Crush: A YA Romance Collection

by Lavinia Leigh

Sighing happily I snuggled into the warmth of my bed and clutched Mr. Bear tighter to my chest as I dozed off. Yes, I named him Mr. Bear. I know it’s not the most creative name but I was only three when I came up with it so give me a break. I yawned deeply, on the verge of falling back to sleep. I had almost drifted off when I heard the sound of my mom’s determined and annoying footsteps returning to my room.

  “Violet, I am giving you one more chance to get out of that bed before I dump the bucket!” Her voice wavered as if she was unsure of whether she was really going to do it or not. My mom is a clean freak and I am sure that she is highly aware of the fact that if she does indeed decide to dump the bucket she is the one who will be cleaning it up.

  “Whatever,” I mumbled as I pulled the cover tighter around my thin body.

  “Violet please don’t make me do this!” I almost laughed at how high-pitched her voice was. It was as if she was begging me to get up just so that she didn’t have to follow through with her threat.

  “No one is forcing you to do anything mom. Now please be quiet, or get out!” I knew I shouldn’t be talking to my mother like this, but she was really getting on my nerves. I could have slept for another ten minutes if she hadn’t come in to wake me up. It’s not like this “new” school is really all that important anyway. Ever since my old school was remodeled over the summer, she has been going crazy trying to prepare me for it. She was honestly the only person I knew who was excited over the fact that our school was now higher security, and every student was required to wear a uniform.

  “Violet! You know that I do not allow back talk in this house.” I peeked out from under the covers to see my shocked mother holding a silver bucket into the air. She looked taken aback for a second before, to my surprise, she tilted the bucket over my bed.

  I closed my eyes tight in anticipation of the cold water that I knew was soon to come. It hit me like a tidal wave, drenching my body from head to toe. I screamed as the water penetrated my covers, and clenched my fists so tight that my fingernails were cutting into the flesh of my palm.

  Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I hopped up quickly and glared at my mother lividly. “Why did you do that!?” I shouted loudly, pulling at my wet pajama shirt that was clinging to my stomach.

  “I gave you fair warning.” Her brown eyes pierced into mine as if she was waiting for me to say more.

  “You know, when you dump a bucket of water over someone in an attempt to wake them up, the water is not supposed to be burning hot!” I yelled, clenching my fists tighter as I spoke.

  “I would never dump ice water on you,” she replied as a look of horror crossed her face, like that was the worst thing a person could do to their child. “You could get pneumonia. What kind of mother do you think I am?” she asked, placing her hand to her chest in astonishment. Without even giving me time to respond to her question she turned on her heel and walked from my room. “Hurry up, you don’t want to miss your bus.”

  I stared at the retreating back of the crazy woman who I referred to as my mother. Sighing, I walked over to the mirror that hung from my wall over my desk. My light brown hair that was usually wavy and hung a few inches below my shoulders was now plastered to the side of my face in some areas while it was dry and frizzy in others. My hazel eyes were rimmed in red and underneath each were dark circles from my lack of sleep. I had been up late for the past few nights, trying to milk the little time I had left of freedom before school began.

  Frowning at my appearance I used the back of my hand to rub at the small white circle of slobber that was crusted onto my cheek. Bending down, I reached my hand under my desk and pulled my flat iron out from my hair bin before placing it down on my desktop.

  Glancing at the neatly ironed uniform that mother dearest had laid out on the back of my desk chair caused a small scowl to creep onto my face. The uniform was absolutely hideous. Not only was it black and blue―making me look like one giant bruise―the pants that I had ordered were slightly too short for my legs, causing them to ride up like high waters. The shirt was tight and showed way too much cleavage for my liking and was better fit for a prostitute than it was for me. My mother, being the neat-freak-health-nut-overprotective-woman that she is, had refused to let me order one of the uniform skirts. She had mentioned something about them being “too short for her liking” when in actuality they came down to the knees.

  I rolled my eyes and grabbed the uniform as I shuffled into the bathroom. Stripping out of my pajamas I tossed them into the dirty clothes hamper and climbed into the shower. Turning the faucet on, I sighed in pleasure as the hot water pounded against my skin rhythmically. Not having enough time to wash my hair, I rinsed it and let it hang in curls around my heart shaped face.

  “Hurry up, Violet!” My mom called, pounding on the bathroom door as she spoke. Goodness does this woman ever give up? I knew that I didn’t have the best track record for catching the bus, but that didn’t mean that she had to bully me. I sighed and reluctantly cut the shower off and wrapped up in my towel. After I dried off, I got dressed quickly, frowning in disgust as my pants rose up to my ankles.

  I ran into my room and looked at the alarm clock on my bedside table causing my heart to drop into my stomach when I saw the time. I had five minutes until the bus came and I hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet. With a frustrated groan, I stuffed a few extra items into my backpack and yanked a comb through my wet hair a few times. After I was mildly presentable, I left my room and speed-walked down the hallway until I got to the stairs where I ran down them two steps at a time.

  “Do not run down the stairs, Violet! It’s dangerous! Do you know how many children fall down the stairs each day?” Mom stood at the bottom of the staircase with both hands on her hips as she tapped one foot impatiently.

  “Would you rather me take my time and miss the bus like you specifically told me not to?”

  She rolled her brown eyes in response and handed me a brown bag filled with one of her healthy homemade lunches.

  I took it unwillingly and stuffed it into my backpack. If it was my choice I would eat school lunch each day, but having a mother like Rose Forrester is tricky. She doesn’t like when her children eat processed, overly sugared foods that are high in inorganic phosphates and cholesterol. In short, this means that I’m not allowed to eat school lunch and instead I am forced to bring a bagged lunch with me to school every day. Yes, I know. My mom is indeed a basket case.

  I gave her a quick peck on the cheek and was about to walk out of the front door when I was gripped on my wrist and pulled back. “Hold on one second,” my mom said, hurrying into the kitchen. When she returned, she came up to me and placed a small hand towel on top of my head. It began to move in quick circles around over my hair before it was yanked away, leaving me with a glare on my face, and a smile on hers.

  “There you go. Now you can have a great day without having to worry about catching a cold.” I stared angrily at my mom’s triumphant face before walking out of the house and slamming the door shut behind me.

  Thanks to her my hair was going to look like a dry tumble weed glued to the top of my head by the end of the day. I made it to the bus stop just as the doors had slammed shut and it was about to pull off. My bus driver gave me a sour look but still opened the doors so that I could get onto the bus.

  “You’re lucky it’s the first day,” she muttered as I climbed on. “Take your seat. You have already held us up long enough.”

  I rolled my eyes at her snarky words. This day was already not going well. Sitting down at the nearest empty seat I began to unzip my backpack as the bus took off down the road. Pulling out a small pocket mirror and a comb, I began to make myself presentable before we stopped at Blake’s bus stop. By the time we had gotten to his stop, I had worked my hair into controllable waves and had applied a thin layer of my favorite clear lip gloss.

  I shoved the few items back into my bag and looked up just in time to see the bus pull to a stop. I watched as a few students bo
arded the bus, waiting until Blake got on. When I saw him, a smile tugged my lips upwards. His black hair was windblown and had small droplets of water dripping from it as he sauntered toward me. Obviously his mother didn’t care about whether he caught a cold or not.

  I couldn’t help but stare at his crisp blue uniform shirt and professional looking black khakis. He always looked adorable dressed up, and I couldn't help it; I had a thing for men in uniforms. Unlike mine, his pants fit him perfectly, and his outfit didn't make him look like he had discolored skin despite its blue and black material. When he caught my eye, he smirked at me and winked knowingly as if he had noticed that I was checking him out. I felt the familiar warmth of a blush creeping over my high cheekbones as I stared into his blue eyes.

  Blake sat into the empty space next to me and gave me a light peck on the cheek. “Hey Vi, how was your morning?”

  I sighed. “Don’t even get me started,” I warned while shaking my head slowly.

  He smiled and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him. I snuggled into his side and rested my eyes for the rest of the way to school. It felt so natural to be cuddled up with Blake. We didn’t need to fill every silence with meaningless conversation. We were perfectly content with just enjoying each other’s presence. When his eyes pierced into mine it felt as if he was looking into my soul. It sounds cheesy but there is no other way to explain it.

  I wish that I could say that Blake and I were always the best of friends and that it was love at first sight, but if I said that I would be telling you complete bull shit. In all honesty when Blake and I first met in seventh grade I had found him to be quite annoying. Blake had been tall and gangly with big blue eyes that were always hidden behind a pair of thick rimmed glasses and a shaggy hair cut. His family had just moved here from a small island in the Caribbean and although he had just arrived at my school in the middle of the year, it seemed as if he was stalking me everywhere I went. Not only had he had almost every class with me, but he even had the locker next to mine. Really, what did you expect me to think? After all, I do get half of my genes from my mother and she can be very paranoid.

  He sat next to me in three of my core classes and it bugged me how he was always first to finish his work and how he would offer me help once he was finished as if I looked that incompetent as to need his assistance. It annoyed me how he would push his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose and peer at my work with a slightly disappointed look on his face. I mean, had he ever heard of privacy? The only thing that I actually liked about sitting next to him all year was the fact that he always aced his tests and he never seemed to mind when he caught me glancing at his work in need of answers.

  It was during the summer before ninth grade that I had actually begun to like Blake. I saw him one day while I had been walking to the park with the only family member of mine that really understands me, Lilly. She had been two at the time and being the great big sister that I am, I decided to take her to the park to play.

  On our way there we ran into Blake while he was walking his dog. Blake invited himself to walk to the park with us and after an hour of the two of us playing with Lilly we decided to exchange cell phone numbers. In his case it was a house number because he didn’t have a cell phone at the time. After that, we talked on the phone a few times a week and hung out whenever we were free. He became one of my closest friends, and after spending so much time together over the years he finally asked me out in the beginning of our sophomore year. I had been a little stand-offish at the time because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, but I had agreed to go out with him. I loved spending time with Blake and soon we became inseparable. Dating only made us closer.

  To my surprise, Blake had begun to grow into his looks, and by sophomore year he was labeled as one of the “hottest” guys at school. Puberty hit him hard. He changed his hair, got rid of his glasses, and thickened out a bit. He was, and still is, a nerd though; my nerd.

  I hate to say it, but I get jealous a lot due to all of the attention he gets from the girls at school. Mainly from my neighbor Brianna and her band of Barbie’s. Yes, I know that they are all prettier than I am, but I am in turn much smarter than all of them put together. Not to mention that if you sewed all of their clothes together to make a dress, it still wouldn’t come past the knees that they spent so much time on. I usually preferred to ignore them but there are times when I slip up and call them a name. It’s in my nature.

  Blake’s fingers slipped into mine bringing me out of my little reverie. The corners of his lips tugged up into a smile and I couldn’t help but return it. The way his smiles spread to every part of his face and caused his eyes to sparkle made my heart race and my breathing quicken. I leaned forward slightly and pressed my lips to his for a quick kiss. He pulled me closer using the arm that he had slung around my waist, and held my hip with one hand while his other rubbed gently across the small of my back.

  The kiss lasted for about a minute or so before a loud voice caused us to break apart. “First you’re late and now you’re chewing on another student’s tongue on my bus?” The bus driver questioned me in a frustrated tone over the loudspeaker.

  We hadn’t even made it to school yet and somehow I had already managed to make an enemy. That had to be a record of some sort.

  Blake tried to hide his smile at her words. At least one of us was finding her amusing. He leaned away from me, moving his arm from around my waist in the process. I glanced up to see her shooting daggers at me with her eyes. If looks could kill I would be dead by now. I glared at her which only made her smirk at me with a look of satisfaction on her face.

  When I looked away from her, I noticed for the first time that the bus was stopped and outside of the window stood our newly constructed high school. The front of the building was entirely constructed out of glass and I couldn’t help but wonder how safe that was. What are we going to do in case of a tornado? Gosh, I really am around my mother so often that I’m even starting to sound like her.

  Shaking the worried thought from my head, instead I began to observe the blue and black school sign that was placed on the front lawn. In large letters it said, “Bradbury High School Home of The Bulldogs.” On the lush green lawns in the front of the school stood a large fountain, a statue of a bulldog, and three tall flagpoles. Our school had been completely transformed from a tattered old building that looked like it was going to fall down at any minute, into a well-kept building that could undoubtedly pass for a private school or a small college campus.

  The bus doors opened and kids began spilling out hurriedly. Everyone seemed anxious to have a look at the new school. Blake tossed our backpacks onto his back and stood in the aisle, gesturing for me to walk ahead of him. I obliged and rose to my feet, adjusting my high water pants as I did so, and walked toward the front of the bus. The annoying bus driver had a sign up with, “Hi! I’m Mrs. Gross! Nice to meet you!” written in bold letters, sitting in the front window.

  I smiled at her pleasantly when I saw her gaze glued to my face. “Love the last name,” I chirped in my sweetest voice, smirking at her.

  She gave me another death glare before pointing a large sausage-like finger at Blake and shaking it up and down slowly. “I do not know what you see in this girl.” Her voice came out in a low growl. “But I am sure that a young man like yourself could do much better.”

  An angry scowl lined my face as I glanced back at Blake who seemed to be quite amused. He nodded his head up and down. “I’ve been told,” he joked, meeting my eyes.

  At his words I turned on my heel and stomped the rest of the way off of the bus. Instead of stopping and waiting for Blake I walked through the crowd of bus riders as they stood around reacquainting themselves with friends they hadn’t seen over the summer. I was aware of the fact that Blake was trailing behind me but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of turning around to face him. Instead his hand grabbed my wrist and spun me around toward face him.

  “You know I was only
kidding, right Vi?” A smile lit up his features as he spoke.

  Looking into his eyes all I saw was pure unadulterated amusement. I was about to reply when his eyes shifted to something behind me and, curiosity getting the best of me, I turned around to see what he was fixated on.

  Across the school yard stood Brianna and her band of two-bit bimbos. Two of her supporting sluts climbed out of her car and stood behind her while the other was bending over and tying one of her shoes. It was honestly the first time that I had ever seen someone tying their shoe with their legs straight and their butt stuck up into the air while the top half of them was bent over. All of the boys behind her were sneaking peeks under her skirt as she did this and a few of them even had the balls to whistle at her. She had been down for a few minutes already and I noticed that it didn’t take that long to tie your shoe, at least in my case it doesn’t. It must be hard living with only ten brain cells.

  A few boys stopped and stared at Brianna and her minions as they arrived and some even walked past them with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Had they never seen a group of hypersexualized girls with possible daddy issues before? Didn’t they have cable television?

  Brianna was wearing a skirt that looked as if it could fit Lilly perfectly, and was exposing a lot of tan leg. Her shirt was tight fitting, but surprisingly, it was buttoned to the top without any cleavage showing. The eye-catcher, that was probably there as a replacement for her cleavage, was a bright pink tie hanging loosely around her neck. All of her friends had on identical outfits but they were each wearing a different color tie. I was almost surprised to see that they weren’t wearing heels, but rather they all had on matching tennis shoes with blue and black details. I had no doubt in my mind that those were their cheer shoes. My eyes rolled at the irony; a mean blonde who was also a cheerleader. There was no getting around that bad cliché.

  Although I had seen Brianna over the summer I still took in the annoyingly noticeable improvements that summer had caused to her appearance. She had tanned a lot, and her hair had grown lighter from all of the sun she had gotten. Her sun-bleached, blonde hair was currently pulled up into a high ponytail with a few strands hanging loose around her heart shaped face that was covered in at least two layers of foundation. Her lips were drowning in lip gloss and considering how big of a bitch she is I had no idea why every boy on the grounds was staring at her with lust in their eyes.