Just a Crush (Just Lovers, #1)

Prologue: That Moment

When you are an only child for ten years, with no one to be your forever best friend by blood, making friends isn't easy.

It sure wasn't easy for me once I got older because I didn't have to go to kindergarten like other kids did. Instead, I had a wonderful nanny during the hours my parents were at the office. Once five o'clock hit and my parents came home, I was the very center of their attention and nothing could steal it away.

The only time I really got to spend time with other kids my age was when my parents hung out with their friends who had children. Although I did spend most of my time glued to either of their legs and refused to talk to anyone besides them.

Imagine my surprise when in the orientation class of high school this great force of a girl, with dark blonde, wavy hair and eyes so big you could get lost in them, declared we were friends two minutes after she took a seat next to me.

I was peacefully scribbling some drawings inside my leather sketchbook when the chair legs next to mine scraped against the floor. The stranger introduced herself to me before her butt hit the seat and told me how excited she is to become friends with me the second I told her my name is Esther. No surname needed. Only first names.

That was all it took for Jenifer 'Jenny' Bennet to consider me her friend.

Jenny didn't give me much of a choice in that matter, but I am glad she wasn't afraid to talk to me. Otherwise I wouldn't have landed myself one of the greatest best friends there are.

High school started over a month ago and our friendship only flourished. While I thought I would never manage to get myself more than one friend, we assembled a group of five in less than five weeks. Well, to be fair, mostly Jenny sewed the group together, but we were the starting point.

Adults might tell us we're too young to know who is going to stay in our lives and who we will lose all contact with after we graduate. But after I witnessed bonds being formed between me, Jenny, Oliver, Avery, and Dorian, I have never been more sure that we might stick around for the long ride.

Jenny decided Oliver James could not get away from us after he cracked a lame joke about history in class to get the attention of a group of girls in class on the second day of school. He didn't fight us either when we surrounded him at the end of class.

Together we met Avery Torrez during our first study date in the library when Jenny noticed her hiding a romance novel behind an English textbook and called her out on it. With a blushing face, she cursed under her breath in Spanish and hid the book. By that time it was useless for her to try and run away from us. We strode into her world with confident steps.

Last one to join us was Dorian White, who Aves decided to tease for his name being too similar to the main character from Wilde's novel, once he sat down with us during lunch time when other tables were already occupied and his grumpy ass had been stuck with us ever since.

We weren't the most popular guys. That place was strictly reserved for the older students or someone who had connections with any of them before they started. We didn't want to be those guys. Each one of us shines in a different way and who knows where we were going to end up on the popular chart. What mattered was that our group dynamic worked and that was all we needed.

Today, for the first time ever, we had arranged a house visit at one of our houses.

The plan for a hang out during the weekend was put into plans two weeks after the group locked in and finally, after weekends of one of us being busy, we were able to gather at Jenny's house.

"¡Dios mío! Why haven't you said you live in a mansion, Bennet?" Avery wonders, looking at the massive house in front of us after Jenny lets us in. "My whole house could probably fit in your living room."