(1) Talk Me Down: An All Time Low Fanfiction Romance

Chapter 65: Stella

        January, two years later

        I pulled into a familiar parking space, one I'd been using for over a year now. The cars next to mine were empty but not abandoned, as a group of boys waited behind the car to my left. One of the boys, with shaggy brown hair, broke away from the group to walk towards my side of the car. As I leaned towards the passenger seat to grab my bag, he opened the door. As I turned to look up at him, he bent down, pressing his lips to mine eagerly. I laughed, pushing him away after a moment so I had room to get out of the car.

        "Hello to you too," I grinned, pushing my car door shut behind me. Rian beamed back, wrapping his arms around me for a hug.

        "Sometime today," somebody said impatiently, and I stepped out of Rian's hug and twisted my fingers through his instead.

        "It's school, Alex. What are you so impatient about?" I asked, stepping towards them with Rian at my side. Alex pushed himself off the back of his car and started walking.

        "Rumor has it, there's a new girl," he said, walking away as Rian and I started to catch up with him.

        "And she's hot," Jack added, running up beside us. Rian chuckled beside me and I rolled my eyes. I should have known that's what they were interested in. I may not have known the boys for their entire lives, but over almost two years gave me plenty of time to learn about them.

        It had been about a year and two months since Rian and I started dating, and just a month or two before that when I started hanging out with him and his friends. The choices I made so early on in my sophomore year had definitely given me a rough few months, but it was in the past. My junior year and the first half of my senior year had held few problems for me. My focus now, was on getting out of high school, something I was honestly pumped about.

        Alex and Jack bounded up the school steps, eyes open for a new girl they were so eager to see. Rian and I were only halfway up the steps when Alex and Jack had already disappeared inside, or I would have called them back when an unfamiliar face caught my eye. A dark-haired girl, a junior or senior, was walking up the stairs blindly, staring at a piece of paper. I nudged Rian, and we watched the girl ran into a thin, strawberry blonde I had once known.

        I watched Jessica glare at the girl and say something I didn't catch before strutting into the school, her group of friends following her like shadows. It reminded me of how I used to follow Veronica; going along with everything she wanted because she was my "best friend".  I hadn't been able to notice how wrong she was and how selfish she could be until I met Rian and was forced to choose between him, and the girls I had once called my friends.

        Some people thought, and may still think, that I had chosen wrong when I picked Rian over Veronica, but not once had I even felt an ounce of regret. The attacks I had once experienced had stopped after a week, and it was like Veronica and the rest of the girls were just faces in the crowd. We had no problems with each other, almost like we'd never known one another.

        "Kara," Rian said, amusement in his voice as he nudged my side. I must have gotten side-tracked thinking about Veronica, because I hadn't heard him saying my name.

        "Yeah? Sorry," I smiled, looking up at him. We stopped at the beginning of the hallway, standing off to the side so we wouldn't be in anybody's way.

        "I'll meet you at your locker," he said, leaning down to give me a kiss. I craned my neck away from him, looking at him with an eyebrow raised and a soft, teasing smile.

        "Why? Do you want to go tell Alex and Jack exactly how 'hot' the new girl is?" I teased, pushing myself up to brush my lips agains his, both of us still smiling. When I was flat on my feet again, I adjusted my bag.

        "Not exactly," he chuckled. "I was just going to tell them to head this way if they hadn't seen her." I shook my head, my hand falling to my side as I turned away and Rian left in search of his friends.

        I started down the crowded hallway, pushing past the people who liked to stand and talk in the middle of the hallway and trying to cut past the people who walked too slow for me. A lot of times I wished our hallways were bigger because I couldn't stand fighting my way through the crowd in the morning and between classes.

        Towards the end of the hallway I was in, I noticed Jessica and her group again, hovering around her locker, creating another obstacle in the hallway. I rolled my eyes to myself at the attention Jessica brought to herself. It was exactly how exactly had been, but she was not quite to that extreme anymore. Part of me couldn't help but think that Veronica really had a heart, and that something Rian had said to her stuck over-time and that's why she wasn't as awful as she used to be.

        I couldn't say it was a complete change, mostly just subtle things, like the fact that she'd held onto a boyfriend for a couple months now, but it was enough. It was enough to get Jessica to step up and take her place, except she was probably ten times worse. If you crossed Jessica, your life wa sover, and there was absolutely no way she would back down like Veronica had.

        I didn't turn my gaze to her the way most girls did out of envy or guys did out of awe. I paid attention only to where I was walking, turning into another short hallway before the one where my lockers were.

        The first thing I noticed was the new girl, mostly because her hands were up in the air, one of them clenching a piece of paper angirly, as she exclaimed something I couldn't hear in the crowded hallway. She was probably fed up with the attention she'd been receiving being the new girl, and one that nobody could call average or even pretty when it came to herlooks.

        I remembered how she accidentally ran into Jessica this morning, which put her low on Jessica's list already. For her first day, it wasn't a good start. I bit my lip, walking a little quicker to make my way towards her as she started to walk away from me. I fell into step beside her, close enough for her to hear me say, "You're lookin' a little lost."

        She turned suddenly, surprised at somebody addressing her. Her lips fell into a smile as she held out her schedule to me, scolding herself for not being able to follow directions. I took it, wiling to offer this girl the help that nobody else had clearly offered.

        Maybe it was because I would want somebody to do the same for me, or maybe it was because she'd already gotten off on the wrong foot with the wrong girl, and that required a little backup. From experience, I knew it was best to have friends around, especially when dealing with people who lived to talk you down. Stella, as I learned while we were heading to my locker, seemed like a nice person. Going out on a limb, I offered her an invitation to sit with Rian, Alex, Jack and I at lunch, with no way of knowing how much a part of our group she would become.