I have never been threatened before.

But I make one new friendship this year and I'm being forced to drop it. It's laughable. I honestly didn't realize I had an enemy out there. Heck, I barely have any friends.

"Excuse me Miss, you asked for a size 4?" I asked, holding a dress the customer had requested.

I was almost through with my shift at Lola Rae, treating today like any other. Life goes on, whether you've been blackmailed or not. The letter was in my backpack by the cash register. I'd held onto it all day, thinking I would confess to someone.

But I didn't. It stayed hidden, like a dirty secret. My burden.

"Yes, I did," the customer retrieved the dress out of my arms, "Are the changing rooms that way?" she asked, pointing to the sign that said 'changing rooms'.

A for effort.

I nodded and watched her go, foolishly thinking I was now alone in the store.

"Does this dress match my eyes?"

My heart froze. I recognized the deep, charming voice and I slowly turned around.

Luke Dawson stood in front of me, raising a blue dress by the hanger.

He held it in front of his actual clothes and smirked, "What do you think? Does it bring out the color in my eyes?"

It did. His blue eyes were sparkling like diamonds.

But I grabbed the dress out of his hand and tried to push him away. "I know your life is about basketball, but not everything is a game."

He let me take the dress away, but my shove did absolutely nothing to deter him. His muscular body didn't even flinch. He followed me to the counter.

"I thought we had a good thing going between us," he sighed, leaning casually on the counter. He picked up my pen and twirled it between his fingers, "I put myself out there. I asked you to be my friend and now we're interacting even less than we did before. It's confusing to me."

It's confusing to me how he doesn't just give up. At this point, he's done some things and I've said some things and yet he keeps coming back.

"What are you doing here, Luke?"

"I just told you, Minnie. Were you listening?"

I gulped. I hadn't heard him call me that in a while.

"I haven't seen you in a while," he said, putting in words what my mind was thinking. "You pushed me away, and I'm not the type to sit back and wait. Not like Jakey."

I ignored his diss at Jake.

The truth was that I felt disrespected. He was too cocky sometimes, he played games with so many people and I worried he'd been playing the biggest game with me. Saying nice things to me, and still seeing other girls behind my back.

If I don't hold standards for myself, no one else will.

Maybe now was the right time to tell him about the letter. It may not be safe for us to interact anymore. The letter targeted him too.

But then again, if I do tell Luke, I could just sit back and watch him take everyone down.

That's not my style, though.

Suddenly, the customer in the changing room screamed. I spun around, worried that the threat was coming through. Had the blackmailer been following me and saw us talking? Was (s)he sending a warning?

The customer screamed again, running into the main part of the store. I ran towards her and we heard a male voice laugh.

Austin Taylor emerged from the changing room, wearing one of the Lola Rae dresses.

He twirled in front of us and struck a pose, "TADAA!"

My jaw dropped. I turned from Austin to Luke. My eyes glaring daggers at Luke. This had to be his idea.

Luke shrugged, defending his innocence, "What, you thought I came here alone? I need backup."

"He needs a wingman," Austin gave us a salute, wearing his own clothes under the dress he was stretching.

I hope the store cameras weren't recording this. I'd be so fired. The customer threw her dress in my face and stormed out of the store.

"I'm closing up early today," I mumbled, picking up the store keys. "Any more surprises I should know about?"

Luke and Austin glanced at each other. Neither admitted anything.

Boys.

"I'll confess," Austin exclaimed as we walked through the mall after I closed down the store, "Chad came with us too. Operation Millie didn't go down as smoothly as we expected-"

"What were you expecting?" I asked.

What exactly was their plan? Luke thought he could just stroll up to me with his charming megawatt smile and get me to... what?

Austin thought about it, "Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Anyway, Chad's somewhere in here getting food."

"Want to go find him?" Luke suggested, "Millie and I can hang outside."

Luke was already holding the door open for me with one hand. Instinctively, I stepped towards him.

He wanted to finish the conversation we started, in private. So I exited the mall with him behind me. The car park was half empty, but a cluster of cars gathered in the same area mine was parked in.

We smelt weed and heard a heavy bass through one of the car windows.

All my jewelry's splash, seafood

Say he got a bag, me too

"Shout out my BM, that's Mimi," I sang the next part.

I decided to open up to Luke. He came here to talk to me. He's always been trying to talk to me... I remembered how he opened up his feelings to me on my birthday or on the day I got stung by a wasp. It's about time I confess my side.

I looked back and saw Luke at a standstill in front of a silver Hyundai.

He stayed fixed. I paused, squinting to see who in the driver seat caused him to stop.

I recognized the driver. It was Christopher Hayes. Luke's basketball rival. The car window rolled down and Chris leaned out.

"You two still a thing?" he pointed at us, "Shiiit, I don't think any of us expected that."

"We're not a thing," I clarified.

"Whatever you say," Christopher let it go... until he added, "But if we recycle the way Luke cycles through girls, we'd solve global warming."

I didn't pay attention to Luke's response. It was a sensitive subject that I didn't need reminding. It looked like we had been interrupted, yet again.

So, I listened to the music coming from the group smoking weed. It was a good song.

He touch me, he gon' die on the scene

I'ma pay me a lawyer and sit in the county

You ain't built how I'm built

"They ain't seen what I seen," I sang again.

Christopher's friend interrupted me, "You listen to this? For real?"

He was getting out of the passenger seat at the same time Christoper got out of his. They wanted to face Luke two-to-one, but Christopher's friend got distracted by my 'rapping'.

"Underrated song," I said, "Taking it Out."

Why are people surprised I like rap?

While they bickered over my music taste, a realization formed in my head. Christopher Hayes is Luke's competition. His rival. He hates Luke... does he hate him enough to write me a threatening letter?

He was now a suspect in my investigation that started... now.

I wasn't going to involve Luke. I knew he had my back, but I also take care of my own.

"Excuse me," I interrupted them politely, focusing on Christopher, "Do you mind if we have a private chat?"

"You and me?" Christopher stared at me like I was a nut job.

He wouldn't be wrong.

Luke stared at me too, and repeated, "You and him?"

They both thought I had gotten mixed up.

Christopher's friend shrugged, "She listens to DaBaby. I'd hear her out."

Christopher and I took a few steps away from his car and even further away from the banging music. I could see Luke was on edge, casting worried glances my way every few seconds.

Christopher towered over me. He's a basketball player, but I hadn't realized how tall they can be. I definitely hadn't thought through my strategy.

So I got straight to the point. "Do you write aggressive letters in your spare time?"

Christopher's eyebrows furrowed and he cocked his head, "You want to ask me that question again?"

"Not really," I said uncomfortably, "And I'm not creating a dating profile for you, I promise. I received a pretty aggressive letter from someone who wants me to stay away from Luke. Did you send it?"

"Are you high?"

"No," I stopped him from walking away, "I'm serious. I am being blackmailed and I'm just trying to figure out who would do such a thing."

"I have no problems insulting Luke to his face," Christopher declared, "I don't need to go behind his back to his girlfriend-"

"We're not dating," I clarified again. Automatically now.

Christopher spent more time thinking about us dating than he did my letter situation, "You're probably right. He spends more time with you than he would a girlfriend."

Moving on....

"Well, I believe you about the blackmail thing," I said, "Could I just ask one more thing? Would you mind writing something down?"

I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and pen. He stared at me suspiciously.

"To compare your handwriting with the note," I explained.

He sighed and took the pen, waiting for me to dictate. Austin and Chad were walking out of the mall, looking for us. Austin was eating churros.

"If you could please write in capital letters..." I cleared my throat, "Stripper and hoes-"

"What the-"

"Sorry! That's what the letter said!"

"F*ck this sh*t." He chucked the paper back at me.

"Ironically, your reaction is probably proof that you didn't do it," I said. He was so not about this note and I believed him.

"Hell no! Is this a joke? Yo Luke, is this another one of your pranks?"

Luke looked up and my heart melted to see his chiseled features concerned for me. Austin and Chad joined him, standing on either side, almost anticipating a fight. Austin lowered his churros.

"Where are you two hanging out?" Christopher continued, asking Luke directly, "She's talking about strippers-"

Austin's ears perked up. "Where?"

I tried to pull him back, "Christopher, please don't-"

"It's Chris. Only my mama calls me Christopher."

"OK," Luke had enough of this, "we're leaving and you'll leave my girl alone."

My eyes opened wide. Chris turned his head to look at me and I looked at him looking at me. I think I almost doubled over.

Chris pointed at me, "Does she know that she's your girl? 'Cos I don't think she does."

"Yeah, well we haven't had that discussion yet."

**

Excuse me.

I needed a moment to breathe.

Is that what we were here to talk about?

OK.

Here we go.