The Perfect Touchdown

Twenty-Two

The entire Christmas break, I did nothing but mope around the house. I eventually talked with Avery and told him that Aiden and I got into a huge fight over Leah, that his dating her has been causing issues for our cheer squad and the fight was big enough to cause a falling out between us, but I wanted to reassure him that it shouldn't affect his relationship with Aiden.

It was more time for me to branch off from the two of them. They were always my only friends when I was growing up, but they both didn't have much longer left of school and they would be going off to start their football careers. I still had 2 and a half years left, I needed to make my own circle of friends and rediscover who I really was, whoever that was outside of my brother and his best friend.

I knew there was a girly side of me that I had always wanted to tap into, and now was the chance since I was no longer surrounded by dudes all the time. I tried over the winter break to experiment with my style and get rid of clothes I felt no longer suited me and put together what I hoped was the perfect closet by the end of the break, just in time for the next semester.

I kept telling myself the entire time that I was doing this to reinvent myself, but I could only fool myself so long until I stopped lying to myself and denying that I was doing it for Aiden. I wanted him to regret what he gave up, but I also knew that was futile.

He had his chance, many of them actually. But he walked away from every one of them and left me a little more heartbroken than before. Now, I no longer had the heartache to care for him anymore. It was really time to move on.

I stood in front of the dorms and waited to go in. Once I entered those doors, I was officially back and had to accept another semester while fighting these stupid feelings. I took a deep breath and trudged inside. Isabelle was already inside and had her side of the room set up again.

"Welcome back! How was your Winter Break?" she asked.

"It was nice being back home, it was the longest I've been away from home. My Mom barely let me leave the house during the break," I joked, though it was partially true.

"Ugh, I know what you mean. I'm an only child so it was hard for my parents to send their only daughter away for a whole semester."

I always wondered what my life would've been like if I had an only child. Would I have still met Aiden? If there was no Avery, would there be no obstacle for us? I hated the thought, I loved my brother, and I was glad he was born, I wouldn't trade that for anything.

But it was always a thought that lingered in the back of my mind.

We chatted about our break as I set up my room again, but I could tell there was something she really wanted to ask about – Aiden. I decided to beat her to it.

"In case you're wondering, nothing happened between Aiden and me over the break, I haven't spoken to him since."

She frowned. "I know how much that hurt you, I wasn't going to bring it up. Are you doing alright?"

I sighed. I told myself I was going to get over Aiden this semester, just like I told myself that last semester. Look at how well that turned out, and it seemed this semester wasn't going to be any different.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Let's go grab some Nobu, I'm starving!"

~*~

After we indulged in our favourite marinated meat and noodles, we headed back to campus and had a night full of fun and catching up. We eventually spoke about Aiden, and I spilled all the feelings I had kept in over the break and had the cry out I needed.

I wasn't looking forward to the first day of cheer practice, the last thing I wanted to see was how well Aiden and Leah's relationship had blossomed over the break. But to my surprise, when I had got to the field, neither of them was there. I saw the twins and decided to ask them.

"Have you guys seen Leah? Practice is about to start."

They exchanged glances. "We just learned that she was suspended."

"We have no idea why, though."

My eyes bugged out in shock. "Suspended? What in the world did she do to get suspended, I wonder."

"We noticed Aiden is missing, too."

"Did something happen to him?"

I sighed. What the hell did he do?

After the incident with Jake, he got nothing more than a semester suspension from playing any football games. That was a joke, but I didn't want it reported in the first place, so I was lucky anything happened in the first place without having had to expose myself.

So, what did Leah do to get herself suspended from school entirely?

~*~

Aiden Reed

I watched from the sideline as the cheer squad discovered that their captain wasn't going to be showing up and waited for their coach to come out and tell them the news. I wanted to see Rylee's reaction and see if she would put it together that I was behind it all.

The coach finally came out and took Rylee off the field and toward the Dean's office building. This confused me and I wondered if the Dean was going to tell her everything, even though we decided that nothing was to be said to her since no actual damage had been done yet.

Regardless, of whether she found out or not, I already had everything planned out on how to hopefully win her back and show her that I was just an idiot who made stupid decisions that I thought were protecting her. I just hoped I wasn't too late.

I had the guys in on my plan and the conversation with Avery was done and over with. That was another reaction I wanted to see once Rylee found out how her brother really felt.

I prayed they stuck to the plan and actually remembered it, or all of this was going to come crashing down on top of me, and my last chance to fix this would be gone. I didn't know how I was going to live with myself if that happened.

This Winter Break was the longest Rylee and I had ever gone without speaking or seeing one another, and it was torture. I had never realized what it meant to lose her from my life altogether until the break. It was obvious at this point we were beyond the capability of friendship.

I'd rather try everything I can just to keep her in my life than experience it without her. This had to go perfectly. I took my phone out and called Avery.

"Is everything ready? She was just taken to the Dean's office," I asked.

"Ready to go, she hasn't eaten anything since breakfast so after practice she will definitely be up for going for lunch. Just make sure everything is ready on your part."

I nodded, though he couldn't see, and hung up.

It was almost show time.