 ( chapter one )
THE BOY IS BACK IN TOWN.

Charlie Moreno excitedly walked beside her mother Ana as they headed toward Carmen Diaz's new apartment. The Diaz family had just moved to the Valley and it was time for the two families to celebrate finally living in the same town again.

Charlie was extremely excited. She hadn't seen the family in a while, finding that with school picking up and her friends wanting to hang out that she hadn't been able to join her mother for their summerly trip to Riverside. But now, Charlie would only have to get in a car for 15 minutes and she'd be able to spend time with her favorite family.

"Are you excited, baby?" Ana wondered, smiling at her daughter. She couldn't wait to see Carmen. "Of course. I can't believe Miguel is actually going to go to school with me, it's crazy." Charlie replied. "Just remember to try and introduce him to those new friends of yours, okay? Starting at a new school can be hard and we want to help him as best as we can." Ana reminded.

Charlie nodded, though she wasn't sure if her new friends would even look Miguel's way.

In the second semester of her freshman year she'd had a class with Moon and the two hit it off, becoming fast friends. It took a while, but Moon had finally asked Charlie if she wanted to join her for lunch one day and that was when Charlie met Yasmine and later Sam. She liked the girls a lot, though she found Yasmine to be a bit much at times.

They'd been hanging out a lot over the summer and it had been great. She'd never been great at making friends, finding the only person it had ever been easy with was Miguel. So finally finding some friends that she could connect with girl to girl was amazing.

When the two finally made it to the door of the new Diaz residence, Ana couldn't even knock before Carmen was opening the door, smiling wide at the two. "Come in, come in." Carmen excitedly spoke.

The moment the two were inside they were pulled into a hug, Charlie smiling as she could almost feel her mom and Carmen jumping up and down. Charlie quickly slid out of the hug, laughing slightly as she watched her mom and Carmen just continue to hug tightly.

Charlie never knew what happened that made the two women so close, but from the things Rosa had told her they'd both gone through a lot with their ex-husbands and bonded over it. Charlie didn't know much about her dad, but from how her mom refused to talk about him she figured he wasn't someone she wanted around anyways.

"I don't even think they realize you left the hug." Miguel spoke, smiling as he walked up behind Charlie. "Diaz!" Charlie smiled, turning around and hugging the boy. He smiled, hugging back instantly. "Long time no see, how have you been?" Charlie smiled, pulling away. "I see you're rocking the braces look now."

Miguel laughed, shaking his head slightly. "I'm good. Yeah, the price I have to pay for straight teeth. We missed you in Riverside last month." Charlie smiled lightly, nodding her head. "Yeah, sorry. I got invited to a last minute trip with some of my friends and didn't want to miss the opportunity, especially since I knew you'd be moving here soon enough anyways."

"Ahh, Charlie! You just get even more beautiful every time I see you." Carmen smiled, wrapping her arms around Charlie from behind. Charlie smiled, hugging the woman's arms. "Thank you, Carmen." Carmen turned the girl around, looking her up and down. "You're so grown, mija."

"Oh, don't remind me." Ana joked, pulling her daughter in as Charlie immediately moved to escape. "No, really, don't remind her." Charlie joked, knowing exactly how her mom acted whenever she remembered her only daughter was growing up. "I feel the same about Miggy, don't worry. My sweet boys getting so old." Carmen smiled.

"Mom, I'm a man now, no more sappy stuff." Miguel replied immediately. "Lankiest man I've ever seen." Charlie noted, earning herself a smack on the arm from Miguel. "And the weakest, Jesus, dude. What kind of a hit was that?" Charlie laughed. "That was like a feather touching my arm."

"Oh, so you're a comedian now. Good to know." Miguel joked back, the two immediately beginning to jokingly spit insults back and forth. "You two haven't even been around each other five minutes, please." Carmen laughed.

"You're just mad you're short now." Miguel shot, smiling. "Better than being a long ass bitch." Charlie shot right back. "Charlotte Sofia Moreno." Ana warned, sending her daughter a look as the smile stayed on her face. "Language."

"I'm just speaking my truth." Charlie defended, holding her hands up in the air. "Not my fault it comes out passionately."

"Miguel, leave the girl alone. Hello, my darling angel." Rosa spoke, walking into the room and b-lining for Charlie. Charlie smiled, hugging the woman immediately. "Thank you, Rosa. Miguel, you should really listen to your grandma. She knows what's up."

Miguel sighed, shaking his head. "Yaya, you're supposed to be on my side. We've talked about this." Rosa just looked at the boy for a moment, laughing. "No." Charlie smirked, pointing a finger at Miguel. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha."

"Okay, mama you're not helping." Carmen laughed, moving to finish up setting the table. She knew it was all jokes, happy to see the two kids close enough to be comfortable joking together. But she didn't need her mom joining in every time.

"I wasn't trying to help." Rosa responded in Spanish, moving to her seat. "Wait, Char, I wanna show you something sick. Mom, we'll be right back." Miguel smiled, pulling Charlie behind him out the door.

"Okay, so, last night I was trying to get yaya some medicine and these jerks poured it all over my head, but my neighbor totally kicked their asses! He lives right here, he's a bit mean but I want him to teach me karate." Miguel explained, showing Charlie the outside of the random man's door.

She held in her comment, looking at the boy worriedly. "Why were some guys messing with you?" Miguel quickly shook it off, not wanting that to be the part taken away from his story. "I accidentally got in the way of them using a fake to buy beer. But that's not what's important. Wouldn't it be so cool to know karate?"

"Um, I think it would be even better to know how to stay away from a fight. Why would you want to let someone punch and kick you just to stop someone else from punching and kicking you?" Charlie wondered, not really seeing the appeal of Miguel's random neighbor showing the boy more ways to get himself hurt. She didn't think he couldn't do it if he really wanted to, she just didn't want to see him getting hurt to begin with.

Miguel sighed. "You sound like my mom." Charlie's eyes widened. "Did you tell her about this?" She did not think Carmen would take it well. "God no. Oh, shit. Please don't tell her. She'd flip out." Miguel freaked, staring at Charlie. "I won't, promise." Charlie nodded.

"Miggy, Chalie, come back in please." Carmen smiled, looking toward the two. "Come on, I haven't had your mom's cooking in like a year. I need this." Charlie smiled, walking back toward the Diaz home. Miguel chuckled, following behind her.

If every day could be like this one, Miguel knew he was bound to like it in the Valley.

———————

Charlie sat in the back of Yasmine's car beside Sam with Moon up front as she stared at her phone, ignoring the very illegal speed Yasmine had decided to go. The girls were spending one of their last nights of freedom before sophomore year cruising down North Hollywood, figuring that a night drive was just what they needed.

"Yas, I really don't think you should be on your phone." Sam frowned, watching Yasmine cautiously. "Chill out, Sam. I do this all the time. It's fine." Yasmine replied, looking up for a moment before looking down at her phone again.

"Okay, but seriously. This is super dangerous." Sam frowned. "Yas, just put it down until we park before Sam has a heart attack, seriously." Charlie sighed, putting her own phone in her pocket. Yasmine suddenly turned quickly, speeding into a parking lot.

"Will both of you just hop off my dick? We're fin—" Yasmine spoke before accidentally slamming the car into someone's parked car. The only car she could possibly hit. "Oh my God." Yasmine gasped, freaking out immediately.

"Yasmine, I told you, you shouldn't be on your phone." Sam snapped, looking nervously to the front. Charlie looking around, just hoping that the owner wasn't anywhere nearby. "What are we gonna do?" Moon yelled, freaking out as well. "We have to call the police." Sam spoke like it was obvious.

"We can't! My parents will kill me!" Yasmine argued back. "The owner of this car might kill us too if we don't do something!" Charlie stressed, suddenly jumping back as someone began slamming on Moons side door. "What the hell are you doing?" The blonde man screamed, slamming on the glass again as the girls screamed. "What are you doing? Open the door!"

He moved to the back, pulling on the handle of the door on Sam's side as the brunette scooted back, moving against Charlie as she ducked her head and hid. It was selfish, but Charlie knew if this didn't end with them exchanging insurance that she wouldn't want to be picked out in a line up. "Open the door!" The man shouted again.

"Drive! Drive!" Sam screamed, scared. Yasmine quickly sped off, leaving the crazy man behind them all. "Hey! Where do you think you're going? Where do you think you're going?" The man chased for a moment, though it was obvious he wasn't going to win against the car.

"That was the most fucking horrifying moment of my life." Charlie gasped, holding onto the car door for support. "I can't believe we just hit and ran." Sam frowned, realizing what they'd just done. "You told me to drive!" Yasmine fought, not wanting this part of the night to fall on her. "Yeah— I... I just didn't know what else to do! He wanted to break into the car." Sam replied.

"Look, what's done is done. We can't tell anyone about this." Moon decided, looking around the group. "Wait—" Sam tried, frowning. "No, we take this to our graves. If anyone asks what happened, we all say we hit a deer." Yasmine agreed.

Charlie sighed, nodding her head. She didn't like the idea of lying, but she figured any actual questions would fall on Yasmine since it was her car. As long as no one ever asked her what had happened, Charlie felt like she'd be in the clear.

"Fucking hell." Charlie frowned, leaning back in her seat. This was not how she expected her night to end and it was not a pleasant surprise. "Well... not to change the topic or anything, but... Sam, you still down to host a pool party tomorrow?" Yasmine wondered, very obviously trying to change the topic.

Sam sighed. "I don't know... I don't think my parents would be happy if I did." Yasmine rolled her eyes as Moon turned around, smiling lightly. "You said they'd be gone, so what's the harm? We can help you clean everything up before they even get home and they'll have no idea."

"Yeah, besides, it's always better to host the party." Yasmine stated. "Okay, yeah. We're still on." Sam smiled. "Great. And remember, no one invite anyone who isn't already on the list. We don't need random losers trying to perv on the girls in swimsuits." Yasmine reminded.

Charlie shook her head, smiling softly. Yasmine really was something. "Okay, bitches. I'll see you tomorrow. Get out." Yasmine spoke, clearly only half joking as she pulled up to Sam's. The three girls all got out, saying their goodbyes before the blonde drove off. "Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Sam smiled, waving the two girls off.

Charlie followed Moon to her car, getting in the passenger seat. "Thanks again for driving me home." Charlie smiled. She was still in the process of saving up for her own car, finding that her one income household didn't exactly have the money to waste on a new expensive car just because the girl had turned 16. "No worries, do you still want a ride to Sam's tomorrow?" Moon wondered, smiling. She was always down to help, wanting to make sure Charlie could actually go to the events they planned.

"If it isn't too much trouble." Charlie nodded. "Never." Moon replied, driving off toward Charlie's place.

This was definitely a night to remember.

AUTHORS NOTE!
HEY NEW BOOK ALERT!!!!

peep the gif banner I'm actually so proud I feel like I actually scene matched for once!!

just want to let everyone know that while this is a robby book there will be other couplings before the main two because I can't help myself (eli girl for life). I'm so excited to write this, especially with it filling the void of finishing my hawk book (self plug). hope you're as pumped as I am!!!

gonna try to have a similar daily update schedule as I did with my other book but I also don't know what I was on when I did that so I will try my best