Epiphany (noun)

- a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something.

~*~

The black sunglasses felt heavy on the bridge of my nose. I sagged back against the passenger seat of Nolan's car and groaned, wondering why the sun decided to be extra vivacious today. My head was pounding and I was positive that I'd never encountered such a ferocious hangover before. Going to that bonfire was a bad idea and judging by the unpleasant whimper originating from my left, my best friend thought so too.

"The sun is being a bitch today," he muttered, shifting his sunglasses to the top of his head so he could run a hand over his exhausted face. His movements were so slow that he didn't even realise he poked himself in the eye. Blinking at the burning sensation, he turned to me with a pout. "Why did we go to that bonfire?"

I groaned and blanketed my ears. Everything seemed louder than usual. It felt like Nolan was screaming in my ears even though he sat at a distance and spoke softly, almost a whisper. "It was your idea."

Nolan stared ahead out of the windscreen at our school. Numerous students from both Lakeside and Redmonte were scampering around, adorned in colours that supported their respective teams. The game was scheduled to happen in a few minutes but neither of us could even progress out of the car. I was dressed in my cheerleading uniform and Nolan wore the familiar red soccer jersey. "I wanted to meet Sabrina."

"So that's the name of the girl you ditched me for," I taunted, meaning no malice at all. A smile towed at his lips and I grinned at the blush slowly developing on his face. "Oh my, is Nolan Bean blushing?" I cackled at his expense, finding joy in the fact that this was the first time he'd ever liked somebody. The guy clung to my side so much that people had thought we were dating.

"Shut up," he groaned and shoved at my shoulder but it was a weak attempt, his arm merely falling debilitated beside him. His green eyes found my gaze through the sunglasses and I could see the care swimming in them. "You were okay though? Right? Nothing bad happened to you?"

I puffed and rubbed his shoulder softly to reassure him. "Besides embarrassing myself in front of a hot guy? Nah, I was fine." My thoughts gravitated back to the guy I had met on the beach, Liam, and I questioned if I'd run into him at the game. Surely he'd come and support his school, right? I mean, he gave that much away already. Loud cheers began reverberating through the air and I turned to the raven-haired boy next to me. "We need to get out of this car."

"My legs feel like jello," he stated in a pained tone as he moved his sunglasses back down to shield his burning eyes. "I don't think I can even walk. How the fuck am I gonna run?" This wasn't the first time either. It seemed that we never learned from our past mistakes.

"Try doing a cheer routine while hungover," I appended in a sullen tone, already feeling my stomach churn. I really wasn't in the mood for all those flips. I was terrified that when the girls went to throw me in the air, I'd projectile vomit.

Nolan abruptly began howling with laughter but he promptly stopped and put a hand to his head. "Fuck. I can't even laugh without my head spinning." Taking a moment to calm himself down, he shifted to face me with an amused smile. "How much do you wanna bet you'll land on your head instead of your feet when they flip you "

"Five bucks," I responded, my voice solemn. "And that's only because I know it's actually going to happen." Students began wandering past the car and travelled to the field. Both of us sighed, comprehending it was time to head out. "Let's go, pretty boy."

We both floundered out of the car and had to take a minute to stabilise ourselves. My best friend bent against the door frame with a hand on his heart and I snorted at the drama queen he was. However, there was such a thing as karma and the next moment, I tripped over my shoelace and plunged to the concrete ground. Nolan spluttered with hilarity as I stared at my scraped and burning knees with an unhappy pout. I scowled at the tall boy before tying my laces and pushing myself back onto my feet.

Once we were both fine, Nolan locked his car and we made our way to the field. The pom-poms in my hands felt heavy even though they barely weighed anything. People gawked as we passed but I couldn't give a shit. My head was bloody throbbing and my knees were stinging. Trust me to injure myself before even stepping foot onto the field. Nolan and I halted beside the bleachers where we saw the Redmonte team warming up. I could see my dad in the distance with his own team and he was waving Nolan over.

"Here goes nothing," he said with a frown. "Prepare to watch me embarrass the shit out of myself."

Veering onto my tiptoes, I dropped my pom-poms beside me and cupped his face in my hands, staring him dead in the eye. "Listen to me. You're Nolan Bean. If anyone can play soccer while hungover, it's you. You got this." I pecked his nose and he sent me a dimply grin. "Now go out there and kick some ass, sugar bean." With that, I slapped his ass and he snorted.

He hauled me into a smothering embrace and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Try not to get a concussion while cheering. I love you."

"I love you too," I mumbled against his chest before pushing him on his way, watching as he was dragged into a huddle with my dad and his team. My eyes roamed to the opposing team, watching as they stared at Caleb giving his usual speech before a game. I examined the group, trying to locate the guy they called Flash Finn. Eventually, I gave up because they all kept moving around and I was unable to read the back of their jerseys.

For a few seconds, I stood still, wondering if Maya would notice if I snuck out to hide in Nolan's car. But with a frown, I realised that I was one of the flyers. They'd notice if the girl that was supposed to be thrown in the air was missing. A scowl made its way to my face and I was suddenly enraged at the truth that I couldn't go and sleep in the car.

Just as I picked up my pom-poms and was about to go and find my cheer squad, a loud voice spoke up, "why be moody when you can shake your booty?"

I screeched, twisting around to find the familiar coffee brown eyes belonging to Liam. My eyes narrowed at him and my scowl intensified. "It's you."

His muscular body was ornamented in a green soccer jersey with the number 9 on it and I realised that he played the same position as Nolan. I hoped he went easy on my hungover best friend "I see you remember me. Honestly thought you'd be too drunk to remember anything." Liam looked as stoic as he did last night, with no smile on his face although he looked mildly amused. "Your sboobs look good in that uniform," he chuckled at his supposed wit.

I scowled. My mind was murky and I just needed to sit down. Arguing with Liam would do anything but calm down my raging headache. In fact, it would only worsen it. I stared at the jersey he wore and crossed my arms, "I see you're on the soccer team."

He gesticulated at the sunglasses on my face. "And I see you're hungover. No surprise there."


"I'm not," I pouted, pushing my sunglasses to the top of my head to make it known that I was glaring at him. "You're just ugly." It was far from the truth but I couldn't come up with anything else. I blamed the hangover.

Liam coughed out a laugh. "That doesn't even make sense." His laugh reverberated from deep within his chest and I questioned why my own laugh didn't sound as pleasant as his. When I laughed, it sounded like a dying goat. Of course, that was just my own opinion.

"Your face doesn't make sense."

His eyes were gleaming as he ran a hand through the messy chocolatey curls on his head. "And here I thought you couldn't get any more infuriating than you were when you were drunk." I stayed silent at that, tilting my chin in rebellion. He laughed at my expression. "Cute."

I rolled my eyes, noticing that Maya was calling me over. Her blue eyes were trained on me and I knew she was trying to figure out how I knew someone from the rival team. "Don't you have a team to warm up with?" I asked him.

Behind Liam, I saw a cheer squad wearing green and they all seemed to be glowering at me. Some of them were scowling at Maya who stood at a distance from me. As much as Maya could be a judgemental bitch, she cared for her own. She was like a lioness who protected her cubs—and I happened to be one of them.

"Actually," he began and it was only then that I noticed he was holding something in his hand. It was a green soccer jersey but looked slightly smaller than his. Suddenly, he winked and I knew he was playing me, trying to get another reaction. "I thought you'd support me and wear my jersey." He unfolded the jersey and showed me but that wasn't what caught my attention.

"No fucking way," I muttered as I stared at the last name on the jersey. "You're Flash Finn?" Suddenly it made sense. Caleb mentioned that Redmonte had a new striker and usually strikers wore the number 9 jersey, just like Nolan. I couldn't believe that Liam was the striker everyone was obsessing over. He looked far too nonchalant to be the golden guy on his team. Looking up for a split second, I noticed the Redmonte cheer squad walking closer to us, clearly to stake their claim on Liam. Without even turning around, I knew that Maya was heading toward me as well.

Liam grimaced as if it pained him to hear the nickname, "I prefer Liam if you don't mind." The expressionless look was back on his face again when he noticed people were observing us, especially the cheer teams. It almost reminded me of Christian. He only ever smiled when he was around us and I had a feeling that Liam did the same with people he was comfortable with. The thought irked me. He had no reason to be comfortable with me.

Now that we had a bit of an audience, Liam went back to being aloof and folded the jersey before shoving it into the backpack over his shoulder. I could sense that he was disturbed by the students at my school but who wouldn't be? They were inquisitive and watched you like a hawk, looking for anything to whisper about. His eyes were distant and I frowned. It looked like I wasn't the only one forced to keep up appearances. "You okay?"

A dark-haired girl, who I assumed was the captain of the Redmonte cheer team, stepped even closer until she could settle a hand on Liam's shoulder and I heaved a brow. Liam nodded dismissively before saying, "see you around." And then he headed towards his awaiting team, brushing the hand of the cheer captain off. I held back a smirk at the disappointed look on her face.

The girl turned to me with a glare as she watched Liam disappear. She stuck her hand out for me to shake. "Dinah." The smile on her face was forced. It was obvious that she didn't like me. Well, jokes on you, Dinosaur, I don't like you either.

Before I could reach out and take her hand, it was slapped away by Maya. Her blue eyes were inflamed with fury as she said, "Didn't think you would stop so low and try to psyche out my team." It was apparent that she was referring to Liam and the captain in question.


Dinah grinned, crossing her arms. "I don't need to do anything. The very fact that you're freaked out proves that I have nothing to worry about."

Maya glared one last time before tugging my arm. I was able to spot the wink that Dinah threw my way just before Maya hauled me to our team. She huffed once we halted and said, "she's trying to psych you out, Char." Turning to face the entire squad, she continued, "she knows that we get points for our routines and she's trying to freak you out."

Bella, one of the bases on the team, articulated as she looked to the Redmonte squad who was smirking at us. "Really?"

I glanced up, witnessing Dinah conversing with Liam and he grimaced at whatever she was saying. Were they really trying to psych us out? I mean, I thought my little interaction with Liam had everything to do with us meeting last night. "Maybe they're just being friendly?" It couldn't hurt to put my suggestion out there.

Maya shook her head slowly. "Dinah being friendly? No way. Although I'm wondering why Liam Finnegan was about to give you his jersey." She was giving me a look one would receive from a scolding mother.

I looked away from her. "I met him at a party last night. He was just teasing me, not like he was actually gonna give me the jersey."

"Even so," Astrid added, giving me a small smile, "I can only imagine what students are gonna be saying about the two of you." She even looked excited at the idea. Astrid loved drama, only if she had no involvement in it.

Bella flicked my forehead and gave me a teasing wink. "Probably that he fucked you in return for you telling him all about your brother's team—"

"Don't even suggest it," Maya scolded, quickly checking to see if anyone heard but the roar of the crowd was too loud as the boys took to the field. I could understand her paranoia. My reputation was fucked enough which meant it was an easy enough rumour to believe. I had Jillian to thank for that. As time went on, I lost all energy to snuff out every single rumour that flared up about me, so I didn't understand why Maya still tried. People would believe anything about me.

The fact that some were true made everything worse, leaving me with a reputation I could never escape. So maybe I deserved the torture that was school, maybe Jillian was a hero.