(Excuse any mistakes, I'm so tired right now and I'll read this over later)

Chapter 27: Maybe You Need To Practice Self-Control, Mister

“Wesley,” I cry into the phone early Monday morning. “I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but what do you want?”

“I want you to wake up. This is a wake-up call. We have school today,” He reminds me in a chipper voice

“But I’m sleepy,” I whine, pulling my cover up over my head as the sun files into my room. “Let’s just skip today, yes?” I ask hopefully.

“How about no? Come on, Stef, there’s only two more weeks and then it’s summer vacation,” Wesley explains.

“Yes, well, two school weeks is ten days and that’s nine and a half days too many,” I mumble truthfully.

“Am I gonna have to come over there to your house? Because I will,” Wesley assures me in a teasing voice.

“Do you actually want to go to school?” I wonder incredulously, squeezing my eyes shut and ignoring his empty threat. “What kind of teenager are you?”

“One that plans to go to college and needs to have good attendance to do so,” He laughs as if this is a laughing matter, when obviously, it isn’t at all.

“See, well, that’s where you and I are different, Wes. I’m not going to college, therefore, I don’t need to go to school,” I reason.

“Oh, but you do, darling. Isn’t your thing with Conrad for English due today anyway?”

“Oh, shoot!” I groan, sitting up in my bed and remembering that our project really is due today.

“So, I’ll be there to get you at around 8:30, is that cool?” Wesley wonders, realizing that he’s right.

“I guess so,” I sigh heavily and dramatically. “But I expect you to have food, mister.”

“I don’t know how I started dating such a drama queen,” He jokes. “But yes, I will have food, I promise.”

“Okay, then I’m going to get ready for school now and I’ll talk to you later then,” I say to my ridiculously overbearing yet extremely adorable boyfriend before ending the call and running my fingers through my hair lazily. Besides the fact that I don’t want to go to school and that I hate Mondays, I also hate it when I have to wake up and go somewhere when I didn’t get the proper amount of sleep the night prior. Like I said, last night after the world’s most romantic date, Wesley brought me back home at nearly 11:30 and sadly I’m not one of the lucky people that can just lie down and fall asleep; it took me about thirty minutes to actually get tired and fall asleep. So, really, I didn’t go until about 12 o’clock.

Now it’s 7:45 and I’m expected to wake up and actually function like a normal human being? That’s totally and completely preposterous and just absolutely ridiculous. Conrad’s lucky that I care about him and our friendship and somewhat about our grade, because if not, I’d totally blow this whole day off. Going through the contacts in my iPhone, I find Conrad’s number above Madison’s and hit the call button, bringing the phone up to my ear as I wait. The phone rings three times and then Conrad’s gruff voice says.

“Steffy?” He answers, his voice confused, as if we never talk or something.

“Yeah, hey, Conrad,” I greet. “Um, did I wake you up or something?” I ask him.

“Yeah, you did,” Conrad confirms, clearing his throat. “It’s cool though; what’s up?”

“I was just wondering, is our project good and ready to go and all that good stuff?”

“Oh, crap, is that due today?” He wonders, and in his background I hear the sound of a bed creaking slightly.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that it is,” I sigh, standing up from my bed.

“Well, it’s…mostly ready but there’s just some stuff that I haven’t had the chance to edit out yet,” He admits.

“Okay, well, what kinda stuff do you mean?” I query, making my way over to my closet and yanking it open for something to wear.

“Just a little bit of stuff, nothing major, I don’t think.” Conrad vaguely answers.

“Alright, so we’re good to go then? It’s 80% of our final grade, Conrad.” I remind him.

“Yeah, I know that. It’ll be a-okay, I promise.” He replies. “Oh, and while I have you, have you seen my sister?”

“Have I seen Madison?” I echo even though that’s clearly what he just asked me. I’m not sure if he’s one of those weird and overprotective brothers like Spence is or he’s like, chill and normal and doesn’t care who or what his sister does. “Erm, maybe?” I awkwardly answer, deciding that’s a good answer.

“Okay then, well, I’ll take that as yes,” Conrad sighs. “I’ll see you in first block, then?”

“Yeah, see you then,” I reply before bidding him a goodbye and ending the call.

I turn around and toss my phone back at my bed before beginning to rifle through my closet. I’m extremely tired right now, contrary to Wesley who seems to be wide-awake despite the fact that he probably got even less sleep than me last night since once he dropped me off, he had to drive all the way back to his house. I mean, it’s not that far away or anything, but still.

I decide that I don’t want to be all dressy and stuff today because I’m too exhausted to actually put that amount of effort into my outfit. Not to mention the fact that I have less than an hour to get ready. Pulling out a random white t-shirt with writing on the front and a pair of pink denim shorts, I then close my closet and sluggishly walk over to my dresser. From my dresser drawer, I take myself out a pair of panties and a bra and then close it. I really am so inhuman when I don’t have enough sleep. I’m like, someone from The Walking Dead and Bridezillas mixed together. That’s not good at all, but hey, that’s why I get so much sleep on the regular.

With my clothes in hand, I leave my bedroom and make my way to the bathroom. In the bathroom, I lock the door behind me and quickly strip of my pajamas before jumping into the shower. Before turning the showerhead on, I tie my hair up in a messy but firm bun at the top of my head so as not to get it wet. I know that if I get it wet, I’ll need to blow dry it and then straighten it, and I just don’t have enough time for all of that. The other alternative being to just wear it wet, but it’ll be disgusting and frizzy then.

I’m out of the shower fifteen minutes later, which has got to be some sort of record for me. I brush my teeth quickly and then hurriedly get dressed, going back into my bedroom. I toss my clothes into my dirty clothes hamper and plop down on my bed. I pick up my cell phone and see that it’s already 8:10, meaning that I still have a good twenty minutes until Wesley gets here to pick me up. Ha and Spencer says that I have time management is awful.

I brush on my regular minimal make-up of mascara, light lip-gloss, eye shadow and a tiny bit of concealer. After my make-up is applied, I pull on my pair of Angelfish Sperry’s and slip a pair of diamonded studded stud earrings in the shape of cute little doves. Using the mirror still, I get to work on my hair. Well, not exactly, ‘get to work’ since there’s not too much that I have enough time to do with my long, dark brown tresses.

It’s not that I care about being punctual when Wesley gets here—  well, I do, but that’s not why I’m rushing. I’m rushing so that I won’t be late to my first block class which is when Conrad and I have to present our project. Knowing Mr. Vaught, if I’m late, he’ll automatically drop us down to at least a ‘C’. That would not be good. That would not be good at all.

Yanking my hair tie out of my hair, I let it fall down past my shoulders, slightly wavy. Grabbing my hairbrush, I pick it up and start brushing through my locks. After getting the tangles out, I decide to leave it down and put my brush down. I think I should probably go and wake Madison up, but I’m slightly scared of going into Spencer’s room. I mean, for all I know, they could both be completely naked and that would definitely be a truly traumatic sight. Though I’m also slightly positive that that didn’t happen between my brother and friend last night. So, I stand to my feet and leave my room, taking a deep breath as I place my hand on Spencer’s doorknob.

I sigh in immense relief when I walk into Spencer’s room and see that Madison is curled up in the center of Spencer’s bed. Then my eyes land on Spencer lying on the floor. I mean, he has a pillow and he’s fast asleep on this pallet sort of thing, so I’m sure he’s comfortable, which is good. This is why I love my brother, amongst other reasons, of course; he’s such a gentleman to girls.

“Hey, Madison,” I whisper-shout, stepping over Spencer’s sleeping and slightly snoring body.

“Hmm?” She greets softly, her voice hoarse and sleepy.

“You need to wake up,” I inform her. “We have school today,” I explain.

“School?” Madison repeats, as if the word is a foreign term, peaking her eyes open slightly.

“Yes, school, Maddie,” I laugh. “You know, that place where they keep you for like, seven hours a day and force you to learn stuff you don’t care about.”

“Oooh, yeah, that place,” Madison giggles tiredly. “Um, yeah, I’m not gonna go today,” She informs me.

“What do you mean you’re not going today?” I ask incredulously.

“Like, I’m not going. I don’t wanna go today,” She explicates.

“Okay, well, you don’t have to go to school, but you have to get out of here before my parents, or even worst, my grandmother sees you.”

Madison sighs heavily and sits up in the bed, her hands immediately going to her hair as she starts to finger-comb it. “Okay, okay, I’m up.”

I sigh and hit her shoulder warningly, “Good, now, it’s almost 8:30 and Wesley’s gonna come and get me soon, so you should probably get outta here.”

“Alright,” She retorts, sitting up in the bed. “Um, tell your brother I’ll call him later, yeah?”

“Sure,” I confirm with a nod before crossing my arms across my chest. “Hey, I wanted to ask you about that.”

“About what?” Madison wonders, standing up from the bed and pulling her shoes back on. I’m also happy to report that she’s wearing all of her clothes.

“You and my brother,” I respond, gesturing to Spencer, currently oblivious to us at the moment. “What’s up with you guys?”

“Um, I-I dunno,” She shrugs nonchalantly, pushing a lock of her long brown hair behind her ear. “We didn’t do anything though, I swear.”

“You can do whatever you want,” I chuckle, shaking my head. “Spencer’s an adult and he’s single so if you want him, go for it,” I shrug.

“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want it to be weird. Like, whenever Anna Grace and my brother were dating; it was super weird.  Awful.” She complains.

“Spencer and I aren’t like that,” I assure her. “Now, hurry and leave or at least get your car away from here.” I say as I check my phone and see that Wesley’s texted me that he’s outside. “Wesley’s here so I’m gonna go now; are you going to be at school later?”

“I guess I can come,” She sighs. “Probably not until second block, but I’ll be there.” She promises.

“Okay, then I’ll see you later,” I retort, before turning on my heel and leaving Spencer’s room.

I briefly stop back in own room and grab my stuff for school before walking down the long corridor to the living room. I’m glad that the living room is empty of my parents and grandmother, that way I won’t get reprimanded and lectured for being out so late last night. Though, honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is. Back in Los Angeles they never really cared all that much about what time I made it home.

“You’re so dressed down today,” Wesley notes as I slip into his truck. “Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?” He teases as I pull my seatbelt on over my chest and strap it in, giving him a small good morning kiss on his cheek.

“Ha, ha, ha,” I reply half sarcastically. “Since you didn’t allot me much time, I was forced to dress like a somewhat stylish peasant today,” I sigh.

“A peasant?” He chuckles. “I, ah, I think that you might watch too much Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” Wesley tells me with a smirk.

“Oh, I watch too much KUWTK? Well, how would you know that, mister? Unless this is you admitting that it’s actually your guilty pleasure?” I tease.

“Oh, no, I have guilty pleasure, only I don’t feel too guilty, or even a little guilty about it and watching that show ain’t it, sweet cheeks.” He says with a glint of mischievousness in his green orbs. “Really though, I think you look as hot as you always do,” He nonchalantly adds, putting the car in drive and pushing down on the gas, headed down the street.

“Well, thanks, even if that is a complete lie,” I mumble, looking down at my choice of clothing for today. The t-shirt white, like I said, and it’s a little too big. It’s kinda cute though, I guess in a very casual-I’m-not-trying-to-be-sexy way. It’s a scoop neck and it features a contrasting multicolor stripe 'LOVE' written across the front. The shorts are just normal hot pink Jack Wills shorts and then the Sperry’s.

“You’re very stubborn, you know,” Wesley informs me then looks up in the rearview mirror. “I-is that Madison running out of your house?” He wonders.

“Oh, yeah, she spent the night and had some kinda rendezvous with my brother or something,” I say, looking back into the rearview mirror and seeing her small frame as she hops into her car and starts it.

“You know, I still haven’t met your brother. I mean, I’ve met him but not like, formally.” Wesley reminds me.

“Yeah, I know,” I nod, looking over at him momentarily. “So what?”

“So, don’t you think that I should? Meet him, I mean. Your whole family, actually.”

“No, I don’t think that at all,” I say, shaking my head firmly. “No, no, no and no.”

“Aw, come on Steffy; you’ve met my mom.”

“I mean, I’ve met her but not like, formally,” I counter, mimicking his previous statement.

“You’re hilarious,” He deadpans, but it’s obvious that he’s not actually angry.

“I know, right?” I agree with a giggle, twisting the ends of my hair together absentmindedly.

“Okay, if you don’t want me to meet them, that’s cool. I just— ”

“Oh, hush your face up. Don’t even make it like that,” I scold. “They’re not good people, Wes.”

“How can you say that your own family aren’t good people, Steffy?”

“Because they’re not,” I say truthfully. “I mean, yeah, Spencer’s great, but that’s where that stops. My dad’s a little weird and disgustingly protective. My mother’s rather…rude and judgmental and my grandmother? My grandmother is like a mix up of everything that’s wrong with the world,” I explain.  “But if you really, really, really want to meet them, I guess you can. By the end of the night though, we’ll probably both be single and your feelings will be hurt.” I warn. He thinks that I’m being factious, but I’m really not.

“Okay, well, I like you so I think that I can handle it,” He chuckles. “Plus, I’m tough; I think I can take it.”

“Okay,” I sigh, defeated. “You can meet them, but only on one condition.”

“You name it,” Wesley says, tapping his fingers along the steering wheel as we ride.

“You have to go and visit your dad in prison,” I say, knowing that he’s not likely to do that. Yeah, I know that’s a mean condition to have, but still.

“I don’t like my dad,” He mumbles.

“Yeah, well, I don’t like my family all that much.”

Wesley doesn’t reply and for a few seconds, I think that I’ve offended him and I’m about to tell him to forget it and that he can meet my parents whenever he likes, but I don’t get the chance to. A few seconds later, he gestures to the Starbucks cup in the coffee cup holder and their customary paper bag. I pick it up and find one of their breakfast sandwiches in there and subconsciously lick my lips. This isn’t a time to be thinking about my stomach though because I actually think that he’s mad at me.

“Um, are you mad? Really, if you wanna meet them, it’s okay.” I sigh. “Just don’t be mad at me. Please? I don’t like it when people are mad at me.”

“I’m not mad at you, Stef,” He assures me, clearing his throat. “My dad, he’s just...I don’t know. He’s disgusting and I hope to hell he rots in his jail cell.”

“Wesley,” I sigh, fully prepared to give him a pep-talk. I’m somewhat good with those, I think.

“No, I don’t wanna talk about him. But if that’s what it’s going to take for you to let me meet your people, then, yeah, sure, I’ll do it.”

“Really?” I ask in small voice. “I mean, I don’t wanna force you to talk to him, but aren’t you at least a little bit interested in talking to him?”

“I guess so, a little bit,” He admits with a sigh. “I’ll go this weekend then, okay?” He promises.

“Okay,” I nod, mentally slapping myself when I realized that Wesley just outsmarted me. “Then you can meet everyone when you come back.”

“You promise?” Wesley wonders, glancing over at me for a second before focusing his attention back on the road  before us.

“Cross my heart,” I anxiously say.

“You’re kinda perfect, you know that, Stephanie Vandergeld?” Wesley says as we stop at a red light before leaning over and pressing his lips to mine.

On the bright side, it’s just Monday and the weekend is obviously not close, so maybe I’ll have a little time to train my parents and grandmother before then. Make sure they don’t say anything awful or anything that could potentially embarrasses me. Then of course I’ll have to talk to Spencer about him being as weird as he is about me and my relationships. But maybe it won’t be so bad. Perhaps I can guilt him into bringing Madison along with us, provided that they’re dating then. I mean, I’m not a physic or anything, but I’m about as sure that Spencer likes Madison and that Madison likes Spencer as I am sure that one plus one is two.

✈✈✈✈

“I don’t think that Mr. Vaught is capable of feeling love towards anything except the cries of small children.”

A few people in my, Anna Grace and Conrad’s English class laugh at that as I cringe at the screen while Conrad and I are giving our project. Lucky if you did a video, all you have to do is play it and then say a few words at the end. I’m thankful for that because I’d probably throw up if I had to stand up here and talk about the people we encountered at the homeless shelter. I guess Conrad didn’t have the time to edit that out, but as I peak over at Mr. Vaught who’s standing in the back of the room against a wall with a clipboard in his hand, I see a shadow of a smile on his face and that gives me hope that this isn’t a complete train wreck. I do notice that the whole bit about Benjamin isn’t on there though, but I know for sure the camera was rolling then, which means Conrad edited it out. Thankfully. When our video ends, Mr. Vaught turns on the lights and looks at both of us for our summary thing.  

“Um, so, yeah, that’s how we benefited the community,” I awkwardly say, fiddling with my fingers.

“Right and we also made theirs cots and Steffy here even listened to a sob story, but we thought that wouldn’t be good to include,” Conrad adds.

“Well, it wasn’t…excruciatingly bad and compared to the other groups that have gone, it wasn’t the most despicable thing I’ve ever seen,” Vaught says.

“Um…thanks?” I say, giving him a weird look and raising my eyebrow in confusion.

“That’s the closest we’re gonna get to a ‘good job’, let’s just take it,” Conrad whispers in my ear, removing his camera memory card form the computer.

“You’re probably right,” I agree before beginning to walk to our seats with him, my face turning red as people start applauding. I have no idea why I’m so bad with large groups of people now. I was always the life of the party, so to speak in California. Now I’m just awkward and can’t handle more than a few people at one time.

“So, I think we did good,” Conrad tells me, patting my shoulder as he sits down in his desk near mine.

“I hope so,” I say with a nod. “Because if I wore a hairnet for nothing, I will be superiorly pissed,” I note.

When lunchtime rolls around, Wesley persuades me to go off campus with him, which is forbidden to anyone that isn’t a senior, stupidly enough. We’re at a McDonalds a few blocks away from the school right now with a bunch of other juniors at our school who break the rules and a bunch of seniors that are probably not even surprised that we’re here considering they most likely did the same exact thing a mere year ago. Benjamin is only a few tables away from us, but he’s with Anna Grace, so if we get caught, we’re just gonna say that we’re with Ben. We saw Laurel and Jimmy when we left the school also, but I think that they went to The Riverback Dinner. Then there’s Carly, who told me she has an appointment at the doctor for a physical because she wants to play softball again next year. And as for Madison, well, I haven’t seen her at school yet and Conrad’s at a pizza place with some of his other friends, at least, that’s what he told Wesley, who told me.

“I can’t believe that you came to McDonalds and got a salad; that’s like eating cheese pizza,” Wesley announces from his spot across the table from me.

“And what’s wrong with eating cheese pizza? I happen to like cheese pizza, thank you very much,” I giggle, taking  sip of my soda.  

“Everything that’s wrong with the world comes from cheese pizza, Steffy, that’s what’s wrong with cheese pizza,” He teases.

“That makes no sense at all, stupid,” I laugh.

“It makes complete sense.” He counters. “Every kinda of pizza already has cheese on it—  why would you get one that has nothing but cheese?”

“Some people really love cheese, I guess,” I defend, forking up more of my salad.

“Well, those people are weird,” Wesley remarks as he takes a big bite from his Big Mac. How he’s eating it, I have no idea. I really hate McDonalds Burgers, which is why I opted in for a salad because I don’t trust places that make chicken and beef products in the same place. It’s like when you’re driving down the street and you see those super disgusting restaurants mix-up places. There’s a KFC/Taco Bell not far from my grandmother’s house, actually and every time I ride by it, I just want to burn it down.

“You’re weird,” I inform him then slap his arm as steals my McFlurry and scoops some of it up on the weird plastic spoon thing, eating it. “Hey!”

“I’m sorry,” He laughs, but he’s obviously not sincere at all about stealing my ice creamy goodness. “I couldn’t help myself.”

“Well, maybe you need to practice self-control, mister,” I scold playfully before reclaiming my McFlurry and putting some in my mouth.

✈✈✈✈

When the school day is over, and Wesley brings me back to my grandmother’s place, we envelop in a very long, very passionate make-out session there in his truck before I force myself to pull away, knowing full well that if I don’t, I’ll eventually tell him to just take us back to his house so we can just do the deed already, but I’m trying to be a better person and you know, respect myself and my boyfriend and all that good kinda stuff.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I whisper, my lips brushing against his slightly.

“Okay,” He replies, pecking me again before pulling away completely.

I give him a small smile and wave before getting out of his truck and making my way up to the front door. When I do, I pull my key out and I’m about to unlock the door and go in, but the knob turns and opens before I get the chance to. I nearly have a heart attack when I see my grandmother standing there. I mean, yes she lives here and all, but still. She’s just a very scary person to me, when she’s that close, that is.

“Erm, hey,” I awkwardly says, trying to push past her.

“Stephanie, you and I need to have a very, very serious talk,” My grandmother informs me.

“Um, can it wait? I have a lot of homework and stuff,” I lie elusively.

“No, actually, it can’t wait. Please join me in the living room,” She says before letting me go by. She just said please to me and she never says please. Something is weird with her. Is this the moment when she tells me that she’s dying and leaving me the farm or something? Well, that’s kinda dumb. She’d obviously leave it to Spencer, but this is scary nonetheless. And I’m sure she’s not gonna die anytime soon. So I nod slightly and close the door before following behind her into the kitchen, nervous as to what this talk could be about. We don’t talk much—  she usually yells at me and I don’t listen, but this is actually a little nerve-wracking to me.

Scratch that. It’s a lot nerve-wracking. 

Author's Note: So, I know this is late at night/morning, depending where you are, but it IS still Tuesday, after all. Anyways, I'm really, really, really excited because now I've figured out exactly how and when this story will end. After this chapter there will be three more chapters and then an epilogue. If all goes as planned, the story will be marked complete on August 13th and that's soon-ish, so yeah. There's a total of four more updates, so, yeah, I just thought I should let you guys know that. Also, if you don't read Give Me Love, then you probably don't know that I've made a new Tumblr where I will post character profiles, fan art of any kind (banners, covers, etc.) sneak peaks of chapters, quotes from the characters and more. So, if you wanna see all of that good stuff, you can follow the blog. It's: the-magics-not-here-no-more.tumblr.com and I'll place that in the external link and in a comment below! And I have one called: walking-in-the-city-lights.tumblr.com that I'll start posting on like, tonight, so, yeah, that'd be cool if you followed them both. I'll see you guys on Thursday and don't forget to comment and vote, please! <3