2: The Hour That Started It All

Oliver Grey drank my milkshake. Turd.

I wanted that milkshake. My delicious vanilla milkshake. This is what I get for thinking he'll just disappear into thin air if I don't look at him. I didn't have to look at him to feel Oliver Grey. He walks into a room and even the neighbors know he's there. I bet China even has some sort of wall built just for him. The benefits of being hot and rich.

"Haze, hello, you still there?"

I blink a couple of times to focus back in on his blue ones, "Lost in thought."

"I have that effect on people."

You may be hot and sexy, Oliver Grey, but you didn't put me in a trance. This boy has the ego of ten men combined. He better be packing or all this big talk is for nothing.

"Who's that?" Ben asks.

Braden was the shyer twin and therefore came up to me and snuggled beside me. Neither of them had ever met or even heard of Oliver Grey. This was new for both of them, the only boy my age they knew was Levi. Hell, Joe was probably the only other guy they interacted with.

"Oliver Grey, and you are?"

"Ben Kindler."

"Ben, it's a pleasure. I was just saying hi to your sister, Hazel, here," He points at me.

"You know my sister?"

Oliver smirks, "Yeah, I know her."

I swear some people can't keep their potty mouths to themselves. He said that and winked at me. I'm with two young boys, my brothers, and he decides that the thing to do is wink at me and make a suggestive comment. Oliver makes his own set of rules and disregards everyone else's.

Example one of why I should stay far away from Oliver Grey and everything his bad boy attitude stands for.

Ben is oblivious to this whole interaction and simply says, "Cool."

"You know what else is cool? This."

Oliver grabs a coin from his pocket and does a simple coin from the ear trick. Ben and Braden go wild and absolutely love it. They ask him to do it again a couple of times before taking the coin from him and trying to figure out how he did it.

I keep my eyes trained on him, trying to examine him. One second he's an egotistical turd and the next he's playful and good with kids. That's the real magic that's going on here.

"I better be going."

I want to ask him if he's going to be late for his next booty call but I remember I have my brothers in earshot. So I settle with the next best thing.

"Yes, you should."

Oliver has next to no emotion on his face. Since third grade where he pulled my chair out from under me, he's changed. When he was younger he'd smile and genuinely laugh. Now, all he does is smirk and laugh only when around his friends, but it never sounds as genuine as it once did. Something changed, like it did for me, something clicked inside.

"See you around, Haze."

"Don't call me that."

He walks off. I keep my eyes on him the whole time. Right before he opens the door to leave his blue eyes catch mine. There was a slight smirk on his face because he'd caught me staring. A final wink sent him out the door. Why did I keep looking at him? Oliver Grey deserves no more attention, he gets enough as it is.

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"Oliver? No way."

Braden and Ben finish up their pancakes and milkshakes in time for us to start our trek home. It was only a 15 minute walk. The boys were used to it by now, but I always told them we walk home for digestion. Don't want to be constipated.

"Shower, teeth, bed."

"Tv?" Ben begs.

"Not tonight."

"Tomorrow?" Braden allies with Ben.

"Only if you're on your good behavior."

They smile and nod, running off to shower. I make my way to my room and collapse onto my bed. Looking at my phone I see it's already 9:30. I could use some sleep. I take a quick shower and go to the boys' room. They're both in bed already but I know neither of them are asleep. They haven't gotten their good night's kiss.

"Bye, boys," I say and go to each one of them and give them a kiss on the forehead, "Don't let the shadow monsters get ya."

"Bye, Hazel."

I go to my room and finally go to bed. Oliver Grey better stay out of my way. I'll already have enough to deal with with all the rumors that have probably already spread. My life is hard enough as it is, I don't need his constant presence looming over me.

He literally looms over me. I'm 5'4", okay maybe I'm 5'3" but I'm 5'4" on a good day, and he's 5'11". The muscles he's developed and the broad shoulders don't make it any better. I'm always in his shadow. But is that such a bad thing?

Yes.

The next morning, I'm at my locker. I'm debating over how important my math book is. Is it really worth the extra five pounds it adds to my back? The back pain I'll suffer from it. But then again, it's a good weapon against intruders and anyone who dares stand in my way. Oh, and my education.

"Hazel," I hear my name being called.

I turn to see Emma, my, what I would call, school friend, walks up to me. Emma doesn't really know much about me except for the superficial. She's always been nice to me though so I like keeping here around. She's also the smartest girl in school which helps out when I don't have time to do the homework.

"Emma, hey."

"There's rumors, have you heard?"

"What?"

"You had sex with Oliver Grey."

"Did I now? I didn't know."

She looks at me confused by my response. Emma was the smartest person at this school but she was still an extremely gullible teenage girl. Any rumor, she usually believed. It was king of funny sometimes to watch her eyes go wide every time she heard some fake scandal.

"You didn't?"

"Emma, you should know that my school nickname is Hazel the Prude."

"I know, that's why I was so surprised."

The bell rings and I wave goodbye to Emma and make my way to my first class. Thankfully, Levi is in this class so I need not worry of boring myself to death.

"Hazel, I didn't know you had sex with Oliver."

Those are his first words he says to me. The rumor had spread like wild fire so when he says that everyone turns to see my response.

"You know I didn't," I roll my eyes at the annoying gleam he still has in his eyes.

He knew everybody would be listening in if he brought up the strange rumor about Oliver and me. And he knows how much I hate attention from these horny high schoolers. He's so mean sometimes, I don't know why I keep him around. But then he laughs and gives me a side hug and I remember that Levi is the person that knows me best, and that's why he's my best friend.

"I knew she was still a prude."

"Virgin once, virgin forever."

"Why would Oliver choose her anyway?"

Just a couple of the nice things people said as I gave my response. High school drama at it's best. I could get mad and lash out, tell the world why I'm like that. But no, I do that and all I'll see is pity for the rest of the year.

Levi used to give me pity eyes for a long time before he realized that I didn't want it. Pity doesn't solve anything.

The day passes on and in every class I get asked why Oliver Grey would ever choose me. My simple response was that he didn't because we didn't have sex. Their response was always the same, that I was a prude and that Oliver would never stoop that low. Gee, thanks.

"At least it's the last hour."

"The hour that started it all."

Levi rolls his eyes and holds the door open for me as we make our way in. Surprise, surprise, Oliver is sitting in the back.

"Haze, same time tonight?"

"Don't call me that."

"You didn't seem to mind it last night."

He keeps stretching this lie. Making it worse and worse. I can tell as many people as I want that I didn't have sex with Oliver Grey but at the end of the day it's his word against mine. Every day, his word wins against mine.

I should let it go. Maybe roll my eyes and walk away to my seat. I should disregard his stupid comment. But no, something urges me to continue his little game.

"I didn't mind because I was mesmerized by your penis," He smirks at my response, "I've never seen one so small," Smirk gone and mission accomplished.

"You've never seen one before mine, you shouldn't be complaining. Plus, you didn't seem to mind."

"Women can fake it, you, however, can't. And we both know how you unwinded."

"Oh Haze, that definitely wasn't fake," He winks.

The teacher comes in right then which leaves Oliver with the last word. How unfair. I was ready to fight with him for days. I don't know what happens. When we're together we just drift towards each other, but not in a good way. It's like prank wars.

Let's be real, it all started in third grade after the chair incident. I wanted revenge and I got it. I had pretended to drink water one day as he was walking over. I started walking in his direction but at the time he wasn't keen on paying attention to details so he didn't see me coming. Perfect for my master revenge plan. I fake bumped into him spilling water over his pants, making it look like he had peed himself. The rest of the day he had to live with the shame of water on his crotch.

We attract each other's fight response.