CHAPTER 1:

Laurel’s P.O.V.

I am standing at the airport, tears rolling down my face, about to meet strangers. Strangers I will be forced to live with during my senior year of high school. As I get my bag, I wipe my tear-stained face with my sleeve in hopes of looking more presentable. Why do I even care? It’s not like I am going to like them anyway. I bet they are just going to pity me, and treat me like a 7 year old, like everyone has since the accident. All of a sudden, I walked straight into a stranger, knocking his phone out of his hand.

“Jesus! Watch where you’re going!” he picked it up. I wanted to yell back, but I see sign he had dropped. It has my name on it. Geez, what a way to make a first impression, I think to myself.

“Nice to meet you too” I say rolling my eyes.

He looked confused, but quickly recovers and looks down at his sign. “Laurel?”

“Who else would I be?” I say with some snark. People these days. I swear, they can be so dense.

“Whatever, my mom is waiting for us to get home so lets go” He knows my name, but I don’t even know his. He didn’t even introduce himself after all of that. This is going to be a hell of a year, and I can tell already that I’m going to absolutely hate it. I grab my stuff and we head to the car, and I climb in.

The drive is about 25 minutes long, and we don’t talk the entire way. But I’m glad, I need time to process and mentally prepare for what is about to happen. I am going into a house of strangers. Well they were strangers to me, but apparently, Cathy has known me since I was a kid. She was my moms best friend through college, but then moved to Los Angeles, California to be an editor for Hot Rod Magazine after she graduated. All of a sudden, I am rudely woken up by a slamming car door. He was leaving me to get out all of my things from the back by myself, what a ray of sunshine he is.

Stepping out of the car I take in my surroundings. The outside of the house is beautiful. It is two stories, and had marble walls. I struggle to get to the front door with all of my stuff, but I finally make it to the door I knocked twice and wait for someone to greet me. A minute passes, and a guy that is dressed in very fancy clothes opens the door.

“Hello Ms.Johnson, and welcome to the Stratfords household. Mrs.Stratford is talking to Harry right now, but she should be out after she is finished. I know she is super excited to see you, she hasn’t stopped talking about you all day.” the fancy man shares.

“ I don’t mean to be rude, but who exactly are you?” I ask him.

“Don’t be silly, I am sure there is not a bit of rudeness in you!you seem like a very sweet girl! My name is Russell Gates, but you can call me Russ.” If only he knew, I think to myself.

“Nice to meet you Russ, can you show me where my-” I am interrupted by a squeal, and unknown arms wrapped around me. I turn around and slightly recognize the woman standing there.

“I am so excited to finally see you again! You have grown up into such a beautiful woman!” Cathy says with a lot of sentimental emotion on her face.

“Yeah, you too.” I say. I am not sure what else to say. So awkward

“We are all excited to meet and get to know you! Let’s go meet everyone!”

“Who is everyone?”

“I see Harry left out that he has seven brothers.” she says, as if having to live with that many boys isn’t a big deal. What the eff am I going to do?

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be” I shoot her a fake smile.

The inside of the house is even more beautiful than the outside if that was possible. I just keep staring as we walked through, in what looks like their living room,  Cathy stops and whistles and yells for everyone to come downstairs. The stomps come from all sorts of directions, as the boys make their way downstairs. They seem to keep coming, Cathy makes them introduce themselves. They tell me their names, ages and favorite kind of ice cream.

“Hi, my name is Liam, I am 22, and my favorite ice cream is cookie dough.” The boy on the far right said. If I am honest, all of these guys are very attractive, which makes this whole thing even more horrifying.

“Did it hurt, when you fell from heaven?” number two says with a smirk. What an idiot. Does he really think that ever works?

“You’re an idiot Cole”, announces number three said and rolls his eyes, Cole high-fives the boy standing right next to him. I stay quiet and wait for the rest of the boys to introduce themselves. I learn that after Liam, come Cole and Eric are 18 and twins. Next is Josh who is 16, and Jake who is 15. The youngest, and by far the cutest was Patrick, who is seven years old and missing his two front teeth. Patrick points to the corner of the room.

“Thats Nick! He’s 10, but he wont talk to you, he is shhhhhhy.”

Wait, I remember Cathy saying that there are eight boys, and I wonder who’s missing. I decide I am going to try and escape, but just as I get the chance, I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. I immediately turn around and try to look cool, but I am face to face with a shirtless teenage boy. He has abs, oh my gosh, I am dying. Keep your cool, Laurel, keep it cool.

“You can stop looking now.” shirtless wonder pops off. I want to crawl into a hole, but I force myself to look up. The guy from the airport laughs. I forgot about him. I roll my eyes at him and turn away. Typical dude.

“Oof, what did you do to her” Eric I think it was, laughs. All the other boys are talking amongst themselves, while I awkwardly stand there. Surrounded by dumb.  Little arms wrap around the bottom of my legs, and I look down to see a smiling Patrick attached to me.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” he said.

“Hi bud, how are you?”

“I’m good, my mommy told me I could show you your room now, can I, can I, can I?” Patrick is jumping up and down.

“Of course you can, I wouldn’t want anyone else to.” Grateful for my exit strategy, I begin to gather my stuff. Liam offers to help me get everything upstairs. I open the door to my new room. Omg. Really? It is amazing. A queen-sized bed sits in the middle of the room with a beautiful cream comforter on it, and to the left of it is a nightstand with a lamp and laptop on it. I need to sleep like right now. Today has been so long, and that bed is calling me. I dump my stuff and dive in.

Harry’s P.O.V.

Damn, that girl is so annoying. She really thinks she is hot stuff, I’ll show her who’s boss around here, because it sure as heck won’t be her. She didn’t even show for dinner, because mom said she needed to sleep. Who is she to get to bend the rules?

It was 12 in the morning, and I was finally ready to go to sleep when I hear her screaming. I run to her room. “Laurel, are you okay? Are you in there?” No answer.

I creep in to see her tossing and turning in her bed.

”Don’t touch me, leave me alone!” What the heck? This girl is crazy. But then again, no one knew why she was here. I wonder what happened to her. My thoughts are interrupted abruptly with another scream, “Stooooop”. I can’t handle this. I am totally freaked, but reach out and shake her shoulder. Her eyes slide open, startled.

Laurels P.O.V.

I wake up a sweaty mess, looking into Harry’s beautiful blue orbs. I had another nightmare, and he just witnessed it. I can’t tell him, I can’t tell anyone.

“Laurel, are you okay?”

“Harry, thank you for coming in here, but I really don’t want to talk about it.” I am still shaking from the nightmare.

“Okay, but I’m right next door if you want to talk”

He is leaving, when I stop him, “Wait, Harry I don’t want to be alone and I know you don’t know me, and I don’t know you but would it be okay if you stayed for a little bit I don’t want to be alone, I’m sorry that’s dumb nevermind, forget I said anything” I ramble on. Why did I say that I’m dumb.

“Yeah I can stay”  

To be Continued…