Teach Me to Please | Please Me #1

TWENTY TWO

  I couldn't get it out of my head no matter how hard I tried. His eyes. His touch. His words. It was all I thought about for the next several days. I couldn't stop it.

   "Are you even listening?" Rya snapped me out of my thoughts and asked. I focused back on the chart she had in front of her.

   "Sorry?" I blinked a few times to force myself back into reality.

   "I said, do you think he's cheating?" she repeated frustratedly.

   "Who?"

   "Christopher!" who else would Rya be so aggravated by? Last night Christopher posted a chart from the Principal's office on his Instagram story showing the running lead for Valedictorian and winner of Best Student. He was in the lead with both and Rya was just behind.

   "I asked around all of my classes to see who they'd vote for Best Student and not one of them said Christopher! Plus, I've been beating him in more classes by a few marks recently. I definitely think he's cheating!"

   "And why would he cheat?" I sighed, resting my chin on my fist.

   "Because he's trying to get under my skin!" she burst.

  I shook my head and rolled my eyes, "And he totally isn't doing that."

   "He definitely is not." Rya said, ignoring the sarcasm in my remark. "Urgh, I wish he'd just accidentally set himself on fire."

   "Accidently?" I raised an eyebrow.

   "Yes, but I'm 'accidentally'. I want to set him on fire."

  I rolled my eyes again and laughed. Sometimes I got too concerned for Rya, she was one anxious ball of stress. I just hoped when she went off to college, she'd calm down a bit. Hoped, is the key word here.

  I focused back on tying my nightmare of a shoelace. I've had the same pair of trainers for almost two years and the white on the sides now looked permanently grey. It was Cheer practice once again and I already couldn't wait to leave. In all honesty, I wasn't a big fan of cheerleading, but I joined because it made sense. The popular girl who's also a cheerleader, it was the perfect cliché despite the fact I could do without it.

   "You know you've been doing your shoes laces for fifteen minutes." The voice of Taylor Vermont commented behind me. I turned my head to look up at him looking down at me, his eyes subtly flickering to Rya every two seconds.

   "So?" I argued.

   "It kind of looks like you're avoiding someone." He gestured his head to Adam running drills across the gym hall. Shitless, I might add. So, I kind of was avoiding Adam. It angered me how one minute he could be the sweetest guy in the world and then turn into some A-class, clown-head, asshole.

   "I'm not." I lied. Taylor gave me a knowing look and I sighed. "And what's it to you if I am, huh?"

  I watched as he looked around and gave in with easy defeat. "You could say we're not exactly friends anymore." The words came out bitterly.

   "What happened?"

  Taylor sighed and rolled his eyes, he sat down next to me and began, "He keeps pretending that she's some saint." I knew who 'she' was. "It's like he's ignoring everything everyone says because, in his eyes, she could never do anything wrong."

   "It's so fucked up." I grumbled.

   "Isn't it? Anyways, I was at his house a few days ago, it'd been ages since we hung out just the two of us, but guess what?" He didn't give me enough time to answer. "Leah shows up, something obviously bothering her - whether it was for effect or not, I don't know - but she suddenly just wants all of Adam's attention, ignoring my presence completely!"