~Althia~

The following week after the dance, I tried to do what Jessica and I decided I would do about Justin. I tried pretending like he had said nothing. I tried acting like everything was normal but every single word Justin had told me was in the back of my mind. It seemed like I was the only one fazed by everything. Justin went on every day acting like himself and pretending like he didn't even speak to me at the dance.

Everyone had noticed that I was off but I brushed them off every single time using a lame excuse like I'm stressed for a test and I didn't sleep well the night before.

Right now, it was a Friday night and the boys had a basketball game. I brought my dad with me since he was excited to see Zach play.

We walked into the gym and I looked around the bleachers trying to find my friends but it looked like they weren't here yet.

"I'll show you our regular spot, everyone should be getting here soon" I told my dad as I led him up the stairs

A familiar face caught my wrist as we were walking up

"Clara! Hi, how are you?" I stopped and smiled at her

"I'm good, you?" She asked

"I'm great, thanks for asking" I answered "Clara this is my father. Dad this is Clara, Zach's little sister" I introduced them

They waved at one and other

"Is your mom here?" I questioned, looking around kinda hoping that she wasn't

"No, she couldn't make it" She answered "Oh and before I forget, Justin asked me to tell you that he wanted to talk to you" She added

My heart dropped a bit

"Ok, I'll go look for him now" I responded "Dad, you can go sit up there" I pointed out the seats to him

"Clara, would you like to come join me? The others should be here anytime soon" My dad asked her

Clara nodded and got up from her seat to follow my dad as I walked back down the bleachers

I went in the hallway and saw Justin waiting for me near the boys locker room door

"Hey" I greeted him

"Hi" He smiled

I silently cringed at the awkwardness that filled between us

"So what did you wanna talk to me about?" I asked him

"I just wanted to see if you've thought about what I had told you" He answered me

"Thought about what?" I questioned, confused

"You know, about what I said" He trailed off "At the dance" He whispered

My breathing got caught in my throat

"Justin" I gently spoke, trying to figure out what to say next

"Look, I know that I laid a lot on you but have you even thought about it?" Justin asked me

"Jus, you've been acting like you never said anything so I've been doing the same, there's nothing for me to think about" I told him

"I see" He replied as he frowned

"Did you really want me to think about it? Was I supposed to break up with Zach just because you told me you liked me? That's not fair, Justin, you're put me in the worst situation I could ever be in" I said "I don't want to lose you as a friend and I certainly don't want to lose Zach either. Your feelings are valid but you can't expect me to do anything about them" I continued "I'm sorry but I would much rather not speak about this ever again. You know that I'm here for you no matter what and that you can always count on me but what you said at the dance should be forgotten. It's for the best" I finished

Justin stood there looking at me for a bit before sighing

"Whatever you want Ee-Ah" He finally said

I smiled slightly

"Good luck out there" I told him as I stepped forward to give him a hug

"Thanks" He mumbled as he pushed open the door and went inside, leaving me alone yet again

I sighed and chewed the inside of my cheek nervously

"There you are!" Someone exclaimed from behind me

I jumped and turned around to see Montgomery

"We've been texting you, the others went in the gym and I came to look for you" He told me "Whoa, you ok?" He asked once he saw my face, concern obvious on his face

I nodded

"Jus just wanted to talk quickly" I told him

Monty didn't seem to buy that I was fine but he nodded

"Well let's goooo, the game is about to start" Monty said as he held his arm out for me

I laughed slightly but wrapped my arm around his while I rested my other hand on it as well

We started our way to the gym

"You're supposed to have a secret make out sesh with your boyfriend, sweetheart, not with a 'friend'" Bryce hollowed as he walked past us, using air quotes around 'friend'

Montgomery quickly unwrapped himself from me and turned to look at Bryce who kept walking like he said nothing

"Yo if you have something to say fucking say it man, don't keep walking like a fucking pussy" Monty called out to him

Bryce stopped on his tracks and turned around with a stupid grin on his face

"You heard me correctly Montgomery, she's supposed to blow Zach before a game but instead she was with you" Bryce smirked

Monty took a step forward as he curled his hands in fists

Quickly, I put a hand on his upper arm

"Oh look at that, I guess you get so close with the guys you blow that you think you have the power to calm them down" Bryce kept going

I shot him a quick dirty look as Monty clenched his jaw

"He's fucking dead" Monty mumbled

I stepped in front of him and put my hand on his chest

"Althia, move" He growled as he stared Bryce down

"No" I said "Mont! He's not worth, come on let's go" I gently pushed him back

Monty looked down at me and saw that I was serious

He sighed and flipped Bryce off before turning around

"Yeah listen to your bitch, Mont" Bryce teased

Montgomery flinched but I grabbed his arm

"Forget about him" I whispered

We turned into the next hallway and we could hear Bryce chuckling from where we were

"The fuck are you looking at?" Montgomery growled at Tyler who was turning the corner

"Montgomery" I hissed "Leave him alone and let's go" I said in a serious tone as I tugged on his sleeve

Monty didn't try to fight me this but he still shook his head as he followed me further down the hallway.

I quickly looked over my shoulder to see that Tyler was looking us, clenching his camera. I shot him a small apologetic smile before looking in front of me again

We got to the gym and started our way up the bleachers

"Is that my man Isaac?" Monty's voice boomed as he saw my dad sitting down with everyone

The gang looked in our direction and I waved

Dad greeted Monty and they started talking as I took a seat in between Clara and Jeff

"Are you alright?" Jessica asked me as she leaned on Jeff to look at me at the same time that Jeff asked where I was

"I was talking with Jus and yeah I'm ok, we just saw Bryce and he acted like an ass" I answered them

Jess looked at me with a worried look and I gave her 'We'll talk about it later' look to which she responded with an 'Ok because I won't forget' look

"Um, hello, you guys are doing that thing where you're talking with faces and I'm confused" Jeff put his head in the middle of us "I feel left out, what's happening?" He pouted

Jessica and I laughed

"Nothing important, Jessica was just asking me what exactly Bryce said and I told her" I told him

"Whoa, you got all of that by just looking at each other" Jeff looked at us in shock

"Oh my gosh" Alex chuckled as he rubbed his face "You really are lucky that you're pretty" He told Jeff

"I know that was an insult but I'm going to take it as a compliment instead so thank you bb" Jeff cheesed a smile at him

Alex responded with a face but still made a heart with his hands

Jessica and I laughed as we shook our heads

I switched places with Montgomery so that I could be in between my dad and Clara

Soon enough our boys came running onto the court. We all got up and started cheering, my dad looked at me before slowly getting up and joining us by clapping his hands.

Zach's eyes searched the crowd until they landed on us, he waved at everyone and blew a kiss at me. I smiled and blew one back. Justin came beside him and waved at us as we gave him a thumbs up.

They started to warm up and we sat back down

"Does that always happen?" Dad leaned forward so I could hear him properly

"Does what always happen?" I questioned

"The getting up and cheering? And the kiss blowing, the waving and the thumbs upping?" He looked at me

"Of course the cheering and getting up always happens! We gotta show school spirit!" I answered him "As for the kisses and the waves and everything, it's a thing we do before every game. Everyone has their own thing" I said

"Like what?" Dad asked as he looked back to the court for a bit to see what they were doing

"Well, as you saw, Zach waves at everyone and they wave back. For me, he blows a kiss and I do the same. For Jus, he waves at us and we give him a thumbs up. For Jeff, he blows a kiss at the boys and they do the same but then for Jess and I, he makes a heart with his hands and we do the same. For Mont, he winks and we all wink back. Whenever Jessica cheers, she does a warm up flip for us and we do the wave. Lastly, for me whenever I play a game, I throw them a warm up ball and they always bring a sign of some sort" I told him

Dad simply nodded as he noticed that they boys were getting in position

The game started and we all watched intensively

//

It was half time and of course our boys were losing 33-29

"I swear, they always suck" Jeff groaned

"They're not doing too bad" My dad chimed in

"Mr Knight, I say this with no disrespect at all, but you have no idea what you're talking about" Jeff told him

"Fair enough" Dad laughed as we all joined him

"Alt, do you wanna come get something to eat with me?" Jessica suddenly asked me and I knew she wanted to talk about what had happened with Justin right this moment

"Mmh, of course" I answered

"Ra, you wanna come with?" Jess asked Clara

"I'm good, thank you" She smiled

Jessica smiled back and got up from her seat as I did the same

"Anyone want anything?" I questioned the gang

Everyone but Jeff shook their heads

"A popcorn for your favorite please" He cheesed at us

"Yes we know" We replied before starting to make our way down the bleachers

"Thank God, Clara didn't want to come with us" Jess told me as we made our way into the hallway "I need to know what Justin told you, right the fuck now" She said

I took a deep breath as we got in line for the refreshments

I explained everything to her in a low voice just in case anyone was trying to listen to our conversation

"That's all?" Jess asked once I had finished

"Pretty much, I mean I finally told him what's been bothering me and I think he got it" I answered "There's nothing else left to say" I added

"Ugh, I hate how messy this whole situation is" Jessica let out a sigh

"I know, a big part of me just wants to tell Zach-" I started but stopped when Jess shook her head violently

"No. No, you don't want to tell Zach" She told me "It'll just make everything worse, you said it yourself, there's nothing else left to say. What's done is done and now it's time to move on from it" She added

"You're right" I replied

"I always am" Jess flipped her hair and I rolled my eyes

I opened my mouth to say something but then stopped myself since it was our turn to order

"Oh great" Jess mumbled as we saw Courtney behind the table

"Hi! Can I get you some boys for the two of you to cheat on your boyfriends with?" Was the way that she decided to greet us

"Hi, yeah, actually we want to buy some fake personalities. But wait, you already bought all of them didn't you?" Jess clapped back

Courtney's jaw dropped and Jess just smirked at her

"Can we just get two popcorns and one ice slushie please?" I crossed my arms, annoyed by all the drama that was happening this evening

"Oh sorry, we're out of that" Courtney shot me a fake smile

"Shut the fuck up, Courtney, you and I both know that we have plenty of those" Ryan said, suddenly appearing from the door that was behind the table "That will be 8$ girlies" He told us

Jessica and I both handed him 4$ each and we smiled at Courtney

Ryan went through the door again and reappeared with our popcorn and slush

He handed it to us and we thanked him

We went back to the gym just in time as the third period was starting up. Quickly, we went to our seats and handed Jeff his popcorn before cheering for the boys

//

The boys ended up losing 77-61

Zach insisted on driving me home and now we were pulling up onto my street

"I still can't believe that we lost during the first game your dad came to watch" Zach complained

"Don't be bummed out, you guys did good" I told him "My dad doesn't care if you won or not, he was just happy to see you play" I added

"Yeah, and didn't he tell you that you did an excellent job tonight?" Clara said from the backseat, trying to lift Zach's spirit up with me

I looked back and smiled at her to which she responded with a thumbs up

"Yes he did, and you did play amazingly like always" I reassured Zach

"I guess next game, I'm going to have to make a basket for you AND your dad" Zach said

I laughed slightly as he pulled into my driveway

"You do that" I told him

I took my seatbelt off and thanked Zach for the ride

Zach leaned forward to kiss me but I kept it at a small peck given that his sister was in the backseat looking at us. Something he seemed to have forgotten since he pouted.

I slightly tilted my head towards her and Zach nodded slightly, understanding now

"Bye, Zachy. Bye, Ra" I said before getting out of the car

I watched them back up from my driveway and onto the street before going inside to join my dad in telling my mom about the game

After that I took a shower and got ready for the night but then my phone started to buzz with a bunch of notifications.