Without You (Short Story)

Chapter 11: Beginnings and Endings

a/n: since this story is set in england, the sport soccer is going to be referred to as "football" in this chapter.

Avery

"Aves, he is so totally looking at you!" Skyler squealed, plopping her pompoms down on the ground twice to emphasize her words.

"Yeah A, the guy hasn't been paying attention to the ball since practice started. I mean come on. He literally has one job," Bianca laughed, looking over to the football players practicing in the distance.

They've been running around at their coach's bidding about the same time as we started practicing our cheers, but it was evident that they were more tired than us.

Shaking my head at my two best friends, I decided to look over to the jocks too, just so I can prove them both wrong. Sure enough the star player, Kyle Matthews, was looking right at me, just at they said. As if that wasn't embarrassing enough, he even had the audacity to send me a flirtatious wink right across the football field.

Well. That little devil.

Judging from the annoying giddy squeals from the rest of the cheerleading squad, I'm guessing literally everyone saw that. It also earned me a few amused snickers from Skyler and Bianca, who were already conniving with each other just a few feet away from me, right by the grass.

"Oh my God, he really is looking at me," I exclaimed, plopping down on the grass right next to Skyler as I tried to hide my face behind my pompoms.

"Uh, that's what we've been trying to tell you the whole afternoon, A," Bianca snickered, a stupefied expression on her face as she popped a pineapple chunk into her mouth.

"Well yeah, I mean, I didn't know you were actually serious about it!" I said, giving out a sigh as I rested my head on my pompoms.

I was literally lying on the ground now, exhausted from cheer practice and disturbed by the sudden attention I was receiving from Pacific Prep's star football player. It's a good thing we were on a ten-minute (or should I say indefinite) water break though, or else, head cheerleader Scarlett Shipman would literally have my head on a platter. Scarlett has basically been trying to kill every single person on the squad today with her deadly routine, and to say that we were more than happy when she begrudgingly left to get her chipped nail fixed would be an understatement. She basically growled that she'd be back and that we better not be, and I quote, "sorry ass excuses for cheerleaders" when she comes back.

It's bad enough that she's been starving us for the cheer-offs at the football game this weekend, but Bianca and I managed to sneak in a few fruit cups into practice.

"Um, could you explain to me why would we joke about Kyle freaking Matthews noticing you? I don't know if you've noticed, love, but this whole thing going on between you two is bound to become gossip of the year right there," Skyler said, wiggling her eyebrows at me as she stole a sliced peach from Bianca's fruit cup. Bianca just slapped her hand away and went right back to teasing the hell out of me instead.

"And besides, A, don't you just think it's so worth it to see that look on Scarlett's face whenever she sees Kyle staring at you? She's literally been trying forever to get Kyle's attention. Head cheerleader and star football player always top the social food chain in this school, but this star football player's got his eyes trained on someone else," Bianca said, her midnight black hair blowing in the wind as she gestured behind her with her thumb, pointing at Kyle across the football field.