I DON'T OWN ANY BANDS/ARTISTS/LYRICS/COMPANIES MENTIONED IN THIS STORY. The rest of the stuff, I DO own :)

Chapter 1

Soap Opera with a Twist

“18.23.”

His voice was like music to my ears. It was almost as sweet as a good song. Sing Rookie of the Year’s What is Love in your head and you’ll know what I mean.

Ashley handed me a ten-dollar bill as I took another out of my checkered wallet. “What? No discount?” I muttered under my breath jokingly.

The guy at the register let out a mild chuckle. “No, sorry,” he said as he shook his head. His stunning smile was so breathtaking that I had to look away.

I frowned. “Fine,” I laughed, pretending to be a little angry with him as he handed me my change.

“Enjoy the movie,” he said, still smiling. “The ending’s really good,” he exclaimed more animatedly.

“Hey, let’s not ruin it,” I told him playfully.

Another adorable laugh escaped from his lips. “Try not to scream,” he called out casually as my best friend and I walked towards theater number six. “Or throw up,” he added teasingly.

We giggled quietly like little schoolgirls all the way to our theater.

“Did you see how pretty his eyes were, Shelly?’ Ashley questioned dreamily as the smell of buttery popcorn became more distinctive.

Smiling weakly, I nodded. “Yeah, he was cute,” I admitted, feeling myself blush just a bit. I was actually proud of myself at the fact that I had gotten a few chuckles out of the cute guy at the cash register.

“Hm, someone was flirting,” she muttered playfully.

“I wasn’t!” I insisted as my cheeks turned a little a more red. In my mind I knew I would totally miss the guy at the cash register, though. “I just wanted to make him laugh.”

Ashley flashed a weak smile and looked at me with subtle, admiring eyes. For some odd reason I think she looked up to me because I was, I guess, “braver” than she was. It was easy being braver than her though, because she was extremely shy. I was always flattered that she looked up to me, but her admiration towards me was a little more evident these days.

“You getting anything?” Ashley asked, nodding towards the snack stands.

“I think I’ll get some sour gummies,” I replied. I’ve been avoiding soda and sweets for a while now, but sour gummies were my absolute weakness. You had to have some sort of forbidden heaven, right?

A couple of months ago I would’ve been so self-conscious about going to the food stand with Ashley because, well, we weren’t exactly skinny. People would probably wonder why these two fat girls are in line to get more food. Now, I’ve been less conscious about what other people thought about me. My newfound philosophy was: screw them.

In my mind, though, I wonder what went on in Ashley’s head.

After buying some snacks, we headed to theater six. It was dim, quiet, and empty when we arrived inside. We took aisle seats in the middle row.

“What time is it?” I questioned in a hushed voice, even though nobody was around as I plopped into the soft, red seat.

Ashley glanced at her cellphone. “6:27,” she answered as she took a small sip of her slushee.

“Is it lame that we go half an hour early before the movie starts?” I asked amusingly.

She let out a light chuckle. “I’m thinking watching a movie that’s been out for more than a month is a little lamer,” she pointed out.

I laughed and it seemed to echo in the small, empty room.

Laughing. It was something I seemed to be doing more these days. There was a lot I’ve seemed to be doing more of, actually.

“I kinda miss school, you know,” Ashley blurted out all of a sudden.

Covering my ears as if it were poison to my ears, I looked at her as if she were crazy. “Why?” I questioned. I hated school.

She shrugged. “Don’t you miss your other friends?”

I snorted. “What other friends?”

“Cody?” she reminded me.

“We’ll see Cody soon! I never miss him because we always see him!” I exclaimed as I shook my head. As a matter of fact, we just hung out with Cody awhile ago to watch another movie. He was kind of a movie freak.

“Don’t you miss Travis?” she sang out.

I shushed her and she laughed amusingly. “I haven’t been thinking about him, so no,” I told her.

Her lips were still twisted into a small grin. “That’ll probably change when summer’s over and we go back to school.”

I sighed. True, but I didn’t want to think about the end of summer. “Well, summer’s still going, so I won’t think about him,” I mumbled as I plopped an apple sour gummy into my mouth.

During the school year, I had a major crush on a guy named Travis. He was hilarious, kind, strange, and someone that I would actually see myself going out with, but he unfortunately has a girlfriend.

Our eyes gazed over at the entrance of the theater when a group of guys a came in, speaking loudly to one another. When I recognized who they were, I sighed. “Oh great,” I muttered under my breath as I rolled my eyes.

“Hey, aren’t those your brother’s friends?” Ashley questioned in a hushed voice.

“Yeah.” Unfortunately.

I pretended to be looking at the movie screen that was showing a few trivia questions, but with my luck, the guys stopped at our aisle when they spotted me.

“Oh look. It’s the fatass!” Francis pointed out with a laugh.

The rest of his friends laughed along as I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

Francis was the jerkiest one out of all of them because he’d tease me every chance he’d get. At least he had enough class not to make fun of Ashley; he didn’t even know her.

“Shut up,” I told him, trying to ignore him.

“What was that, fat bitch?”

One of his friends suddenly smacked him upside his head. “You heard her.”

It was Matt.

“She said shut up," he said as a few of the guys chuckled at Francis as he rubbed the spot he had been hit at. Even Ashley cracked a smile.

Francis glared at Matt. “That hurt!”

We laughed even harder.

“Yeah, yeah. You girl,” Matt mumbled as Francis and their friends started to walk up the steps to sit in the back row of the theater.

Matt stayed behind. I watched as he ran his fingers roughly through his dark brown curls. “I’m Matt,” he introduced himself as he looked over at Ashley.

A small smile of amusement came on my face when I saw her cheeks turn a little pink. “Ashley,” she said timidly.

“Jake didn’t wanna come, huh?” he said, looking back over at me.

“He has work.”

“Excuses excuses,” he muttered under his breath with that trademark smirk on his face. That always put a grin on my face. “So you coming with me and Christine to Marvin’s birthday dinner or whatever?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I have a softball game that day,” I replied sheepishly.

“Softball?” he questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Isn’t school over?” he asked with a shrug.

“Summer league.”

Matt nodded. “Oh. Sucks for you then,” he simply replied.

I chuckled lightly and shook my head.

“Well good luck, I guess,” he said after he ran those fingers through his hair again casually. “Hit that shit outta the park.” Again, that mischievous grin that almost seemed like a smirk.

I guess it was contagious. “I’ll try.”

He shook his head. “You better,” he corrected. “Catch you later, kid,” he said with a quick wink.

After Matt had joined his friends in the back of the theater, I turned back to Ashley. “Your sister’s boyfriend, right?” Ashley questioned, still a little flushed.

“Well, not boyfriend yet.” They were only dating. Not even for that long, at least to my knowledge. I’m pretty sure it was nothing serious.

“Isn’t he Jake’s best friend or something?” she asked with a raised eyebrow as if she were getting somewhere.

“Yeah. And?” I said with a shrug.

“I’ve seen something like that on some soap opera,” she pointed out.

I chuckled. “Trust me, my siblings and I are nothing close to General Hospital,” I assured her.

Really? A soap opera? Those were filled with a bunch of hot women with big hair along with even hotter men that constantly had sex with each other even though they were married or something like that and they turned out to be related. Scandalous, I know. That was nowhere near my life. If anything, my life was…safe. Boring.

I casually turned my head and stole a glimpse of Matt as he laughed watching his immature friends throw popcorn at each other. “Okay, ladies,” You can stop now,” I heard him chuckle out.

Laughing silently to myself, I shook my head and wondered why Matt hung out with guys so immature like them. Guys like my brother, for example. My brother Jake was all talk—a wannabe badass, while Matt actually fit the term badass. I never really talked to a guy like him before.

“What?” Ashley asked as she looked over at me.

“Nothing,” I replied innocently, looking straight ahead again.

Every soap opera had that dreamy badass in it. There was a twist in this one, though. The boring fat girl. She had a secret crush on the bad boy. Yeah, you don’t see that a lot on daytime television.

A/N: This is the sequel to my story, Up To Me. You don't need to read that story in order to understand this one, but I still recommend that you do. :)

Yes, it's the Matt from the previous story. The trailer is up and character pictures will be up sometime this week. Reviews would be wonderful!

Thoughts on Shelly?

P.S: Has anyone else encountered the problem with this site not counting hits on your stories?