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CHAPTER FIVE

I make eye contact with Brent. Save me. Brent just smiles amusedly and shakes his head at me.

"Oh! Did you hear that?" Brent exclaims. My tense shoulders relax slightly. Only slightly. He's helping me.

"I think Cara's looking for me! I should probably go before she screams the house down." Brent grins evilly.

My mouth drops open as he gets up. My eyes are wide and frantic as I quickly grab his arm to stop him.

"Don't go. Help me, please?" I ask, completely ignoring the burning stare I can feel on my back. So embarrassing.

Brent pretends to think about it then says, "Hm, should I? Sorry, no. I value my balls. Cara's going to kill me, she's been planning this for ages." Of course, who else would concoct a plan as evil and as cruel as this other than my best friend.

"No! Stay! Don't leave me alone with him." I say desperately, scrambling to my feet.

"Wow. You know I'm right here, right? And that I have ears?"

Brent looks over my shoulder to look at him and whatever he sees makes his lips curve upward in a crooked smile. I bet you he's mouthing something to Brent right at this moment.

"You know, I haven't grown that ugly over the years. I'm even more handsome, so turn around already."

I jut out my chin, turning my head higher. I absolutely refuse to look at him or acknowledge him no matter how childish it makes me seem.

"You know, I don't bite." I hear his deep chuckle. God, that laugh. How does he still have the ability to make my knees weak?

I scoff, "You've done more than just biting me."

Brent chokes on his laughter and I hear that deep chuckle again.

I turn red, blushing right to the roots of my hair. Stupid. Stupid Holly. You just had to run your mouth.

"Is she blushing, Brent?" I hear the amusement in his voice.

Brent cocks his head to look at me and nods, "She's a tomato right now, man!"

I whirl towards Brent in anger and embarrassment, making sure not to look at the man behind me. "Shut up, and get out!"

Brent makes an innocent face and points at himself as if to say, 'who? Me?' and smiles as if he knows something I don't.

I only realize what that smile meant when he says, "Me? You want me to leave? Sure, Angel. See ya later!" and he turns to go inside.

My mouth drops open, "You-He-what-what just happened?"

"You told him to leave, sweetheart. And he did."

I grit my teeth and turn to face him. Cayden.

As soon as I turn around, my clenched jaw goes slack as I see him, for the first time in person since 6 years ago.

His messy black hair styled backward to give him a neat look is now messy, falling on his forehead. His intense gray eyes, staring at me with a small smile playing upon his lips. Cayden looks me up and down, making a shiver run down my spine. He's wearing a midnight blue dress shirt with his sleeves rolled up paired with black jeans, shiny black shoes, a leather jacket thrown over his shoulders. Sharp, clean shaven, jawline. Large forehead with strands of black hair falling into his eyes. Smoldering gray eyes. Cheekbone protruding. Pink cheeks from the cold. His muscles stretching the shirt he's wearing right now. Hands in his pockets. He does look even more handsome. He looks so good, it hurts.

Cayden's smile curves into an amused smirk as he sees me checking him out.

"Sit down, Holly." He says in his deep voice. Oh, my God. I think I just died.

I purse my lips and sit down, looking down, my hair falling in my face. I hear footsteps and he sits down next to me. Too close.

I'm suddenly hyper aware of every single thing at this moment. The way our knees are touching. How his arms are brushing mine. His hands clasped together. His heavy breath. The body heat from his close proximity. His gaze burning a hole through my head. I raise my head, tucking my hair behind my ears.

The air around us is awkward, neither of us knowing what to say. What do you say to your ex, who you haven't seen for six years?

"Uh, so."

"How-"

We both start at the same time then pause, looking at each other. Suddenly, we both burst out laughing, easing the tension around us. But, not completely.

"You go first." Cayden laughs.

"Uh- how's your newfound fame?" I splutter.

"Of all things to ask me, that's what you ask?"

"Oh come on, you're this big hot shot famous singer of a band now! How can I not ask you about that!?"

"It's... something." Cayden shrugs, scratching the back of his neck. "It's weird when people keep stopping me in the streets for autographs because at first, I was just a rookie, you know? Now, it's definitely weird and overwhelming to see everyone bombarding me if someone recognizes me. Even the paps don't leave me alone. It's definitely something."

"Tell me about it, not a day goes by when I don't hear some gossip news or your name. Everyone- even my friends- is your fan, it's weird to see some people talking about you as if you're... an item to be sold... It's even weirder seeing your face plastered everywhere. To me- to us, you're just Cayden James, our friend."

"Aw. You're making me blush, stop." Cayden rolls his eyes. "On a more serious note, you do know that the rest of the gang is probably looking at us through the glass, right?"

I smile and raise my voice a little, "Of course. Should I look at them so they can stop eavesdropping on us?"

Cayden barks out a laugh. I turn around to look at the glass doors and sure enough, there they all are. Cara, Brodie, Brent, Sam, and even Ariana minus Max stuck to the glass with wide eyes.

Cara curses.

"Hey, I told you this wasn't going to work!" Sam exclaims.

"This was a stupid idea." Brodie shakes his head. "Who came up with it anyway?"

"Careful, man! It was your future wife!" Brent snickers.

"I told you we should be wearing disguises!" Cara exclaims.

"But the glass is see-through, how would have that worked?" Ariana asks.

"You guys do know we can hear you, right?" I call out as Cayden laughs.

Cara curses again, "Abort! Abort plan now! Retreat, my fellow soldiers!!"

Cara then proceeds to run back into the house with the rest of our friends blindly following her, playing along.

"They're so idiotic. They still act like they're five, why are we friends with them again?" I ask, shaking my head at the five year olds that our friends are, instead of the grown 22 year olds.

"Because we're idiotic too," he answers pointedly.

"Humph. Fair enough."

"So, How have things been for you?" Cayden asks.

I bite my lips. What do I tell him? I have so much to say. So much to complain about. So much to talk about. So much to scream at him. So much to hit him with. He has absolutely no idea what kind of hurricane will unfold once he finds out what's been going on in my life. And, it's partly my fault, for not telling him.

I finally go for the same type of answer I've been giving everyone, "Oh, you know. Same old, same old."

Cayden raises his eyebrows at that, "Seriously, Holly? You're gonna give me that same half-assed response you've been giving everyone?"

I narrow my eyes at him, playfully, "So, you were spying on me?"

His face breaks out in a wide grin, "If you intend to embarrass me with that, I regret to inform you that you have failed. I was spying on you and I take pride in that fact. Now, don't try to change the subject and answer me already."

"Aw, damn. How did you find out I was changing the subject?"

"Holly..." he warns.

I sigh in defeat, "Okay, okay! I'll tell you! I graduated last year since I took a gap year after the first semester. Found a job at some firm as a receptionist, I quit later on and now I'm unemployed, living off my dad's pension so I'm wallowing in self misery near to death by stress even though I'm still 22."

"Oh, god. I'm never going to get a straight answer from you, am I?" Cayden frowns.

"Never." I echo, nodding at him.

"Still the same Holly I knew." Cayden breaks out in a laugh.

My smile falters at that. Same Holly? What a joke. I look down, suddenly feeling inferior sitting next to him. He's so successful now. Slowly rising in the charts in the world. He is finally gaining some recognition in the music industry, I see his name and face everywhere, on billboards, magazines, coworkers, friends all talking about him. And me? My life is a mess, I'm mooching off Evans, I still have my student loans to pay back, and on top of that-

Cayden pushes up my chin sideways to look at him and my breath hitches when I realize just how close he is. He's so close that I can count the flecks of green in his eyes, his breath fanning my face. I see his outstretched hand reaching forward for my face. I suddenly squeeze my eyes shut, biting my lips hard. I feel his hand brush a long strand of my hair out of my face and gently tuck it behind my ear. I open my eyes slowly and see his face tilted looking at me with the likes of fascination as if he can't believe I'm here. He chuckles at me and I feel my cheeks burn. What is with me and blushing, today?

His face starts to move towards mine, his eyes silently asking me for my permission.

And I would've given it to him.

I would've let him kiss me regardless of the complications it would've caused.

But the universe always finds a way to mess up the timing just like any of the other times and interrupt us.

My phone rings. I pull away quickly and fumble with my purse, refusing to look at Cayden because of what almost happened.

I open my purse, looking for my phone, but my hands are trembling so I empty the contents of my purse and quickly grab my phone. I can almost feel Cayden staring at the contents of my purse. My eyes widened and I put everything back inside.

I hit the answer button without looking at the caller ID before it stops ringing.

"Hello?"

A/N

Hi. Sooo, how'd you like it? Are you liking the story so far?

Almost all characters have been introduced. Do you like Cayden? Are you frustrated that the kiss didn't happen? Are you liking the friend group? Who's your favorite so far?

And an even more important question. Who do you think is on that phone call? *smirks evilly*

Also now that I've introduced many of our inner circle characters. I'm going to try something fun like posting fun facts about this story. I always think it's nice to know some things about the story that were not orignally there etc, yk?

Fun fact: Cayden's orignal name was Corvin, (also the reason why I took so long revealing his name since my friends said it was a cringey name) which was inspired by Micheal Corvin from that movie Underworld.

Remember, COTE!

Comment, vote and follow.

-Sal.