First Chapter Of The Book I'm Writing

You would think that if a girl wanted a career then she wouldn’t go looking for someone to spend the rest of her life with before she had that career. Is it possible to find the love of your life and then become who you want to be?
If you’re anything like my friend, Kim, you would probably say a boyfriend never hurt anybody. But actually it could hurt me. I want to go to college and become a doctor. I need a best friend to cheer me on and be there when I need him most. I can’t imagine life without him, but he’s just my friend.
My mom always says I am supposed to marry my best friend. My best friend, Ryland, doesn’t make my face feel hot and the palms of my hands get all sweaty…Could we be more than friends or would it ruin everything?
I’m not like most girls here in California so I’m sure he doesn’t see me as girlfriend material. Sure, I’m tall, blonde and tan but I’ve never had a relationship with a guy before. I don’t really mind, because I’m so busy worrying about college and my career. I don’t need any distractions.
“I can’t believe your parents got you a car!” Ryland sat at the edge of the leather passenger seat of my new black escalade, pulling the seatbelt to its furthest. He rubbed his hands against the smoothness of the dashboard and sighed in jealousy.
“I couldn’t believe it either. At first I thought they were kidding, but when they handed me the keys I knew they weren’t.” I glanced out of the darkly tinted windows at the crowded parking lot and let out a sigh. Why did I have to be the last one here? Now, everybody would notice my new car.
“Oh my gosh!” He said flabbergasted.
“What?” I asked, nervous for the reply.
“Your car is going to be a magnet after you park. It’s the newest, nicest car here.” I nodded in agreement while Ryland sat back against the seat allowing his eyes to almost bulge out of his head.
“I was afraid of that, that’s why I told my parents if they were to ever get me an escalade to give it to me after graduation so I wouldn’t have to deal with people.” He rolled his eyes.
“You know, it’s not a crime to have something nice Abs.”
“I know that! It’s just…” I sighed again. “I don’t like all the attention. And you should know that by now. How long have we known each other?”
“Since we were three but you know what I mean. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” I smiled.
“Right there!” He pointed to a spot in the furthest corner of the lot. “Oh yeah!” He had his, ‘I was so right’ tone of voice. “Everyone’s staring!” I looked over and watched as he made faces out of the window. I shook my head and laughed quietly.
“You’re such a dork Ry!” I punched his shoulder and his laughter echoed through my ears. I slowly turned the ignition off and listened as the soft hum of the engine silenced and was replaced by the people outside of the car shouting and whistling.
I secretly stared at Ryland as he reached behind his seat and grabbed his backpack from the back seat. He was well fit and he was wearing my favorite color, blue. It brought out his shining eyes and made his tiny freckles on his nose kind of pop out. He blew some hair out of his eyes, his hair had grown too long and I assumed he was letting it grow because I keep telling him to cut it.
“That’s okay because if I wasn’t a dork than I probably wouldn’t be your friend.” I laughed and cautiously wrapped my fingers around the handle, not wanting to get out of the car.
I pulled out the handle and heard the click of the door opening. The ground was covered with little specks of rain. I looked up at the sky only to see gray clouds.
“Nice ride.” Someone yelled from deep inside the crowd.
“Wanna take me for a ride?” Somebody else yelled. I gagged out loud and heard some more whistles. Oh please, like they haven’t ever seen a new car before. I tried unsuccessfully to convince myself that this was a dream.
“I thought only FBI agents had these kinds of cars.” I laughed at the stupidity of that comment and tried to ignore all the other statements I was hearing, but I couldn’t.
I skimmed over the crowd to find someone that I actually knew, because standing here in the middle of all these people made me feel even more embarrassed. Shockingly, instead of finding someone I knew, I found a new person, somebody I had never seen before.
He stood tall, showing off his perfectly tan body. His broad shoulders widened as he saw me staring at him, my eyes were glued on him. It’s not very often when someone new moves in with only a semester left of school, well that is here in Morro Bay.
His chocolate brown eyes glittered though there was no sun shining and my heart started to beat faster than normal and my head started to spin.
The first bell rang and the spinning stopped. I turned away and started weaving through the mass of people.
My foot hit something hard and in a blink of an eye, I was falling face first to the wet ground. My instincts kicked in and my arms flew out in front of me to keep myself from falling on my face.
My hands hit the ground hard, my body followed next. The small, little pieces of gravel dug into the palms of my hands. My arms weakened and I rolled over onto my back. I squeezed my eyes shut as if to hide myself, but it didn’t work as I planned. The laughs were quiet at first but then they got louder and louder.
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” I didn’t know this voice but I didn’t want to open my eyes yet so I just nodded. His voice was soft, sweet and protecting. “Do you need help? Did you hit your head?” I shook my head, but he was still worried so I sat up and slowly let my eyes flicker open. He was leaning down towards me and I saw the familiar chocolate brown eyes gazing down at me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.” I whispered. It was only my pride that was hurt in this accident.
The people crowding around us thinned a little but the people who stayed deliberately made a smaller circle around me.
“I’m so sorry! Here” He stretched out his arm and held out his hand for me to take. “Let me help you up.” I just stared unsure of my next move until my clock started ticking again.
I nodded and reached out to touch his hand with mine. Our fingertips brushed against each other’s and I felt a warm tingly shock go through my hand all the way down to my toes. He lifted me up slowly to make sure that I wouldn’t get light headed.
“Thanks.” I choked out and quickly cleared my throat. Why did I have to lose my voice in front of this hottie?
“No problem. I really am sorry.” He sounded sincere.
“I’m fine, really.” I tried to tell him.
A smile grew on his face and two dimples appeared on his cheeks. “I’m Grant.” He held out his hand for me to shake. Again, I took it willingly.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Abby.” The second bell rang and he looked over his shoulder to hint that he had to go.
“It was a pleasure meeting you Abby. I’ll see ya around okay?”
“Okay.” I was unable to move. I stood there astonished until I felt somebody touch my shoulder.
“Are you okay Abby?” It was Ryland. I hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t there.
“Yeah I’m good.” I turned and looked at him. He still looked a bit panicked. “Come on we’ll be late for class.” He gave me a worried look, but followed me into the school.
By the time we had gotten to class the news of me being tripped in the parking lot had traveled across the entire school. I avoided contact with people as much as I could, but since I was at school, which was filled with hundreds of students, it was sort of hard.
My first class went by in a blur. I couldn’t stop thinking about Grant. Where did he move to? Where is he from? What’s he like? Questions flew in and out of my head. I not only wanted to know more about him, I needed to know more about him.
“Heard you collapsed in the parking lot.” A girl smirked as she walked past me at my locker. It reminded me of playing the game telephone when I was a kid, once the sentence gets all the way back to the person who started it, it’s totally changed.
“Don’t worry. People will forget soon.” Grant was leaning against the locker next to mine. His striped polo shirt was tight around his arms to show his muscle. I tried as hard as I could not to let my eyes get any bigger than they already were.
“I hope so!” I really did, I couldn’t live like this forever.
“I’m sorry I tripped you.” I smiled and pushed my locker door shut.
“I know, and I completely forgive you. It’s not your fault. I should’ve been watching where I was walking.” He half smiled and his eyes had a hint of gold in them.
“Well I still feel bad. What do you have next?”
“Calculus with Nielson.”
“No way! Me too!” He said when I smiled.
“Awesome. She’s great, you’ll love her.” We walked to the end of the hall and he held open the large wooden door for me. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” I bit my lip.
“Abby!” Kim screeched as she saw me walk in. I raised my eyebrows in shock, she was excited about something.
“I’ll talk to you later.” Grant said his last words and started talking with Mrs. Nielson. I groaned louder than I wanted.
“Abby you’ll never guess what just happened.” Kim hooked arms with me and dragged me to my seat in the back row.
“What?” I tried to show some enthusiasm, but the fact that she just utterly interrupted us made me a little angry.
“Josh asked me to be his girlfriend! Can you believe it?” She was about to jump out of her shoes she was so happy.
“That’s great Kim! I’m happy for you!” She grinned and skipped to her seat, I didn’t even have to ask her what she said because by the look on her face, it was a yes.
“Students, this is Grant Wilson. He’s from Augusta, Georgia and he’ll be in this class from now on.” So that’s where he was from. One question down, a million more to go.
Wait! Why was I so interested in him? I couldn’t be. I was just telling myself earlier about how I couldn’t get a boyfriend. But then again I don’t really know if he’s interested in me. He probably just feels bad that he tripped me, but maybe he does like me. I shook my head. I couldn’t like Grant! I couldn’t! Not now.