Presley

"What happened to you?" I ask Maddy, who's sulking in the driver's seat as I get into her car to go to school. It's Monday, and it's been more than a week since school started for our second semester. "Tyler and I didn't get to have sex last night because his nosy little brother reported us to his mom. I felt like strangling him right then and there. But, I couldn't 'cause I love him too, as much as I love Ty. Maybe a little less." Maddy pouts.

"Well, what happened the last time you said you were gonna to do that? Which was about a week ago?" I ask, trying not to laugh.

"Last time, we were cock-blocked by Ty's mom. And yesterday, it was his little brother. Things were starting to get interesting between me and Ty when the little brat unlocked the room with a key and started screaming, 'Mommy, big brother is on top of Maddy, and he's naked!'" she yells like a baby.

"Oh my god!" I start laughing, hysterically.

"It's not funny, Elle. Ty and I were both so horny. Today we're gonna try again at my place, since Mom and Dad are MIA, doing God knows what," she pauses. "Tonight we're gonna try missionary, doggy style, cowgirl, sixty-nine, and maybe even—"

"Maddy! Stop it! Ew." My face scrunches up in disgust as I start hitting her on her shoulder, making gagging noises, which makes her laugh. "I honestly can't believe I'm best friends with you. Keep it up and I will unfriend you," I joke.

* * *

Maddy and I are hit by the usual metallic smell of brass and the sound of instruments tuning as we enter the band room at eight twenty.

When Maddy picked me up this morning, Deon's car wasn't parked in their driveway, so I assumed he must have left early. Not that I care or anything.

Mrs. Davis who's talking to the band leader—Alison, turns around and struts over to us. "Oh, thank goodness you guys are here. I was just about to announce the partners for this year's Winter Musical. Go take your seats, kids."

"God, I hope Ty and I are in the same group this year," Maddy mutters under her breath and goes over to the clarinet section while I walk towards the sax section and take a seat in the front row. I would be offended that Maddy would rather play with Tyler than with me, but I'm not because I know a clarinet's tone doesn't match a saxophone's.

"So you're with Deon now?" Someone says from behind me, making me jump. I turn around in my chair to come face to face with Jessica, who's glaring at me as if I stole her boyfriend, which is ridiculous because she's the one who stole mine.

"No, I'm not," I reply, plainly.

"I saw you flirting with him the other day. You do know he's a player, right? He's just looking for girls to play around with." Oh.

"Jess, do I look like I care? I don't even like him." This is a half-assed lie because I definitely have feelings for him even though I try not to give into them.

"You're fucking with me, right?" I cringe when I hear the venom in her voice. "Anybody a mile away could tell that you like him judging by the way you were flirting with him."

Flirting with him? When was I flirting with him?

"Do you hear yourself right now? You're starting to sound like a jealous bitch. You can have him if you want because I don't give a damn."

"We'll see about that, Presley," Jessica hisses before Mrs. Davis clears her throat loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, kids, now listen up." She pauses and looks around the room to make sure she's got everyone's attention.

"As y'all know of the Winter Musical our province organizes for all schools in Ontario each year, I thought of getting straight to the point. Our band leader, Alison, and I have been thinking about allocating each person a partner since y'all have been performing in groups of four for the past three or four years." At that, the chattering restarts.

"Now, now, there's no need to worry. I will explain how this is going to work. Y'all will be divided into pairs based on the matching tones of your instruments. Every pair needs to come up with a song cover or a creative piece of music. Out of y'all, two pairs will be chosen to perform at the winter musical. As you already know, y'all will be judged by me, our school's principal and Mrs. Greta Alderbridge, the head of all schools in Ontario—"

Mrs. Davis' voice is cut off as a panting Deon and a red-faced Tyler jogs into the band room. "Ashdown? Martinez? Where have you two been?" Mrs. Davis yells. She seldom gets mad, but when she does, she's furious.

"Um...we were...uh...we did." Tyler stutters.

"May I have a word with you two in private?" Mrs. Davis says through gritted teeth. They both nod and follow Mrs. Davis to the corner of the room. I search for Maddy in the Clarinet section and give her a questioning look. She shrugs, looking as confused as I am. After a few minutes, they return, and Tyler and Deon take their seats in the guitar section while Mrs. Davis goes back to talking about the Winter Musical.

"I filled Deon and Tyler in on the details. I'll let Alison read out the names of the pairs now," she says before Alison walks to the middle of the room and starts reading out names off a piece of paper.

"Joanne Knowles and myself, Liana Rhymes and Taylor Anderson, Jordan Parker and Clara James, Lacey Pearlington and Stephanie Crimson." The list goes on forever. I'm halfway listening, and my face screws in sympathy when I hear, "Ryan Gibbons and Jessica Wilson." Even though Ryan did cheat on me and dumped me, I feel sorry for him, because no one deserves to be played on by Jessica. I've known her for a few years now, and I know all her games because I have been keeping a close eye on her for the past couple of years. When it comes to dating guys, her motto is sort of like 'Use & dump.' She's been this way since we were fifteen.

The list continues...

"Madison Miller and Tyler Ashdown, Rebecca Williams and Courtney Biggs, Presley Jones and Ariel Kavanagh, and finally, Deon Martinez and Aiden Kavanagh." I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. Ariel's a really nice person, and she plays the guitar while her twin brother, Aiden plays the Saxophone. We would do great at auditions, I'm sure of it.

I'm also relieved and a tad bit disappointed at the same time that I didn't get paired off with Deon. But, you know what? Let's make the best of it. No Deon, no distractions. The twins, Ariel and Aiden get up from their chairs and stride over to Mrs. Davis while everyone starts talking again.

"Kids! Listen up," Mrs. Davis yells. "So, there's been a slight change. Apparently, Ariel and Aiden will be outta town during the musical. Therefore, Presley will be pairing up with Deon." At once, my ears perk up, and I sit upright in my chair as a soft murmur starts circulating around the room.

"Gotcha," Jessica whispers from behind.

I ignore her and scan the crowd for Maddy. I see her smiling at me from ear to ear. I scowl at her when she sees me.

Deon's smirking at me from the guitar section, showing off his oh-so-sexy dimples.

Ughh! That damn smirk of his is gonna get me in deep trouble.

I'm overjoyed, excited and nervous all at once. He's a player, and I don't want to catch feelings for him more than I have already.

* * *

When school's over, I grab all my belongings and stalk past the school doors with the intention of walking home. Alone.

The afternoon light blinds me as I step outside. Shielding my eyes, I walk across the parking lot which is milling with students, teachers and parents trying to get home before all the vehicles get jammed up and block the exit.

"Hey! What's wrong? Where are you going? You do know that Ty and I are dropping you home, right?" I hear Maddy's voice from behind me getting louder as she gets closer to me.

"What's wrong?"

Spinning around and pinning her with my gaze, I almost yell, then lower my voice to almost a whisper, not wanting to make a scene in front of the whole school. "This morning I found out that I have to play with my crunemy for a musical. That's what's wrong." I use the word for a crush and enemy from Maddy's vocabulary.

"Um...well, isn't that a good thing?" She asks, nonchalantly.

"No, Mads. It's a terrible thing."

"Okay. Do you not wanna play with him?"

"What are you hinting at when you say play, Mads?"

"Oh, I meant practice for the Winter Musical. But, if you wanna play with him in other ways, by all means. Go right ahead." Maddy grins, mischievously. "Anyway, I just wanna say that you two are definitely gonna get chosen to perform at the Winter Musical. I'm one hundred percent sure. You know...you with your amazing blowing skills and Deon with his great fingering skills..."

"Madison Miller! Enough with the dirty jokes. I'm being as serious as a heart attack right now. I don't wanna play with him. Period."

"Okay. Then let's go tell Mrs. Davis to pair you off with someone else." She turns to leave, but I stop her.

"Wait." I pause to think about it for a moment. This may be a great opportunity, but a terrible idea. Great because Deon's a very talented and popular guitarist, and terrible because he's a temptation as well as a huge distraction. Maybe I could try and rein in my emotions to make this work, at least until the musical. I mean, how hard could it really be? "On second thought, I do wanna play with him for the auditions."

"Yay! I knew you wanted to." Maddy claps, jumping up and down a few times before giving me a bear hug.

"Why are you two so happy?" Tyler asks as he comes up to us with Deon trailing behind him.

"Why can't we be?" I ask him before Maddy gets to.

"By the way, why were you guys late to school today?" Maddy says.

"Oh, that..." Tyler says, running a hand through his blond hair.

"We were having some boy time before we lost track of time," Deon pipes up.

"Boy time?" I ask, confused.

Tyler chuckles, then says, "Yep. It's not just you girls who get to have girl time."

"Okay. Whatever." Maddy rolls her eyes. "You guys are such pussies."

"Don't say pussy, babe." Tyler grabs Maddy by her waist and drops a loud smooch onto her lips. "It's weird when girls say pussy."

"You're adorable." Maddy giggles, while I stand there awkwardly.

"Alright. We've got to go now. We're gonna start practicing for the auditions right away—"

"Um, Ty? I already told Elle about our plans for today," Maddy interrupts. "Oh, okay. Well then, we're gonna leave now because Maddy needs to suck dick, and I need to eat pussy."

"You two are so weird," Deon chuckles, shaking his head.

"And disgusting," I add, purely disgusted by them.

"Oh, Deon?" Tyler calls. "Do us a huge favor and drive Elvie home."

"Hey! I can walk on my own." I start to protest, but Deon cuts me off.

"My pleasure." He smirks at me.

I wait until Tyler and Maddy drive off before walking towards the parking lot exit.

"Where are you going? Callie is this way," Deon calls, coming after me.

"Home. Yes, I'm well aware."

"Hey." Deon grabs my hand and spins me around to face him. A shiver runs up my arm from where he's touching me. He's standing too close to me that I can see the blue in his eyes very clearly. Our proximity makes my heartbeat speed up to a thousand beats per second, and the butterflies that tend to flutter in my stomach whenever he's around go cray-cray. My eyes stray down to his lips for a moment when he says, "I can drive you home, Pres?" but I quickly look away, hoping he didn't notice that.

"I can walk myself home, Deon." I wrap my arms around my middle, taking a cautious step back. I thought I told him not to call me Pres, but who cares? Him having his own nickname for me turns my insides all warm and gooey.

He notices my move and takes a step back too. "But if I drive you it'll save you the energy you use up to walk." His lips arch upwards, dimples showing. A few seconds pass before I finally give in. He grins at me and leads me back to his car. I can't believe I'm getting in a car with the person I wanna spend the least amount of time with. He and his stupid dimpled smile convinced me somehow.

Ugh! Can this day get any worse?

Or better?

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Love,
     Chiara🌸