Reputation: Book One

Tripp

Highway Don't Care- Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift

Lose My Mind- Brett Eldridge

Games- Luke Bryan

What was Qrow's problem? Why was he suddenly all hissy at me like I did something? All I wanted was to talk to him about 'this', whatever 'this' was. I shouldn't have even called him. God, I'm such a retard.

As I was driving home, my phone vibrated between my thighs and I huffed impatiently, yanking it out of my lap and clicking the notification. It was a message from Autumn. I hesitantly clicked on it.

HEY WUT'S UP WITH U AND QROW? HES REALLY UPSET ABT SOMETHING...

I groaned, tossing my phone back into the center console of my car.

"Hey Bixx," I start. It dinged in response, the rim of my radio lighting up in different flashing LED colours. "Text Autumn back for me."

"Okay. What is the message?" My dashboard asks in a robotic, alto-pitched voice.

"Is Qrow at the house with you, question mark."

A white light line ran along the circular stereo button, emphasizing 'loading'.

"Message successfully sent." She finishes, the lights cutting off and leaving me in darkness again. About two minutes later, I was notified of her response.

YAH. HES SULKING UPSTAIRS IN HIS ROOM. WHAT U DO TO HIM ANYWAY?

"Hey Bixx, tell Autumn I'm busy driving for me please," I grumble.

"Okay. The message will be passed on. Anything else I can do for you?" I shake my head flicking on my left blinker, then suddenly realizing my car didn't really have the ability to see.

"Wait, yeah," I blurt, changing my mind. "Tell Adrien Agreste I'm in love with my improvements," I chuckle, taking a slight turn onto the main street to Autumn's neighbourhood. "Okay. The message will be passed on. Anything else I can do for you?" She repeats.

"Nope. I'm good," I smile. I received an immediate response from Adrien.

YOUR CAR SENT THAT MESSAGE FOR YOU, DIDNT IT?

I laugh out loud. I was glad Adrien and I were sort of getting along a little bit better now.

* * *

I crept up the stairs, holding my dance ID lanyard against my chest to make myself as quiet as possible. I peered around the hallway corner to Qrow's room to see if the door was open, knowing that it usually was the majority of the time. But it wasn't. Instead, his white-stained door was partially closed, cracked open with just enough room to see past the door's frame on the other side.

Some loud but muffled music played from in the room, intriguing me to find out what it was for. I inched closer, straining to hear. The steady 4/4 click of what I believe was a metronome wove between the frequently paused rhythm of the music, creating a catchy beat to nod my head along to.

Qrow did have some kind of taste after all.

I pushed the door open a tad bit more, wincing and hoping he didn't hear or see it move. Once it was clear that I wasn't going to get caught, I kneeled down beside the door and peeked inside through the small crack big enough to probably be able to only fit my thumb through.Without immediately overreacting at the sight of Qrow dressed in tight black slacks, a nice fitting shirt, and a plaid-red flannel tied tightly around his waist, I numbly watched him kill some moves in there.

The way he could move his body in such a proportioned flow made me smile to myself. He bounces on the balls of his feet for a few beats, but as soon as the chorus starts back up again he's quick with the move, quick to jerk his body to position: one foot swept to the side, knee bent and parallel arm raising and angling at a pinpointed 90 degrees above his head.

Next, a slower movement, but along to the beat. He lifted his arm and crossed it over his body, hips twisting as he shifted his weight to the other foot with a swaying push. He then quickly pressed his hand to his chest as his other hand flies outward, feet snapping together.

He alternates between quick jerks, snaps, and pops to slow, swift, graceful movements, arms and legs all in synchronization with such precision as his body followed through smoothly to the lyrics of the song.

Just the way he can quickly throw himself from one position to another reminded me of a young woman on an episode of Dancing With The Stars I had watched not too long ago while babysitting Cori and Jhordyn. But the way his limbs followed his every move so gracefully and easily made it look so professional, coordinated, calculated, beautiful...

After a sudden about-face and another weight shift, his eyes met mine through the growing crack in the door and I watched the immediate fear strike into position, almost in slow motion as his eyes widened and his mouth fell to a gape.

He fell to the floor in surprise as I made a strangling sound, stumbling backwards and covering my face. Tripp, you dumbass!

Qrow quickly recovers, standing back up and kicking his door open. His jet black hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat and his chest slowly heaves as he studies me for a moment."What the hell are you doing here?" He sputters. I blink at him, dazed. "I-I need to talk to you."

He stifled a laugh as I stood up. "Really? Because I'm pretty sure I just saw you crouched down and all bug-eyed like a pervert as you watched me practice."

I bit my lip nervously, avoiding his eyes.

"Were you not?" He presses. I look back up at him, a smirk creeping up on my face. "Maybe?"

He rolls his eyes, leaning up against the door and crossing his arms over his chest. "Why are you even here?"

"I need to know why you're so pissed off at me," I say. "because not even forty-eight hours ago, I am pretty sure we were eating each other's faces."

He scoffs. "Yeah, and that was a mistake." He says in a low voice as he gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. "I'm not playing this stupid game anymore, Tripp," He says, jabbing my chest with his left pointer finger. "What is it that you really want?"

I was quiet. His dangerously blue eyes bore holes into the side of my face as he waited for a response.

"I just want you," I whisper, shrugging. He lets out a small breath, looking away.

"I'm done here. Goodnight Tripp," He finally says, completely shutting his door this time.I groan loudly and fall back onto the floor to stare up at the ceiling, my arms and legs carelessly sprawled out on the floor in defeat.

I exhaled slowly, cussing at myself for being so stupid. Geez, what was wrong with me? Who in the right mind would have done that? Who?!I huffed and turned my head to face Qrow's closed door, eyebrows furrowed and lips pressed together tightly, and then I was overwhelmed with determination, the urge to try again. I slowly stood up and reached for the shiny golden-painted door handle. I knew what I had to do.