Plucked - Elizabeth Haley (red seas under red skies .TXT) 📗

start over. That's when someone is calling my name and that idea comes to an end.
"Bren, hey Bren!"
It's the guy who came to my defense when Aj was in the harassing me in the hall.
"Can I sit with you?" he asks and I just stare at him likes he's lost it. Lulu answers "Yea Kayla and I were just leaving will see you later, okay Bren?"
I manage a nod and the boy takes the bench opposite me.
"I'm Asher and I just wanted to apologize for Aj before he can give the whole team a bad name!"
His heads tilted to the side his hairs cut real low and he's staring at me licking his soft pink lips ,his hazle eyes slowly run the length of my body I know I'm blushing but I force myself not to look away. He's smiles,
"good thing your friend has that blue hair I wouldn't have even recognized you from a far!" I thought you were cute anyway but wow you really look great!"

"Thanks I'm trying," I say my voice comes out dry but he doesn't seem to notice. I take a sip of water and resist picking at the skin around my nail. 
Is this guy serious? I'm waiting for Aj to appear laughing but he doesn't.
"So you heard about the dance right?"
"Yea I don't think I'm going though!"
"Why not?" he asks clearly disappointed.
"I'm just not really into that kind of thing!" What was I saying? Yes I was going?
"Oh, uh well if you change your mind Bren I'd like to take you it could be fun!  So you'll let me know right?"
"Okay yea I'll let you know!"
"Cool I'll talk to you later then!"
He's walking away now and i wish Kayla had stayed to revive me for sure I was about to faint. 

"What do you mean you didn't say yes?" he's so cute and obviously a nice guy!" Lulu is sitting cross legged on her bed and Kayla has gone off to explore the school.
"I don't even know him Lu!"
"You can get to know him, while you guy dance the night away!"
"I dont dance!"
"How do you know you've never even really tried and I don't want to hear about the bad experience you had while dancing at your cousins wedding when you were seven!"

"What about the experience I had with Owen?''

"She doesn't counter this time having witnessed me and the time I'd broken Owens toe.
"I don't know Lu I'm going to think about it okay!"
"Alright I'll drop it, for now! Til then what else is on your list?"
I grab my diary and flip to the list.
1. Don't be like my mother
2. Get a boyfriend
3. Get into the hidden Academy
Lulu hands me a pen and I scratch out number three.
4. Get kissed
5. Lose my virginity
6. Get a makeover
I scratch that one out too.
7.have a pretty smile
my braces were gone so I scratch that one off as well
8.
"Hey don't forget to cross out number one because you are nothing like her Bren!"

Kayla comes into the room and I slam my book shut. She has a flyer in her hand with a picture of pom poms on it.
"Are you going to try out?" Lulu asks
"No, I'm not the cheer leading type I'm kind of clumsy!"
"Then why do you have the flyer?" I ask.
"That girl Jessa and her friends Diamante and Eve like forced me to take it. They are really intense. Said I'd be a perfect fit, all I could think was being pretty doesn't make me a good cheerleader!"
"True!" Lulu and I answer at the same time.
"How about you guy's what extra curricular activities are you into?"
"I take sewing I want to be a designer!" Lulu says gesturing to her wall.
"Cool what about you Bren?"
"Oh I don't know I helped out in the garden a lot last year, guess I liked it!"
I say with a shrug.
"She's being modest Kayla, she loved it two of those books on her desk are about gardening!"
I don't deny it because Lulu is right. But over the summer my mom had tried to convince me that gardening wasn't good enough, said I might as well aspire to be a maid!
"So what are you into then Kayla if not cheer...."
"What happened with the guy at lunch?" Kayla interrupts me. And I'm forced back into the subject of boys.
"His names Asher and he's really nice but, I don't know he asked me to the dance!"
"And....?"
"And she said no!" Lulu says exasperated.
"I didn't say no Lu!"
"But you didn't say yes either?" Kayla asks.
"No it was just so unexpected, no one ever asks me out and I didn't know how to handle it!"
"Well get used to it Bren you're hot!" Lulu says bumping me with her hip. And instead of denying it and putting myself down I bump back.

Late Night

The rest of the day consisted of talk about boys, boys, Lulu and myself we didn't learn much about Kayla. We all feel asleep at around ten at least I thought we were all asleep. The sound of water running woke me up and I turned on my side to look toward the bathroom. Kayla came out dressed in a long sleeve shirt completely made of black lace and a white spaghetti strap shirt underneath her dark skinny jeans fit tight and her baby doll shoes completed her outfit.
"Guess I'm caught!" She whispered and I sat up.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Jessa invited me to hang out! She said I can bring someone as long as they can keep a secret! So are you in?"
I didn't know what to say I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued. Thankfully my brain kicked in.
"No, no way and you shouldn't go either it's the first night and I'd think you'd want to make it the second. And besides there is security all over the school!" Just then the song What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction came blaring from Kayla's pocket and she pulled out her phone. That's my Que text, last chance in or out?"
Lu squirms in her bed but doesn't wake up.
"I thought you didn't like them" I say thinking of how she turned down the cheer leading offer.
"I said I didn't want to be a cheerleader, don't know them enough not to like them!"
She walked to the door and I wasn't going to follow. 
"Well you should turn your phone off or at least to vibrate or else it could be your downfall!"
"Thanks Bren good idea, see you tomorrow roomie!" She eases the door open and slips out. And I'm left awake and wondering, what if?
I couldn't fall back to sleep, my imagination had taken off and thoughts of all that had happened during the day consumed me and soon other memories resurfaced.

Owen was two and a half years older then me and good looking. He had light red/blond hair that was cut low and light freckles on his cheeks and ears and it worked for him. His cheekbones, pale green eyes and perfect mouth were all great assets too. Those lips were what got me in trouble everything about them made me want to kiss him. I was sitting in my back yard on the black iron bench when it happened. I could hear laughter coming from behind the high stone wall that separated my yard from Owens. we often spoke over the wall but today Owen wasnt alone. I looked in that direction and gasped. A soccer ball was coming straight toward me and it hit too, hard. My eyes burned and a scream escaped my mouth I thought for sure any second warm red liquid would be pouring from my nose and onto the brand new ruffly white blouse my mother had made me wear. I didn't see him coming but Owen was there apologizing I stared at him through tears and my fingers which were pressed tight against my face. Suddenly his hands were wrapping around mine and pulling them away. Once they were down I figured he'd let go but he didn't.
"Are you okay Bren I'm an idiot!" Owen had said his eyes full of worry.
I wasn't focusing on his words of even the awful pain in my bruised face. Right then all that mattered was he had my hands he was touching me something I'd wanted since the day his family moved in next door a year earlier. I'd like to blame what happened next on being whacked so hard. But that wasn't it. It was something else like hormones I guess! My eyes started to close and I was leaning forward my lips yearning, fingers tingling. We were so close we were going to kiss my mouth was almost to his. That's when he Jerked away. He looked disgusted like I had offered him food with hair in it or a bottle of iced tea filled with pee.
"I started to try an explain, to do any thing that would feel the awkward silence.
But then someone was a calling his name, it was girl.
"Hurry up O we have to get going!" She'd said and without another look my way he was running and I stood there completely numb. The next day I'd taken the soccer ball he'd left over to his house he was there but didn't answer and any time I saw him after that it was as if he didn't see me. Later I'd lied to Lu about it saying we'd kissed and it was magical. And I'd lied again saying it was because she hooked up with Jimmy. When the truth was I just didn't want to relive what really had happened ever again.

It was three am when Kayla stumbled into the room bringing me out of my daze. Noticing I was awake she threw herself down onto my bed her breath smelled sweet like strawberries and even in the dim moonlit room I could see her lips were stained red. She hiccuped and burst into giggles.
"You should have come Bren a few guys were there including Asher" She slurred and I stood to get her a Dixie cup filled with water, she knocked it away. "I'm fine." She said sitting up straighter and trying to look serious. Only to burst into more laughter. Lulu groaned across the room and pulled the cover over up over her head. "Really though he asked about you, he really wants you to go to the dance! Hiccup" It was hard to think about Asher when Kayla looked like she was about to puke all over my bed. She got up her hands reached for my night stand for support.
"Strawberry whatever it was is so delicious!" She said moving from the nightstand and grabbing hold of me I helped her to her bed trying to put her down slowly but she broke away and rag doll flopped onto it instead her face flat against her furry pink pillow.
"Are you okay?"
"Mmmhm she said turning onto her back and kicking her shoes off. Her eyes closed, mascara smeared.
"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked again. She didn't answer a moment later she was snoring lightly. I felt bad for her