Chapter Twenty-Five

“Shoot!” I screeched in fright as I bolt upright, awake as ever.

A storm was raging outside and the thunder was scaring the hell out of me. When I went to bed, I was alright because it was only a light drizzle but I had no idea it would evolve into a full on storm. I wasn’t particularly fond of thunder and lightning ever since I was a child. When I was a kid, thunderstorms was one of the very rare times that my parents would allow me to squeeze in between them on the bed so I could fall asleep.

Looking around Drew’s window, I sighed as I heard the loud pitter patter of the rain outside. After agreeing to Ariel’s offer, I called Jazzy to tell her I’m staying over. Ariel gave me her old pajamas but the shirt was little too snug on me so she gave me one of Drew’s shirts. I reluctantly took it and I came all the way to my thighs as I wore Ariel’s cotton pajama pants.

After a few minutes, no thunder followed the previous one, I laid back down and closed my eyes. Unfortunately though, the minute I did, another thunder roared and this one was a lot louder.

What am I going to do now?

Diving back into my covers, I shut my eyes tightly and prayed that the thunder stopped but one of the loudest thunders clapped and I let out an involuntary scream.

I prayed that I didn’t wake up any of the members of this family. Unfortunately, I heard footsteps coming nearer to this room. The door knob jiggled a little before the door slowly creaked open. Drew stood there in his boxers and white shirt, holding a lamp with his hand and in a stance, ready to attack.

“What was that?” he asked, looking around for any intruders.

“Bad dream,” I lied through my teeth but Mother Nature loved to prove me wrong so she let out another thunder and I visibly flinched.

“Looks to me that you’re scared,” he smirked, putting down the lamp he was holding and approached the bed slowly.

“Sorry,” I muttered, covering my face with the blanket, “Go back to sleep.”

“I can’t exactly do that when I know that there’s a girl shaking in terror inside my room,” he teased.

He turned around and headed to the door. I was quite sure that he was going to resume his position on the couch and sleep like a baby, but to my shock, he came back with the couch cushions and a bunch of pillows along with two blankets.

Drew neatly set up his own bed on the floor next to where I was laying on. He draped one blanket on the pile of cushions then he laid down on it before he covered his body with the other.

“You can’t sleep there,” I told him, starting to get up, “If you’re just going to sleep on your own room, you might as well claim your own bed.”

“Celeste,” he stopped me by saying my name and with the hard look he had on, “I think my mom would murder me if she found out that you slept on the floor.”

I sighed and slipped out of the bed and plopped down on the cushion next to him, “If you’re sleeping on the floor then I’m sleeping down here too.”

“You’re stubborn, you know that?” he shook his head and I grinned.

“Yup.”

“It would be better if I just don’t argue with you,” he let out in defeat and stood up to arrange the cushions so there was space for the both of us.

The thought of sleeping next to Drew made my heart race into a very unhealthy speed. I felt like there were horses running inside my chest. Why the hell did I think of this idea?

Thunder crashed from the outside and I was reminded one again why.

I dove into the covers and buried my whole body with the blanket. Drew started to laugh and I peeked one eye just to glare at him. He held his arms out in surrender and grabbed the blanket on his bed and laid down next to me with enough space to keep me breathing.

I turned to my side and tired to keep my breathing evened out. Drew Everett was lying just a one feet away from and I can’t seem to calm down.

“Hey Graham,” he called out and I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

“Yeah?”

“Why do you hang out with me?” he asked suddenly, taking me by surprise.

Because I like you. Because you’re worth everything in my eyes. Because to me, you deserve the world.

Like I would say that to him, I might just creep him out.

“Why do you hang out with me?” I fired back, “Not only with me, but why do you endure my friends?”

He was silent for a moment and I was curious so I turned to face him. He was facing the ceiling with his eyes closed. I was about to ask him again just in case he didn’t hear me the first time.

But before my voice came out, he started to speak, “I thought I answered that question back in Christmas.”

Oh. Cue blush.

I closed my eyes and covered my red face with the blanket. Drew likes me, well, I think he does. But according to the tons of magazines I’ve read, he’s showing signs that he likes me.

I just stooped to a whole new level, I’m seriously checking out magazines for guy references.

Well, I’m sorry if I only had one boyfriend for my whole life and that guy was just given a bet to date me.

Great, now I’m arguing with myself inside my brain.

“What are you thinking about?” he inquired.

“Fighting with myself in my mind,” I informed him bluntly.

He opened his eyes to look at me like I’ve grown a second head, “You’re weird.”

“As if you’re normal,” I snorted and he let out a deep chuckle.

This chuckle clearly calmed me down. Never mind the raging storm outside or the fact thunder was crashing every now and then. Sleep slowly came over to me but before I finally gave up to sleep, Drew spoke up.

“Goodnight, Celeste,” he whispered so gently.

“Goodnight,” I mumbled before I drifted to unconsciousness.

I woke up on the bed. Drew was still sleeping on the floor but I was already on the soft and comfortable bed. Sunlight peeked through the closed curtains, signaling that the storm left while I was asleep.

Yawning and stretching all my muscles, I looked at the clock to see it was already six o’clock. Swinging my legs to the edge of the bed, picked up my clothes that I wore yesterday and stood up.

I walked around Drew’s sleeping figure and headed to the bathroom to change. The house was still pretty quiet so maybe Ariel is still asleep in her room.

I wrote a note to Drew saying that I already went home before slowly creeping down the stairs and out of the front door. I walked to my car that was still parked at their driveway and headed to my apartment complex.

As usual, Jazzy is an early riser and the minute I stepped inside my apartment, I could already smell the bacon from where I was standing.

“Jazzy I’m home!” I hollered and she poked her head from the kitchen door and greeted me.

“Welcome back, Cel. Why don’t you freshen up while I finish preparing breakfast?”

I nodded at this and went upstairs to my room. I picked out my outfit for the day before skipping to my en-suite. I showered and scrubbed all the dirt from yesterday. I stepped out of the shower and patted myself dry with my pink towel before padding out of the bathroom and got dressed up.

My phone lit up and I looked at it see that Drew sent me a text.

Should’ve waked me up before you left. See you later.

I shot him a quick reply before drying my hair and applying a light layer of makeup. I grabbed my bag and phone before walking back downstairs to the kitchen.

“So how did you sleep with that thunder storm last night?” Jazzy asked curiously as she handed me a plate of breakfast and a glass of juice.

“I had my ways,” I replied and she was instantly alert. A grin crept up to her face as she took the seat opposite from me and rested her head on the top of her hand.

“Tell me everything,” she demanded and I giggled at her antics.

I shook my head as I ate but the itching look on her face made it extremely hard from spitting the juice I was drinking. She was almost begging for information with her eyes but I chose to ignore it.

“Celeste,” she whined when I got up and placed the dishes inside the dish washer.

“What?” I smirked as I made my way out.

“You can’t keep me out in the dark,” she complained childishly, “Tell me.”

“Look at the time,” I gasped dramatically, “I’m going to be later for school. Bye Jazzy.”

Before she can protest, I got inside the elevator and pressed the button that would send me to the lobby. It was quite fun messing around Jazzy because it’s usually her being the one all mature.

When I got to school, nothing was out of the ordinary. People was buzzing around, running to their friends, slamming their locker doors shut, and all of that stuff.

“Hey Drew,” I chirped once I caught the sight of the brunette boy. He lifted a hand as recognition as he was gathering stuff from his locker.

“My mom had a mini freak out when you were gone this morning,” he told me, closing his locker.

“Sorry,” I apologized sheepishly as we made our way to my locker.

“By the way,” I halted to turn my combination, “Any reason why I woke up on your bed rather than on the floor next you?”

“You slept on his bed?” Another person joined in on our conversation and we turned our heads to see Lucas with his mouth hanging right open.

“Close your mouth, pretty boy,” Drew said as he took the books and binders from my arms. I gave him a grateful smile before shutting my locker.

“I was talking to Celeste,” Lucas gritted out. I shot him a warning look and he seemed to tame down but anger was still visible in his eyes.

“Yeah, I slept on his bed but he slept on the floor,” I informed him to ease his jealousy.

His lips pressed into a frown and I tried to give him a comforting smile. I really wish a girl would swoop in to make him forget his feelings for me. I hate seeing him get hurt.

“We’ll see you at lunch, Lucas,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze before walking off with Drew by my side.

“I hate his glare,” Drew muttered under his breath.

“Do you hate my glares?” I asked to steer the topic away from Lucas.

We stopped in front of my classroom and he smirked. He handed me my belongings and answered my questions, “Nope, your glares are pretty cute.”

Suffice to say, he left me there standing dumbly while I was red as a cherry.

“You look a little red, Celeste. Do you have a fever?” Lillian asked me as I saw her approaching.

“No,” I replied a little too quickly, ducking my head and walking into the classroom.

The whole day, I slept all through most of my classes. Somehow, I forgot to drink coffee and I was up all night because of the storm fiasco. If I remember correctly, it was already half past twelve when I fell asleep.

“I need coffee,” I croaked out as Drew and I left the school building.

“You’re in luck,” he said, “We’re heading to One-Eight Degrees.”

I perked up and grinned at the idea of the caffeinated drink in my hands. I skipped to my car as Drew headed to his bike and we both drove to One-Eighty Degrees.

Drew headed to the employee’s door while I entered through the front entrance. As usual, the shaking manager greeted me with a nervous smile.

“You’re a lot alert than usual,” I commented when he seated me a booth.

“M-miss Graham” he nodded curtly, handing me a menu, “A waiter would be with you soon.”

 I lifted a brow but nodded nonetheless. He awkwardly walked to the counter and started taking deep breaths. The employees who were usually calm about my visits were also on high alert today.

What the hell is going on?

Drew barged out of the kitchen and scanned the room. When his eyes landed on me, he quickly marched to where I was sitting.

“Is it true?” he asked, boring into my soul with those green eyes.

“What’s true?” I asked tilting my head to the side.

He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, “Your parents are in town.”

Even I don’t know that and the menu I was holding dropped from my grasps and fell to the floor.

This is not good.

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Finally! I meant to insert her parents for a long time already and I finally get to do it! By the way, the majority of the comments from last chapter says that they prefer FFTO so I'll keep this title.

Question: We need a girlfriend for Lucas boy so I need suggestions here! Would it be an existing character or are we going to introduce a new character? If you chose the first option, who? Or for all the ones who ship Celeste with Lucas, say it should be Celeste.

School's been keeping me busy, I literally wrote this all in one hour so excuse the mistakes.

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