With You┃Dylan O'Brien ⓵

Chapter Six : The Sun of the Beach

Everyone at our table is quiet and a couple people from nearby tables are watching, too. I don't like all the attention.

Jason gives her the dirtiest look before turning to me, "Are you serious right now?"

I seriously don't know what to say, I don't know anything, so I just stare back at him with my mouth hanging open like a caught fish. He scoffs and laughs a little bitterly then storms away, out of the cafeteria.

I turn to Naomi and so do Linda and Adrian and that other Asian girl, but Naomi doesn't look at any of us. All she does is take out her lunch (which turns out to be some really good-looking sushi) and starts eating it.

"Can I just say, you're a fucking bad ass for that," Linda tells her.

The other girl pipes in, "Seriously. Where did all that even come from?"

"He's hurt two of my friends before and was trying to hurt another one. That little boy has hurt too many people to get away with it again, and I guess I lost it when I saw his stupid little face. Sorry."

"Don't apologize!", some girl from the table next to ours says, and we laugh. A few other people from that table give her a thumbs up and we turn away from them after smiles are exchanged.

"Thank you for that," I tell Naomi, and she grins up at me.

"It wasn't planned or anything," she says with a laugh. "But you're welcome."

Adrian hasn't said anything this whole time and I can't help but wonder what he's thinking while he's watching Naomi, sitting at her side.

"You're like, a common hero now," Linda tells Naomi.

"A common hero?", she repeats humorously. "What the heck is a common hero?"

She shrugs, "Just know that you've just done something that the rest of us have only ever dreamed of doing."

~

It is now Friday morning, and I'm at school at seven in the morning. Twenty minutes earlier than usual; thirty minutes before school starts. I feel butterflies in my stomach and can't remember the last time I felt this anxious about anything. Why was I so anxious about this anyway? I guess I'm only just now realizing how badly I want to be on Varsity.

Last night, I made Dylan promise to come to school early so he could look at the list with me before anyone else... and, well, he complained. He explained to me that he has to take the city bus to school and it comes by his house every twenty minutes which means he has to take the earlier bus and he doesn't want to get up early and blah blah blah.

I got him to do it.

I see him walking towards me now! The trade-off is that I have to buy him coffee after school. Worth it.

"Remind me again why I agreed to be here this early?", Dylan asks as we walk. He yawns right after his sentence.

"Because you're a good friend," I remind him. "Besides, I need some moral support."

"Come on, you already know you made the team."

"No, you just think I made the team because you know that I'm good at gymnastics."

"You told me tryouts went well for you, and I know for a fact that you can't be any worse than the girls currently on our JV team so, yeah, I'm pretty sure you made it."

"Well I guess we're about to find out."

The two of us approach the door of the front office and to the right of it, on the wall, are two standard pieces of paper. One of them says JV CHEER TEAM 2014 while the other says VARSITY CHEER TEAM 2014. I decide to scan the JV list first, reading the fifteen names of the girls, none of which are me.