CHAPTER 11 // EDITED

"Can you get your feet off my dashboard?" Riley asked in clear annoyance.

"No, I'm pretty comfortable," I answered not looking up from my book, Riley mumbled and Cody chuckled in the backseat.

"Are we almost there?" Cody asked leaning up to the front. Riley glanced back at Cody, but quickly looked back at the road.

"You'll see when we get there," Riley answered, Cody huffed and sat back in his seat. I turned the page in my book when I felt Riley slow down, I looked up from the book to see a beautiful house in front of us. 

"Is this our new house?" I asked sitting up in my seat, Riley put the car in drive and sat back in his seat with a scoff.

"No, it's just an open house," he replied, he looked over at me and sighed. "I'm begging you, Blake, behave." I scoffed.

"Yeah, because I'm always the problem," I retorted, I got out and shut the door with slight force.

"I mean–"

"Shut up, Dakota," I cut him off, he shot daggers at me for saying his real name.

"Hey," Riley snapped in a whisper, we got quiet and walked over to him. "Gum?" I popped a bubble and he narrowed his eyes, I spit it out and stuck out my tongue. "Come on."

We followed behind Riley up to the porch and went up the steps, my eyes took in the beautiful scenery. We heard different voices as we walked through the front door.

We walked through the crowd of people till we found dad standing with Kate. Des was looking around and Miley was looking at her phone.

"What'd you find out?" Riley spoke up getting dads attention, he cleared his throat before he looked over at Riley.

"We wanted to look at some more choices before we made a final decision," he answered, I glanced around the house–as much as I could with all the humans in my way. I felt a tap on my shoulder making me look up at Riley, he jerked his head gesturing for me to come on.

*

"It's been two hours," I groaned to no one in particularly, I reached down to take off my shoe. "Riley, my feet hurt."

"Dad said this is the last one for the day," Riley said pushing my hands away from my feet. "Suck it up." I groaned dramatically, which only ended with Riley smacking my thigh.

I rolled my eyes and turned up the radio. Halsey leaked through the speakers and I instantly sang along.

"I'm meaner than my demons," I sang loudly, the radio lowered and I looked over at Riley. This bitch.

"I think this is it," Riley spoke ignoring my look, I broke my gaze to look in front of us. Dad was in front of a big gate and he reached out pressing something, the gate opened slowly.

We followed behind dad as we eased in to the gate, I had to resist from letting my jaw drop at the house.

Riley parked behind dad and followed his action climbing out of the car. The last thing I wanted to do was move, but I couldn't deny this house was beautiful.

I thought the outside was worth a jaw drop until we stepped inside. It took everything in me not to just drop my jaw at the inside.

"This is beautiful," Kate spoke first as she turned looking around. Her brown eyes were full of excitement and her hand was over her belly bump.

"It has plenty of room," dad added before looking at Kate. Kate met his eyes and I could tell just by that one look.

This was our new home.

*

"Do you call yourself a hurricane like me?" I sang loudly as I ate some of the cookie dough.

The best days of my life was when I had the house all to myself, I could sing as loudly and dance as crazy as I wanted. I could eat chocolate chip cookies with milk while I binged watched Criminal Minds.

"What the hell are you doing?" A voice snapped me from my zone making me jump with a scream. I turned around to Dre.

"What the hell are you doing?" I shot back. "You can't just sneak up on a person like that."

"What're you going to do? Blind me with cookie dough?" He taunted me, I stuck my tongue out at him and he pointed his finger at me. "Keep sticking that tongue out and I'm cutting it off."

"How was your trip to New York?" I asked, I sat the cookie dough down and walked over to him. "Dad is still with her."

"I could've told you that," he said with a chuckle, I crossed my arms over my chest. "I was there the day your mom and dad got married, I saw the love he had for her. I see that in his eyes now with Kate."

"He does not love her more than he did mom," I shot back with my tone as sharp as a knife.

"Your mom was my best friend, Blake," he said with a chuckle. "I was her maid of honor for god sakes."

I chuckled remembering the picture mom showed me and the story she told me. Dre sighed and then chuckled.

"How's Camila?" He asked, I was about to answer till I heard a groan.

"Don't call me that," Lacey whined as she entered the kitchen making us both look at her. "My name is Lacey for a reason."

"Your name is Lacey, because my mom always saw your lace underwear," I laughed, she mumbled some Spanish and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Like you have room to talk Blakely Greyson," Dre intervened, I narrowed my eyes at him as Lacey giggled. Dre looked over at Lacey making her giggle fit stop. "So, are you still with that douchebag?" The kitchen fell silent and Dre glanced between the two of us. "Take your time."

"Lacey tell him or I will," I spoke up, she looked at me and then looked away. "He didn't know what the word no meant." Dre's face expression never changed as he moved his gaze over to Lacey.

"He's still alive?" Dre asked blankly, Lacey covered her mouth and looked away. "This is your fault, don't cry now." 

I worried at my bottom lip knowing better than to intervene. Dre's mouth had no filter, he told you what you needed to hear not what you wanted to hear.

"That wasn't the first he ever put his hands on you, but for some idiotic reason," he said through his teeth, he hit her head. "You had it stuck in thick skull that he loved and that he cared about you."

"I made a mistake, everyone makes them," she said softly.

"Like your mom did?" He asked, her head shot up and I felt my mouth gap. That was a touchy subject for Lacey and Dre knew that. "Yeah, I went there." Her jaw clenched as she kept her sharp look on Dre.

"Dre that wasn't necessary," I spoke up, Dre looked over at me, but I didn't back down. "Yes, she was stupid, but don't use that against her."

"You really want to start with me?" He asked in a tone I knew better than to challenge. I glanced over at Lacey and she shook her head. "Be good, both of you."

He kissed my head and then walked to Lacey, he grabbed her hands in his and kissed her head. He switched glances between us and then walked out. The door shut and silence fell over us.

"Lace–"

"He was right," she cut me off. "I never should've stayed with Max, it was my fault."

"We all learn," I spoke softly. "Some just learn slower than others."

***

"Why is that dog wearing a bow tie?" Mason asked, I glanced over at Icy and then back at the playbook.

"Jersey at home games, bow tie at away games," Reese answered him, I put the playbook down and finished tying my cleat.

We all slipped on our helmets before we walked on to Jefferson's football field. Our cheerleaders were already doing their chants when we started stretching.

We heard yelling and we turned to see the Jefferson's team running out, their cheerleaders were hyping up their teams stands.

We walked over to our bench and got into a huddle, coach picked out his starter choices and sent us to the field. We all got to our positions and some of us switched up, I bent down and gripped the grass.

"Green, 24, set, hut!" Their quarterback called making us break, he threw it across field and one of the guys caught it. I saw Justice running to tackle the guy with the ball, a player was about to tackle him and I ran after him.

I was just about to reach him till I was hit, my body was slammed down to the ground making me grunt.

"Marco!" Kingston yelled.

"Polo!" I called back, I got up and walked back up the field. Coach switched out some players and we got positioned again.

I bent down gripping the ball in my hand, Reese bent down behind me and tapped my leg.

"Downtown, 14, set, hut!" Reese yelled, I flicked the ball back into his hands and shot up. Reese dodged a player and I tackled another one that was coming his way. Reese threw the ball right before he got tackled, I turned around to see Cody running down the field.

A player snuck up on him and grabbed his waist slamming him to the ground. Kingston made it to the end zone, but I didn't care about that. I was about to yell at the referee for not calling a penalty, but before I could I was jerked back.

"It's not worth it, Blake," Logan said pulling me away from the sidelines. I clenched and unclenched my jaw as I walked back on the field. Coach switched up players again and we got back to our positions.

The time was stopped and it was so close to halftime, not one penalty for their illegal tackles. I was close to losing it.

"Red, 27, set, hut!" The quarterback yelled, we broke and I dodged one of the players as I headed down the field. The quarterback launched the ball and I picked up my speed.

I pushed up from the ground and intercepted the pass, I tucked the ball and landed on my feet. I didn't waste time as I shot down the field, I ducked and dodged the players. Praxton tackled one in front of me and I jumped over to two.

My feet met the ground again, but I didn't get far before I was tackled to the ground. I hopped back up, but I heard yelling. I turned to see Mason face to face with a player.

"Got a problem?" The player shot at Mason as I walked up.

"Trip me making me face plant like that again, and we will," Mason shot back, the player pushed him and Mason's fists clenched by his side.

"Then do something," the player hissed at Mason, Mason stepped forward, but he ran into me.

"He's not worth it, Taylor," I said, his dark stare didn't break from the player. "Taylor." His gaze moved down to me, but his hard glare didn't soften. "I will drag you off this field, Taylor, if you don't turn around and walk away."

He took an angry breath before he turned walking down the field, he ignored the team as they tried to talk to him.

I turned around to the player to see him smirking through his helmet, I drew my leg back and kicked his nuts as hard as I could. His smirk dropped as he groaned falling to the ground.

I turned to the referee, he threw up a yellow flag and I flipped him off as I walked off the field. I saw Mason leaning against the wall in the tunnel, I took off my helmet as I approached him.

"Are you okay?" I finally got the voice to speak, he stayed quiet as he looked over at me. He took a step closer where I could feel the heat radiating from his body.

"Listen to me very carefully," he spoke, his voice was hard and sent shivers down my spine. "Don't you ever get in my way if I'm mad."

"I just–"

"Do you understand me, Blake?" He asked, his voice was calm, but stern. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. He broke his gaze from me, but I couldn't look away.

"Blake, what the hell was that?" Cody snapped walking into the tunnel, I finally pulled my gaze from Mason over to my brother. "You're going to get suspended."

"It'll be worth it," I replied back, I walked away and back on to the field. Coach grabbed me by my mask and threw me on the bench, I knew I was in for it.

The game ended with the other team winning, we were silent while we walked to the parking lot towards the bus.

"Excuse me," I heard someone call from behind me, I turned around to see a woman walking my way.

"Me?" I questioned, she came into my view and I recognized who she was. It was Mason's mom. "Ms. Taylor."

"You stepped in to make sure Mason didn't fight," she spoke as she reached me, I sighed and shook my head.

"It's not the first time I've had to step in and it certainly won't be the last," I replied, my eyes scanned over her outfit and I could tell she came from work.

"Why don't you join us for dinner tomorrow night?" She asked, I was shocked by the offer, but I smiled slightly.

"I'd like that," I answered, she nodded and walked away. I turned and headed towards the bus, I climbed on and glanced back as the doors shut.