny?" He humoured.

"No, it's not that. Just…brought back some memories." I shook my head.

Then, a strong wind blew. His hand came forwards and I closed my eyes, wondering what was coming. He ran his hand through my hair. I felt like someone was tickling me. I opened my eyes and saw him holding a leaf.

"It was stuck in your hair." He shot me a sideways glance, then he got up, "K, I got to go now."

He skateboarded off. In about two minutes, Adam's black Audi pulled up. I quickly inhaled, composed myself and got into his car. We didn't talk for about five minutes as he drove, then he finally said,

"You should start talking, start with an explanation of why you left the Uni"

"It was personal reasons, you know…my mom wasn't always the most responsible or reliable, but the day I got that phone call, she really crossed the limits…" My voice broke off and tears started falling.

"Who whoa, start from the beginning, tell me what happened." His reassuring voice reached my ear. I took a shaky breath and ended up explaining everything, the reason of our break up, and what my mother did.

"Does Ace know?" Adam cautiously asked him when I was done.

"Nah. He thinks that she abandoned us or something." I looked out of the window.

"You should tell him, Esmer."

"And ruin his life? He's already going through a lot. And that explanation is better than the truth."

"But he deserves to know, he's not a kid anymore Esmer!" I hated it when Adam lectured me.

"I know what I'm doing, Adam."

"You're right, sorry." He parked outside a pub. I hadn't been to one of those ever since our breakup.

I drank all my worries away and found myself unable to think straight, my mind kept thinking of the 3 hot boys in my life, Adam, Alex and Lars.

Wait a sec…I was dancing with Adam when I saw 2 boys. At first I thought I was imagining, but then Lars noticed me and he and Alex walked towards me and Adam.

"HI!" I squealed in a drunk voice.

"Hey beautiful." Alex smiled and I smiled back.

Adam looked at me, then at Alex and then at Lars and then back at me.

"Who are they?" Adam asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Lars stood between me and Adam. He was wearing a dress shirt with the front open, and black jeans. Alex, as usual was casually dressed in a hoodie and jeans.

"I'm her boyfriend." Adam said in a calm dangerous tone, he was a master in all martial-arts, and was super rich.

"Is he?" Alex turned to me.

"NOO!" I squealed and laughed.

Lars and Alex both glared at Adam.

"She's drunk." Adam protested.

"Yah! But I know that you're my ex! Don't lie!" I giggled.

I don't remember the rest of what happened, only that there was a fight, everyone in the club was cheering Lars, Alex and Adam on, all of them were pretty severely hurt, and it was way after midnight when I returned home…