~

I stare at my reflection for the third time this night. I was wearing a pink crop top and blue mom jeans with my Nike airforce1. I never really cared much about my appearance to these things but Luca and Gray were going to be there. Not like I cared about Gray though.

I grab my Louis Vuitton bag and head out the door before I could convince myself to change into an uncomfortable gown in an attempt to look sexy.

By the time I get to Lily's house. The party was in full swing and there were at least 100 people across the lawn, red solo cups sprawled everywhere. The street was packed with cars. I walk past a couple kissing on my way into the house, or maybe they weren't a couple. I don't know.

The smell of alcohol and sweaty bodies hit me as soon as I enter the house. The sound of the music pounded and the entire atmosphere made me feel like throwing up. I hated parties that had a huge ass crowd, so basically, I hate high school parties.

I didn't bother searching for lily because I knew where she would be. I walked upstairs to the second living where another party was happening. There were fewer people here and it smelled not as bad as the living room downstairs.

The kids here were basically just making out, doing drugs, drinking alcohol, and playing games.

"Dove," Fawn drawls as she stumbled towards me. Just one whiff of her and I knew she had been drinking.

"Hey Dove," Aaron nods my way as he wrapped his arm around Fawn. I looked suspiciously between both of them. I knew they definitely weren't dating. Aaron never dates anyone.

"What are you doing," I raise an eyebrow, my hands on my hips.

"She's my little friend tonight," he smirks, playing with a strand of drunk Fawn's hair.

I knew very well what he meant by that and I wasn't going to let him use and dump her.

"No, She's not," I snap and pull Fawn away from his grip.

"Stop cock blocking me," Fawn hits me lightly. She and I weren't really close but I wasn't going to let her make a decision she'd regret.

"Be a gentleman for once and leave," I turn to Aaron.

"Since when did you care about others?" He rolls his eyes.

"Since now. So beat it," I reply.

He walks closer to me tauntingly but I knew better than to be scared of Aaron. He and I had been friends ever since pre-school. Although we grew apart and had different friends I still knew the kind of person he was.

"Just walk away, Aaron. You can go and play with someone else but not her,"

"But I want her".

At this point, I could tell he was also super drunk and there was no telling what he could do. "Don't do something you might regret later",

"I never regret anything"

"Aaron," I hear Gray's deep voice from behind me. He was standing next to me and pushed me slightly to stay behind him.

"What are you doing, man," he asks and drops the cigarette in his hands to the floor before stepping on it.

"I've been working on that girl all night," Aaron replies.

"She's not a toy"

"It doesn't matter."

"I think it does," Gray replies in a stern voice.

Aaron just stares him down before walking away. Gray relaxes as he stared at Aaron's retreating back before turning to face me, a huge grin on his face.

"What's up with Aaron," I ask. "I've never known him to act that way"

"He's just having a hard time. I know it's not an excuse but that's the truth,"

"What's going on with him?"

I had stopped talking to Aaron for a while after my breakup with Gray. I know it's childish to cut everyone off because of some silly boy but cutting them off helped me stay sane because being with them only reminded me of Gray.

Sometimes you need to let go of others in order to find yourself. I just needed time to think and be me without all my friends.

"You can ask him yourself," Gray replies in a cold voice.

I spotted Luca walking our way, a tiny smile on his lips as we locked eyes. Gray turns to look at who I was smiling at and his expression changes as he visibly tenses up.

I ignore him and give Luca a hug. He smelled of fresh lemons with a bit of cigarette. "Hey",

"When did you get here?" he asks when we finally pull away.

"I'll see you around," Gray says and nods in my direction before walking away.

I nod back at him before turning to Luca. "A few moments ago,"

"Want a drink," he whispers in my ear, giving me goosebumps. I look at Fawn who was drunk and decided it wouldn't be good for me to get drunk too.

I shake my head. "I'd rather not be here,"

"Wanna ditch this and go somewhere else?"

Before I could reply, a ruckus is heard from downstairs. It sounded like a fight was going on. A guy rushes up the stairs, panting hard. "The Cagers are here," he says shakily.

"Why the fuck are they at my house," Lily says through gritted teeth.

The Cagers are a gang of guys that do drugs and kill people, name any illegal activity. Everyone stayed out of their way and no one dared to mess with them. We also didn't know the members of the gang because they always wore bape masks whenever they did whatever they did. People only made assumptions about who they thought was in the gang.

We all rush downstairs out of curiosity as to what they were doing here. Lily walks up to the guy that stood in the middle, hands on her waist. "How can I help you?"

"We aren't here to cause trouble," the guy on the right announced. "We are just here to say hi to our friend"

His eyes scanned through the crowd before landing on someone behind me. I turn to find Gray with his jaw clenched as he gritted his teeth.

He walks past me and stands next to lily. "Shark," he greeted the guy in front of lily. There were five guys in total, all tall and buff.

"Aww. Looks like the cub is now a tiger, huh?" The shark guy says, looking up to Gray who was slightly taller than he was.

"Why didn't you let us know you were back in town," a different guy with a blue bape mask says.

"I don't think I have any business with you guys,"

"Aww, c'mon. We're family," the shark says and wraps his arm around Gray.

Gray immediately shrugs him off and takes a look around. "Why don't we take this outside?"

"I thought you'd never ask," the guy replies and they all walk away with Gray next to them.

I had a hard time believing that Gray was in a gang. The Cagers, at that. They were always rumors about it before but I just ignored it all because there was no proof. Aaron and Zyair brush past me and head out the door, following Gray.

I run my hands through my hair and sighed. This night was turning out worse than I had expected.

"Everything is fine. You can all continue partying," Lily announces, holding her cup in the air.

"Alcohol?" Luca asked, pointing a hand to the kitchen.

I shake my head in reply. "Tomorrow is cheer tryouts and I need to be in the right mind to pick cheerleaders," I explain, with my eyes still focused on the door. I hope Gray wasn't in much danger.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Can you do a basic cartwheel or a backhand spring?" I ask the girl standing in front of me as I chewed lightly on my pencil.

"Errr......no. I thought cheerleading was all about dancing," she grins showing off her pearly whites.

"Oh.. really. Then why are we called cheerleaders and not dancers?" Ashley asks, sarcasm dripping from her voice. She, I, and Lily were in charge of choosing new cheerleaders for the team. We usually put aside all our differences when it came to cheerleading.

"Uh... I don't know because you cheer while dancing," the girl replies, raising her eyebrows.

"Next," Lily dismisses her, with a flick of her hand, not looking up from the IPad.

"But I haven't danced yet"

"You can go and dance for the Dance team. Didn't you know we had that here?" Ashley sneers.

"Yeah, but I'll like to be a cheerleader"

Ashley was about to talk again before I cut her off. "Show us what you've got then," I nod.

"You've got three minutes," Lily announces and the girl makes her song request, and the person in charge of music played it. She requests the song, run the world by Beyoncé.

She begins by moving her right foot forward in a smooth motion, her legs sliding across the slick floor. She dips her head forward, before arching her back and looking to the ceiling. She grips her waist with both hands and flips her hair as she does a little bend. She was a marvelous dancer. Her passion flying through the room.

She finished and grinned, her breath uneven as she looks at us with bright shining eyes.

"You know. You don't need to know how to cartwheel to be a cheerleader," I cough finally, after a while. Her dancing skills had us all shook.

"Yeah. I agree. It's also really easy to learn," Ashley says smiling as she nodded her head.

"Welcome to the team," I grin and search my IPad for her name before looking at her. "Cindy,"

Cindy squeals and jumps up and down like a little child. "Thank you. Thank you!"

"Next," I call as Cindy walks out and a smaller girl walks in. She had her hair up in a bun and her head down.

"She's perfect for a flyer," Lily leans towards me and whispers in my ear.

"But she looks shy. Do you think she has enough confidence to be a flyer?"

"She'll learn," Lily whispers back and I nod.

"Okay. Show us what you've got!"

After tryouts ended, I decided to walk home. Lily had offered to give me a ride home but I told her I wanted to exercise by walking home. That was a lie, I just didn't want to start an unnecessary friendship. I know it sounds harsh but that was the truth.

I step out of the school doors and immediately feel the cold air against my skin. I tightened my grip on my bag and began the walk home. Just as I left the school grounds, a motorcycle pulled up next to me.

"Luca," I raised an eyebrow as he took off his helmet and threw me a boyish grin. "Why are you still here?"

"Detention," he rolled his eyes which made me smile.

"You haven't even been here a week," I giggle.

"Yeah but...." he shrugs his shoulders. "What about you?"

"Cheerleading"

"Oh. How come I didn't know you were a cheerleader?" He smirks, leaning on his motorcycle.

"You never asked"

"Need a ride?" He asks when he noticed me staring at his motorcycle and I nod my head.

He puts his helmet on my head and helps me up. He starts the engine and the motorcycle comes to life roaring. I instinctively put my arms around his waist.

"You might want to hold on tighter."

••••••••••

OOTD: Do you own any pets?

I've got a dog. A German Shepherd and she's so cute. She's four years old, and I'm in love with her. She's the first pet I've ever owned, so she's very special to me.

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Lots of love 💕