"Oh Kieran, you look so handsome!" Mum gushes, clutching her snotty tissue to her chest. She shakes her head, tears welling to her eyes, old and new. It would seem that the whole 'Your son is going to his first job interview' ordeal is a lot for mum to handle.

Kieran turns to the floor length mirror to the right and self-consciously plays with the collar of his crisp white shirt. His messy blonde hair looks out of place against the smart black suit he wears, and his bright pink socks poke just above his smart black dress shoes.

I yawn from my seat on the plush sofa outside the men's changing rooms and adjust Molly on my lap. She is currently playing Candy Crush on my phone, her cute little face twisted in determination.

Kieran turns around. "What do you think, Tee?" He asks me and I sit up, trying to look at least slightly interested.
"You look great." I say seriously. "You should send a picture to dad."

"Oh, your father!" Mum shouts suddenly, pulling out her phone. "I forgot to call him back. I'll be back in a second kids." She disappears out of the shop, just as Molly yells in victory.

"Where are you applying, anyway?" I ask Kieran, watching as Molly skilfully plays the game.
Kieran turns back to the mirror. "A manufacturing company. I'm hoping to help out before I go to university, then be able to return and actually be one of the managers."

My mouth slackens. I hadn't thought Kieran could have the capability of such ambitions. It was clear that he had been thinking about this for a while. Who would have thought? I only just found out he was interested in applying for a job on my sixteenth birthday last month when mum answered his call back without knowing he'd even applied for a job. Let's just say it was a huge surprise.

"I think I'm going to go change, tell mum when she gets back." Kieran days before disappearing back into the changing rooms.

I sigh, tapping my fingers on the sofa. Molly looks up, her small nose touching mine. "Why don't you wear glasses anymore?" She asks.

I pull her off of me so that she is now sat on the sofa. "Because I don't need them anymore."
Molly's face scrunches in confusion. "But you did need them."

I sigh. "Sometimes Molly, the things you thought you needed, were never really needed at all."
Molly bites her little lip. "I don't understand."
I shake my head. "Don't worry about it."

Molly shrugs. "Okay, but I think you looked nicer with glasses. It made your big nose look smaller."
I bark out a laugh. "Thanks, Moll."

Molly resumes her game and I sit back into the comfortable sofa, shutting my eyes. It had been my decision to get rid of the glasses and introduce contacts. I'd wanted something new, something different, for the new year. 2016 was going to be something special, I could feel it.

Mum returned, saying dad needed to get back to work. It has been a while since I've last seen him and I really miss him, but know he's out there fighting for people.
The three of us leave the shop, Kieran holding his heavy bag of heavily expensive clothing.

We return home at around four and I immediately ring up Freya asking for her to come around. She obliges and shows up twenty minutes later with a heavy note book packed with all of our ideas we have come up for the short story competition, something I'm still participating in unfortunately.

"I think I've finally come up with a name for the main character." I say, sipping on my smoothie she bought me on her way over. Green juice, my favourite.

Freya looks up from the book she was reading. "Go on."
I clear my throat. "Bethany Hannah. Two firsts names."

"Why two first names?" Freya asks.
"Because I want her character to be like me," I say. "Bethany Hanna. Tegan Blair. See the similarity?"

Freya nods her head. "Cool name. Now we just need to finalise the plot."
I hang my head between my shoulders and groan. "I know."

Freya pats my head. "It will come to you. You've just got to be patient."
I throw her hand away. "I'm not a dog."
"Then what's your excuse for being such a bitch?" She says with a grin.
I can't help but laugh. "You were waiting to say that one, weren't you?"
Freya just merely laughs evilly.

That night, I stayed up until one in the morning writing. I heard that writing gibberish was better than writing nothing, therefore that's exactly what I did. There was always editing.

Only when I begin to fall asleep mid-writing do I decide to call it a night. I flick my light off and get under the covers, snuggling into my pillow. I pull out my phone and begin to scroll through my Instagram.

I feel my stomach twist into a painful knot when I see a picture of Brecken Davis with his arm slung over Tess casually whilst they laughed over something. I wasn't following either of them, however Oliver Chase put it up.

Oliver Chase, my sorta boyfriend...

It happened on New Years actually. He'd invited me around to a party his family were throwing, since for the past few months we'd been hanging out quite a bit, especially in science. At first it was hard, what with him being good friends with Brecken, someone who we all know doesn't have the best past with myself. But I think we over came it and I started liking him. Perhaps not love, but there was defiantly attraction involved. On New Years, he had a little too much to drink and confessed that he too liked me. A week later, after lots of talking, we decided to give it a try, promising that if it didn't work we'd still be friends. So far it has been going great.

I rub my eyes with the back of my hands from exhaustion and turn my phone off. Closing my eyes, I dream of words and names and grey eyes.
__________________________
"Munchkin, you there?" Oliver says, waving his hand in front of my face, waking me from my deep thoughts.
We are sat in science, the class that Oliver had managed to keep helping out in, telling the teacher that the experience would really help in the future, when really he just wanted to be with me.

"Sorry, I was miles away." I reply, giving him a small smile. He'd been calling me munchkin ever since I told him I'd wanted to be a munchkin from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory when I was ten. It was like a pet name, just stupid and funny.  

"I can see that," he replies frowning. "What were you thinking about?"

Not wanting to bore him with the short story competition, I lie and say about Kieran going for his job interview this morning. Oliver is super supportive of my family and tells he he's sure everything will go just fine.

We leave the classroom with Oliver having my back slung over his shoulder, something he'd been doing the last two weeks, despite me telling him I'm perfectly capable of carrying my own things. He merely grinned and shrugged.

We go to my form room so that I can drop off a sheet for my teacher. It's packed with my class eating lunch and talking. I wave at my friends, Oliver standing awkwardly in the doorway. Because he's in the year above, he doesn't really know any of my friends. Something that is only a problem when I want to hang out with them all at the same time.

"Tegan, come sit with us." Taylor says through a mouthful of food.
I cringe. "I think I'll pass."
"No, seriously Tegan, come sit with us." Megan urges, smiling.

I hesitantly look from them to Oliver then back to them. "I promised Ol that I'd go watch him play basket ball."
Lily makes a strange face. "Watch him play?"
I don't understand either, I wanted to say but didn't.

Megan frowns, however says "Okay, see you in drama?"
I nod my head. "See you guys."
They all wave goodbye, some looking more confused or some more dismissive than others. I can't help but feel guilty, as though I'm doing something wrong.

When I step out of the form room, Oliver immediately wraps his arm around my waist. I'm not too keen on the gesture, however don't tell him to let go. Besides, his heat is nice in the brutal end of January weather.

"Ay, Ollie!" His obnoxious friend Jared shouts across the school grounds.
Oliver steers us in the direction of his friend and I inwardly sigh.

"J boy, what's up?" Oliver says. I roll my eyes. I hate when he talk like this. All hipster and rubbish. It only happens when he's around friends like Jared.

"Good, mate." Jared says, not too secretly checking out the girls passing by. "Hey, did you hear about Brecken and Tess finally doing the deed?"

"What?" I can't buy say. I'm not six, I know what "doing the deed" stands for, however hearing it, about Brecken, has me needing to ask to make sure.

Jared then proceeds to make a vulgar gesture with his fingers which has me looking away in disgust. I have a bitter taste on my tongue and my stomach twists.

"Good for him." Oliver says, his arm tightening around my shoulders. "Well, I gotta run, gotta basket ball game."

"Alright, mate. Talk later, alright?" Jared says and runs off.

Oliver and I begin walking again in silence. I keep my eyes trained on the ground, my mind running wild. Was what Jared said true? Did they really have sex? If so, why publicise it? I personally think it's over share and they should keep it to themselves.

"You're doing it again." Oliver says suddenly, his brown eyes burning holes into mine.
"What do you mean?" I say.

Oliver stops us and faces me so that we are looking at each other. "Go on, ask me."
I bite my lip. "Do you think what Jared said was true? About Brecken and Tess?"
Oliver shrugs. "I mean, why shouldn't it be? Brecken's almost eighteen and I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Why?"

"Just curious." I reply. It just happened to be by some miracle that Oliver never found out about Brecken and I's unique past. He never seemed to question our rocky relationship, however I still had to be careful what I said.

We begin walking again, and this time I remain quiet the whole time, thinking over the words again and again.

Sooooooo....what you think? I think I like the way is going much more. My writing is better in my opinion and I'm hoping to do longer chapters like this instead of lots of short ones.

Brecken will be coming into light in the next chapter hopefully!
Anyway, vote, comment, share and follow me! It means a lot, really.

My only question. Who should Tegan end up with????

This chapter is dedicated to -parvdise who makes amazing covers.

~K