Extra long chapter guys, hope you like it ^_^

Chapter 8

I run out of the car and into the house, leaving Haley to deal with all the bags. I fumble around with the keys in my pocket before turning the lock and barging inside. The sound of humming comes from the kitchen and I fast walk over there to see someone fixing a glass of lemonade. "Mom!" I call out, running up to her.

"Braska!" she returns, opening her arms and hugging me bag. I squeeze my arms around her tighter and smile. It's been a while since I've seen my mom and her being here instantly makes my day so much better.

She's the only person in the world who can make my forget every negative thing that's been going on lately.

"No, don't worry about it. Just leave your best friend, who by the way had to cancel her practice just to pick you up, alone to deal with your insanely heavy bags," Haley sarcastically comments, walking inside while struggling with the bags.

"Oh Haley, it's been a while. How are you?" Mom asks, walking over and helping her carry some of the bags.

"I'm good Mrs. Shay, is it okay if I stay the night?" Haley asks, dropping the bags by the couch before sitting in one of the stools in the kitchen.

"You know I don't mind you staying here Haley. How's Cassandra?" Mom asks, sipping her lemonade. Cassandra is Haley's mom, who also happens to be my mom's best friend. My best friend's mom being best friends with my mom makes a lot of things, like going over to each other's houses, much easier.

"Complaining about some of her patients, as usual," Haley jokes. "But she'll be glad to hear that you're here. You should call her."

"I intend to do that. First, let me help you with the bags, they do look heavy. By the way, where's my little J-bird?" Mom asks, looking around.

J-bird is my mom's nickname for Jason. I'm not sure why she calls him that though. I guess it has something to do with him feeding a seagull a piece of his turkey leg one time and he claimed the entire day that he has a connection to birds.

"He's sleeping over at Adam's," I tell her.

She frowns but it soon disappears. My mom is absolutely one of the most stunning person in the world. She keeps her brown hair short and usually tied in a bun. Her brown eyes always sparkle since she's rarely ever frowns or gets mad.

"I want to spent some time with you both, but since I'll be here till next Tuesday I'll have enough time to spend with you both after school all week and next weekend," she says, washing her hands after she finishes with her drink.

Haley says something about taking the bags to my room so she leaves the kitchen, leaving me and my mom alone. "I'm really glad you're here," I say, grabbing my mom's attention. "I've really missed you, Mom."

She smiles at me. "I've missed you too, sweetheart. You have no idea what it's like to be away from you both for a long time. But what matters now is that we're here together," she says. She grabs something from her bag and hands it to me. "I have another one for Jason but it seems I'll have to give it to him tomorrow. I need to change out of these clothes..." she mutters, before walking off to her room.

Opening the box, I smile when I see a small bracelet with a dolphin in one of the rings. After slipping the bracelet on, I walk towards my room to see Haley hanging my clothes up. Almost all the bags were now empty. The makeup I bought is nowhere to be found so it's probably in the bathroom.

Haley looks up when she hears the door open before hanging up the last of my clothes. "You know, you bought almost everything except a really cute pair of matching bra and underwear," she says, closing the closet door.

I roll my eyes and take a seat in the bed. "Well excuse me. I was sorta busy with something else," I reply, watching her take a seat on the opposite side of the bed.

She scoffs. "With what? A guy?" My mind immediately goes back to the guy at the jewelry store. I was really nice of him to offer to help me with my bags in the parking lot too, not a lot of people do that nowadays. Haley's eyes get wide before she jumps on the bed. "OH MY GOSH YOU DID!"

"Well, um...maybe," I reply, pulling my legs up on the bed and crossing them.

"Details. Now," she demands, crossing her arms.

"It was just some guy I saw at the mall, it's no big deal," I lie, looking away from her. I can't get his blue eyes out of my mind. The way his voice sounds is stuck to my mind, coating me with a warm feeling that makes me feel safe and that nothing can hurt me.

Is this how having a crush feels like?

She gives me a suspicious look. "Uh huh, so I'm assuming that you didn't get his name or number then," she states, almost making it sound like a question.

I think back to the moment inside the store, where I was too distracted by his appearance. The lack of distance between us in the parking lot allowed me to inhale the scent of his expensive cologne. Also, his touch from when he kept me from falling made my heart feel like it's about to beat out of my chest. Is it bad that I want that to happen again?

I keep reliving that specific moment before I feel someone shaking me. Haley looks at me with a small smile and shakes her head. "Aww Braska, you really got it bad for him!" she squeals, making me look down with a blush. "You know what, we're going there again so you can show him to me," she declares, standing up.

"W-what?" I stammer, following after her.

"Yeah, we're going," she says, digging around my closet. Haley is almost the same size as me, only bigger in the chest area, so she usually just borrows my clothes whenever she sleeps over.

"What about my mom? I can't just leave her," I tell Haley, just as my mother comes in.

"Braska?" she starts, walking inside the room. "I'm going over to Lucas' house to surprise your brother, okay? After that, I'll be back around maybe seven or six tonight since I want to stop by to visit Tony and Cassandra after I see Jason. If I'm not back and you and Haley are hungry, just order pizza or something," she says, giving me a kiss on the forehead before leaving.

I slowly turn around to see Haley holding up two tops I just bought today with a smug expression. "Pick one so I can do your makeup."

**

"I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, I already left three hours ago and it's weird to just come back again with new clothes and wearing makeup. What if I look desperate?" I ask, slowly getting out of the car.

Haley rolls her eyes at me before locking her car and we start making our way towards the entrance. It's still barely past three so there's still a lot of people here. "Calm down, Braska. You looked fine before but now you look hot," she says, bumping her hips against mine.

Haley is wearing a backless, flared dress that reaches down to her knees with pastel colors and printed flower designs all over. She paired it with white heels and chose to keep her hair in a high ponytail.

As for me, Haley got me to wear a printed crop top with high-waisted denim shorts that were the color of cotton candy with black flats. Haley left my hair down and helped me with my makeup, even though she didn't let me see myself in the mirror. Hopefully she didn't make me look like a clown or desperate hooker.

"Why are we even here?" I sigh, looking around to make sure no one is giving me weird looks. For the most part, everyone seems to be ignoring me so that's good.

"First of all, stop worrying because you look fine. Scratch that, you look hot. Now, my parents generously gave me money so I'm going to teach you how to shop with style. And along the way, if we happen to come across the guy, I'll give you pointers on how to make sure you don't shy away from him or embarrass yourself," she says, walking up to the escalator.

I give her a confused look and open my mouth to correct her when I realize that I never told her that the guy works here. She thinks that he's just some guy I ran into while shopping for clothes. Good, as long as I can keep her from going inside that jewelry store then I should be good.

"Oh hell no," Haley mutters, as we walk by a store. I give her a weird look before turning around and seeing a sight that I wish I hadn't seen.

Zoey is with two of her minions, looking through a rack of dresses. I turn back around to stare at Haley with panicked eyes. "I don't wanna be here," I loudly whisper, taking another peek at them from behind my shoulders.

She doesn't look like she notices that I'm there as she continues to casually look through the clothes. "Relax," Haley says, trying to calm me down. "She's not going to try anything at a public place."

"She threw me into the shower in the girl's locker room and ran off with my clothes through the hallway! That's pretty public to me!" I angrily whisper back.

"Look, we'll just go to another store, okay," she says, taking my arm and rushing me out. Just before we leave, I turn around to lock eyes with the devil's spawn herself.

The queen of mean.

The princess of darkness.

The heiress of evil.

Zoey Grayson.

She narrows her eyes at me before putting a hand on her thin hip. "Braska?"

In that second, I rip my arm out of Haley's hold and tear out of there. I quickly sidestep as many people and continue running. I don't know where I'm going, but I just need to be as far away from Zoey as possible.

Memories of everything she's ever done to me fills my mind causing tears to form in my eyes. I blindly run, bumping into a lot of people but I couldn't care less right now.

I run inside an empty looking dark store and make my way towards the back. Wiping some tears from my face, I lean against a wall and slide down to the ground. Bringing my knees to my chest, I wrap my arms around them and sniffle.

I hate how just the memory of everything Zoey has ever done to me has the power to bring me to tears. She's caused me so much emotional and sometimes physical pain over the years that I can't even stand the sight of her. I don't even know what I've ever done to her. For as long as I can remember, all she's done is torment me. She takes pride in seeing me break down and get laughed at by other students in school.

The only time she ever leaves me alone is when Haley and Lucas come to stop her. But sometimes they get there too late and the damage has already been done. I bury my head in my arms and continue to cry my eyes out as silently as I can.

I don't know how long I've been sitting here just crying before I feel someone wrapping their arms around me.

Thinking that it's Haley, I move closer while keeping my eyes shut. Haley's arms tighten around me and she pulls me closer to her body. Through my bare arms, I can feel strong muscles hugging me tightly making it slightly harder to breathe.

Wait a second, Haley's muscles aren't this hard.

Taking a deep breath, I inhale the familiar scene of the same expensive cologne. Haley doesn't smell this good.

I open my eyes and I notice a pair of black sneakers. Those are definitely not Haley's shoes.

I have a feeling of who's hugging me but the fear and nerves keeps me from looking up. Instead, I keep my eyes on glued to the floor.

Those are some very intricate designs on the carpet.

His hands slowly start rubbing my back making me tense up. Sparks sweep through every part of my body as he continues to rub my back comfortingly. Soon, I find myself leaning into his warm embrace more.

"Are you feeling better?" he asks, making his warm breath fan over my ears.

I struggle with making a sound come out of my mouth without accidentally slipping in an embarrassing moan. I'm not prepared for this!

"Um...yeah," I reply in a small, timid voice. I feel him nod close to my head but he still doesn't release me from his hold. Not that I want him to anyways.

For the moment, it's just the two of us alone. He's holding me close to his body while I'm silently begging for someone to save me from making myself look like an idiot. He uses one of his hands to take hold of my chin and lift it up to face him.

I didn't realize how close we actually are until I saw how dangerously close his lips are to mine. All it would take is one move from either of us before my first kiss would be stolen.

Suddenly, I realize that he's moving closer. His lips are so close that our noses are already touching. Just one more-

"NEBRASKA!"

That's all it takes for me to snap out of my trance and I quickly jerk my head away from his. He stays in his spot and just stares at the air for a while with a certain look on his face. A look of...regret? Did he regret that moment?

I feel a growing pain in my heart at the thought but I dismiss it as I get up and quickly run outside, not sparing him another glance. When I'm out of the store, it suddenly feels a little easier to breathe. Haley sees me and runs to my side. "Braska, is everything alright?" she asks, looking at me worriedly.

Shaking my head, I glance back at the store. Did he really regret that moment? Was the look even regret at all? No, I saw it clearly. That's definitely a look of regret in his eyes when we broke apart. But why? He's the one who went over to me and willingly chose to hug me while I was sitting there crying my eyes out. Was that the only reason why he hugged me though?

I numbly feel someone moving me somewhere but I'm still too lost in my own thoughts.

Was he only doing that to get me out of the store? Was it because I was ruining business there? Of course I was. Who wants an overemotional girl crying their eyes out in a store filled with expensive jewelry? Maybe he only comforted me to make me feel better and get me out of the store faster.

Is that's so, then the kiss that was coming...would that just be a pity kiss? Was that really how I was going to lose my first kiss? Because someone wanted me out of their store? I don't even know his name!

If Haley hadn't stopped us, I would have lost my first kiss so some guy who I don't even know the name of just because he wanted me out of his store.

I've never left so low in my entire life before. Feeling something cold touch my face, I finally tune back into my surroundings and notice that I'm in the bathroom with Haley wiping cold water all over my face with a wet towel.

"Don't look in the mirror," she warns, throwing the towel away. I ignore her warning and turn around, my jaw dropping at the sight.

I almost kissed a guy while looking like a drowned raccoon?!

***

~Later that night~

"You almost kissed her?" my brother asks, cocking an eyebrow at me.

"Yes, I know I get it alright! I'm an idiot!" I exclaim, running my hands through my hair.

"Do you even realize what that would have done to her?" he says, shaking his head at me in disappointment.

I glare at him which unfortunately doesn't even phase him. "Don't look at me like that! I know what I did was a mistake but you have to understand, she was crying for fuck's sake! I couldn't just leave her there," I tell him, falling on the couch. I feel completely drained of energy. Okay that's a lie, I can't be drained of energy but you get the point.

"Did you even tell her your name?" he asks.

I'm not planning to anytime soon. "No."

"Now here's the thing. Had you kissed her, not only will she be closer to losing her humanity, but you would have made her feel cheap since she kissed a random stranger," he says, giving me a glass of blood.

Knowing where he got them from, I place it back on the table. Blood from blood bags is the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted before in my life. I have no idea how Drew and Sabrina regularly live off of these, it's so awful.

"I wasn't thinking about that," I grumble, taking off my jacket.

"Of course you didn't, you're an idiot," he replies nonchalantly, sitting down on the opposite couch while I glare at him. If he wasn't my brother, he would have been dead by now.

"Have you been doing your job?" I ask, wanting to change the subject.

"Don't worry, I did. She's pretty much safe in school and doesn't appear to have any enemies," he says, making me feel slightly better since I refuse to go to the hell that is school. "Although, I heard that she does get picked on by this one girl," he continues, rubbing his head.

"How?" I ask, leaning my head against the palm of my head. Anyone, girl or not, who dares to hurt my angel won't live to see their next birthday.

"Hot as hell, let me tell you that. Her legs are so-"

"Not the girl you dumbass! I meant how are they hurting Nebraska?" I ask, giving him a disgusted look.

"Oh, I don't know. I only know from the stories that Lucas tells me. She hasn't been in school all week so I wouldn't know. I've seen a picture of her though, in one of those hall of fame things. That's how I know she's hot," he replies, shrugging his shoulders.

"Keep an eye on her, okay Levi?" I tell him, getting up.

"Yeah yeah, I got it."

__________________________

Whew, this is probably the longest chapter I've ever written. It's only the eighth one so...

Also, I'm thinking of working on another story. I already have a clear idea on the plot and all that stuff and all that needs to be done now is to put it all into writing. I'll put it up either later today or early tomorrow.

Tell me what you think so far!