batman & cheerleader

3- you smell like a brewery

It has been a couple of days since the Johnny/Taylor/Nick situation. I have not talked to Johnny, when he passes me in the hall, he will either send me a wink or a glare. Depends on his mood. Nick, on the other hand has been incognito as usual. I swear that dude has secret passages to get to and from class. He is never seen. My social life is as lively as ever, classmates still come up to me and ask why I broke up with Johnny. Guys now think that I am willing to date them when in reality, I'm not. Yep, not a whole lot has changed in the life of Taylor Croft.

"Taylor!"

"Taylor!"

"TAYLOR!!!!"

"What?" I huff.

"You have been zoning out for the past five minutes. You missed part of the new routine!" Heather, our cheer captain yells at me.

Oops.

"Sorry." I mumble.

"Sorry isn't going to cut it." Heather scoffs. "There is nothing in that parking lot to be so interested in. Run laps, now!" She orders.

I internally groan and head for the track. "How many?" I ask.

"Run until the end of practice." She demands. I groan again. "Oh, don't you groan, you should be use to running laps."

Yep, I was definitely still in the doghouse with her.

To be completely honest, the only reason I was looking towards the parking lot is because I was trying to catch a glimpse of the mysterious Nick Ross. Since the incident in the parking lot happened, I had been trying to keep an eye on him. Just to make sure that Johnny didn't figure out it was Nick who tackled him. But it is incredibly difficult to protect someone when the person seems to disappear while at school.

Forty-five minutes and so many laps ran - I stopped counting- practice was finally over for the day and I was ecstatic. I was drenched in sweat and my limbs were heavy. Unfortunately a feeling I was no stranger to. I slowly made my way back to the rest of the squad.

"There you are. You good?" Lacey asks.

"Nope." I shake my head and sweat falls from drenched pony tail.

"Some of us are going across town for a sale at the mall, you in?" Lacey questions me while handing me a bottle of water.

As much as I love shopping there was absolutely no way I was going to fight people in a sale. I would be the person lying on the dirty floor getting trampled on. That did not appeal to me one bit.

"I think I'm going to pass, Lace, I need to go home." I say.

"Okay. I will pick you up a few things." Lacey smiles and then heads to the locker room to freshen up.

Instead of going to the locker room with the rest of the squad I decide to just head out. I no longer wanted to be anywhere near school today.

- - - - - -

I was en route to my house when I received a group text from my parents and younger brother. Apparently my parents were invited to dinner with a few friends and would not be home until midnight so it was my job to pick up my thirteen year old brother from his study group. A study group that doesn't end till seven. So I now had two hours to kill before going to pick him up, and there was no point in me going home then going back out.

I chose to spend my time at a local restaurant. Tyson's Bar & Grill was well know through out town, even though it was technically in my town, people came from the nearby towns to eat there. It was also a hang out for us teens. Tyson's was owned by an ex professional wrestler, who wanted to settle down in a town where nobody cared who he was. And a town outside of Boston was the perfect place.