Losers Buy the Beer

*Cade's POV*

After seeing how Monroe served Grant's head on a platter for everyone to see in the cafeteria at lunch, I was even more interested in her. But I know that as soon as she starts chasing me like they always do, I’ll lose interest. So unfortunate. 

After sitting through a very boring accounting class, I make my way to philosophy and while I’m scanning the class for an empty seat, my eyes stop automatically on Monroe. We make brief eye contact and I smirk when I see the empty seat next to her.

As a walk over, I see her eyes roll and she starts doodling in her book. I keep watching her as she doodles, noticing the intricate vines laced with thorns running through the delicately designed flowers on her shoulder. She looks over at me, and I catch the hard set of her jaw, but seeing her face this close brings a smirk to mine. For some reason, this makes her even more angry and I see a muscle twitch in her jaw as she says, “What do you want?” 

Normally girls revel in any attention I give them so this reaction is like a gut punch to my ego and before I can think, I plaster an all-to-familiar cocky grin on my face and wink as I reply, “I don’t think you really wanna know the answer to that sweetheart.”

I can see the flash in her eyes, but before she can reply, the teacher walks in. Damn. I was kind of looking forward to hearing what she had to say. 

The lesson is long and the teacher doesn’t give us any free time and when the bell rings, Monroe is already up and out of her seat, heading towards the door. I kick myself inwardly. Why the fuck do you care what she has to say? 

My next period is PE so I head to the first floor, meeting Xander, Jason and Brett in the locker room.  We only picked this because it’s an easy credit, but it’s going to be annoying as fuck because all the girls will be sitting on the sidelines wearing gym clothes that are two sizes too small while the guys do their best to show off in front of them. 

As we walk out into the gym I spot Monroe standing with her friend. The school t-shirt shows off the bottom half of her sleeve as well as a couple others on her other arm. The black cropped leggings give me a glimpse of a tattoo on her left calf as well. My mind starts imagining other tattoos she might be hiding. I quickly stop that train of thought because my gym shorts are not very good at, well, concealing...things. 

Thankfully, the gym teacher/football coach Mr. Woods strolls in and immediately starts yelling at us to do laps. Most of the girls groan, but I notice a small grin playing at the corner of Monroe’s lips before she covers it up and begins jogging in the middle of the group. Once the warm-up is finished, Coach states that we’ll be rotating through a bunch of sports on a weekly basis “in order to improve your strength, agility and stamina.” His words, not mine. We are starting with volleyball. Not my strongest sport, but not my worst either.

When the game is about to start, most of the girls move to the benches to watch, except for Mackenzie, who comes over to me and Monroe who takes a spot on the opposite side of the net from me. Before I can stop her Mackenzie stands on her tiptoes and nibbles on my ear before saying, “Maybe if you win, I’ll give you a present.”

I push her away and roll my eyes. She goes over to join the rest of her girls on the benches. I look around, noticing that Monroe is the only girl still on the court. Everyone else notices too, including her. As she looks around, she quickly masks her confusion but makes no move to leave. Coach tentatively says, “Monroe, if you don’t want to play with the boys, you don’t have to. You can sit with the other girls.”

She gives him a defiant glare. If she wasn’t going to leave before, she certainly won’t now. I see her fists clench and unclench as though she’s taking a second to calm herself down before she replies. “I’m good, thanks,” she says without making eye contact.

Fuck, we’re about to get our asses kicked.

Coach hesitates but decides to just let it go and get on with the game. Our team serves first, and naturally, our server aims right for Monroe. I mean, it would be stupid not to aim for the only girl.  Much to everyone’s surprise, except mine, she volleys it perfectly to their front spiker who does not miss his shot. We lose the point. I see a look of confusion cross everyone’s faces. Idiots. 

As the game goes by, everyone starts to realize that Monroe is better than all of us at this game. Her team starts relying on her, and our team starts to avoid her. It doesn’t matter in the end; her team wins anyway. At the end of the period, the teams shake hands. When her small hand slides into mine, I can’t help but think how right it feels. I shoot her a wink as I say good game, but she just rolls her eyes back at me.  

Of course, Xander and Jason were on the winning team, so they run up behind Brett and I, wrapping their arms around our shoulders and start bragging.

“So, losers buy the winners a beer?” Jason says smugly.

“Is that a thing we do now?” I reply.

“I vote yes. The promise of beer might make PE more tolerable.”

“Alright, you’re on,” I say with a smile.

“Oh and Cade,” Xander starts, “you would probably have a better chance of winning if you focussed more on the game and less on Monroe.”

I push him away hard and say, “I was focussed on the game.” Lie. I was definitely more focussed on her than I should have been.

As though he sees right through me, he replies, “Yeah, sure, whatever dude,” with a wink.

I just roll my eyes at that. After we shower and change, we’re lingering in the smoking area discussing where we should go for beers and I see Monroe walking out of the school with the quiet girl from chemistry and a blonde girl. Wait, is that Maddy Sinclair? What is Monroe doing? Is she just picking up all the riff-raff and calling them her friends or what?

I see her point to something at the back of the parking lot before splitting off from them. She walks over to - holy shit. Is that Ducati hers? She confirms my theory by throwing on the helmet and wiggling her fingers into riding gloves and swinging a leg over. She looks to her left and I follow her gaze to see Maddy’s car pull up. She must have yelled something out the window because Monroe nods and then flips up the kickstand with her foot before following behind Maddy. 

Suddenly, I find Xander’s hand waving in front of my face saying, “Yo, earth to Cade! We’re thinking of just chilling at Brett’s, that cool with you?” I snap out of it and look at him. “Sorry, yeah, whatever you guys want.”

I look back to where Monroe was and Xander tries to figure out what I’m looking for but there’s nothing to see anymore. She’s long gone. He just gives me a funny look and says, “You good man?” I nod and we each get in our respective vehicles and head to Brett’s.