Chapter twelve.

'We should go for a run after school to keep fit for volleyball,' Hailey suggested as the two girls arrived at school the next day.

Blair eyed her best friend with suspicion, 'What? No, geez are you crazy Hails? It's bad enough I'm on the volleyball team I'm not going to start running with you to keep fit.' She almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity.

Hailey smiled good-naturedly, 'It was worth a try, I'll bet Brady will come with me.'

'Why don't you ask your boyfriend?' Blair teased. 'He'd do it.'

'Ew, I can't imagine doing heavy exercise with Jacob and letting him see me all sweaty...Well apart from sex of course...'

Blair giggled and opened her mouth to chip in with a similar experience she felt after the last time her and Cade had slept together but managed to stop herself quickly. She couldn't tell Hailey she had a similar experience because then Hailey would want to know who with, and might even be mad Blair hasn't told her she's been having sex.

Blair frowned and clamped her mouth shut. She was a little bummed she couldn't talk to anyone about her situation going on with Cade. Half the fun of boys were talking about them.

'Hey people!' Brady greeted the two girls in an extremely upbeat manner for a Monday morning. 'Did you hear the gossip about your cousin Hails? And who he's banging?'

Blair couldn't stop the loud gasping noise that escaped her mouth in horror, did everyone know?

Both Hailey and Brady turned to Blair in confusion, 'Are you alright?' Brady chuckled. 'I didn't think the news would make you care this much.'

'Yeah...I,' Blair thought quickly. 'I mean who is it?'

'Lacy!' Brady exclaimed, his face twisting in disgust. 'I liked Cade, I thought he had class and now he's mucking around with her. Gross.'

Blair tried to keep her face neutral. She's not going to lie – that news hurt. The normal school noises heard every morning started blending together around her and she zoned out of Brady and Hailey's conversation. Cade was also sleeping with Lacy? She felt sick. Her stomach literally heaved and for one moment she felt like her breakfast might revisit her. He was such a pig, a disgusting player!

Blair was also so confused, she'd thought they had a thing going on. An unspoken agreement to fool around. Well she didn't exactly agree to it when Cade hinted, but she figured he'd be able to realize when she slept with him again and again she was obviously interested in exploring the arrangement.

'Blair? You're doing that thing again when you zone out,' Hailey waved her hand in front of her face erratically.

'Sorry,' Blair snapped back to her two friends.

Brady shot her a small smile, 'It's alright, I'll see you later B.'

Blair and Hailey linked arms as they approached their first class for the day. Unfortunately it happened to be one in which both Cade and Lacy attended. When Blair first walked into the classroom and saw Lacy perched delicately on top of Cade's desk practically feeling him up in front of everyone, she felt sick again.

'Gross, they should get a room,' Hailey wrinkled her nose. 'You know I thought he was starting to warm up a bit, maybe we could have all even be friends. But if Lacy is the sort of girl he's interested in, then there is no way in hell.

Hailey was firmly on Team Blair when it came to Lacy. She was an absolute bitch as far as Hailey was concerned.

Blair was desperately trying to keep her face expressionless, and was doing a good job of it until Cade caught her eye. He didn't smile or frown, he kind of stared at her for a while trying to read her.

Blair's eyes narrowed and her gaze flicked back from him to Lacy and she glared at him. She'd never felt so angry with a boy in her life! More to her annoyance he simply looked away and continued his conversation with Lacy.

Blair knew the rational thing would be to let it go. Don't confront him, go home that night and every night and just never sleep with him again. But she was too hurt for that, she'd lost her virginity to him! Plus add that to the fact he knew he was her first, Cade had some explaining to do.

The perfect moment grabbed her just after class, Cade headed off toward the entrance doors rather then on to his next class. Tossing up the idea of skipping a class and confronting Cade, Blair bolted towards the door.

She found Cade leaning against the wall outside playing with his phone.

'Skipping class I see, look at you miss rebel,' he commented when he saw her.

'Are you sleeping with Lacy too?'

There was no 'hi' or any sort of greeting whatsoever. Blair got to the point as usual.

He looked around quickly and moved closer to her with his hand outstretched, 'Shh! Do you want to announce it to the whole world?'

Her mouth dropped open, 'Like I would want people to associate me with you, especially after the rumours going around you're banging Lacy!!'

'Easy tiger, Lacy is not that bad,' he retorted raising an eyebrow slightly. He was used to Blair mouthing off at him because she did it nearly every day, but this was a slightly different side to her.

'Lacy is that bad actually, she's possibly the worst person in this school she...' Blair trailed off realizing she didn't really want to go into her past with Cade.

'What is she?' Cade prompted her.

'It doesn't matter what she is, are you hooking up with her?'

Cade grinned at her, 'First of all Blair, it's not really any of your business who I am hooking up with and secondly no I am not.'

Blair laughed humorously, 'It is my business when you sleep with me one day and her the next. I'm not ok with that you pig!'

'Last time I checked, we weren't a couple Blair,' his smile was starting to annoy her now. 'We're friends with benefits, without the friends part.'

She stared at him slightly shocked realizing he was speaking the truth. They weren't an item at all, they were two people living in the same house who were seriously attracted to each other and had some weird flirtation thing going on.

Cade put his phone away and scratched the back of his head lightly. He shot her a small teasing smile, 'Are you just a bit jealous?'

Blair rolled her eyes, 'I'm not jealous, why would I be jealous? You're right we're not even friends.'

'If you're not jealous, why were you shooting me daggers all throughout class today. Enough that I had to skip my next class so we could have a chat out here?'

Blair faltered and bit her lip, she hadn't realized she was being that obvious.

Cade smiled, 'You're jealous.' He stepped a little closer to her and Blair stepped backwards hesitantly. 'It's cute,' he placed his hands either side of her head against the wall entrapping her there.

'I'm not...' She trailed off, her gaze slipping down to his perfect mouth and back up to his eyes.

He kissed her then. Outside the school against the wall like out of some silly movie.

'Damn you,' Blair mumbled as he pulled away.

Cade chuckled, 'Are you feeling better enough to get back to school or do you want to stay out here for a while?'

His look was so suggestive Blair rolled her eyes, 'I think we've missed enough school. But you do realize there are rumours going around that you are sleeping with Lacy?'

Cade shrugged, 'There's always rumours going around, it'll be about someone else next week. You shouldn't care so much.'

'Oh I don't!' Blair replied quickly. She didn't want to appear so needy to Cade.

'Blair you skipped class to come and talk to me about it, I know you care,' Cade was laughing now. He knew exactly how important school was to her and her emphasis on not getting into trouble.

Blair was trying to focus on what he was saying but all she could think about was how close he was standing to her and how good it felt to have him pressed up against her.

'You're not even listening to me now are you?' Cade's smile was infectious and Blair let out a small laugh. 'I have to go anyway, I'll see you at home tonight.'

'But we have class together?' Blair asked confused. Where could he be going?

'I have something I have to do,' Cade stepped back so he wasn't so close to her anymore. 'I'll catch you later.'

Blair watched him head off into the car park and shrugged, turning to head back into the school. She wasn't going to miss anymore school then she needed, she'd already accomplished nothing by following him outside. Well except to find out he's not hooking up with Lacy, which was a huge relief.

'Hey Blair.'

Blair turned her head sideways at the sound of the familiar voice calling her name. Perched against the first locker as she entered the school building was a smirking Brady.

'Hi, what are you doing out here?' She practically squeaked caught off guard.

'I think I just saw you kissing the face off Cade...' Brady smirked at her with his arms folded over his chest. 'Funny, you didn't tell me this morning I was way off with my gossip on Lacy and Cade...' Brady trailed off smirking.

'Uh,' Blair blushed bright red. 'Shit. I can explain.'

...