Off-Limits

(Off-limits) #1

"Isle Grey!"

I turned to the sight of my best friend – Holden Mackie - barreling down the school hallway in typical little boy fashion. Real mature, I thought, as I rolled my eyes and braced myself for the very hurtful hug I knew was coming. Just as I predicted, I got a full-on bear hug that knocked the wind out of my lungs.

"Holden... that hurt you know!" I groaned into his shirt as he ruffled my kinky curls, but it came out all muffled so I doubt he heard anything. "Let me go, man."

"Ouch, Isle, am I not allowed to miss my best friend anymore" he quirked his eyebrow lazily and released me.

"You can't be serious, you saw me yesterday and we spent the w-h-o-l-e summer break together," I said, dragging the whole to emphasize my meaning.

"Whatever," he huffed and turned to the locker beside mine to meet the adoring gazes of a few girls in year 10. As expected, he winked at them and I groaned at the thought of these poor girls spending the rest of the day probably daydreaming about him.

"C'mon, let's get to class and stop being such a playboy'' I grabbed his shirt and we headed over to our class. The same one every Monday morning: Chemistry class with Mr. Hugh.

We both took our sits in the middle row – the perfect spot for viewing the whole class – and I sighed at the thought of spending one more semester in the hell hole.

"Have you checked your Tiktok notifications recently?" Holden asked and he leaned over excitedly to show me his phone. His brown eyes lit up with excitement as he ran his hand through his cooper blond hair and grinned down at me. Our most recent video - the food dance - is the newest trend, it totally blew up!" Tiktok was one of Holden and I's pastimes, I was also a trained dancer since I was 2, but my parents wanted me to finish high school before pursuing a career in dancing; so Tiktok quickly my dance platform. While I wanted to pursue a dancing career, Holden whom I had always trained with took dancing as a leisurely activity. We each had our own verified personal account, but we also had our joint account which was also verified. I quickly grabbed my phone from my pocket and glanced fleetingly at the long line of notifications until I saw it.

"Holy... Jean-Victor did our dance" I squealed and eagerly tapped on the video of my lifelong crush doing our dance. I glanced over to Holden to see his bored look.

"Can you like actually look at something el-'' he was interrupted by the shuffle of the teacher's feet and Mr. Hugh came into view. We both adjusted our seats as he came in and told us to settle down in his boring, drawling tone. And at that moment I knew exactly how Harry felt whenever he had Potions with Professor Snape that is -without the points docking.

........................................................................................................................................

"Brittany, hey!" I called to the blond-haired, slender figure at a table. Her eyes quickly searched the throngs of students in the lunch hallway for me and her face lit up with a grin as we made our way over to each other. I hugged her warmly and patted her back slightly as she nearly strangled me with her death grip.

"I missed you so much," she pulled out a chair for me at her table and turned to face me with a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

"I did too, how was Miami? I can't believe you left me all alone in Seattle."

"All alone? You had my boy Holden here in your tight clutches all through the summer; I would have given up any holiday for that, Isle," she countered as she grinned lazily from the top of her phone.

I laughed loudly at that – Brittany's crush on Holden was not hidden to anyone even Holden himself and he did enjoy a good game of leading her on. Brittany was the major queen bee of Hustonville High and even if she hunkered after my best friend she was not the mean popular girl like in most cliché high school stories. Honestly, after Holden, she was my closest friend.

"I love your hair by the way, really suits you," she admired my newly dyed peach hair, a deep drawl greeted me and I turned to the newcomer.

"Hey, Hayden..." I murmured at the bronde-haired guy opposite me.

"So, about that coffee, we were supposed to have the other day-" he began but was interrupted by Brittany who latched her hand onto my arm and shook her head firmly at him.

"Sorry Hayden, but Isle and I have plans."

"We do? I mean-uh- y-yeah we do." I nodded in sync to Brittany while Hayden gave me a bewildered look as she pulled me over to Holden's table. I had been rejecting Hayden's offers for about a year now, but there was something really off about him; it was probably just my overactive imagination.

"The best friend arrives," groaned Caleb, a platinum-blond-haired seated beside Holden.

"Budge up, bro,"

"Nope, I am sitting near Holden today at lunch for once," he frowned questioningly at Holden who unfortunately blew him off.

"Budge up man, didn't you hear her?" I smirked deviously at Caleb who grudgingly rose from the chair and went to sit beside Brittany while I took his seat.

"I can't believe we only have Chemistry class together this semester, I miss my best friend," Holden pouted as I smiled up at him.

"All for the best," I said and pinched his cheeks.

"Was Hayden disturbing again? I can go take care of him you know." he flexed his muscles while eyeing him from our table with a dark glint in his eyes.

"No thank you, but I don't need you fighting my battles Mackie; come to think of it, there isn't even any battle" I seethed, narrowing my eyes dangerously 

"Anyone would think you guys were a thing," Brittany scoffed and I laughed at the absurdity of that. People always did think Holden and I were dating – both at school and the comment our tiktok videos usually had: "OMG, he's so hot." "You two have got to be secretly dating." "How can remain just friends with all that sexiness?"

It was funny really, I loved Holden but not that way; he was like the brother I never had. Even if I did like him, most times Holden didn't even notice I was a girl, not that I even really cared. I grinned impishly at myself as I remembered a time when Holden was riffling through my closet and brought out a bra and he was shocked at the fact that I actually had boobs.

B-R-R-R-I-N-G-G-G

I groaned inwardly as the school bell interrupts my midday reverie.

"So we'll meet at the mall, after school?" Brittany asked raising her eyebrows questioningly.

"Uh, sure," I ran my hand through my hair and took a bite of Holden's Chicken. The look on his face was so comical that it sent me into hysterical giggles as I walked down the hallway to my next class, earning me a few looks from passersby.

A/N: Shalom guys! So this is it - the book I intend to fully finish. I know the first chapter might be a bit dull but give the story a chance, the action's comiiing. The video above is the food dance mentioned in the story.

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Kayla