Chapter Three Until the Night Ends

Practice lasted for two hours and a half. Bruce, our cheer coach, wouldn't let us leave until we went over every chant and cheer twice, our stunts and tumbling are perfect and our jumps are high. I feared for tomorrow. My arms and legs are going to be deadly sore. We had practice three times a week and I really hoped Bruce would ease up a little.

I collapsed onto my bed and Cassidy did the same.

"Tell me again why we decided to try out for cheerleading in college?" I muttered into my pillow.

"I don't know. High school was so much easier" Cassidy said. "Do you think they'll be mad if we decide to quit?"

"They might not be." I said. "But our moms will be. And I don't know about you but I would like to live another day."

Cassidy's mom and my mom go way back. They used to be cheerleaders for our college. They were good friends but Felicia, Cassidy's mom, moved after she graduated. Some years later she moved back when Cassidy was in the fifth grade. Ever since our 6th grade year, we tried out for cheerleading and they were the best six years of our lives. Then out of no where our moms told us they wanted us to try out for college cheerleading. I didn't have it in me to tell my mom I didn't want to try out instead I did. I didn't actually think I was going to made it but I somehow I did.

"Yeah. I'll be died right beside you." Cassidy told me. "The football games better be worth it."

"We'll find out this Saturday."

"If we make it to Saturday." She reminded me. "Bruce will probably be missing a couple of cheerleaders."

I laughed. "You wouldn't dare miss one of Nolan's games."

"I wouldn't be missing it." She argued. "I'd be in the stands cheering him on and you would be right beside me cheering for Jayce like you always had."

She realized what she said. "Probably not for Jayce but for Levi." She sat up. "I know you told me what happened between you and Jayce but I don't understand-"

I cut her off. "I told you already and I don't want to talk about it." I told her, harshly. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"Yes it does. He wanted to talk to you and then he ditched you in the rain. I know Jayce and I know you but something isn't adding up. Jayce wouldn't have left you for no reason."

I looked away from her. Cassidy was my best friend and I couldn't tell her what actually happened that day. And I didn't know why. I take that back. I did know why. I couldn't tell her because I didn't exactly know what happened.

Jayce kissed me and I felt something but then it disappeared when Jayce left.

"I don't know either, Cass." I said.

She sighed. "Nolan talked to Jayce a while ago and even he is saying something is wrong. You two were so close and got through everything so I don't get what changed that."

I glanced at her. "I don't know what to tell you. I really don't. The only thing I can say is nothing is unbreakable."

Cassidy didn't push the subject any further instead she grabbed her headphones and blocked the world from her.

I knew she was mad at me for not wanting to tell her everything that happened that day without missing one single detail but I couldn't. I just wanted to forget all about it yet I couldn't. That day was imprinted in my mind. Jayce's lips were imprinted on my lips. Those feelings were stuck in my veins.

I reached over to my desk and picked up Midsummer Night's Dream. I opened it and began to get lost into the pages.

Not twenty pages into the book, my phone rang.

"I'm not giving you any more money." I told Levi as soon as I answered.

He scoffed. "Rude. Why not?"

"I already gave you like eighty dollars this week alone."

"Really? It was that much?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm hanging up."

"No! Wait!" he said. "I didn't call you for that. We're all going to Main Event in like half an hour so meet us there."

"How'd you know I want to go?"

"C'mon on Cole. It'll be fun."

"I heard that before." I muttered before saying. "Alright. We'll be there."

I hung up and glanced at Cassidy. She was still listening to music. I picked up one of my pillow and threw it at her. It landed on her lap. She rose an eyebrow as she looked up.

I motioned for her to take off her headphones. She did.

"We're going to Main Event in thirty minutes so get ready."

"Just us two?"

I shook my head. "No. Everyone."

"Okay." she scooted off her bed and started grabbing her bathroom things. "I'm gonna take a quick shower."

"Good idea." I said.

I grabbed my things and we headed to the showers.

***

"Where are you?" Levi said.

"Calm down. We're coming." I told him.

"No. Give me a specific location."

"We're right around the corner."

"Which means you're five minutes away."

"No. Which means we're right around the corner." I repeated.

"Well hurry up."

"Did he just rush us?" Cassidy asked.

"He did." I confirmed.

"Levi you impatient motherfucker. Don't you ever rush us again. We'll get there when we get there. Do you understand?"

"Understand this." Levi said before the line went dead.

"No he didn't just hang up on me." Cassidy said. "Wait until I see him."

She pulled into Main Event and circle the lot twice before she found a parking spot. We hopped out the car and headed toward the building.

Our friends are already inside and had our wristband that meant unlimited bowling, laser tag and mini golf.

Levi was talking to Nolan and Anthony, Levi's friend, when Cassidy hit him. I didn't know what she was saying to him and I didn't want to know.

"Why is Cassidy cussing out my boyfriend?" Hailey asked.

"He hung up on her."

She nodded her head. "That's makes sense."

"Okay. I'm sorry. I won't ever do it again." Levi promised. "Nolan get your girl."

"Babe, I think he understands. You can stop cussing."

"Alright then." Anthony said. "We have to play bowling first cause there's a long ass line to laser tag."

"Fine by me." Levi said. "Save the fun for last."

We walked to the bowling counter to get our shoes.

"What size?" the employee named Larry asked.

"Six." Cassidy told him.

"Damn you got some little ass feet." Anthony commented.

Cassidy grabbed her shoes as she said. "So do you and you know what that means."

"Dude she's calling you out." Levi said, smiling.

"I can prove it to you right now." Anthony replied.

"You could but I can tell it's no bigger than my finger." Cassidy said.

"You got jokes, I see." Anthony said. He looked at Nolan. "How do you put up with her?"

Nolan shrugged. "To be honest, I tune her out."

Cassidy narrowed her eyes. "You tune me out, huh?" she said. "Well"

I pressed my lips together when Cassidy started rambling in Spanish. Her hands were flying through the air as she spoke.

"I didn't mean it baby" Nolan said.

"What size?" Tyler asked with a hint of annoyance. Something told me that wasn't he first time asking me.

"Oh. Sorry. A size seven." I told him.

Once we got our shoes, we picked our balls and headed to a line. Hailey programmed our names.

"You should've put Hot Levi." my big headed brother said.

"I wouldn't describe you as hot." I replied as I put my shoes on.

"Yeah you right. Sexy sounds better."

"Yeah no. Try ugly." I said.

"Why did you always have to pick on me?" he asked. "Mom said if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

"And you wonder why Mom doesn't say anything to you."

He frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"She did give birth to you and you're not the best good looking person ever." I said standing up.

Anthony started laughing. "Burn."

Levi rolled his eyes. "Whatever man."

Cassidy started the game off for us and we went down the line until we reached Nolan the last person.

Hailey came back from signing our names for laser tag.

"The next game begins in twenty minutes." she informed us.

"We can try to finish one more round before we head over there." I suggested.

"Yeah we can." Cassidy agreed.

"Did anyone text Jayce?" Levi asked.

"Yeah. He said he's coming." Nolan said.

Cassidy came beside me. "Are you gonna be okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I mean I can't stop him from not coming."

"Yeah true. We're both of y'alls friends."

"I get it. I don't want y'all to choose between us."

"Who knows, he probably won't even show up."

"I have a feeling that won't happen." I said.

We didn't get halfway through the game before we had to go. We were walking to the back when Jayce showed up.

"What took you so long, man?" Nolan asked.

"I told you I needed less than a week with her?"

Nolan smiled. "You didn't."

The corner of Jayce's lips curled up."Pay up."

"I told y'all Arianna was a slut." Cassidy said. "Gimme my money."

Shaking my head, I walked away from them. Hailey followed me.

"Hey. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah."

Hailey missed the party so she didn't know about the agrument Jayce and I had or anything.

"You sure?"

I nodded. "Yep."

Hailey didn't push it and we headed inside the dark room with fourteen other people. The rest of out group soon arrived making it twenty in all.

Before we can play, the workers showed us a video that was pointless.

"We're all in college" Cassidy said. "can we do without the stupid rules? I wanna crawl on the floor and all that."

"We're not allowed to but I guess I can let it slide this one time." the worker said earning cheers from us.

"Let's make this interesting" Levi said.

"When is it not interesting with you?" Nolan asked.

"What is it this time?" Hailey said. "It better not be another dumb bet."

"It's not." Levi paused. "Well it kinda is."

"What?" Cassidy said.

"How about we do guys against girls. Losers has to do whatever the winner says until the night ends." Levi offered.

We looked at each other before taking the bet.

"Deal." Cassidy said. "Prepared to get your ass kicked."

They took the guys inside the arena before the girls went.

There were two levels inside. The top and the bottom level. The boys are red and we were blue.

"Alright we need a plan." Cassidy said. " Three stay at the bottom and four at the top for protection and us three." she motioned to herself and Hailey and I. "will go get us more points."

"That's a good plan."Hailey said. "But we will have to run back to our side to recharge our guns."

"That's fine. Just shoot when you have to." Cassidy said.

"But what if they surround us?" some blond chick asked. "Like they corner us."

"Let me ask you this?" Cassidy said. "Why the hell would they corner you? They don't care about you. They care about the points."

"Yeah." I said. "That most likely won't happened because they will be on our turf and we have the advantage. But if we're on their territory, they can corner us." I tell her so wouldn't feel that bad.

"One last thing" Cassidy said right before the game started. "I don't care if you have to sacrifice yourself, do not let them get any points."

We separated and I made my way to the top level. I got to the floor and started making my way onto red turf.

I ducked behind one of the walls but it was little help because it had holes in it. I got as low as I could as two guys past by me. I peeked around the corner to see if the coast was clear before moving.

Ducking and hiding, I finally made to my destination. Cassidy was already there aiming her gun at the target worth 100 points. Her finger never came off the trigger.

"Behind you!" Hailey yelled as she popped up from the ground. She covered for Cassidy. I aimed my gun and started shooting the enemy.

"I'm coming back."Cassidy said. "I need to recharge." She raced off and I turned away from the guy and aimed my laser at the points. I shot until I couldn't anymore.

I ran back with Hailey but I didn't make it to my turf. Three guys surrounded me.

"Look at what we got here." One of the guys said.

"Are you really going to waste your time talking to me while you could be getting your team more points?" I asked.

"She's right." Another guy said. "I mean we could shoot her and gain points."

"Yeah but it wouldn't be as much as we could have."

While they were talking, I see Cassidy trying to sneak back into the boy's territory. But the problem was the guys were going to see her if they stop talking to me.

"Let's just go." The first guy said.

I stopped them. "No. Wait." They looked at me.

"What do you want?" Second guy asked.

"I was just wondering if you can tell me your name?"

They frowned. "Why?"

"You're a Tech fan." I pointed at the middle guy's shirt.

"Yeah. We all are."

"Well it so happened to be I'm a cheerleader for them and I know some people who can get you free tickets to the football game this week."

That got their full attention. I motioned for Cassidy to go and she went with Hailey and another girl.

I had a good conversation with them until Levi showed up.

"What are you doing?" Levi asked. "You're supposed to be watching our territory."

"We are."Daniel said.

Levi crossed his arms. "Oh really? Then explain how three girls managed to get inside our territory?"

They looked at me. "You set us up." Jett accused.

I smiled. "I would say sorry but I'm not." I walked away from them.

"Wait. Do we still get free tickets!" Reese asked.

I heard a low chuckled and I spun around to come face to face with Jayce.

"You offered them free tickets now that's childish."

"Better than betting on them." I told him.

"I wouldn't say Arianna was a bet. She was more of a girl who I can cross off my list."

"You're an asshole, you know that." I said as I began to walk again.

He followed me. "I think you can do better than that."

"You know what? I can but I rather not." I said.

"Why not?"

"Why are you following me?"

"I could tell you I have an attraction to you but you already know that didn't you?"

I recharged my gun as I faced him. "You could've fooled me."

He leaned against the wall. "C'mon Cole. How could you not know?"

I rolled my eyes. "You have mixed signals."

He grabbed my arms as I walked past him and spun me around so I was standing right in front of him.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "Let go of me."

"I could but I know you don't want me to."

"What's wrong with you?" I tried to yank free from him but he pulled me closer to him.

I stared at him. Something was off. Way off. Jayce was acting really weird. One moment he's ignoring me and the next he's talking to me. He was all over the place. I look closer at him. He's eyes were slightly red. That explained everything.

I pushed off him. "You're high."

"And?" He said. "I know what I'm saying."

"But you don't know what you're doing to me."

"Yes I do." He dropped my arm. "I know your heart races everytime I look at you. I know your breaths quickens and bumps appear on your skin when I touch you."

"That's not true."

He stopped leaning against the wall and appeared in front of me.

"Yeah it is. And I'll prove it to you."

His hands cupped my face and he slowly brought my face to his. Our lips connected and that fire igniting feeling I felt a month ago reappeared. I brought him closer to me and he moved his arms around my waist.

A voice announcing the game was over was what broke our kissed. I moved around from Jayce and a I told you so smile broke across his face.

He was mocking me. I ran out the arena and quickly took off my vest and hung it up. I didn't bother to get my sheet with my total points on it. I left the room and headed outside. The refreshing air cooled my heated skin.

Cassidy appeared beside me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It was hot in there." It wasn't a complete lie but it wasn't the full truth either.

"I know what you mean." She said. "But guess what. We won! The guys lost."

"Okay we get it." Levi said. "But you only have until the night ends." he reminded us.

"I'm hungry." Hailey said. "How about y'all?" She looked at Cassidy and I.

"Yeah I can eat right about now."

"Let's go to Caboose" Cassidy said.

"Y'all better not pick the most expensive shit either." Anthony told us.

"We can pick whatever we want. That's the price of winning." Hailey said, smiling.

We walked to our cars and I waited as Cassidy talked to Nolan.

"I was right, wasn't I?" Jayce said, standing beside me.

I looked at him and he was smirking.

"You're unbelievable."

"Thank you."

"That's wasn't meant as a compliment."

"I'll take it anyway."

"Would you leave me alone?" I said.

"Yeah. But just until the night ends." He told me, walking away.

I prayed the night would never end but even I knew deep down inside of me I wanted it to and he knew it too.