Gina

45.

I never wanted it to turn out this way,
Now forever feels like yesterday.

It had been a whole two weeks since the party, and about ten days after Fiona discovered the bruises on her skin.

Gina was standing by a pillar, thinking after class as she meditated on who the marks came from.

There was too much of a puzzle for her. How did Fiona just vanish and reappear days later with bruises?

If Gina hadn't known better, she'd have thought that Fiona and Hussein had finally gotten physical. Those had not just been ordinary marks... they were love bites and finger and nail imprints all over her friend... even on her legs!

Who would have been so wild?!

She wondered why Fiona couldn't say anything. She had refused to speak about what happened, and had kept insisting that she was unable to remember anything. Yet whenever she saw any tall guy with dark hair, she tensed. Gina was puzzled. It was almost as if she remembered something.

Did a tall, dark-haired guy do that to her?

That was her only clue. She felt pathetic, to say the truth. She had also considered James dragging her friend away from the party. When she asked him, he vehemently denied doing anything. Yet when he saw Fiona at practice, he always stopped to stare and lick his lips.

It was disgusting.

"Gina! There you are! Avoiding practice again?"

Gina looked up at Tasha who was carrying a hockey stick. She smiled at the light-skinned girl and shrugged, not knowing the time. Tasha was only too glad to tell her.

"Oh shoot! I have to go!"

*&*&*&*&

"You're late Gina. Third time this week," Miss. King pointed out to her second best dancer. She couldn't help wondering if the fame had gone to her head.

"Sorry Miss. King! I swear it won't happen again!"

Miss. King rolled her eyes instead and pointed her in the direction of the stretching corner.

"Are you okay bub?" André asked, smiling at his favourite classmate.

"I'll be," she replied quietly before proceeding to stretch gracefully.

She got in line soon and they started to practice a routine they'd learnt for two weeks.

As they danced, Gina forgot everything and gave into the pleasure that accompanied the activity. She danced even better than she thought, giving everyone watching the impression that she was the best dancer in the room.

It wasn't an impression though, it was the truth.

*&*&*&*&

Zayn watched from the small display and smiled. Gina had once again put her heart into the dance. She was graceful, flexible, beautiful... sexy... and even Zayn, the hot new guy was challenged and felt inadequate. He understood why she was so hard to let go of. He understood why Max couldn't lose her... he understood everything.

That didn't mean he was okay with what Max did, but he understood why Max would do so.

She was perfection.

Zayn's heartbeat increased just a little bit when she stood up, her body moving as fast as her brain dictated. He saw her face his direction and his eyes caught one of her most beautiful smiles ever and he knew right then that he was smitten.

She stopped to show a few of the other dancers how to do the move and he couldn't help remembering how It felt having her next to him. How her fingers felt against his... small and feminine. Her frame dwarfed by his but still stronger than any he had ever seen.

She was amazing.

And right then, at that moment, he realized he was in too deep. 

Zayn Malik was hopelessly, deeply and mindlessly in love with Gina Pendo.

And he had no idea if she felt the same way.

*&*&*&*&

Fiona managed to do a backward flip and land on her feet safe and sound. Her team cheered and she thanked the captain for giving her time to learn it.

They were just learning a new routine for their next Cheer Session when Hussein walked up to her in the gym. He looked depressed. She left her squad the moment she caught sight of him.

"Feefee..."

"Hey baby. What's up?"

Hussein let her kiss his cheek before they sat down to talk. She looked so beautiful today-so innocent and beautiful-and it broke his heart looking at her. He didn't believe other people, he only believed her.

Tasha arrived with the hockey stick to watch the quiet couple.

"Is it true?"

Fiona couldn't deny. He must have heard it then-the rumour that she so feared-how she hooked up with someone she met at the Battle of the Bands.

"Hussein, I can't remember much from that night. All I know is that I woke up days later, covered with bruises..."

"Were you drunk?"

"No. I was drinking club soda."

Hussein clenched his jaw and Fiona knew why-he knew she used to drink way before... like a fish, but she had since changed.

Yet he didn't believe her.

It hurt Fiona who got up and walked away, fighting bravely against the tears that were running down her face.

She would never let him know she remembered everything. She got what she had coming. She would rather no one knew what really happened that night. Not even Gina.

The squad called to her but she kept going, even breaking into a run to avoid them. She didn't know where she was going but she sure as hell knew she wasn't going back to the girls.

*&*&*&*&

"Did it work?"

Tasha nodded, "oh yes it did. She was heartbroken. I felt her angst from where I was standing."

"Okay, no need to make me feel guilty. I don't care how she hurts, she took Gina away from me."

"You're starting to sound like Max."

"I am Max's half. Of course I'll sound like him."

"Whatever," Tasha said down the line, "I have to go. I have clarinet to practice. This is over, I can't do this anymore. I just can't! They're my friends, they never judged me. I am sorry, I can't do this anymore."

"What can't you do anymore?"

Tasha froze, and turned. This was not good. It wasn't good at all.

"Are you done with your emotional rant?" The person at the other end of the line joked, "because baby I lay the rules. It's over when I say it's over."

"Tasha? Who's on the phone with you? Is that a guy?" Niall asked, coming closer as he stared at her, then the phone. She had been caught in the act. Niall snatched up her phone and looked at the screen just as the caller hang up. He gasped and turned to his girlfriend. "Tasha, what did you do now?"