Dallas Bryan tiene un problema...
...Y es Drayton Lahey. El guapísimo quarterback del equipo de fútbol

"They're talking about football. Like extensively. While they stand around the barbecue like a couple of pals from way back."

I've resorted to hiding in my bedroom while I FaceTime and rant to Spencer. She hangs on every word with wide eyes and an eager expression. 

"I don't care what they're talking about!" she scoffs. "Drayton Lahey is in your house! Having a barbecue!"

"I know," I groan. "It's like a fucking horror movie out there."

"I would have described it more as a romantic teen novel," she dreamily sighs, her pixelated face staring into the distance.

"Gross, get your head out of the clouds."

"What do you have against him? Apart from him hitting your car with that gorgeous motorcycle that he drives?"

"He walks around like the sun shines out of his ass! Not to mention the womanising!"

"I think those girls know what they're signing up for when they hook up with him. You always said you didn't have a problem with playboys as long as they were honest about who they are," she squints her eyes with a small smile on her lips. "He's pretty honest about who he is from what I know."

I groan and let my head fall back into the wall behind me with a loud thud. I'm losing the argument because she knows me too damn well for my own good.

"You think he's hot don't you?" She puts the phone so close to her face that I get a clear shot of her nostrils.

"Huh," I shrug, "that's why you're making absolutely no sense."

"What?"

"Yeah I can see your brain and it's fucking minuscule."

"Ugh," she rolls her eyes and readjusts the view. "Admit it girl. He's fine."

"I'm aware. That doesn't change the fact that he's a pr-"

"Dallas?" A knock on my door is soon followed by Drayton peeking through the gap, searching the room until he finds me in the corner under my window. "Food's ready."

He leans against the frame with his hands in his pockets.

"Is that hi-"

"Uhshutupgoodbyeseeyoutomorrow!"

I quickly end the call and stand up, refusing to meet his eyes until the red flush has drained out of my cheeks. As if he needs his ego inflated any further.

"Talking about me?" He asks with a smug smile.

"Uh actually yeah..." I slowly nod as I walk towards him. "Apparently there's some rumour going around about you and Mara Linden."

I'd dropped her name because unfortunately for me, being on the cheer team meant being ear to a bunch of meaningless gossip twenty four seven, whether I want to hear it or not. I know for a fact he'd slept with her at a Fourth of July pool party at the beginning of summer. His smug smile becomes infuriatingly cocky as he wiggles his brows.

"Yeah, she's telling everyone that your penis is tiny and your stroke game is weak." The look that seizes his features is so good that I'm tempted to take a picture. His arrogant expression has dropped and in its place, a look of pure horror as he visibly swallows. "The cheer team have been talking about it all day."

That's a half truth. They have been talking about it all day, but more in praise because apparently he's as incredible as he looks. Of course he is.

"Sorry about that," I give him a sympathetic smile and tap his arm as I walk past, ignoring the impulsive desire to keep my hand on his bicep a little longer than appropriate. "Ooh smells good. I'm starving."

I follow the aroma of barbecue down the hallway and out the back door where Nathan is arranging the food in the middle of the outdoor furniture. It's a common occurrence for us to eat like this. Neither of us cook much and the barbecue is easy and convenient. What's not normal is the buff star quarterback of my school, dragging out a seat and sitting down like he's apart of the damn family.

He's clearly recovered from the blow to his ego as he leans back in the chair, taking a swig of his beer and winking in my direction.

"Seriously why are you still here?" I scowl, leaning over the table. "I refuse to believe that you have nothing better to do?"

"Dallas," Nathan gives me a wide eyed warning as he sits down. "What is your problem tonight?"

"My problem is, you don't even know this guy, he goes to my school, but you invited him to stay anyway. It's weird."

Drayton stares at me with an unwavering smirk. If he's affected by my words, he doesn't show it.

"I always invite your friends to stay if they're here around dinner time," Nathan starts cutting into his steak. "You've never had a problem with it before."

"What friends?!" I wail. "I have Spencer and that's it."

"You occasionally have guys here when I come home." Nathan shrugs. "I could be a protective big brother but instead I invite them for dinner. How fucking rude of me."

Nathan rolls his eyes not realising that he's just shared private information about me with an almost complete stranger. My personal affairs are something I keep personal for a reason. I glance over at Drayton to find the smirk has been dropped and replaced by a look of confusion as his brows furrow in my direction. Just what I needed, this meat-head psychoanalyzing me.

I decide to drop the subject so that I don't accidentally walk into an open fire of questions from Drayton who looks like he's itching to say something but instead, keeps quiet.

The meal consists of silence from me, I just send a steady flow of updates to Spencer who keeps demanding that I send Snapchats of the hunk across the table. There's not a chance that I'll get caught taking pictures of him though, I'd never live it down. Drayton and Nathan spend the entire meal yammering on about upcoming football season and a bunch of away games that they've got scheduled. That topic is of somewhat more interest to me because as a cheerleader, I'm required to attend.

The away games aren't so bad, the rest of the squad particularly loves them because it means a night away from home in nice hotels and while the rules would say that everyone stays in their hotel rooms, I know that they all get up to no good. For me, however, I sleep, cheer, eat and bar all attempts at communication because I refuse to turn into an airhead. That's not to say that all cheerleaders are space cadets. My team just happens to be a solid ninety five percent make up of total twat. I've also never found any particular interest in making more friends considering that I desperately want to leave the state next year.

"Can I ask you something?" Drayton mumbles as we start clearing the dishes. Nathan dashed off to answer a phone call that I'm almost certain he made up to get out of tidying.

"Would it deter you if I said no?" I reply, marching up the concrete steps and into the kitchen.

"Na," he shrugs with a stack of dirty plates in his hands. "Where are your parents?"

"They died in a car accident when I was nine. Nathan was seventeen." I explain with my back to him as I fill the sink with hot soapy water. My parent's death had hurt, it still hurts, I miss them like crazy, but the topic doesn't kill me to talk about anymore. "My Gran helped Nathan look after me until she died when I was fifteen."

"Damn," Drayton leans his hip on the countertop next to me, folding his arms as he gives me a sad look. "That's shit. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I give him an apprehensive look. It'd be comical to see his concern if it wasn't so weird. "Um, you can go home now," I tell him, offering him an out so that he doesn't feel obligated to hang around after he's eaten. I always feel rude if I dash too fast after a meal at someone's house.

I start scrubbing the dishes but notice that he doesn't move, I keep my head down and refuse to look up at the boy who I'd considered to be transparent. I'm not ready to admit that he might not be such an ass after all. He suddenly leans off the bench and I breathe a sigh of relief, thinking that he might be leaving until he returns a moment later with a dish towel and starts drying the dishes.

"What are you doing?" I question as he whistles an upbeat tune and towels down the plate in his hands. "Seriously this night has been weird enough without Drayton Lahey now doing dishes in my kitchen. You are aware we've like never conversed before?"

"Don't say my name like that," he orders. "Call me Dray. And whose fault is the lack of conversation? You're anti-social as hell."

"No I'm not," I stammer, looking down at the bubbly water as I process the permission he'd just granted me to use his nickname. "I'm just— an introvert."

"You come across as kind of a weird loner." I gasp at his blunt and quite frankly rude comment as he shrugs with a casual air before he continues. "I mean you're on the cheer team, you'd think you'd be a little more equipped to deal with people. But you don't socialise or party or anything. You just cheer and then disappear. That's why everyone calls you cheer pear. Well that and you have a tiny waist and uh..." he curves his spine as he leans back and gazes at my ass, "large assets."

"People call me cheer pear!?" I cry, my hands dropping into the water and splashing my front. "Are you serious?!"

He nods with a smug smirk. I'm in total disbelief. I'd firmly come to believe that by keeping my head down and avoiding as much social contact as I possibly could, that I'd gone unnoticed and smoothly sailed through school so far. Yet apparently I'm so outstanding that I've got a nickname and the news could not be more horrifying.

"I am so offended," I feel like wringing his neck. Could he not have just left me in the dark about this apparent status. I like oblivion.

"Don't be," he throws the dish towel on to the countertop, having finished the dishes and leans against it with one arm. "It's a compliment mostly. You do have a great ass."

"Well I'm honoured," I seethe with sarcasm. "Being objectified is what I live for."

"Don't give me that," he rolls his eyes. "I don't care what girls say, if their ass gets complimented, they're flattered. Deny it all you want but chicks are obsessed with their butts."

"Ugh," I scoff. "Yeah because my goal in life is to make sure my ass looks good for dick heads like you! I'd rather hear that I have a nice ass from another female! Now that's a compliment."

"I guess I don't understand you at all," he mutters with a bored expression.

"Of course you don't," I smile with boredom. "You can go home now."

"Want another beer?" Nathan asks walking back into the kitchen with his hands clasped and his brows raised. Drayton and I both turn our heads towards him and I redirect my frustration on my elder sibling.

"Wow, good timing Nathan. We just finished the dishes." I stroll towards the fridge and pull out the box of Coronas, taking one for myself and pushing the box into his hands. "Go have your beers somewhere else!"

I dash out into the backyard and fall into the deck chair with a huff. My backyard is pretty standard as far as backyards go. It's fully fenced with a large wooden deck area that steps down into the grass. The deck is in need of a clean and stain but it's hanging in there. The rest of the lawn is barren space that houses football tosses and the occasional small game between Nathan and his friends.

Stars litter the night sky, crickets chirping resonates, flowing with the light breeze and the warm summer air wraps itself around me, allowing comfort in the t-shirt and shorts I'm wearing. I chug the beer and sigh with frustration.

"Cheer pear?"

Drayton appears from the backdoor, a beer in hand and a cautious expression plastered across that stupidly attractive face.

"Sorry. Dallas," he laughs and sits down in the seat across from mine. "What are you doing out here, drinking all alone?"

"Being a loner." I shrug and swig my drink. "Why aren't you hanging out with Nathan?"

"He took off. Something about a Tinder date."

I roll my eyes but let a small chuckle breeze past my smiling lips. I can't chastise him. That would be hypocritical.

"Ya know," Drayton starts to say with the corner of his mouth turned up. "I swear I meant what I said as a compliment."

"Yeah," I huff. "I believe you. I'm sure it's not your fault you're such a pig."

"Okay so what about you?" he scoffs. "You act like you're above admiring the human body but it sounds like you have different guys here occasionally, so what gives?"

Great, I'd been hoping that earlier comment had evaded him but I suppose not. Truthfully, I have no issue with being physically admired. But just not by him. He makes it seem so objective. Not to mention the fact that I kind of like it and that makes me feel ick on an entirely different level.

"As if I would disclose anything about myself to you," I point the neck of my bottle in his direction. "My personal business would be spread all over the school in seconds."

"What makes you think that?" He shakes his head with a bewildered expression. "Have you ever heard a rumour around Archwood that came from me? I'm pretty sure most of the time, they're about me."

I refuse to admit that he may be right. I'm constantly being fed an unhealthy stream of information: 'Penny said that Drayton did...'. 'Annie told Maria that Drayton did...'. 'Curtis told his girlfriend that Drayton did...'.

I hated to admit that I couldn't remember anyone ever saying Drayton had been the head of the Chinese whispers that so often circulated our student body.

"So the virgin thing?" Drayton interrupts my internal churning which thwarts all the positive thoughts I'd been accepting. "Is that just an act? What's the deal with the regular male company? I don't think I've ever seen you talking to a guy at school?"

"The asshole thing," I tuck my hand under my chin with knit brows as I lean forward. "Is that just an act or are you really as dense as you seem to be?"

"Oh come on," he throws his hands in the air. "I'm just trying to get to know you."

"No, you're being nosy," I laugh without humour. "Look. you really need to leave! Imagine if Emily found out you were here. We'd both never hear the end of it. I know you broke up with her, I mean I don't really blame you, but she seems to live by the code that allows her to own you as long as you're still in high school."

"I didn't break up with her," he shrugs with a more somber expression than he'd been wearing before.

"Oh you're still together!" I smile. "Even better."

"She cheated on me.. with my uncle."

The sarcastic smile I'd been wearing for his sake suddenly drops. The story behind their break up had always been a little iffy but Emily had ordered that the squad never speak of it or ask her about the details and I suppose it makes sense as to why.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he shrugs. "We only dated for a few months. I should have known that I couldn't trust her but I gave it a go anyway."

"Why doesn't anyone know?"

"It's embarrassing. Not really something you wanna admit ya know, that your girlfriend hooked up with your uncle at a family Fourth of July brunch."

"That's why you slept with Mara?"

He huffs with a small smile as he pulls on the label of his beer bottle. Drayton has always been known for his way with the ladies. When his relationship with Emily didn't last long, I'd assumed it was because he couldn't handle the commitment, not the other way around.

"I still don't get why you don't tell people? You don't owe it to her to keep it a secret."

Admittedly, my want for it to become public knowledge is a little biased. I despise Emily and I'd have nothing against having her dirty laundry aired all over school.

"If I told the guys then they'd want me to get back at her. I know things about her that no one else does. But," he stands up and stretches his arms before he puts the empty beer bottle in the bin, "I'm just not about that petty revenge stuff. Better to pretend it didn't happen."

"Yeah," I stare at the ground, contemplating all that I'd just learned. "I suppose that makes sense."

"If you don't mind, perhaps don't mention it to anyone?" he asks with a small smile, a smile that looks too innocent for his usual arrogant expression.

"I won't," I assure him. And I mean it. Because when someone confides something in you, they've trusted you and these days, trust is too damn hard to dish out. I won't be responsible for taking any of it away from him, even if I don't think much of him. He heads towards the back gate, turning around when he's lifted the latch.

"Night Dallas."

• • •

End of chapter ! Please tap the star to vote if you're enjoying. ! Much love. Until next time.