[on hiatus] Metamorphosis of a Mean Girl (How To Rule Your High School Part 2)

Chapter 7: Poolside

I tugged on a sweatshirt and slid my phone into my pocket as I crept out of my room, past Brett's snores and down the back stairs into the kitchen. The alarm system blipped as I slid out the back door, the pool glowing blue in the darkness. I parked myself on one of the lounge chairs, huddled over against the night's chill and cursing that I'd forgotten to put socks on. Crickets chirped, then fell silent as footsteps rustled through the grass behind me.

"If you're not getting your beauty sleep, neither am I." Brandon's whisper slipped through the darkness before he did. He clamped a hand over his mouth as he yawned, attired in a CHS football sweatshirt and basketball shorts. Rather than take the lounger beside me, he plunked down on mine, bumping me with his shoulder. "So, you know none of that trash she wrote is true, right?"

"Yeah," I croaked. My face crumpled.

Of course I knew. Except the untruth Brandon was referring to wasn't the one that was eating me up inside. Only Vicky, Ernie, and I knew the real truth – that Dakota hadn't written a single one of those words. Vicky had, and I'd helped her destroy Dakota with them.

Brandon's arm found its way around my shoulder. I couldn't help but lean into him as the tears sprang forth again.

"It's gonna be okay," he said into my hair.

I shook my head.

"Hey." He tipped my chin up with a finger. His blue eyes were creased with worry in the eerie light from the pool. "I mean it. It's gonna be okay."

If only. If only.

I pressed my face to his chest and his arms closed around me, warm and firm and comforting. I hadn't realized how desperately I needed to be hugged until then. His cologne lingered on his sweatshirt, spicy and warming in the cool night's air. He held me like that as I cried, mourning the past I could never go back to, not after what Vicky had set into motion.

"I'm sorry, I'm slobbering all over your sweatshirt," I said, when I realized, horrified, that my tears had seeped into the grey cotton between the C and the H of the school initials. I traced the spot with a fingertip, and glanced up at him.

His left arm stayed around my shoulders as the other slid up my arm to stop my fingers from worrying with the wet spot. "You shouldn't have to cry alone. Even if it means crying all over my favorite sweatshirt."

I could feel his heartbeat through his layers as his hand rested atop mine, pressed to his chest. He offered me a smile, one that was small and gentle, softening the creases of his eyes. Everything about him was reassuring, from the press of his hand around mine to the weight of his arm on my shoulder. He didn't seem to care that I'd sobbed through his shirt, nor did he seem to care that I didn't have much to say as we sat together in the dark. I could just cry, and he would just hold me.

"Come on." He shifted back onto the lounger, tugging me alongside him. I folded myself into the safe place beneath his arm, resting my head on his chest. He reached behind him with his free hand for the pool towel draped over the back of the chair and threw it over our legs as best he could. My freezing toes relished the new warmth and I snuggled closer to him, the steady thump of his heart beneath my ear the lullaby I hadn't known I needed.

I thought I'd only closed my eyes for a minute when I opened them again to find the sky tinged with grey as the birds chirped in the bushes behind us. Brandon's chest rose and fell in the even cadence of sleep, his arm still around my shoulders. Our legs had tangled as we slept, with my foot hooked around his calf. The dew had settled, plastering my hair to my face and dampening the towel we shared. I shivered and Brandon shifted beneath me.

"What time is it?" he asked, his voice rough with sleep as his back arched and he stretched out.

I fished my phone from my pocket. "5:22."

Brandon groaned. "Five more minutes." His arm tightened around me.

As much as I wanted to stay, my neck was sore from sleeping so awkwardly on his shoulder and the damp towel was sticking to my bare legs. "I have to go."

Brandon sighed. "Fine. But I might just stay." He yawned and rolled into the space I'd vacated on the lounger.

I couldn't help but smile as he shifted, his eyes already closed again. "Connie won't be pleased when she finds your empty bed."

"Connie won't be happy that you're trying to mother me too."

I tore the towel off of him and he curled up, the hairs on his legs standing on end at the chilled morning air.

"No fair!" He shoved upright, lunging for the towel, but I'd already thrown it onto the next lounger.

"Brett will kill me if he finds you here. Please, Brandon." I seized his wrist and yanked, trying to get him up.

With a groan, he wearily pushed himself off the lounger. As he stretched, his abs peeked out from beneath his football sweatshirt. "I see how it is, princess. I come to your rescue, you cry all over me, and then kick me out before the sun rises."

"Technically, I can't kick you out if we're already outside."

Brandon fixed me with a tired grin that devolved into another yawn as he tugged his hood up, over his dew-dampened, disheveled hair. "Chauffeur, shoulder to cry on, but not allowed to stay the night. You drive a hard bargain, Madison."

I couldn't help but smile, a blush creeping into my cheeks at the look he'd fixed me with as he shoved his hands into the pouch of his sweatshirt.

I pointed back towards his house. "Home. Before Connie gets worried."

He rolled his eyes, but turned on his heel nonetheless. "Brutal. Absolutely brutal, princess."

"And stop calling me princess!" I hissed over my shoulder.

"Sure thing, princess."

I debated replying, but shouting might have woken my family. Instead, I hurried over the chilled, dew-soaked pool deck, my feet like twin chips of ice. The alarm blipped as I entered and I tried not to leave a trail of damp footprints to the stairs.

When I fell into bed, I didn't care that I had less than an hour left to sleep. I slept, and that was all that mattered.

**A/N Jun 21 2019: Happy Friday everyone! A bit of a change of pace for this chapter. Do you think Maddie should have met up with Brett? How do you think that bodes for things between her and Tyler? And as always, if you enjoyed it, please take a moment to vote and comment :) **