The Royal Crush

23

"If by 'glaring' you mean 'eye fucking', then sure," Alexa smirked.

I groaned. "Alexa!"

"Yo, Eaton!" George called out. My eyes widened and I hid behind Dylan.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"What, now I can't talk to him?" George asked smugly. I glared at him.

Caleb arrived. "Hey, what's up,"

I took a deep breath and emerged from behind Dylan, giving him a shaky smile. His eyes widened.

"Chloe? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing at a party? Or do you mean what am I doing with my friends?" I said.

"No that's not what I... never mind..." Caleb said and looked away.

"Why'd you ditch practice?" Cedric asked.

"I didn't think it was mandatory," he said.

"It is from now, game's getting close and Coach is getting angry," said George.

"Hmm. Then why doesn't the captain seem to be bothered?" Caleb said. I followed his gaze and saw Adrian. He spotted us and rolled his eyes, walking to the back.

"Look, I get that you and Adrian hate each other and have issues, but you gotta get your head in the game! You know things are bad when I'm more concerned than you are about the game," Alexa told him.

"I know, I'm working on getting rid of my distractions," Caleb said, looking at me.

My eyebrows lifted. Getting rid of? He was trying to get rid of me?! What was I thinking, coming here to talk to him. It was pointless. And anyways, he has to focus on the game. I shouldn't be getting in his way.

I walked away from them to the backyard for some fresh air. My head was a mess and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

"Er... Chloe Everett?"

I turned at the familiar voice and saw a pair of smiling dark blue eyes.

"Ian Ambrose?"

"The one and only."

"Hi! What are you doing here?"

"I was bored at home so Dylan invited Levi and I here."

"Levi's here too?"

"Yea. How're you doing?"

I shrugged. "Okay."

We sat on the low wall of the backyard.

"How's your crush?"

I threw my hands up. "Why can't we talk about me or you! Why must we talk about him?!"

"Ah, not so well, I see. What happened?"

"Come on, nothing happened and I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, sorry."

"It's just... everyone just keeps teasing me and asking me about him and it's fucking frustrating. There's more to me than the guy I like, you know."

"Of course. I was just making conversation, I didn't realize it was a touchy topic."

I sighed. "I know. It's not your fault. I'm just tired."

"Of what?"

"Everything."

"Hmm. Is there a specific reason?"

"No. Actually, you know what? Chuck it. Fine, I admit it is because of Caleb. I am so fucking confused. For some reason, I really really like him and want him but in typical Chloe fashion, I pushed him away at the wrong time and now he hates me and I don't know what to do and it's maddening!"