Heaven Awaits (An Emblem3 Fan Fiction)

Chapter 1: Fuck School.

“LESLIE GET THE FUCK UP!” I groaned and lazily flipped onto my stomach to look over at the clock next to my bed. 7:30. Shit, school started in 20 minutes. After a minute of stretching my arms, I rolled out of bed onto the dark hard wood floor. Pushing my curtains open, I let the early morning Huntington Beach sunlight fill my room as I hurriedly searched for something clean and decent looking to wear. Finally settling on a pink knit tank top with old dark wash denim shorts, I sprinted over to my bathroom to fix my hair and face. I quickly finger combed through my straight dark brown hair leaving it down to fall past my chest. Hastily, I threw on blush and swiped some mascara across my lashes before racing down the stairs to find my pissed off brother, Lijah.

“Les seriously c’mon, school starts in like 10 minutes and me and Keats have a math test first period.” Lijah snapped at me. I rolled my eyes knowing he was over reacting, we lived around 5 minutes away from school and were hardly ever late. But I felt bad for getting him all freaked out, I didn’t want him to go to school in a bad mood. 

“Sorry sorry sorry okay let’s go I’m ready.” After putting on a gray jacket, I grabbed my school bag and the car keys off the kitchen table and darted to the garage with Lijah right behind me. We sat in silence as I drove to the Stromberg house to pick up Lijah’s best friend, Keaton. Or should I say OUR best friend, Keaton. My family was super close family friends with the Strombergs, I’d known them my whole life. Keaton and Lijah were both a year younger than me and I was a year younger than Keaton’s older brother, Wesley. 

Pulling up into the Stromberg’s driveway, Keaton instantly sprinted out of the house nearly tripping over the first step outside his door. I started giggling at how frazzled he was and decided to keep the car doors locked. Lijah couldn’t stop cracking up as Keaton kept trying to pull the car door open until I finally clicked it unlocked. 

“Not funny Leslie.” Keaton rolled his eyes at me, pouting from the backseat as I started driving us to school. I stuck my tongue out at him through the rearview mirror. 

“Hey you could always drive with Wes.” I muttered back even though I knew Wesley was most likely still sleeping in at home. 

“Yeah right,” Keaton laughed. “He has senior-itis so hard I doubt he’ll even show up at all today.” I nodded understandingly. With two weeks left of school, seniors had no reason to go to class anyway. I moaned knowing that was not the case for me and my junior classmates. Finals were the week after next and I needed to study my ass off if I wanted to finish the year with decent grades. But it was Friday, so I tried to push my intense feelings of anxiety away. For now.  

Rolling into Huntington High, I yawned dreading to go inside the hell hole. I hated school, literally hated it. Whoever said high school is supposed to be the best four years of your life was dead wrong. Suddenly my stomach made a disgusting groaning sound and I sighed realizing I had skipped breakfast yet again.

“Here Les,” Keaton reached over and tossed me a granola bar. “I figured you’d miss breakfast.” I grinned and stuffed the thing in my mouth. 

“Thanks Keatronnnn.” I laughed using his old nickname and rustled his hair as we all got out of the car. Lijah shook his head as Keaton blushed while attempting to fix his already messy hair. The kid was in desperate need for a haircut but he still managed to look adorable. 

“Oh hey guys before I forget, bonfire tonight at our house. Everyone’s gonna be there.” Keaton instructed us. I casually nodded, giving him a thumbs up but in my mind I was jumping for joy. Friday nights all summer long the Strombergs had bonfires at their house or at the beach and they were always off the hook. 

I waved bye to Lijah and Keaton who were already racing to their math class. A few minutes later, my spanish teacher scowled at me as I strolled into class. I shrugged at her and slumped into my seat in the back row. Luckily my teacher was chill and knew that with finals coming up we needed a breather, so we watched a movie the whole period. And the whole freaking period I thought about tonight. And the whole period I thought about Wesley Stromberg.

You know that one person you had a crush on when you were really little? Well that’s kind of how Wesley was for me. My mom used to tell me how before I was even born she loved the name Larraine gave Wesley so she named me something similar.

"Wesley and Leslie, the dream team.” She would joke. When I was really young and my family would hang out with the Strombergs, I would just cling to Wes like he was a God. Everyone thought it was cute how I looked up to him, cute that he was like the big brother I never had.  But now it’s totally different. 

It kind of started over winter break. My family, the Strombergs, and our family friends, the Miners all went out to Washington together to go snowboarding.. I don’t know if it was him snowboarding or him spiking his hot chocolate in the lodge but something about Wesley just became really attractive to me. It’s weird and kind of feels like incest since he’s basically my brother. But I can’t help it. Love is strange in that way.

I haven’t seen Wes a lot since then, he’s been hanging out with a ton of seniors I don’t even know and who probably don’t even know I exist. I guess you could say he was popular, but not the stereo type popular who’s mean and hangs out with only super cool rich kids. Wes is popular because everyone, and I mean everyone, loves him. But they love him because he’s unique and not like everyone else in this town. That’s another reason I’m attracted to him I guess. 

“Leslie did you hear what I said?” Suddenly my spanish teacher was standing in front of me with her arms crossed. My face got all hot and I knew I was bright red since the whole class was staring at me.

“Wes?” Shit. That’s not what I was supposed to say. “I mean yes, yes.” I stuttered hoping nobody heard my mistake. My friend Christine burst into hysterics across the room, knowing I was day dreaming. I shot her daggers and cursed a couple more times under my breath. Luckily the bell rang and everyone started getting up to go. My teacher sighed and dismissed us, shaking her head. Saved by the bell.