twelve | low from self esteem

(@alligreer via snapchat stories!)

SILVIA O'DAIR HAD KNOWN SOMETHING HAD BEEN UP WITH HER BEST FRIEND THE SECOND SHE'D NOT REPLIED TO HER HILARIOUS MEME ABOUT QUEEN ELIZABETH. It was definitely a red flag when she completely went ghost on all her social media's—even Snapchat, which paid her to post a certain amount every week. The final straw was Jordan texting her for the first time ever and waking her and Mira to "please go check on her."

The dynamic duo walked up the hallway, coles bags hanging off their arms. "I hope it's not as bad as he made out," Mira said, as the blondes door approached.

Silvia shrugged and began knocking. "Alianna, let us in!" No response. Reaching over Silvi's shoulder, Mira began knocking as well. They'd probably disturbed the whole floor by the time they heard the lock click.

There she stood, hair matted to the left of her head and eyes red. Wordlessly, the trio melted together into a much needed group hug. They stood there in here doorway, not speaking for a moment—just holding each other.

"Ali, darl, you stink," said Mira as gently as she could when they were finally inside. "We'll tidy up and you go shower, alright?"

Ali sniffled and wordlessly did as she was told.

The duo got to work with their supplies—discarding the build up bottles of emptied spirits and washing the dirty dishes. Silvi emptied the fresh groceries they'd brought into the fridge, tossing the huge portion of expired things into the trash.

Thirty minutes later, Ali emerged in an oversized Broncos jersey (it was the only clean shirt she could find) with her hair dripping behind her. Mira eyed the shirt and Silvi raised her eyebrows. "Feeling better?"

Ali shrugged, sipping the ice water her friend gave her.

Her friends share a look. "Ali. . . what's going on with you?"

The blonde inhaled sharply. "Nothing. . . ?"

Silvia shook her head. "Do not bullshit me right now," she said, sounding harsher than she'd intended.

"I just. . . I don't know—everything got a bit much," she said, dragging out the ends of her words.

"With Jordan?"

"He's. . . he's fine." Ali muttered. "It's—I'm just not. . ."

"I've never spoken to that man until the early hours of this morning when he was all up in my DMs begging me to come check on you," Silvi explained.

Ali rolled her eyes. "We—last night. . . I guess I ended it? . . . not that there was really anything to end."

Mira frowned. "Why? You seemed to be having so much fun playing house?"

"I know—I guess, I kinda was but. . ."

"But what?"

"Myles—"

"—do not tell me you miss him?"

"No—I saw Myles at an event and he said all this stuff and. . . I don't know, I guess I got overwhelmed," Ali rambled, pulling out her phone and showing her friends the last conversation between her and Jordan.

Handing the phone back with a frown, Silvi said, "you were so mean to him."

"I know, I feel bad, I—I really didn't deserve him at all. . . he's—he's so good and it's intimidating," she admitted.

"You deserve happiness, Ali," Mira said, rubbing her back. "And every-time I saw you guys together, you were happy—real relationship or not. The friendship was real."

The girls decided to watch movies together and eat a lot of ice cream. After all these weeks of non-stop, Ali truly did just need a night in with her girls. For a few hours, her mind had been quiet, finally.

💌

JORDAN WAS TAKING A PAGE OUT OF ALI'S BOOK AND WAS EIGHT GREAT NORTHERNS DEEP BY 6PM. After their win the day before, the Broncos boys had decided to make a weekend out of it. With Hooligan Hefs blaring in the background, the younger members of the team were sitting around a fire pit in Katoni's backyard. The sun was on the brink of setting and the sound of crickets filled the air.

The Māori boy watched his mates with a massive grin as Reece snorkeled a bottle of wine—how they'd got the snorkel to fit the bottle would remain a mystery to Jordan.

"We like to drink with Walshy 'cause Walshy is our mate and when we drink with Walshy, he gets it down in 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2—"

The Gold Coast boy roared and lifted the empty bottle above his head—Jordan could tell he was fighting off the urge to gag by the look on his face. Herbie clapped the shorter Bronco on the back as he took a seat next to the Brit.

"Light work, light work," Brendon insisted, shaking his head and a few of the boys laughed.

An offended Reece threw the snorkel at him, "go on then, mate."

While the pair argued, Patty elbowed Jordan. "What's got you all quiet?" The longer haired lad asked, sipping his VB longneck.

Jordan shrugged, sitting up a bit straighter. "Nah, nothing—just observing, mhmm."

Carrigan was not convinced. "Trouble with the misso?"

Jordan almost blurted out the fact that there was no him and Ali anymore but he stopped himself. It wasn't over until it was over. "Nah, why'd you say that? We're good, we're good," he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

"If you say so, brother," Patty muttered before getting up to go grab another drink.

Rather than letting a frown properly form on his face, Jordan skulled the rest of his can. "Oi, get me another one too!"

💌

liked by jessiearthurs, myleskingscliffe & 56,579 others!

JORDANRIKI: My son

TAGGED: brendonpiakura

view 765 comments

REECEWALSH: 😍

USER1: daddyyyyy
     ↳ USER2: *daddiesssss

MYLESKINGSCLIFFE: 🤔
     ↳ USER3: hello!?????
          ↳ USER4: Isn't this Ali's ex?
               ↳ USER5: @user4 he's obsessed istg
                    ↳ USER6: myles & ali 4 life!!!! sorry jordan but they were my childhood

USER7: He's so fine lorddddd

💌

JORDAN STARED AT HIMSELF IN THE BATHROOM MIRROR WITH THE UTMOST DISDAIN. The mirror was still a bit foggy but it didn't matter. He'd told the girl he was going for a shower and had no extended an invite towards her. She was her clone. Blonde, tan with an affinity for mini skirts. He couldn't barely even finish—itd just felt wrong—but he blamed it on the alcohol when she'd looked disappointed. He couldn't remember her name for the life of him.

He could've sworn he heard a phone ring. As he slid the bathroom door open, he saw her grinning from ear-to-ear as she put his phone face down on the bed. "Ready for round two?" She asked.

"What were you doing?" He asked, eyes locked on his phone. "Who called me?"

She paled. "No one, silly—what're you talking about?"

Jordan yanked his phone off the bed, not caring that his towel had fallen down in the process. He scrolled through his call log and his heart dropped.

ALI GREER • 1:03AM
Duration: 0:25

"Ali. . ." His head snapped up as he glared at the blonde. "What did you say to her?" He demanded, head throbbing.

The girl rolled her eyes, twirling an unopened condom in between her fingers. "Literally nothing, she hung up after I said you're busy—"

"Fuck," he cursed, clicking her number but it immediately went to voice mail.

💌

(@aligreer via snapchat stories!)

☀️ KK SPEAKS!
     how're we all holding up after this chapter lol

     this part was a bit of a slug to write ngl and i think it shows in my writing

     also, please don't forget to vote. the voting ratio of some of the recent chapters have really fallen off. so if you wanna support me, please go back and check you've voted on all the parts xx

     i don't think i've ever done daily updates for a book lmao

     edit - if u saw me publish this without chapter titles, no u didn't ...