[6]

"Come on, admit it! It was fun!" Kai exclaims on the other end of the line.

"Fine. It wasn't bad," I mumble, whereupon a triumphant 'yes' escapes his mouth.

I just woke up an hour ago, when my phone buzzed. Turns out it was Kai who wanted to complain about his hangover. My head is aching quite a bit as well, but I didn't drink as much alcohol as him yesterday. I only had some weird mix of cola and beer that he had mixed when he tried to play the role of a bartender.

Let's just say. . . he isn't the most talented bartender out there.

"Chester!" My aunt's voice breaks me out of my daze.

"Gotta go, man. See you," I whisper into the phone and quickly hang up, before I make my way down the stairs. Almost stumbling over one of Chloe's jackets, which was lying on the staircase, I walk into the kitchen.

"Darling, can you do me a favor? Chloe's already out with some girls and I have a dentist appointment, so I'm not able to do it," she explains, putting some glasses into the shelves.

I nod. "Sure, what is it?"

"You just need to buy some stuff in the grocery store around the corner. I already wrote you a list of the things I need and put the money on the dining table. Will you do that for me?" She turns her head to me and looks at me expectantly, so I nod my head again and give her a reassuring smile.

"I will. By the way, when will you get back?" I ask and strutt over to the dining table.

"In the evening," she replies.

I grab the money and the list and shove it into the pocket of my sweat jacket, which I had slipped on earlier when my aunt had opened the windows in the entire house. She does that from time to time, Chloe told me. It didn't really bother me, but it's quite cold currently and I just hope that she won't do it too often.

"I'll drop you off right after the forest, since the dentist it the other way than the grocery store, ok? You can take the bus back home," she suggests and I slip on my worn-out sneakers, before I pull up the zipper from my jacket, so I wouldn't be cold outside

"Thank you, dear," she says and kisses my forehead.

"No problem, Nicole," I mumble and follow after her, as she walks to her car. As soon as I had left the house, a cold breeze brushes past me. I wrap my arms around myself and get into the passenger seat. The sound of rustling leaves fills my ears, but soon disappears when I slam the car door shut.

I look at the list in my hands, a frown etched onto my face. I'm standing in the middle of the grocery store, trying to find the milk. My eyes scan the many shelves around me and when I spot a blue carton, I walk toward it.

I let out a sigh and shove four of the milk cartons into my shopping cart. Then, I take out the pen, that I had borrowed from the clerk, and cross out the word 'milk' from the shopping list. My eyes trail down the words on the sticky note and another sigh escapes my lips.

I. do not. like. shopping.

I never have and I probably never will. It's just plain boring and a waste of time. Well, without it I wouldn't have food or any other necessities but still. I don't like it.

When I turn around, I realize too late that someone was standing behind me and I bump into them. I stumble backwards, my hand pressed onto my throbbing forehead, which just seconds ago had collided with a hard shoulder. I hear a low groan, whereupon my eyes shoot up to the person's face.

It's a guy around my age I figure, since he looks like he's in high- or middle school.

A tousled mess of brown hair is sat on the top of his head, a couple of strands resting messily on his forehead. His skin is slighlty paler than mine and a few freckles are covering the bridge of his nose. When my gaze wanders to his pale green eyes, I find him eyeing me up and down as well, so I quickly look away and glance at the floor.

A bag of chips is sprawled on the ground, wide open. Half of its content is covering the floor, making me bite my lower lip as the feeling of guilt spreads inside of me. I quickly kneel down and pick up the chips, trying to clean up the mess I caused.

"Hey," the guy says and kneels down next to me, "Don't. I can do it. It was my fault anyways."

I shake my head. "It was my fault. I should've been more careful."

"But I was the one who practically sneaked up on you, though it was unintentionally, but it was my fault nonetheless," he argues.

When I don't stop what I'm doing, he places his hands over mine. My head snaps up and I lock eyes with him. His pale cheeks are coated in a soft pink color, but he doesn't let go. I quickly stand up and clear my throat.

"Well, let me at least pay for the chips," I offer, whereupon he hesitantly agrees.

But before I could turn around to get my purse, a girl comes running around the corner. Her familar brown eyes shoot the guy a nasty glare, before her gaze turns towards me. A look of shock overtakes her features and her lips part slighlty.

"Chase?" She brings out at last.

My eyes are as wide as hers at the coincidence. I haven't expected to meet her here, nor did I know that she lives around here. I thought she lives somewhere on the other side of the town.

"Hey, Gwen?" I greet, more puzzled than I intended to.

"You know each other?" the brown eyed guy suddenly asks, whereupon I first notice that they share some similarities. The only thing they don't have in common is their hair.

"Oh right, Cooper this is Chester. And Chester, this is my little brother Cooper," Gwen introduces and gestures to the both of us.

"You have a brother?" I question, tilting my head slightly.

"Well duh, otherwise I wouldn't introduce him as such, would I?"

"Yeah, never mind that question," I mumble under my breath and turn my head back to the guy, who I now know as Cooper.

A smile is resting on his lips, which I return, before I avert my gaze and look to the floor. My smile drops and I sheepishly scratch the back of my head. I have never been good at handling the feeling of guilt. It usually just consumes me, without me being able to do anything against it. Maybe I'm too weak to fight it, or maybe I just don't want to.

Suddenly I hear a thud, followed by a groan, whereupon I raise my head. Cooper is rubbing his neck, a pout resting on his lips, and Gwen is sending him a deathly glare.

"You idiot! Don't you have eyes in that thick skull of yours?" Gwen scolds and places her hands on her hips.

"I'm sorry, ok? I already apologized to him. I just wanted to get some milk, dammit! How would I know that he's so jumpy?" Cooper replies, whereupon my cheeks redden.

"Sorry about that. It wasn't his fault. I should've been more careful," I say sheepishly.

Gwen's features soften and she shoots me a smile, "Whatever. Let's not talk about it anymore," she dismisses. "So, what are you doing here, Chase?"

"Getting some stuff for my aunt," I reply nonchalantly. "And you?"

"Cooper here desperately wanted to buy some snacks, since our parents aren't home this evening, which means no food for us today."

"Hey, you wanted to buy some snacks too! You are the one who always steals my chips!" Cooper whines. I chuckle when their argument turns into a full on fist fight. Well, they tickled and slapped each other, but whatever.

I avert my face and glance out the window. Small droplets of rain splash onto a black motorcycle, that is standing right in front of the store, and slide down its shiny metal. A helmet is loosely swinging back and forth on the handle and the vehicle is leaned against a street lamp.

I scrunch up my eyebrows in confusion when a hooded guy walks over to it and swings his foot over it. Before I could take a closer look at his face though, he puts on the helmet, leaving me clueless as to why he looks kind of familiar.

"-se. Chase!" Gwen's voice echoes in my ear, snapping me out of my daze. I quickly turn my head back to the two of them, to find them staring at me expectantly.

"What?"

"Oh my god, did you even listen to what we were talking about the last 5 minutes?" Gwen groans and slaps the palm of her hand on her forehead. A sheepish grin crawls onto my lips when I realize, that I had zoned out completely.

"Sorry," I apologized with a low voice.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So, I'm gonna ask again. You wanna come over for 'dinner'?"

"It's more of a movie night with chips and popcorn, but consider it what you want," Cooper pipes in.

My eyes widen ever so slightly but I nod nonetheless.

"I just have to buy all the stuff on this list and tell my aunt first."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey there,

another chappie of Beautiful Addiction!

Am so in love with writing this story lately. And I know that the first chapters might be a bit boring, but I hope it gets better in the next couple ones!

By the way, what do you think about Cooper?

He will play an important role in this whole story 😉

Stay safe y'all! Love ya!

❤

- L I S A