“Rylee is that the last of the boxes?” my mother called up the stairs. I jumped on my suitcase one more time in an attempt to close it. “I just have one more suitcase, Mom,” I said and continued to struggle. “Oh, honey,” my mother laughed. “Have I taught you nothing over holidays? You have to do it like this.” She sat down on the suitcase and pushed everything inside before she zipped it shut with ease. “I don’t think I weigh enough; I wasn’t blessed with the family height sadly.” “That hasn’t stopped you from getting into San Marco for JV Cheerleading. I thought you would be over the moon right now, and you’ll finally get to join your brother and Aiden.” My heart stopped at the mention of my childhood crush, the boy I could very well call another brother from a different mother. Our family has known the Reed family since before my brother and I were even a thought. My mother and Aiden's mother were best friends in high school and were on the same cheer team at University. They
“So, how did your Mom take the move this morning?” Aiden asked into the silence of his truck. “Just like Avery, she couldn’t wait to get me out the door,” I chuckled, but it came out a lot more forced than I wanted it to. “She’s just excited that you’re following in her footsteps. My Mom used to always say that you were the daughter she always wanted.” Just another reminder that I was nothing more than a little sister in his eyes. I forced another smile. “What time is the party tonight?” “Just text me whenever you guys are ready, and I’ll come and get you. Avery is going to be busy setting up for the party.” “Okay, thanks for the ride back, Aiden. I’ll see you tonight,” I said and hurried to get out of the truck. My heart pounded the entire way to my dorm room. This was how it always was when I was around Aiden. I can never control my feelings and my emotions are all over the place. This was supposed to be my year to start anew, but I wildly underestimated how much I thought I
Jake and I moved back onto the deck and sat down. “You have a lot of guts showing up to a San Marco frat party. I guess I can assume you and your friends are also on the Jacksonville State football team, right?” He slapped a hand to his chest in fake surprise. “How did you guess?” I chuckled. “Well, I should warn you now, my brother is captain of the San Marco Tigers, and I start my first year as a JV cheerleader this year for that exact team.” “Then this must be my lucky day.” “Oh, how so?” I was barely in my drinks, but I already felt the liquid courage coursing through my veins as the flirtatious conversation flowed between us. “I was hoping I’d get more excuses to see you, and it turns out I’ll get to see you at every game with San Marco. I used to dread those, now I’ll have something to look forward to.” He flashed me a cocky grin but for some reason it made me laugh rather than gag. “Wow, you really are the sweet talker.” He leaned a little closer. “It’s pretty easy when
When I woke up the next morning I was so disoriented I nearly forgot where I was. A look at the familiar décor reminded me that I crashed in Aiden’s room last night and looked down to confirm with the shirt I was wearing. I looked around the room and didn’t spot him anywhere, my guess was he successfully crashed in Avery’s room, and he was somewhere asleep downstairs or in the yard. I let out a loud yawn and trudged out of bed to grab my clothes from the bathroom and get changed, but I decided to keep Aiden’s shirt on and tucked it into my jeans. The smell of eggs and bacon greeted me as I walked down the stairs and I found Aiden in the kitchen cooking up a storm. “You’re up early. Where is everyone else?” I asked and took a seat at the island counter. Aiden just pointed over his shoulder with the spatula toward the living room. Sprawled out on both couches and the ground were Avery, Carter, and Noah. None of them made it to their rooms it seemed. “Sucks to be them, they’re going
“What do you think that was about?” Isabelle asked. “Guess it looks like I was right, he was watching you guys.” “Would you stop? He’s probably thinking of ways to tell my brother that I’m hanging out with the enemy. I’ll never be able to live this down,” I groaned. “So, who cares? Jake is a hottie and he seems really into you. Just go for it, don’t care what your brother thinks. He can’t keep you from dating everyone just because he doesn’t like them.” It wasn’t so much my brother that I cared about, it was more Aiden. What would he think of me if I started dating Jake? Would he start to hate me too and think I was a traitor for fraternizing with the enemy? That sounded ridiculous. “Let’s forget about that and just watch the game, I have enough drama to deal with,” I said and thought to when I’ll be on that field myself soon with Leah and her demanding tone. The first game of the year was as intense as I expected, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off two particular numbers the entire
“Ugh, my head,” I groaned. Last night's decisions were a huge mistake, I never should have drunk that much or moved around so much without a drop of water. I blinked my eyes open and was met with the familiar ceiling of Aiden’s room and looked around at the familiar décor.“How did I end up here?” I muttered.I looked around for my phone and spotted the bottle of Advil and a glass of water on the nightstand. A smile spread on my face as I thought of Aiden and how he must have been the one to bring me up here and even made sure I drank something and had painkillers for my hangover.‘Why does he make it so hard to not like him?’ I took this opportunity to steal more of Aiden’s clothes and searched for a pair of jogging pants to change out of my leggings that had been soaked with sweat after sleeping in clothes all night. Once changed I headed downstairs where Aiden was once again cooking breakfast and Avery was passed out on the couch.“I’m starting to enjoy these weekend morning routi
“Is Jake coming to pick you up? What movie are you guys going to see?” Isabelle continued to ask question after question as I prepared for my date with Jake. “Would you like to come with us, Izzy?” I joked. She groaned. “I’m sorry, it’s been so long since I’ve gone out. I have to live it through someone, don’t I?” I just rolled my eyes and laughed. I was just as excited as she was but add on a ton of nerves to that as well. “We’re going to see some horror movie, I can’t remember the name of it, but we learned we’re both huge horror buffs, so this should be interesting.” My phone went off with a text from Jake that said he was out front, and I rushed out the door to see his car parked in the lot. “You look beautiful,” he said and kissed me on the cheek. “This is for you.” He pulled out a single rose. “That is so sweet, and the first flower I’ve received.” He placed a hand over his chest. “It is my honour to give you your first. Is it alright if we go to the movie first and then
I paused and waited as Aiden got out of his truck and stood next to it. I didn’t need to be able to see his face to know he was scowling. I heaved a heavy sigh and dragged my feet over to him. “Why did it take you so long to get back home? It’s almost midnight.” I rolled my eyes and groaned. “And I’m 19 and in University, and it’s a Saturday! I’ll ask again because you still haven’t given me an answer, but what in the fuck is going on with you?” I cried. “You’ve been acting like a super over-protective older brother and it’s really pissing me off.” “I’m just trying to make sure you don’t make some hasty mistake because you feel like you have so much to make up for. You’re the one who has been acting like a completely different person ever since you started here.” I gaped at him. “What are you talking about? I went on one date, Aiden! Just admit that the only problem you have with me dating Jake is because he beats your ass on the field every time!” The silence between us becomes
1 Year Later... Day of the Wedding Today was the day, all my dreams were coming true. I was about to marry my best friend and the love of my life. We had been through so much together in life, from growing up with each other to all the secrecy and suffering that finally led us to this day. I was remembering the day he proposed to me while I gazed at myself in the floor-length mirror in the whitest gown, it was almost blinding. I laughed several times when I saw how white it was, knowing that I was the furthest thing from 'pure' at that moment, especially with the bedroom activities Aiden and I had finally got up to once we rekindled 3 years ago. The door burst open and the twins rushed in, dressed perfectly and looking like angels in their bridesmaids' dresses. "We got it," Kendra said. "Finally," Kinsley grumbled and held up my veil. "Jeez, what took them so long with it? It's such a simple design." I laid out the veil and looked at the large Dallas Cowboys star stitched into
2 Years Later… “Go, San Marco, Go!” I cheered as loud as I could, but I could feel my voice becoming hoarse. This was the last game of the semester, and then I was off to live the dream. What dream was that? I had no idea. It had been 2 years since Aiden, and I resolved our differences and had been the greatest ever since. He finished his secondary schooling and was drafted into the junior league football team right away. This year was his first year as the draft pick and I wanted to get on the same cheer team as his team. But the chances of that were one in a million. It was my last year and not a single scout had noticed me, even as the cheer captain. Aiden kept reassuring me that it would happen, I just had to keep being the best that I was. But the past year had been draining to me and it felt like it was all for nothing. If I wasn’t scouted, the next best option would be to interview for different teams, but that was another long road of rejection. I didn’t think my little h
“I’m sorry to suddenly bring you here, Miss Parks,” the Dean said. I was sitting in his rather small office in an uncomfortable leather chair and wondered what in the hell I did to get called to his office. “It was brought to my attention over the Winter Break that there has been some harassment and bullying within the cheer squad. Today, we are putting an end to that, starting with the suspension of Leah Palmer and dismissal of her captain position. Now, I understand that this position is something that is agreed upon by the members, but with one semester left of the school season, I believe your team is in desperate need of a captain.” My blood froze over in my veins. “Are you asking me to be cheer captain?” What was he talking about harassment and bullying? Sure, she was unbearable to work under, but Leah never really bullied anyone to the extent of being suspended. What the hell was going on? Was he really not going to tell me anything? I wondered, but there was no use asking
The entire Christmas break, I did nothing but mope around the house. I eventually talked with Avery and told him that Aiden and I got into a huge fight over Leah, that his dating her has been causing issues for our cheer squad and the fight was big enough to cause a falling out between us, but I wanted to reassure him that it shouldn’t affect his relationship with Aiden. It was more time for me to branch off from the two of them. They were always my only friends when I was growing up, but they both didn’t have much longer left of school and they would be going off to start their football careers. I still had 2 and a half years left, I needed to make my own circle of friends and rediscover who I really was, whoever that was outside of my brother and his best friend. I knew there was a girly side of me that I had always wanted to tap into, and now was the chance since I was no longer surrounded by dudes all the time. I tried over the winter break to experiment with my style and get ri
I laid in bed, hung over to shit, and once more regretted my life choices. My phone had been blowing up with messages and calls from Leah, but I ignored every single one of them. I did what she had asked of me at the end of the game. She promised she wouldn’t leak the photos if we acted like a couple, and she was my celebratory kiss if we won the game. It had always been my plan since the day Rylee and I confirmed our feelings for each other, that I would run to her and kiss her when we won the championship game, or even if we didn’t. I wanted to tell the world that we were together, I had already worked on my speech to Avery in hopes that he would’ve understood. But it was all tossed out the window thanks to my dumb ass. I never put a passcode on my phone because I always forgot it when I was drunk, and recently that was quite often. Thanks to that, it was easy for Leah to get to my phone whenever I left it out. We had to leave our phones in the locker phone and I remembered the d
I knew it was futile to chase after him, and I was too numb to do that anyway. I stayed in the boys' changing room for what felt like hours and sobbed to myself until Isabelle eventually found me. She said the twins never saw me come back out of the locker room before they went back to their dorm. She managed to get me out of the room and back to our own dorms, but I was completely numb and was in disbelief for hours after. Everything happened so fast, I had no idea what to do. One side of me wanted to run to him and demand a real answer as to what was going on, while the other side of me was too shocked to do anything at all. “Rylee, what happened? You gotta talk to me, babe.” Isabelle tried her best to get me to talk but I just didn’t feel like speaking about it yet. If I spoke about it out loud, it would make it all the more real. She sighed in frustration. “I’m calling Aiden.” This snapped me out of it. “No, don’t!” “I knew it, it has something to do with him. What is it? Spi
I pursed my lips as Leah went white in the face. “How much of that did you hear?” I asked him. He scoffed; his words and glare directed at Leah. “I heard enough.” “Well, then I’ll leave the both of you to it,” I said and walked back into the house. I could feel the nervous energy from Leah even after I closed the door and couldn’t help but laugh a little before I went back to join the guys at Mario Kart. I kept my eye on the back door and made sure Leah didn’t try anything weird as Noah did, but they stood at a distance and talked for a long time, there wasn’t any yelling even. I looked away again to zone into the game and went I looked back after; they were both gone. “I’ll be right back,” I said and bumped Carter. “We won’t wait for you!” he called back, and I just flipped him the bird. I searched the house for either Aiden or Leah but couldn’t find either of them downstairs. My heart started to pound, and I tried my best to keep my thoughts from thinking the worst case until
I shrugged. “If you say so. I’ll see you there.” I closed my locker with my clothes and walked out the door, not bothering to change anymore and left with my cheer uniform still on. As soon as I was out of distance from the changing rooms, I called Aiden and breathed a sigh of relief when he picked up right away. “Hey, are you almost ready?” he asked. “So, you are still picking me up?” I could almost hear his confusion. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” “I’ll tell you later, I’m heading back to the dorms now, I’ll text you when I’m ready.” I groaned after I got off the phone. Why did this girl have to cause so much drama over one guy? I had gone to my own extents in the past to get Aiden to notice me, but I would never blatantly lie about being with someone who barely gave me the time of day. That was asking for that relationship to fail before it even began, but she was going to find out the hard way when I showed up with Aiden at the party. At the same time, I was getting a ba
“There is no use denying it, we’ve been watching the both of you for a while now,” Kendra smirked. “Yeah, and it’s obvious you guys have been secretly hooking up for weeks now.” I scoffed. “Okay, it hasn’t been for weeks.” They gasped. ‘Oh, shit.’ “So, you guys are dating?” they asked. There was no point in denying it after my blunder, so I spilled the beans after I made them promise they wouldn’t breathe a word to anyone, ever. If word got to my brother, it would be the death of us both. “Wow, that is ultra adorable,” Kendra squealed. “Yeah, you guys are living out a fairytale,” Kinsley added. I rolled my eyes but felt my cheeks blush. “Whatever, now that you know you can never repeat anything spoken in this room. I’ll be killed if Avery finds out.” “Or if Leah Palmer does.” I frowned. “Is she still going after Aiden? Were they ever actually dating?” “Wouldn’t you know?” Kinsley asked. I was too afraid of that answer, so I avoided asking him. “Regardless, nothing is hap