Only Fools

Chapter Forty Six

It was safe to say that I was dreading cheer practice.

Coach was already annoyed with us from yesterday, Tori is still vehement in her decision to not talk to me, and Ashley is absolutely thriving as a result of the decay in my life.

Truly, it was stupid of me to choose to sit with the cheer team at lunch rather than my girlfriend, who would have unfailingly brought me joy. However, the louder part of my brain said that I needed to hold on to hope that Tori might speak to me if I put the extra effort in.

And there's something so unsettling about Tori Torres giving you the silent treatment. Usually, it's not her forte. Tori would rather yell at someone about what they're doing wrong and come to a quick conclusion than play the long game and wait for them to come to their senses.

The issue with our fight lies in the fact that Tori is currently waiting for me to apologize and, while I feel bad for making her think that I don't value her as one of my best friends, I don't feel like I have much to apologize for.

Or, part of me thinks that. The other part of me is absolutely wracked with guilt to the point where I'll basically say anything to get my best friend back.

Of course, all the while, I'm trying to not assume the worst. I'm trying to get Tori back with faith in my best friend that her whispering to Ashley was out of context. While Tori has been known to let things slip from time to time, she's never been one to purposefully hurt her friends.

A small voice in the furthest corner of my brain, however, quickly reminds me that there's a first time for everything.

That small voice somehow rang the loudest as I sat down with my team to find Tori laughing along at something that Ashley just said, her eyes only briefly flitting over to me. The voice continued to note the possibility that they were laughing at me, which wasn't the most helpful thing that it could have done.

And so, I spent the entire lunch period in silence. I didn't mean to, but every time I looked up to try and say something to Tori, she was focused in on Ashley's voice instead. Or, even worse, I would catch Ashley's eye and she would give me a knowing smirk because she had to have realized that she was holding a conversation with the one person I wanted to talk to, and was therefore making my life that much more miserable.

I didn't even bother talking to the other girls. I could've if I wanted to, but I so badly wanted to talk to Tori, prove her innocence in regards to potentially telling Ashley about me, and then make up, that it became my single focus. So much so, that I had barely heard the bell ring.

After that, the rest of the day went by far too fast for my liking. Cheer practice was the last thing that I wanted to attend, especially if it was going to be anything like yesterday.

And yet, I soon found myself rolling out the mats and preparing for what I already assumed was going to be the worst practice to date.

As Coach Meghan greets us and reminds us of the upcoming competition, her tone is more firm than it's been in a while. She's clearly disappointed after yesterday, and I can't blame her. I just wish there was a way to tell her that the problem still hasn't been sorted and that this practice, while a good idea in theory, has the potential to be worse than yesterday's.

After our usual warm up, we all move to our stunt groups to warm up the stunts that were in our rounds, the part of practice that I'm justifiably the most nervous for if the group dynamic was going to be anything like it was yesterday.

Except, it isn't. It's somehow worse. Instead of silence, Tori has taken to animatedly talking about something with Ashley and Gabby by the time I make it to them from across the room. It isn't completely unusual for her to talk to them, given that she's just the type of person to be friendly with everyone, but it still stings more than it should've given the knowledge that she's only doing it so that she doesn't have to talk to me.