25|| Starting Over

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Chapter 25: Starting Over


Starting over is like a breath of fresh air. It's when you're drowning and someone helps you up, offering to be the one to let you breathe.


~Starlight24


I was rocking on the balls of my feet. Well this took awkward to a whole new level.


"Hey," Jase said, walking out. He looked surprised to see me, and rightfully so. I would have been too, if I was in his place.


"Hi!" I said, reading through my mental preparation of what to say.


Hey, I'm sorry I lied. The thing is, I'm actually Starlight, and I didn't want to make anyone see me differently because of my fame. I wanted to make friends who genuinely liked me for being me, and I'm glad to have found real friends. Don't treat me differently just because I'm a famous superstar. I'm still the same old Day June Winters. I'm the same old crazy, socially awkward, clumsy and weird klutz.


"I don't like you," he blurted, and I raised my eyebrows. Okay, this wasn't what I was expecting, really. This was going to be harder to put across now.


"Um, thanks?" I said.


"No!" he said hurriedly, seemingly embarrassed. "I mean, I don't... I'm not attracted to you or anything. I kinda had a mild infatuation at the start I guess but after you kissed me day-before-yesterday, I realized that I didn't really have any feelings for you. I don't really care about the whole Starlight thing, because I was never really into her to begin with. I don't see what all the hype is about her. I just wanted to apologize for leading you on and stuff."


"Gosh, breathe!" I said, not really comprehending what he was saying.


"You don't... you don't mind that I just absolutely rejected you?" he asked, looking confused.


I thought about the situation I was in. Was Jase hot? Definitely. Did I value his friendship and would I become very upset if we weren't friends anymore? Yes. Did I actually have a crush on him? Well, considering the fact that the thing with Max just happened, I'm not really opening my heart out to anyone anytime soon.


So no, him confessing this to me didn't really hurt me.


"What do you mean?" I asked, innocently. "How can you reject me if I didn't even like you that way?"


Now it was his turn to blink. "You don't?" he asked, looking immensely confused.


I laughed and shook my head. "Hate to disappoint, but I don't. I just broke up with my boyfriend, for Pete's sake! I'm not going to be that disrespectful. No matter how much of a jerk he was to me."


He looked insanely relieved. "Oh my god, you have no idea how relieving that is to hear," he said, giving me a warm smile. "So... friends?"


I grinned. "I wouldn't have it any other way."


*****


Jase's house? Check. Although it wasn't the answer I'd been expecting, it was something and I couldn't feel happier. I guess I'm kind of glad he told me to not like him, because I wouldn't expect something like that to have been said by a person like him.


A person like him. Wow, I'm so judgmental it killed me.


Now I needed to tackle Dylan's house.


I rang the doorbell. I vaguely remember something about his parents being out of town, and him complaining about being a loner.


He opened the door, and I pasted a smile across my face. "Hi—"


Slam.


I was met with a face-first of mahogany being flung across my face.


Alright, I wasn't expecting him to be this affected.


"Dylan!" I yelled. "Please, hear me out!"


"Get lost, Day," his voice came back, tired. "I don't want to have to deal with you again."


"Why are you making such a big deal out of this? There are a lot of people who've lied before, alright?" I said, feeling annoyed. He was acting like I'd lied to everyone about me being human, because I was secretly the product of a mushroom and a watermelon.


"Yeah, but you knew how much I liked Starlight. I never took you to be the attention seeking types, and I just feel betrayed that I was so wrong about my judgement." I could hear his annoyed voice and I grit my teeth in frustration.


I was the furthest from being attention seeking, I think.


"This isn't fair!" I screamed, angrily.


"Liars are never loved, Day," he said.


That tipped me off.


"What!?" I asked, not believing my ears. "Are you serious right now? I mean, I cannot believe what a hypocrite you are being. Liars are never loved, but it was perfectly acceptable to cheat on your girlfriend and then expect me to forgive you? Oh yeah, pardon me for not thinking this was fair at all. I just thought that you'd be able to understand this better, and for thinking that this was what friends were for, Dylan. I'm sad that my judgement of you was so wrong, too."


With that, I stormed off. Alright, this was crazy. I was literally so angry right now! How could he act like I was at fault when really, he wasn't much better off?


Two seconds later, the door opened and he stood there, looking a mix of sadness and annoyance.


"Day, wait," he said, smiling wanly at me.


"What?" I snapped, feeling a little buzzed with that emotional throw up.


"Okay, let's talk this out then," he said calmly, like he was tired of my high maintenance or something.


"No, I'm sorry for taking your time," I hissed, rolling my eyes. "Have a nice day."


I turned and walked off sassily when I felt a large hand on my shoulder that made me roll my eyes and turn, only to find myself face-to-face with a bending Dylan's own. Yeah, he was tall so he was bending. Otherwise we couldn't have been face-to-face.


I blushed and walked backwards, feeling randomly overwhelmed.


"I'm sorry, alright?" he whispered, tucking my hair behind my ears. What was he doing? I was perfectly capable of taking care of my own hair if it was bothering me. I didn't find these kind of moves romantic. I found them dumb.


Just to prove my point, I pushed my hair forward again and made sure it was sprayed across my face as I frowned at him.


He sighed and shook his head in disbelief.


"I'm not backing down so easily, Dylan. If you think that putting my hair behind my ears will make me melt into a pool of goo, then you're dead wrong and I hate to be the one who has to break it to you." I was pouting and putting my arms on my hips.


"Day, you're one of the most amazing people I've ever met. You're always capable of surprising me," he said with an amused expression.


I rolled my eyes. "Dylan, I like cheese as long as I can eat it. I don't like it when it's strung into sentences."


"Ooh, sassy," he said, laughing now.


I didn't find this very tickling, so I remained to have just as much emotion as a tree stump.


"It's what I do best," I said with a nonchalant shrug.


"Alright, I'm sorry," he said, smiling widely.


"Alright, I'm not," I said, smiling back.


"Day," he groaned.


"Dylan," I mimicked.


"You're being really annoying right now, Winters," he said, rolling his eyes exaggeratedly at me.


"You're being really annoyed right now, Daniels," I bit back with a wide grin.


"Why did you lie to us though?" he asked, and I thought about his question.


Dylan had made it increasingly obvious that he was creepily obsessed with Starlight24. Did I want him to do that to me? Definitely not. Did I want him to think I was a liar? Of course not!


This was a very tough position to be in. Oh, the situations I face and the life I lead I tell you.


"I don't know," I said, deciding to lie. I'm a weird person, as I have mentioned on countless occasions. Please don't judge me. "I guess I'd never been to a school before, and I just wanted to fit in so badly it was like a dull ache. I didn't think it was easy to be popular, but I so badly wanted to be that I decided to tell everyone that I knew her."


"That's so dumb," he said with an eye roll.


"Not as dumb as you," I retaliated with my tongue stuck out like the mature person that I am.


"You live next door to me. What popularity compares to that privilege?" he asked cockily.


"Hmm... not living next to you?" I said, deciding to tease him a bit.


"Wow, I'm offended," he said, laughing. "Anyway, I just want to tell you to not lie to me. Ever."


I smiled and nodded. "I swear I won't. I don't know Starlight at all."


It was sad that I was lying when I said that.


"So... should we start over?" he asked, holding out his hand hesitantly.


I sighed with relief. "Yes, of course we should. I would be an idiot to object to an offer like that."


"Well, you are an idiot, so I wasn't too sure of what to expect," Dylan said, shrugging.


This earned him a punch in the arm.


"You have no idea how relieved I am though! I mean, I thought you were friends with Nat and stuff and that I'd just earned myself a ticket to Loserville or something and I didn't want that happening, you know? I mean, it's not like I actually care about my social status anymore but I care about you guys and I didn't want to lose the friendship that we have. It's kind of scary how scared I was. Does that make sense? I think it makes sense. It kind of does. Although that's probably a trick question because nothing about me makes sense! I mean, who has a nightmare of a pizza chasing them with a knife and threatening to kill them? I don't think any normal person does. Or the time I had this obsession with marrying apples. It was kind of weird. My parents had to lock up all the fruits before I did the rituals and stuff. I think I was ten. I was an eccentric child. Then again, which genius isn't eccentric? I mean—"


Dylan cut me off my rambling session. "Shut up, Day. I get the point loud and clear."


"No, you don't tell me what to do," I said, snapping my fingers in front of his face sassily.


"Yeah, I kinda do," he said, saying it like it was obvious.


"Says who?" I challenged.


"Says the best guy in the world. Now if you talk again, I'm going to make you shut up." He was trying to be all threatening, but his dimples were too cute to actually be taken seriously.


"Oh yeah?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "Well, we'll see about that. Even a wipeout of the human population won't make me shut up. Did you know for the longest time I thought ciao was Chinese? Then I went to Italy when I was eleven or something and I heard people saying ciao all the time which was pretty funny at first until I found out that it wasn't because the joke was on me. That was pretty embarrassing actually. I don't like the joke being on me. I don't like being made fun of. Now I sound like a little brat. I remember my weird Bratz obsession that I—"


He cut me off again.


Except he did it differently this time. He didn't even need to speak.


He just bent down and kissed me on the lips.


Excuse me? Who did he think he was!?


I froze under him, not knowing what to do. His lips were so soft though! Was that a weird thing to think? I'm not sure.


He slowly started dipping a little further and taking the back of my head in his hands. Why was he touching my hair? This wasn't right. I don't know. What should I do? If I kiss him back, will he think I like him or something?


Then, without a further thought, I tipped my head up and deepened it, and he froze this time, obviously not expecting this to be my response.


The kiss felt good.


I felt like such a bad person. I'd just broken up with my boyfriend who used me and I'd already kissed two guys. Did that label me as a slut or something?


Wow, am I seriously mind-rambling right now?


I felt something weird in me that I'd not felt when I'd kissed Jase. Forget Jase, I'd not felt like this with even Max! I felt kind of weak and vulnerable. This wasn't supposed to happen! We were supposed to be friends! I wasn't supposed to kiss him!


Did this make us friends with benefits or something? That's gross. I don't want to be like that.


Ugh! Why was I mind-rambling! Why was I so socially awkward? Why couldn't I be all calm and collected like Deirdre? WHY DID I HAVE TO BE DAY JUNE WINTERS!?


I slowly pulled back, almost reluctant, but my mind was driving me nuts. This was going to make things awkward.


No, wait a minute. I was Day June Winters and I defied logic. Was it logical that two people who weren't even together felt awkward after kissing? Of course it was! And I didn't go by normalcy!


"It's going to take a lot more than that to shut me up, Mister," I said, rolling my eyes. "That was such a pathetic attempt to clamp down a chatterbox."


I looked at him and I realized his face was beet red. It was cuter than he normally looked!


"Aw damn, I was hoping it would," he mumbled, trying to be sarcastic. I found this situation pretty funny. I was being all non-awkward and he was blushing profusely.


"Well you hoped wrong! You can't just press your lips onto mine and then expect me to become a blustering idiot." I was acting all nonchalant about this. I was having a rare proud moment.


"Well, most girls I do that to become loons," he joked, regaining his composure now.


Most of the people? He went around kissing people all the time? Ugh.


Wait, why did that even affect me!?


I decided to resort to the most cliché line in the world. "Well, I'm not most girls," I said, seriously.


He was looking at me weirdly, before snapping out of whatever daydream he was having (haha, it would have been funny if his daydream was about Day! Okay ignore that lame pun it was kind of sad) before offering me a thin smile.


"Yeah, you're far from being most girls, Day," he said with the same seriousness as I'd had, except his was genuine and mine was joking.


For some odd reason that made my heart jump a bit.


Was I going to have a heart attack? I did eat too much junk. Yeah, I think that's the reason. It's the only logical reasoning behind why this was happening to me.


"I'm going to go home," I said, suddenly feeling weird in the stomach. "Um, bye?"


He rubbed his neck awkwardly too. "Yeah, bye," he said, a little huskily. Damn that voice sounded hot.


Wait, what!?


"Bye," he repeated, clearing his throat and making gross-Dylan-voice come back. It wasn't actually gross, but eh. I was in a rambling mood.


"See you tomorrow," I added, and he grinned.


"I'll look forward to it," he called out as I left his driveway.


When I said that we were starting over, did I mean that even my feelings were starting over?


Stupid butterflies.


A/N:



Pic of Day=>


Was that unexpected or WHAT!? I hope you liked that chapter. Thanks so much for the constant support, and I love you guys to bits. 


I'd like to give a special mention to Mystical_Icicle. They've not only stuck around the whole time, but also provided me with so many comments. ILY! 


Song of the day: You Don't Own Me by Grace ft. G-Eazy


I think it was just kind of apt.


Teaser: Allergies suck.


Love you all,


~Lexi

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