Daytona's POV

"See me tomorrow?" I mumbled to myself. What could he have been talking about? Then it hit me, "Homecoming is tomorrow!"

"It is? Cool. You going with anyone?" Jordan responded even though I was talking to myself.

We pulled out into the street and I watched as buildings flew by. "Yeah, I'm going with Logan actually." He nodded his head and we drove the rest of the way home in silence.

When Jordan dropped me off, I quietly snuck into the house, making my footsteps quieter then a mouse.

I tiptoed through downstairs with the lights off, relying on my memory of the house to keep me from running into any furniture. But to no avail, I jammed my pinky toe into the edge of the couch. "Son of a–" I covered my mouth to keep me from waking everyone up.

Lights upstairs flickered to life and I held my breath preparing for the worse; the worse being it was my dad and he was in a bad mood.

"Daytona? Is that you?" Mason's groggy voice whispered through the dark from the top of the stairs.

"Yeah it's me." I continued on my way through the dark until I got to the stairs, taking them two at a time.

"Why are you home so late?" He rubbed sleep from his eyes.

I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his back, "I was out. That's all."

"Where?" His voice was just above a whisper and he talked with his eyes closed.

"Undergrounder." I whispered as I guided him back to his room.

He opened an eye and peeked at me, "Did someone go with you?"

"Yeah. Jordan and Logan were there with me." I opened his door and set him on his bed, "Get some sleep Mason."

I turned to leave but he grabbed my wrist. There wasn't much strength or force behind it, but I could tell he was trying as hard as his tired body could. "You know I love you Daytona. You were a wonderful sister to Cooper, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

A smile crept on my face but when I turned around to reply, he was already asleep, so I silently closed his bedroom door and walked the few steps to my room.

I set my phone on the charger and crashed onto my bed, not bothering to change out of my clothes, it only took a few moments before I succumbed to sleep.

~~~~🌸~~~~

Sunshine hit my eyes as they fluttered open and I rolled over to my other side, pulling up my covers to eliminate as much light as possible. I had just been in a dream where I had shoved an entire batch of cupcakes into Makayla's plastic face. Just thinking about it made me smile. But that smile quickly turned to a frown when my covers were ripped right off of me.

"Mason Sebastian Sealie! I swear to god give me my blankets back or I'll make you regret ever waking up this morning." Slowly the blankets returned on top of me, and with it, so did my smile.

"Geez, you're so grumpy in the morning. I just wanted to let you know, your mom left for work today and your dad went with. They'll be gone for five days and they left you in charge." He set something down on my nightstand and I reached out to pick it up.

It was a yellow piece of paper with my mom's writing scratched in sharpie:

I smiled at my mom's letter and slipped it into a drawer in my nightstand.

I stretched my arms and let out a yawn as I sat up in bed. Mason still stood in my door way waiting for something, "Can I help you?" I asked.

"Ashton is staying the night at a friend's house until Friday so we have the house to ourselves." He waggled his eyebrows in my direction and I rolled my eyes falling back in bed.

"That means you can take care of yourself. Now leave me alone, I'm trying to sleep." I pulled the covers over my head and shut my eyes.

"Nuh uh Princess. It's already two pm."

I shot up out of my bed, stuffing clothes into my arms and sprinting into the bathroom, "Why didn't you tell me that first? Agh!"

I slammed the door shut and I could hear him laughing his head off at my price. I turned the water all the way to scalding and in seconds I could see steam rising from the shower.

Not bothering to check to see exactly how hot it was I hopped in and let out a yelp when the water hit my skin, partially burning me. I turned the knob and let the water cool a little. Then I washed my hair and lathered up in soap. Usually I would've stayed longer and stood in the warm water, but if it was already two and if the dance started at six-thirty, then I didn't have much time to do anything before I had to get ready.

Once I was dried, I threw shorts and a camisole on and headed out of the steamy bathroom.

Mason was still sitting on my bed when I got out. "Do you shower with lava?" He asked gesturing the the gust of steam that came out behind me.

"Does it matter?" I shot him a glare and dried the ends of my dripping hair.

He held his hands up in surrender and leaned back on my pillows.

When my hair was no longer dripping, I sat at the edge of my bed across from Mason, "So, what are we going to do for the next," I looked at my phone, "hour and a half?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. You're in charge." He gave me his award winning smirk and I rolled my eyes.

"Listen, you know how indecisive I am. Choose something please." It was his turn to roll his eyes at me, but he climbed out of my bed and I followed him downstairs.

"Netflix and Chinese? I can have it delivered." He threw me a look over his shoulder and I nodded my head swiftly. "Okay. The usual?"

I sent him a wink and plopped down on the couch, "You know it. What kind of movie do you want to watch? Action? Comedy? Horror?" I wiggled my eyebrows at the last suggestion.

"Believe it or not, I'm actually kind of feeling horror." He responded from the kitchen, looking at the takeout menu.

I widened my eyes, "You are actually going to watch horror? No way?" I laughed out loud.

"Yes. I'm actually going to watch horror with you. Now don't make me regret it." He sent me a pointed look.

"No promises."

~~~~🌸~~~~

An hour and forty five minutes later, Mason shut off the TV. "Nope! Not going to finish that! Oh would you look at the time, you've got to go get ready." He shoved my towards the stairs.

"Come on Mason. You've got to watch the end of that movie!" I laughed while he pushed me.

I had chosen to watch the Conjuring and we were right at the part where she's trying to kill her own child, and Mason had decided he had enough.

"She was trying to kill her child! What the heck is wrong with you?" I spun on my heel and licked his cheek.

"Nothing!" Then I took off up the stairs trying to out run Mason and his long legs. I ran into my room and as I was getting ready to close the door, Mason pushed it open and caught me by my waist, carrying me to my bed. "Mason! Don't you dare!" He set my on my bed and crawled on top of me.

"You got yourself into this." He sat on my legs and slowly moved his wiggling fingers closer to my stomach.

"Mason!" He started tickling me and I bursted out laughing. "Mason. Stop– stop it!" I said between giggles. Tears were pooling at my eyes from laughing so hard.

Suddenly he let up and jumped off of me, "Now you've only got an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready." He stuck his tongue out at me and shut my door.

I wiped away my tears and grabbed my dress out of the closet. When I looked at it, my breath caught. I know I've seen it before, but it was such a pretty dress.

I quickly slipped into it and twirled around. It was tight so it didn't flutter out, but my hair did and it looked good too. I paired it with my black pumps. I plugged in my straightener and then decided against it and unplugged it.

I did minimal makeup. Just some powder foundation, a thin line of eyeliner, mascara, blush and chapstick. Since I decided against styling my hair, I was done a lot quicker then I thought, so I went downstairs and sat on the couch.

While I was scrolling through Pinterest I got a text from Logan:

Can't wait to see you tonight ;) do you want me to pick you up or what?

My heart fluttered a little but I told him I didn't need a ride. I was going to make my presence aware. Meaning I was going to show up fashionably late and in style.

Mason came down the stairs a few minutes later, "Hey do you need a ride?" I asked with out looking up from my phone.

"Sure. That'd be great. Are we taking the bike or the Vette?" He sat down next to me.

I gave him a duh look, "The Vette obviously. Do you think I'm going to ride the bike in this dress?"

"Yeah. You're right." He got up and brushed his pants off and looked at his phone, "Are we leaving now? It's 6:10 and it takes fifteen minutes to get there."

"Nope." I leaned back into the cushions, "We're arriving fashionably late." I stated with a smirk.

"Okay." He shrugged and sat back down.

We finished the last ten minutes of The Conjuring and decided to leave for the school.

"Why did you make me watch that?" Mason complained sliding into the passenger seat.

I got behind the wheel and scoffed, "Because it's a great movie that's why."

"Umhm. That's the last time I'm watching horror movies with you." He plugged his phone into the aux and played Gibberish by MAX and Hoodie Allen.

A few more songs played and we pulled into the jam packed parking lot. I drove through the aisles before I finally found one in the back. I pulled into it and sighed while climbing out of the car.

"Could you park any further away?" He asked while scratching his head.

"Well did you see anything closer?" I said in an annoyed tone.

"Actually yeah."

I slapped his arm, "And you didn't tell me? These heels are going to be hurting my feet by the end of the night and we could've parked closer!" I raised my voice at him.

We continued through the parking lot and when we neared closer to the school I sucked in a breath and switched to bad bitch mode.

My eyebrow was slightly raised and my lips were partially pursed. Mason and I threw open the doors to the hallways which led to the main gym.

Logan stood outside the gym doors with Jake and Charlotte. He was wearing black jeans and a white long sleeve shirt and a black tie, making it look like he was almost wearing a suit. I watched as he talked to Jake, his smile lit up his whole face and the way he stood let everyone know how confident he was in himself.

As we got nearer and the group could hear the click of my heels, Logan turned and when his eyes landed on me my breath caught. The way he watched me made my whole body heat up and my cheeks were surely tinted red with a blush, and not the makeup.

"Damn Daytona. Look at you?" Charlotte said while she circled me. Her dress was a short pink one with halter straps and poofed out at the end. She looked at Logan, but he didn't notice. His eyes were on me the whole time and I avoided his strong gaze.

Charlotte slapped his arm which caught his attention, "Well are you going to say something to her?"

"Oh yeah. Uh you look beautiful Day." I smiled at him and mouth a 'Thanks'. We pulled open the gym doors and entered.

You know the feeling when you're nearing the end of a competition and you and the opponent are tied, but at the very last second your team pulls through and wins?

That was the feeling I got when we walked into the gym and heads turned to watch us. We were lined up with me on the left side, Logan next to me, Mason next to him, Jake, then Charlotte on the end.

While we passed guys whistled at us and their girlfriends slapped them and stormed away. One guy was even pushed in front of us by his friends, "Uh hey Daytona,"

He didn't even have time to finish his sentence before Logan snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me in. "Sorry. Shes not on the market."

The guy, who I'm assuming was a junior, gave a disappointed "Oh." Before returning to his friends. I could see him giving the news to his friends, but even the fact that Logan had said I was 'Off the market', didn't stop one of his friends who I recognized as Shadow, Dean Parker.

He sauntered up to me with a wolfish grin and automatically I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. "Hey baby." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders not even caring that Logan had his arm around my waist. "Fuck me if I'm wrong, but dinosaurs still exist right?"

I could feel Logan go stiff at my side and I whispered to him, "I've got this." I decided to play with him for awhile first, "Oh my gosh! You're so right. They don't exist!"

I could see his smile growing, "Is your name Daisy cause I have the sudden urge to plant you right here."

"No sorry my name isn't Daisy." I went to walk again, but he started walking too so I stopped.

"Are you from the ghetto cause I'm about to ghetto hold of that ass." His arm let go of my shoulder and I grabbed it in my hand before he could move it anywhere.

"Touch me one more time and your dreams won't be the only thing getting broke tonight." I let go of his arm and walked off.

"I'm just like a Rubik's cube! The more you play with me the harder I get!" He yelled after me and I gave him the finger.

Lucky for me, the gym was crowded enough that no one could hear him, and no one was paying attention. In fact the bass from the music blocked out whatever words he said next.

"Well you handled yourself well." Logan spoke into my ear.

"I told you I could." I kept my face forward trying to let my annoyance roll off of me.

Just when I thought I was annoyance free, the Bitch Squad pushed through the crowd and stood in front of us. Usually it was just Makayla and Caroline, but now Jason Smith, Kyle Lockey, and Alex Wilson were with them.

Their little crew matched ours exactly. If they were slightly better looking, it could be a mirror image. Makayla stood across from me, Jason stood across from Logan, then Alex, Kyle, and Caroline.

I rolled my eyes and let out an obvious sigh, "We just got here. Can you guys not wait a few more minutes? Seriously first Dean now you five. Can a girl not get a break?" I complained louder then needed.

"I see you're here with Logan." Makayla snapped at me. She wore a strapless black dress that was probably two sizes too small.

"Is that a problem?" I asked her, knowing good and well that it was.

She narrowed her eyes at me, "Yeah it is. I told you to stay away from him."

I clenched and unclenched my fists. Every second that they stood in front of us just pushed my anger further and further down the scale.

As if sensing how angry I was getting Logan tightened his grip on me. "She's just trying to get under your skin Daytona. Ignore her." He murmured into my temple loud enough only for the two of us to hear. Then he turned to their group, "What do you want Makayla? Can't you see we're trying to have a good time? What do you want from us?"

"Good question Logan." I could see her eyes darken with some kind of emotion, but the dimness of the gym casted shadows over her face, concealing her emotions. "I have a proposal. If I can have a quick conversation with Logan, I'll leave you all alone."

"What's the catch?" I asked.

"Oh there's no catch. I just want to have a simple conversation with him is all." She gave us an innocent smile and I had to refrain from lunging across the five feet separating us and smacking it off.

Logan looked at me, "Fine. I'll talk to you. But promise to leave them, especially Daytona, alone."

"Deal!" She said with more pep then needed.

Makayla and Logan walked off together but the other four remained in front of us. "Move." I grumbled while pushing right between the two jocks.

At first they didn't move, so I took a step back and crossed my arms, "Well. Are you going to move or not?" I arched my eyebrow and glared at them.

It took awhile but they finally parted and I marched right between them. I ran my hands through my hair and groaned under the disco lights. "Hey, don't let her get to you okay?" I turned around and Jake stood there with his hands in his pockets. "Now is this a dance or is it a dance?"

"Thanks Jake." I gave him a sad excuse for a smile but danced with him anyways.

After several songs I looked at Jake, "Where is Logan? He's been gone for awhile?"

"I don't know actually?" We scanned the gym but couldn't see him at first.

"Want some punch?" I yelled over the music a little bit.

He nodded his head and I headed towards the refreshments table. I grabbed two plastic cups and filled them up with punch and turned to find Jake.

"Oh Logan!" When I turned around Logan was right behind me and I jumped, some punch sloshing over the side onto the floor. His hair was disheveled and his tie was kind of crooked, "What happened to you? You look like a mess." I handed him what was going to be my punch cup.

He downed the cup in less then five seconds. "Yeah. Turns out Makayla is a really good kisser."

My heart dropped, "Oh she is? You would know, wouldn't you." I laughed a little and it was my turn to down the punch. "So your guys little 'talk' went well I take it?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah for the most part."

I shook my head and laughed again, "Was this her plan? Make me fall for you, then when things get somewhere you ditch me?"

He shrugged his shoulders again.

"Cool." I patted his chest and rounded the table and walked out of the gym with tears in my eyes.

When I was out of the school I screamed and sat on the curb. I was right near the street but I didn't care. I fell for it again. Tears slipped down my cheeks and I ground the heel of my hands into my eyes, probably smearing makeup every where.

While I sat on the curb my mind ran over every red flag that led up to this moment.

Making the bet with me was probably the start of it. The very next day, is the first time Makayla confronted me about him.

Then the next time she confronted me, Logan took me home and that's when the video of her and me was posted and now that I think about it, the video was from an angle behind me and up close. Perfect angle for Logan. After that whole incident Logan talked me into getting back at Makayla with the paint filled water balloons.

Then when he sang me that song. It was a classic move. He was trying to swoon me. I laughed again as more tears fell down my face.

I fell for his trap and the only person I could blame was me.

I stood up to head to my car when I realized that I had given my keys to Mason.

"Can I get a break?" I yelled into the sky.

"So have you gone that far off the edge you talk to the sky now?" I whipped my head around and found Micah standing a few feet away.

"What do you want?" I wiped away my tears.

"I was just taking a nice Saturday stroll when I happened to see you crying. What's wrong?" The sympathy in his voice caught me off guard.