“Fuck you. I’m going to bed.”
“Oooh someone’s touchy.”
I flip Leon off over my shoulder as I walk out. Luca looks over but he just rolls his eyes at the two of us.
I lie in bed staring at the ceiling running the events since she showed her face last night through my mind. Did I play it all wrong?
I think about her dark eyes begging for me to listen to her in the shadows after the game, I think about the tears that filled them while we were in Dad’s office. Was I too harsh? Or, not enough?
I remember what she did, how she could so easily hurt people I—she—cares about.
One thing is for sure. I shouldn’t have gone there tonight. I shouldn’t have gone anywhere near their house. I shouldn’t have stepped foot inside her pool house, and I certainly shouldn’t have gotten her to take that fucking jersey off.
The sight of her standing before me, confident as anything is burned into my eyelids. She’s so fucking perfect and I remember all too well how that body lined up with mine, how we moved together, how soft her skin was.
Groaning to myself, I shove my hand under the sheets and wrap my fingers around my length. It’s got nothing on Chelsea’s gentle touch but it’s all I’ve got.
Resting back, I close my eyes and put myself back in that pool house. I forget everything, the vile words we hurled at each other, her reputation, the fact I should hate her, and I just focus on how good I know she can make me feel.
All too soon, my cock jerks in my hand and I stifle the groan that wants to erupt. Knowing my luck, Leon will walk past the door at the exact same time and think I’m jacking off to a football poster on my wall or some shit.
Unable to sleep and not wanting to lie in the dark with thoughts of a girl who shouldn’t take up my headspace, I turn my Xbox on and spend almost all night playing online with Wyatt who is more than happy to give up a night’s sleep to gaming.
I have no idea what time I eventually crash. All I do know is that when I wake the sun is high and my dad and brothers’ voices boom from downstairs.
Groaning, I turn over and grab my cell from the nightstand.
Finding no messages, I open up Instagram and start scrolling, anything so that I don’t have to crawl out of bed yet. I soon regret it though when I find a photo of none other than Chelsea with my fucking brother out to breakfast this morning.
Anger stirs in my belly as I grip my phone tighter. How dare he take her out like everything is normal.
Hearing footsteps pounding up the stairs, I throw the covers off and march for the door.
Ripping it open, I wait to see which one of them is about to appear around the corner.
Something explodes within me when it’s the one I want.
“What the fuck do you think you’re playing at?” I bark at Luca as he gets closer.
“What the fuck?” he asks in shock as I stand in the middle of the hallway, effectively stopping him from getting to his room. “Get the fuck out of the way, Shane.”
“No. What the fuck were you doing with her this morning?”
“Oooh,” he sings as realization dawns. “We went for breakfast. So what?”
“So what? Don’t you know what she did?” I balk.
“Yeah. She fucked up. She’s been gone weeks. She’s paid for it. She doesn’t need shit from me too.”
I stare at him, my mouth hanging open. “You’re fucking serious?”
“Yeah. She fucked up, Shane. We all do. Give her a fucking break.”
I look him up and down, my lip curling in disgust. “You’ve fucked her, haven’t you?”
“What? No. of course I haven’t fucked her. She’s like my little fucking sister. What the hell is wron—oh.”
“What?” I spit.
“Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, little brother.”
My teeth grind. “I’m not jealous.”
“No. That why you’re stalking her Instagram? Finding out where she’s been? That’s why you kept ringing me while she was gone, wasn’t it? I thought you were concerned about her, but no, you just wanted to fuck her.”
“No. No. She’s been around half the team, I’m not going there too.” He lifts his brow and all it does is piss me off further.
“Get the fuck out of my way. I need to go back to college. And you, you need to sort your shit out.”
“I don’t fucking want her,” I argue after he pushes me aside and storms past.
“I didn’t say anything about wanting her. I said sort your shit out, but I’m glad you just admitted that she’s the issue. She’s lonely, Shane. Go see her. Be nice to her. You might even get what you want.” I watch him stop when he gets to his door and turn back. “But don’t fucking hurt her. She’s been through enough.”
“Don’t hurt… fucking hell. What line has she spun you this morning?”
“The truth, Shane. She needs some friends right now, how about you try to be one.”
“What the fuck ever.” Marching into my room, I slam the door behind me, hoping that I can leave his words out in the hallway.
How can he say that? Be her fucking friend. I’ve never been her friend. She’s followed Luca around for years like a fucking puppy, she never had any intention of ever being my friend.
I was just a means to an end. A toy for her to enjoy when she was bored. She said it herself last night.
I am nothing to her.
I shouldn’t even fucking care.
I open up my cell again, ready to unfollow her. My finger hovers over the button as her large chocolate eyes stare up at me.
“Motherfucker,” I bark, throwing my cell onto the bed and storming toward the shower.
I don’t fucking need this bullshit.
After showering off the lingering scent of her perfume from last night that continued to taunt me even while I was sleeping, I head to the gym to work out some of my frustrations.
I could stay at home and use Dad’s state of the art home gym but the second he discovers me in there he usually insists on ‘helping’ and his brand of helping usually means pushing me until I can no longer feel my legs. I might need the burn right now, but I also need to be able to walk into school tomorrow.
I shoot Zayn a message as I jump in the car, and he agrees to meet me there.
We hit the gym for a little over an hour before finding ourselves in the sauna.
“You coming to mine tonight? Mom’s away?”
“Uh… I guess.”
“The rest of the guys are coming, the girls too.”
The fact that he means the squad, minus Chelsea, makes my chest clench in a way it shouldn’t. I shouldn’t feel bad for her missing out on this stuff after she was the one who fucked it all up, but I can’t help it. It’s her squad, her senior year. Shelly can make out that she’s taken over all she likes, but we all know Chelsea made them what they are. Their coach sure didn’t do it.
“Sure thing, man,” I say, pushing thoughts of Chelsea to the back of my head. If she can go out for breakfast with my brother like everything is normal, then I can have a night with the team and her squad of bitches.
“Yo, catch,” Rich shouts the second I walk into Zayn’s den later that night as a bottle of beer comes flying for my head.
“Fucking hell. A little warning would have been nice.”
“You don’t get no warning in the NFL, my friend,” Rich says, making me want to turn around and walk straight back out again. I’ve already had to endure one of Dad’s pep talks before I managed to leave the house this evening, I really don’t need it from them too.
Twisting the cap, I throw it at him and it bounces off his temple.
“Someone needs to get laid,” he mutters. My entire body freezes and suddenly my head is back in Chelsea’s pool house last night.
Shaking her from my head, I fall down onto one of Zayn’s beanbags and tip the bottle to my lips.
“It’s all right, bro. The girls will be here soon and they all wanna fuck a champ.”
“Shut the fuck up, man,” Zayn says, attempting to come to my rescue.
As far as they are concerned, I haven’t gone past second base with any of the cheer bitches that throw themselves at us at every available opportunity.
I used to be happy to watch it all from the sidelines while hanging out with my other friends, but then she happened, and I found myself in the middle of this world.
I just wanted to find out where she was, I needed to know that she was okay, all the while wishing that I didn’t care that much.
That’s the thing with Chelsea Fierce, she fucks with my head until I don’t know which way is up.
A ruckus is raised at the door behind me, and when I glance over, I find the rest of the team and the cheer squad piling into the room.
“To the state fucking champions,” someone shouts before a round of hollers and cheers sound out.
Fucking hell, was that only Friday night? It already feels like a lifetime ago.
Everyone grabs a drink, someone turns the music up and the party really gets started.
I’m more than happy watching everyone enjoy themselves from my seat, but Victoria gets other ideas and pulls me up to join everyone else.
“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself, Dunn.”
“I am,” I argue, although I’m not sure my face matches my words.
“Dance with me,” she demands, pressing her body up against mine. She moves in time with the music and I forget everything and move with her.
The next thing I know, I’m rolling over on Zayn’s sofa and falling flat on my face on his wooden floor. I have no idea how much I had to drink last night, but everything is pretty hazy.
Ow my fucking head.
I rest it on my forearm and I’m pretty sure I fall back to sleep.
“Rise and shine, ladies,” someone announces way too loudly before the blinds are opened and the sun comes streaming in. “The bitches are waiting.”
Glancing at the owner of the noise, I find Zayn standing with a shit-eating grin on his face as he looks between Rich and I who are both groaning in frustration. Why the fuck does he look so good this morning?
“Fuck. Off,” Rich grunts, clearly sharing my thoughts.
“No can do, girls. School is calling.”
Fucking hell, it’s Monday.
“And you know that Rosewood High needs its champion Bears to show their faces this morning.”
“This is all your fucking fault, Hunter,” I mumble, pushing myself so I’m sitting against the edge of the couch.
“Me? I didn’t pin you down and poor that vodka down your throat, Dunn.”
“No, I’m pretty sure that was Victoria right before you did a body shot off her—”
“Enough,” I bark. The events of last night are fuzzy at best, I really don’t need a first thing refresher of the bad decisions I made.
11
Chelsea
I’d hardly looked at my cell while I was away, and I certainly didn’t open any social media apps. I could only imagine the exaggeration and lies that were flying around on there about what happened and where I’d gone to. The only messages I opened were from Ethan, but even then, I mostly didn’t respond. It was nice to know that someone other than my parents did actually miss me.
After a fitful night’s sleep full of nightmares about what the next day might hold, I sit up in bed and lift my cell from the nightstand.
Six a.m. The mornings I’m usually up this early, it’s because I requested the squad start the day with a morning workout session. That’s far from my reality today though. I’d love to don my sports bra and yoga pants and burn off some of my excess fat until my legs feel like jelly and all of us help each other limp back to the locker rooms to put ourselves back together.
I blow out a long sigh, wondering if I’ll ever get a chance to return to that life. Cheerleading is everything to me. It was always my plan to secure a scholarship so my parents didn’t need to bankroll my future, hell knows they’ve already done more for me than I deserve. But now, with no squad and my future up in the air, I have no idea what my plan is.
Unlocking my cell, I hesitantly open Instagram. I’m hit with more notifications than I can deal with, and not wanting to see what people are saying about me, I focus my attention on my feed. It’s fine, just the usual high school images until one makes me stop. My stomach turns over at the sight of Victoria with her hands all over Shane.
My lips purse as I scroll through the many variations of the same photography. My hands shake. I want to scream at her to get her hands off him, he’s mine. But I know he’s not. All we had was one intense night. I can’t stake any claim.
Unable to continue looking at the familiarity of their touch, I slam my cell facedown on the bed.
I’ve been gone weeks. I’d be stupid to assume that he’s not moved on. That another member of the squad hasn’t got her claws into him. He’s always acted like he wasn’t interested in what we had to offer, but then he wasn’t exactly turning me away that night. Maybe I was just the one to give him the push and the confidence he needed to turn into one of them.
Tears burn my eyes, but I refused to cry over whatever this weird infatuation is I have with Shane Dunn. We had one night, one that I’m sure he probably regrets after everything that happened after it.
I need to forget about all of that. Forget about the past. I need to focus on the future and trying to find myself some kind of a life as I figure out what comes next. I once thought it was easy. Go to school, cheer, win regionals, get a scholarship and get the hell out of Rosewood. I still want to leave, to get away from those who’ll continue to whisper things about me, but suddenly disappearing off on my own somewhere across the country is less appealing.
With a sigh, I climb out of bed and set about getting ready for my big return to Rosewood High.
Dread rolls around in my stomach as I think about what the day might hold. I guess, I’ve already had it out with the squad, they’re going to be expecting me. Fuck, that could be worse.
I try to focus on other things but it’s impossible. By the time I walk through the kitchen of the main house where Mom is having her morning coffee, I’m worried I might puke at any moment. The second I pull the door open, her beloved festive music sounds out and I stifle a groan.
“Aw, it’s so good to have you back again. This place just isn’t the same without you,” she says, smiling softly at me.
“It must be like I’m not here being out in the pool house,” I mutter, raiding their refrigerator instead of mine.
“Not at all. I feel your presence even if you are out there.” A silence falls between us as I swipe an apple from the bowl in the center of the island. “Thank you for yesterday. I know it wasn’t exactly your idea of fun, but…” She trails off, leaving me to think about our afternoon at the mall. Mom loves the holidays, almost to an obsessive level. Every room of the house gets decorated within an inch of its life, and Dad and I are forced to endure hours of Christmas music throughout the entire house. Usually she’d have done it all this weekend, and I can’t help but feel relieved that I didn’t come home to the chaos of Mom bossing Dad around in her quest to make everything perfect.
“It was great, Mom.” It’s a lie, and she knows it. She had this huge list of gifts to buy and I had no one. Well, that’s not true, I had the two of them but I couldn’t exactly buy them with Mom there.
The look of sympathy on her face when I told her I had no one to buy for was one I remember all too well from my former years when people discovered just what a disaster my life was. It’s a look that had mostly vanished from my life once I was adopted.
The squad and I had always done secret Santa. I have no idea whether they’re doing it again this year or not, but I do know that I’m not going to be invited to take part.
With a sigh, I say goodbye to Mom and regretfully leave the house.
My stomach is in knots. I should eat the apple that I picked up, I know that, but I feel like al
l I’ll do is puke it back up if I even attempt to eat it.
As I sit in the parking lot behind the wheel of my car with my classmates loitering around and heading for the buildings to start their days, I can’t force my muscles to move.
This place has been my playground for years. I ruled this school along with my squad and the team. I shouldn’t now be afraid to step foot inside.
It’s all my own fault. I know that. If I hadn’t made such stupid, fucked-up decisions then none of this would have happened. I’d still have my position, my future, my friends.
A few students eventually notice me sitting here, and I’m forced to move before I change my mind and drive back home again to hide in my pool house. That’s not the girl I am. I don’t hide. I stand proud with my head held high and my shoulders back. It’s time to rediscover the old Chelsea, the one I pushed aside in my time away. It’s time to take back control of my life.
Throwing the door open, I climb out and pull my purse over my shoulder. I focus on the building ahead and ignore the burning stares of everyone around me.
The voices start out as whispers but as I get closer to the main building to find my locker the gossip surrounding me becomes loud enough that I’ve got no choice but to hear it.
“Did you hear the cheer squad refused to take her back?”
“Can you believe she had the audacity to turn up to the game on Friday night. Like she supports them, pfft. She probably just wanted to drug them again.”
“Does she really think she’s welcome back here?”
“She needs to watch her back. I’ve heard the squad are gunning for her.”
A shiver runs down my spine. No one in Rosewood, other than my parents, know the real me. So the threat of the squad coming after me doesn’t really scare me, but out of everyone, they know me the best. They would know how to hurt me. Hell, they already have. They know the only thing I want is to cheer, and they’ve already taken that away from me. So what’s left?
This should have been my year, but from the get-go it’s been anything but. First Amalie stole Jake, not that he was ever really mine, then my ankle stopped me from cheering and now this.
FIERCE: A High School Enemies to Lovers Romance (Rosewood High Book 4) Page 7