Bad Boy Casanova

Whatever I did to cause this, I am already regretting it.

“Drew, come on! It’s one college party! You never go with us,” my best friend, Sierra, pouted.

“Duh! If coach catches us, we’re dead meat!” I point out, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

“Live a little, will ya? You’re not seriously going to stay in this apartment the whole four years, right?” Her shoulders dropped when she realized that I wasn’t going to budge.

“I don’t want to get demoted to JV. I worked my ass off to be a freshman on the Varsity squad. I’ll be damned if some horny teens let that be ruined.”

“Coach won’t find out, dude,” she huffed, leaning against the glossy counter in our kitchen.

“You know, I can list on my hands and toes the number of times that someone said that, then got caught.”

“You’re being dramatic, Drew, please join us.” She pleaded. I looked into her eyes, realizing that she wasn’t budging.

“I’m sorry Sierra, plus, Derek promised to take me to the gym tonight.”

“It’s Friday, babe! FRIDAY! You’re acting like a grandma. You’ll regret not coming to these one day.”

“Sorry, Sisi, tonight is not that night. We have tryout’s tomorrow morning, unless you forgot. I won’t be hungover while trying to help coach with newbies. I highly recommend you do the same.”

“Sophomore year is literally weeks away, I don’t understand how you’re already thinking about it,” she sighed, shoulders slumped.

“You know that cheerleading is literally my life. I have dedicated years of blood, sweat and tears into it just to throw it away. I won’t do it for one night of pleasure,” I inform her for the thousandth time. I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. Yanking it out, I notice a message from Derek.

“My bro is here, you still, okay? You’ll call if you need a driver?” I ask, grabbing my pre-workout, purse and keys.

“You know I will, have fun being boring, ya old lady.” Sierra laughs. I smile, shaking my head.

“Be good, don’t give coach a reason to kick your drunk ass tomorrow.”

“I think she fully expects it from me.” She walks out with me, shrugging her shoulders. We chose not to room together. Mom and Dad are thankfully paying for this small place for me, but I don’t think I could live with her. I’m too much of a home body, hermit for that. She doesn’t even have a key to my place, that’s how much I don’t like people.

“Most likely, see you tomorrow. Call if you need me.” I laugh, locking the door. She walked down the apartment halls, going to the elevator while I opted for the stairs. Living on the fifth floor wasn’t terrible, got my calves engaged.

Finally making it to the bottom, I see Derek leaning against his car, playing on his phone.

“Hey, bubba,” I smile, kissing his cheek.

“Hey squirt, you ready?”

“Yeah, Sierra is still trying to convince me that I need to let loose, party.”

“Yeah, not,” he snorted. I glared at him, only to crack into a smile myself. We all knew that I was a hermit. I didn’t used to be, but when mom and dad placed a double standard on Derek and I, I just gave up. Turns out, it is not my personality trait.

He opens the car door for me, letting me get in before closing it. He gets in himself, taking off to our favorite gym. I watch as the streetlights go by the dark night, the car moving faster than my vision, blurring the lights.

“You nervous for tryout’s tomorrow?” He asks, breaking the sudden silence.

“Yes and no. I’m nervous because I heard that there will be a high male population than last year. I really hope it’s not true, but on the contrary, we need guys badly.”

“As long as they aren’t looking up your skirt, I won’t have to punch them.” I burst out laughing, smacking his arm.

“That’s the point, bubba. They have to make sure I won’t fall.”

“I preferred when you were on the bottom of people stack.”

“It’s called a stunt, but yeah, coach puts me where she needs me,” I shrug.

“So, I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What’s up?” I ask, glancing down at my phone, scrolling through twitter.

“You remember Clayton?”

“Clayton… does he have a last name?”

“Clayton Hughes?”

“No?”

“Oh, well, then I guess whatever I was going to say is now irrelevant.”

“You’re an odd one,” I smirk. He rolls his eyes, returning my smile. “I do know one thing. I am ready to kick your ass at the one mile then squats.”

“Sis, you think you’re fast. I’m the running back for the team, I think I can outrun your ass any day of the week,” he lets out a confidence grin. I roll my eyes; little does he know that I have been running every morning and night.

I’ve been so worried of fitting in my uniform again, I needed to ensure I was working off anything I ate and more. I wasn’t starving myself, per say, I was just only eating dinner with some healthy snacks here and there.

“Dream on, bro.” He parked the car at the back of the gym parking lot. Getting his earbuds ready, he jumps out and grabs his duffle from the back.

“You coming?” He asks from the backseat door. I roll my eyes, sliding out the door and shutting it gently.

He slams the door behind him, dumping his keys into his large duffle back.

“Is that giant bag necessary?” I ask, joining him to walk into our favorite de-stressor.

“Yeah, I’m staying the night with Kelsey at her place, so I packed all my shit in this thing,” he patted the bag, opening the door for me. Walking in, I notice that the place is pretty empty. Just the way I like it. Derek signs us in with the receptionist, the drags me over to the tread mills.

“You ready, squirt?” I place my headphone over my head, setting one ear aside to hear his smack talk.

“Oh, I was born ready.” I winked, turning the machine one, setting it at a high speed and start my warm-up. I could tell that he was starting to lag behind while I stayed pace. Finishing my mile, he was still going.

“Fuck, Drew. When did you learn to speed?”

“Oh Derek, I did say to not underestimate me,” grabbing my phone, I step off and go to the stretching mats.

“You weren’t that fast two weeks ago,” he huffs, coming with me.

“It doesn’t take much to be able to work the way up.” I laugh, laying on the floor for a minute. Derek grabs my legs and starts helping stretch me.

“You know, you -” He started, then was cut off by booming laughter of a group near us. I sit up to examine the ruckus, noticing a group of tatted guys walking this way.

“Derek!” A guy yells, drawing my brothers attention to the person. Derek gives me a look of concern while I return one in confusion.

“Hey, Ozzie. How’s it going?”

“It’s going pretty well! You never said you got yourself a new girl. She’s hot,” he smacked Derek’s back. Derek looked like he wanted to punch this Ozzie guy.

“Kelsey and I are still together; this is my sister.”

“Hey pretty lady,” he purred, walking over to me. Derek stepped in between me and the creep, blocking us off.

“Ozark, this is my sister. Sister. Leave her alone.” Derek crossed his arms, not budging from his protective stance. The guy shot his hands up in surrender. Laughing, he clapped Derek on the back, moving away from us.

“Sis, these are some of my closest buddies. Ozark, Gabe, Ricky, and Clayton.” He said, pointing at the four guys. I looked at them, I realized that only one guy has tattoos. I thought it was the group, but he had enough for a while crowd.

“Guys, this is my sister, Drew. Remember, off limits.” He said, dropping his protective stance.

“Speak for yourself, Derek. More eye candy for me,” I wink, causing the group to laugh. Well, everyone but Derek.

“Nice try, squirt. The guys are here to help me with weights. I figured you wanted to do your own training or whatever you do.” He murmured, giving my shoulder a squeeze. I furrowed my eyebrows, realizing that he is ditching me in the gym.

“I thought you were helping me today?”

“You’ll be alright,” his face looked like one of regret, but it only lasted for a solid second.

“I guess I’ll just do cardio today instead of strength.” I roll my eyes; he was ditching me after we agreed that he would help me. Was I surprised? Not really. Did it suck and hurt my feelings that he was ditching me for his bros? Abso-fucking-lutely.

“I can help you,” the tattooed man spoke softly. I glanced up from my seated form. His jet-black hair and stormy blue eyes held me captive. He raised an eyebrow, causing me to snap out of whatever trance I was just in.

“Uhm, thanks. I’ll be alright, I’ll work on some basic weights or something.”

“If you change your mind, let me know. There is a clasp bar by where we will be, you can use that too.”

“Uh… thanks…” I quickly stand, patting the dirt off my legs, walking away from the group of boys.

That man was a mystery, I could see it simply by looking at him. Throughout the workout, I kept feeling a burning gaze on me. Somehow, someway, I knew that it was him. I knew that it was that Clayton character.

I’m not totally sure how to feel about it.

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