If these girls kept talking, I was pretty sure I was going jump off the closest building.

"OH, EM GEE CRIS!" Danika squealed as some other girls from the cheer squad started to swarm us like bees just to listen to the "hot gossip". "You are like so lucky, like I wish I could have a boyfriend like yours." She cooed as I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"It's just dinner guys," I shrugged nonchalantly. "It's no big deal."

"You're kidding, right?!" Logan exclaimed in shock, which didn't surprise me at all, she'd always been melodramatic. "The Hudson is only the fanciest restaurant in the whole city, you'd be lucky to even get a reservation." I couldn't help it, but I sighed. I wished I hadn't said anything about the date in the first place.

Logan Murdock, the blonde bombshell that was our head cheerleader, was one of the most popular girls in school and one of my closest friends- even if she drove me crazy sometimes. Normally I didn't mind when she had her little followers around her, hanging off every word that escaped her gloss coated lips but in that moment I did. I really didn't want the whole of Westwood High to know my business with Wesley (my boyfriend) but I knew that by 5 pm that evening they would- that's how fast word travelled around here.

"He's probably been planning this date for months, he's so cute. You're really so lucky to have him." Sofia added with loved-up grin, and I forced a smile, I didn't have it in me to shatter her delusional idea of my relationship with Wesley. I couldn't tell them that this was the first date Wesley has taken me on in months and it was only because his parents had to attend a charity ball and had actually given us their reservation.

"Do you think he's going to give you a like a promise ring?" Amanda, a different cheerleader, gushed and before I could answer with a very hard and decisive "no", they took the idea and ran with it. Before I knew it they were discussing rings cuts, outfit ideas and picture opportunities.

"Wow, don't you guys have anything more creative to talk about other than someone else's love life?" Roxanne asked, just having come from the locker room, and when the girls silenced themselves, I could have kissed her. Roxanne Johnson was one of my only friends who didn't do cheerleading, she was on the dance team with our other friend Blanca and with smooth dark brown skin, long black braids, and big brown eyes she was always the girl on the dance team that people went to see.

"You bitches better move before I make y'all." Blanca, my firecracker, threatened dangerously as she stood next to Roxanne with her arms crossed and within five seconds it was just Logan and I sitting on the grass with Blanca and Roxanne standing over us.

"Wow, that was fast." Roxanne joked as they sat down with us, Blanca smirking.

"That must've been a new record." She laughed; her demeanor completely changed from the previous few seconds as she brushed invisible dust off her shoulders.

Blanca Diaz, the fiercest, scariest and one of my most loyal friends with light-brown skin, wavy dark brown hair, and fiery brown eyes. Her looks and her attitude made her the most intimidating girl in the school, but she always had a reason, often standing up for those who couldn't do it themselves. I've even seen her make a grown man cry (his name was Mr. Colson, and he was our tenth-grade physics teacher who refused to let kids go to the bathroom during his lesson until Blanca came along).

"That's such a weird thing to be proud of," Logan said as she rolled her light blue eyes and Blanca snorted.

"I actually like the fact that bitches are scared of me. They don't even approach Cesar anymore cause they know I can fight." Blanca grinned proudly.

"Maybe you should give me some pointers sometime and I'll stop losing my all boyfriends." Logan snorted before Roxanne cut in.

"That's because you keep going after these boring white dudes who don't appreciate you." She said in a "duh" tone and Logan laughed. We all knew that Roxanne was joking but there were some truths to her words, Logan did tend to go for guys who didn't appreciate her and who ended up cheating on her, but she blamed her bad boyfriend choices on her low self-esteem and her dad leaving- yeah, she could be a little dark sometimes.

"Yeah, just look at Cris, do you think she's happy with Wesley?" Blanca added jokingly and I rolled my eyes as I stood up. "Woah, hold up girl I was only joking."

"I know you're joking Blanca, but I have to cut this little group chat short," I sighed. "I need to leave and get ready before I'm late for my 'big date'."

"Call us with the details when you get back," Logan added as I walked off while Roxanne told me not to get pregnant.

I collected my books from my locker before I hopped in my car and drove home, I wasn't really in the mood to go out with Wesley, but I wasn't about to deal with the fall out of missing a date with him either. Listening to Kelela the entire drive back to hopefully help calm my nerves and get me a little amped up for my date, I reminded myself to have a good time and breath before my anxiety started to become a little too much for me to handle.

I parked my white Audi A1 in the garage next to my mom's car and walked into the house through the side, only to find my mom and dad smiling to one another as they cooked dinner, romantic jazz playing softly in the background. It was surprising to me that there was a time where they didn't look so happy when my dad was still travelling across the country for business (he owned a chain of auto shops) and my mom was stuck here teaching at her dance studio. She loved taking care of me but was pretty depressed with my dad gone so often and my dad was pretty depressed being without her, so they fought a lot, things only started to get better when I was 17 and offered to stay alone or with friends so that my mom could travel with my dad.

So, while my dad was in meetings all day, she ran dance workshops in whichever city my dad had to be in at the time and slowly she had become a very in-demand dance teacher and choreographer.

"Hello mama, hello papa," I called as I walked in further and placed my keys on the hook.

Lucia, my mom, was one of the strongest and most amazing women I knew and with smooth dark-brown skin, long black box-braids, and kind brown eyes she was definitely one of the most beautiful. My dad, Nikolai, on the other hand, was pretty fair with cropped blonde hair, ice-blue eyes and a permanent five o'clock shadow, he was also tall and muscular with a defined jawline- almost all my friends thought he was hot. Ew.

"Hola Cristina." My mom smiled as she stirred her pot. "How was your day?" She asked in her calm and soothing voice as my dad threw in some spices. My mom was originally from Spain while my dad was from Russia, they'd actually met when my dad went to visit his ex-girlfriend in Spain, they say it was love at first sight

"It was good, I'm actually going on a date tonight with Wesley," I said and then watched as a wave of disappointment crossed her face as my dad frowned. I knew they didn't like Wesley, they said he didn't treat me right and I knew they weren't wrong, but I was finding it hard to find the strength to break up with him, especially when I had the cheerleader's barking praises in my ear.

"Oh, that's nice darling, where is he taking you?" My dad asked in his deep voice, his accent lingering in the undertones of his words.

"The Hudson, I shouldn't be back too late."

"Okay, just remember to be safe." My mom reminded me lovingly, kissing my forehead before I hugged my dad and I walked upstairs to shower and change.

I liked to think I was the perfect combination of my parents, from my skin colour to my hair texture, I got more of my dad's defined genes in terms of bone structure, but I got my mom's lips and eyes to make up for it.

It wasn't until I was sitting at my vanity, freshly out the shower and moisturized when the sinking dread hit me and before I knew it, I had tears lining the rims of my brown eyes, threatening to spill over and I didn't have time to confront why. I took a deep breath and wiped my eyes before continuing with my makeup, a little more dramatic with my soft eye and red lips- even though I knew Wesley would still complain about it, he didn't like the way I wore my makeup.

Pushing my thoughts to the side, I got changed into my dress of angels on storm clouds and paired it with small silver hoops and red block heels to match my lips and nails. My next mission was to do my hair but before I could ruin it trying, my mom came to the rescue.

"Do you want some help my baby?" She asked gently and I nodded with a small smile. My mom always managed to do my hair better than I ever could, it was like her superpower.

"Please," I begged, and she walked over to stand behind me.

Taking a combination of hair products and avocado oil and massaged it into my hair, working her way from root to tip as she looked at me thoughtfully.

"I worry about you Cristina; I've seen you with Wesley for almost half a year now and you don't look happy. Being with someone is meant to feel like your heart is soaring with love every time you see them, you're supposed to feel safe and happy with them." She said as she lifted my hair using a hair pick until all my curls were separated. "Do you understand?"

"Yes mama, I understand," I answered, and she smiled at me in the mirror.

"You look so beautiful; I hope for your sake that he deserves you. I don't want you to waste your time on someone who doesn't love you." She said kindly before walking out of my room and leaving me to dwell on her words.

I also had a lot of time to think about it considering Wesley was exactly thirty-seven minutes late, not that anyone was counting. One thing for sure, after my talk with my mum, if Wesley didn't change his ways, then I was definitely going to break up with him- hell at this rate he wouldn't last the night.

"Cristina! Wesley is downstairs for you." My mom shouted up to me and I took one last look in the mirror before I grabbed my bag and walked downstairs, quickly giving my mom and dad a kiss on their cheeks as I said goodbye.

One thing Wesley did that drove my immigrant parents insane was the fact that he didn't walk to the door, instead, he just waited in his car and honked his horn until I came outside. I took a deep breath to steady myself as I walked down to his obnoxiously big black truck, I'd always spoken to him about downsizing to save on carbon emissions, but he just told me that I don't know anything about cars since I was a girl.

"Is that really what you're wearing?" He sighed, the first words he said to me that night.

Wesley Greyson, only child of William and Deborah Greyson- heir to the Greyson fortune and boy did he act like it. Physically Wesley was very attractive standing at 6'1 with tan skin, bright green eyes and tousled black hair with a body many girls have described as being built by the Gods. We'd been dating ever since we drunkenly hooked up six months ago, it was a little bit of a disappointment on my part but boys left me alone and everyone kept saying what a great idea it was so I thought it wouldn't hurt.

But I was slowly figuring out I was wrong, and so was everyone else.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" I asked, Wesley always had an issue with what I wore, but I wasn't surprised he wouldn't know fashion if it slapped him in the face.

"You look a little underdressed but there's no time to change, you've already made us late." He muttered as he started the car, and I used my remote to open my gate for him as we drove out.

"Well maybe if you weren't half-an-hour late then we wouldn't be in this situation." I sighed as I looked out the window, I wasn't in the mood to fight with him, but it seemed he wasn't as willing to let it go.

"You, taking your sweet time to come downstairs was much longer than me being a few minutes late. You know I don't like to wait." He snapped before turning on the radio, signalling that our conversation was over.

I knew I should have told him that he was wrong, argued about how rude he was being but the thought of arguing with the most stubborn man I'd ever met in a confined space was enough to make me reconsider completely.

Instead, we sat silently in the car on our way to the restaurant, the entire drive my heart sinking further in my chest and looking over at him as we pulled up to the busy restaurant, I realized the date was probably going to be a disaster.