THE ROSE AND THE THORN

Chapter 32

I opened my eyes groggily, sitting up in my bed and stretching loudly. Remembering the events that took place night before I smiled widely to myself, thinking about each touch, each kiss, each embrace. I looked to where Ruby had fallen asleep next to me, but the bed was empty. For a fleeting moment my heart had dropped, thinking that she had left me one again, but before I could sit and wallow in self pity she walked through the door holding two plates.

"Morning," she smiled, handing me a plate of eggs, toast and pancakes.

"Good morning," I smiled back.

I didn't know how to act. Should I pretend last night didn't happen? Should I lean up and kiss her? Should I wait for her to mention something?

"Sleep well?" she asked me.

"Yeah, you?" I responded.

"Yeah," she replied. "I let you sleep in a bit but you've got forty five minutes until we have to be at school."

She smiled warmly at me before leaving me to eat the breakfast she had made. After finishing it I showered quickly and got dressed into my school uniform before making my way downstairs. We didn't speak a lot, but when we did it was full of tension. Not bad tension though, just tension.

We drove to school together, talking about the upcoming soccer game against our rival team.

"The girls on that team are crazy, they play dirty and their coach encourages it," I explained to Ruby as she drove.

"How dirty?" she asked me.

"Last year when I sprained my ankle during a game they all cheered and tried to kick at my ankle as I hobbled off," I explained.

"We have to fucking beat them!" she seethed.

"Aw, are you protective over me?" I cooed.

"Protective and competitive. We have to win!" she said, keeping her eyes on the road.

"I'm hanging out with Aimee after school, so is it cool if she catches a ride with us? If not we can walk..." I asked her. I knew she didn't want people knowing about us, but she still didn't know that Aimee knew everything.

"Uh, yeah I guess that's fine. I'll see you in class," she smiled before walking off.

I walked into homeroom and sat down in my usual seat next to Connor.

"Ya know, you never thanked me and Scotty for your birthday present," he said with a wink.

"You mean the stripper?" I asked him.

"Exactly!" he smiled cheekily.

"Well, thank you!" I laughed. "I thoroughly enjoyed myself."

"I could tell, but then you disappeared after..." he hinted at me and I rolled my eyes.

"I hooked up with Lucas' cousin, but we didn't fuck. Just made out," I explained, but he shook his head.

"No, no, no, I saw someone leave your room. Who was it?" He asked, and my stomach dropped.

"Uh, I don't know what you mean, uh, it was no one..." I stuttered.

"Have I ever told you that you're a terrible liar?" he teased, and I smacked him hard on the arm.

"Shut up, you wouldn't believe me if I told you, so I'm not saying anything!" I snapped at him.

"Fine," he huffed, "I'll just ask Aimee."

"No!" I shouted.

"Miss Thorn," the homeroom teacher scolded, "If you can't stay quiet I'll give you detention."

"Sorry," I quickly said, before turning to glare at Connor.

Luckily for me, the bell rang indicating the end of homeroom and the start of first period. Aimee and I had a soccer meeting to go to so we were going to miss out on the first half of first period.

"Aimz!" I called out to her when I spotted her walking from homeroom.

"Hey girl, you okay?" she asked me.

"Connor. He saw Ruby walking out of my room at my party. He doesn't know it's her but he said he was going to make you tell him," I said quickly.

"Don't worry, I won't tell him anything. I'll say it was a hot gatecrasher or something," she reassured me.

"Fuck, okay, thank you. I don't want him knowing!" I said, throwing my arm around her shoulder as we walked to the gym.

The soccer meeting was being run by Mr Linder. He was determined to beat our rival team so badly that he was making us train every afternoon until the game next Thursday. Our team had a bye this week, so we didn't have to play.

"Girls, you know how badly I want to beat this team!" Mr Linder told us as we huddled around him.

"I want to fucking pummel them..." I growled.

"Language, India...but same here. They're dirty, they're rough and they want blood. But so do we. Training this afternoon at 4pm. I won't be here but Miss Rose will."

"We are going to win this!" Candice said, and we all nodded.

༻✧༺

"Okay, girls. Go!" Ruby called out.

We all began dribbling the ball as quickly as we could around the cones. Once we made it to the end we had to dodge a defender and kick the ball into the net. Ruby had us repeating this exercise for ten minutes until all of us had successfully scored a goal.

She then had us working on our defence, using Aimee and I as forwards while everyone else practiced clean tackling.

By the time training was over we were all covered in dirt, grass and sweat. Aimee and I walked gingerly to Ruby's car and climbed in, muscles sore and tired from training.

"That was brutal, Miss Rose!" Aimee complained.

"Be glad it was Ruby training us and not Mr Linder, God knows what he would've made us do..." I said.

"Can I call you Ruby, too?" Aimee asked, and I judged her side harshly.

"Sure," Ruby chuckled, checking her rear view mirror as she reversed into my driveway.

Aimee and I stayed in my room for a few hours talking about Damien, the upcoming soccer match, Ruby, and my parents. She ended up leaving at about 7:30pm and as I opened the door to let her out, someone was standing there already.

"You..." she hissed.

"Hello to you too, Maria..." I responded dryly.