8 months later

My mop of brown hair tactfully
covers my face as I walk my school hallways with Blair beside me. I became really
shy once I was in year 11, everybody hated my creative and loud version of me
so well if I stripped that away all that was left was my insecurities.

Blair nudges me, “There’s the new
guy” I nod my head when I realise she means he is coming to me. Everyone is
talking about how cute he is and I guess he kind of is, his brown hair is
flicked back out of his face to show his hazel eyes.

I look up from the floor slightly
to prepare for a conversation. Blair keeps walking to her locker and I
internally yell at her.

“Sorry to disappoint you” he
flashes a charming grin and I see Brooke, head bitch and slut of the school
scowl at me, probably for talking to him. “My name’s Tyler, I seem to be lost”
He looks around at everybody as he states the fact.

“Hi I’m Shay” I mumble,

“Well hello Shay, Can you point
me to where English with Mrs Semons is?” I look up a little more but stay
quiet.

“I actually have that class now”
and turn on my heel, knowing Tyler will follow me.

He rushes to keep up with me and
I stop at the door with the black numbers 24 printed on it. Tyler opens it and
steps aside,

“After you,” my lips twitch into
a small smile as I walk into the class room. I keep an eye on Tyler and see him
laugh as he closes the door.

The only part about Mrs Semons
class is that it isn’t with Blair; otherwise Mrs Semons was really nice to me.

I sit in my usual seat, followed
by Tyler next to me. I look at him incredulously; he smiles and shakes his
head.

“What?” I ask curious,

“You.” I don’t like where this is
going.

“What about me?” Tyler looks at me
intently,

“Do you know why people are shy?”
I shake my head; “Because they are hiding this wonderful person that was never
given a chance” I look away from his flattering words.

“You’ve only just met me” Mrs
Semons walks into class, so Tyler whispers.

“You can tell a lot about a
person within the first minutes of meeting them” It sounded like poetry coming
from his mouth.

I try to focus for the rest of
the lesson, but his words keep coming back to me.

***

When class is over I grab my book
and head to my locker to meet up with Blair so we can go home.

When I reach my locker Blair has
already gotten her bag and is waiting for me. I unlock my locker and start
piling my homework into my bag, including my English.

“So...” I close my locker and
smile at her,

“He’s nice” We walk to Blair’s
car and make our way to my house. When she drops me off I say goodbye to her
and promise to call her.

“Hi mum!” Mum walks out of the
kitchen with her eyebrows raised.

“Why are you so happy dear?” I
smile and run up the stairs to my room.

“Am I not allowed to be happy
Mum?” I hear her laugh from down stairs.

“Of course you are dear.” I lay
out my books on my desk.

A piece of paper flies from my
book to my floor. I pick it up and look at the scrawled words and digits.

Tyler’s number: 0433841214

“That little bastard” I smile as
I whisper and put the paper in the bin and start my homework.

I’m nearly finished with my
homework and my phone starts ringing, blocked caller. I answer expecting it to
be some telemarketer.

“Hello?” My voice is tight and
shy,

“The slut speaks!” I know who’s
voice it is straight away, Brooke.

“What do you want?” I’m
defensive,

“I just want you to know to keep
your filthy hands off Tyler, I’m sure he doesn’t want to catch any STD’s” I
scoff,

“Well if I’m the slut then how
come you have the ditsy minions that are smarter then you?” I can hear Brooke’s
anger from the other side of the line.

“Listen here you bitch, no one
likes you and Tyler is just pitying you. You’re better off in the ground then
wasting air here, we all know you think it too so don’t deny it.” A single tear
rolls down my cheek and I sniffle. “What a stupid whore, crying over yourself.
So selfish!” A small break, “If you don’t keep your hands off Tyler I will
personally make you never want to come to school. Goodbye Shailene.” the line
goes dead. My barriers break, after my personality change I noticed that I
cried a lot more, but that doesn’t mean I stopped hating it.

I lie on my bed for a while, just
letting her words sink in. They hurt even if they aren’t true. I’d had sex once
and that was fulfilling my promise to Zac, I’d never seen him again after that
night.

I turn on my radio and listen to
it in silence. Some One Direction song comes on and I automatically turn it
off.  I get up and rummage through my
bin; I push the buttons on my screen and hear the dial tone.

I nearly give up on the final
tone when he picks up. “You really think I’m wonderful?” I sniffle and I can
almost hear Tyler’s grin.

“Hello Shay and I never caught
your last name” I laugh through my tears,

“Shailene Woodley,”

“A very suitable name Shailene
Woodley and yes I do believe you are wonderful.” I sniffle again and try to
breathe through this tightening feeling growing in my chest

“Thank you Tyler.” The line is
quiet for a while then,

“You’re welcome Shay,” I don’t
reply, I feel this thing in my chest pulling me into the conversation. “I was
beginning to think you weren’t going to call, what changed your mind and so
upset?” My sniffling has stopped so I don’t sound like I’ve been crying anymore
thankfully.

“A call from Brooke, she seems to
like you a lot” Tyler laughs charmingly,

“Yeah she is really... persistent
and... pushy” He’s laughing so hard I can barely make out the words. I join in
with him. “But I’d never be with a girl like her; she’s secretly really rude
and mean. Did you know that?” I scowl at the memory.

“I’m probably the person that
knows that the most, but she seems pretty insistent on sleeping with you...” I
don’t know if this was a touchy subject like me so I tread carefully.

“If she must know Shay I have
only slept with two girls and both were... complicated arrangements” My
curiosity peaked,

“You know this is our second
conversation and you are already telling me about your sex life?” we laugh
together.

“I can tell when there is a true
friend.” I sit up,

“You sound like a very analytic
person, I was like that once...” the line goes quiet as I trail off.

“Why aren’t you like that
anymore?” My eyebrows rise at the memories.

“Personality change,” I hear
ruffling on the other side,

“I knew it!” Tyler nearly yells, I
quickly interject.

“Can we talk about something else
please?” Tyler sounds puzzled,

“Sure, so since I shared my love
life with you, tell me how many guys you’ve slept with?” I laugh at the
thought.

“It’s really simple, I promised
him I would give him my virginity and I did. That’s all.” I think he hangs up
but he says the most bizarre thing.

“I think we should have this
conversation face to face. Can I come to yours tonight?”I laugh,

“We’ve only just met” He laughs
charmingly again,

“And yet we are completely
comfortable with each other.” I text him my address quickly.

“Hurry up.” I hear the phone beep
with my text.

“Goodbye Shay”

“Goodbye Tyler” I strain the
words out.

I run down the stairs,

“Mum we have a guest that I met
at school today!” I meet her in the lounge room.

“Sure sweetie what’s their name?”
I pause, what if mum won’t let a guy sleep with me?

“His name is Tyler” My mum nods
slowly,

“Sure Hun as long as you’re
careful. I know you’re getting older but I really don’t think this is the time
in your life to be making-”

“It’s okay mum, I get it”

Just then the door knocks. I
internally scold her and tell her not to bring this up again. I think she gets
the message.

I open the door and see Tyler
smiling goofily.

“Do your parents always let
random people come to your house?” I laugh as my mum retreats to her room.

“Oh yeah totally, I let complete
strangers sleep with me all the time” Tyler wiggles his eyebrows suggestively;
I narrow my gaze and look at the floor shyly. “Not what I meant.” I walk up the
stairs not bothering to see if Tyler follows me.