In which I fall in love with my brother's best friend.
*****
"Don't pretend like you don't feel anything." His voice is low, sending shivers down my spine.
"What do you mean?"
"You know damn well what I mean."
"I don't know what you're talking about...
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Deep thumping music fills my ears as I enter the club with Stacey and the other orchestra members. There are 15 of us. Not all members join the celebration because some of them are in their final year, hence already busy with juggling music activities and their final projects. But this is quite a crowd already. It's impossible to fit all the section members in a club already jammed with people.
"Wow. What a shift of music genre," Andrew jokes, making some of us laugh.
"It doesn't hurt to experience a piece of something else other than that of Bach and Frans Liszt." Henry smirks at their concertmaster, as if knowing that those composers are Andrew's favourites.
We walk toward the table, catching people's attention. Maybe most of them are wondering why we appear too formal for this Saturday night's out. Little do they know that we're all dressed up for a classical concert.
I follow the pack, giggling beside Stacey with my arms linked to hers. But then, something catches my attention.
Something that makes my heart almost stop beating and my breath catch in my throat.
There at one of the tables sit Vaughn and his friends. I suppose that they are his football buddies, because they look like ones, with those athletic figures and powerful laughter roaring through the crowd. They are drinking beers and laughing, definitely enjoying the night.
And definitely enjoying the company they have brought along with them. The cheerleaders.
It's obvious because the girls are still in their cheerleading outfits.
Stacey gasps as she notices their picture-perfect existence. She quickly drags me toward the table to sit down with the orchestra team before I humiliate myself from gawking at the sight of Vaughn surrounded by girls.
I sit down like I'm being hypnotized, but my eyes don't leave him as one of the girls pecks him on the cheek. Suddenly, I feel dizzy and nauseated. Vaughn, however, seems unfazed by that gesture as he keeps talking to the guys. He looks like he's enjoying the moment too.
And he definitely looks like he doesn't notice our existence. Or doesn't want to notice, since the first guess is highly unlikely due to the fact that we've made such an eyecatching entrance.
Henry whistles. "I heard the cheer team just won a competition today. They must be celebrating it."
His voice snaps me out of my thoughts, and I quickly avert my eyes from Vaughn.
Pull yourself together, Melanie.
What a dramatic coincidence. It's ironic how I'm actually having a night out to forget about him but then he keeps popping up in front of me.
Stacey squeezes my thigh softly, like she's assuring me that everything will be just fine. I doubt it, anyway.
Andrew watches the cheerleaders with drool on his face, and Henry laughs at his expression.
