Ignoring the shouts, and chants of the nosy gym hall around me, I cradled my book tighter towards me and smiled.
"Reading smut again, Phoebs?" A voice chirped.
Nearly jumping out of my skin, my book fell clumsily out of my lap and onto the floor with a loud bang. Fan-fucking-tastic. A light giggle emitted from above me.
Swiping my head up, I was greeted with the sight of a vibrant Ava, staring down at me with a cheeky, knowing grin.
Recovering from my shock, I lazily rolled my eyes. "No, Ava, funnily enough, I'm not reading about people dicking themselves done in the middle of cheer practice," I answered flatly.
"Hmm, could have fooled me," she snickered as she flopped herself down onto the floor beside me. Still heaving from over-exertion, she drove a hand through her sweaty blonde hair to smoothen down her bun.
"God, I'm beat," she sighed.
Raising a half-amused brow, I turned to her with a smile. "Really? Was that before or after I saw you and the captain of the swim team, Cody McWhitteny, making out against the lockers?" I asked, giving her a pointed look.
A light blush covered the paleness of her cheeks. "You saw that..," she muttered slowly.
"Yup, for every last butt-grab, and moan, so thanks for that."
She gave me a sheepish smile and bit her lip. "Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to give you a show, I thought we were alone..."
I shook my head with a smile, knowing it was just Ava being Ava. Having been her friend since the age of three, I'd like to think I knew all her amazing qualities. And one of these qualities happened to be her flawless ability to attract any teen male within a five-mile radius. She could get them in the blink of an eye, and get them she did. And boy, was it impressive.
Clearing her throat, she turned to me in excitement. "Anyway, I almost forget to tell you. Cody invited me to a party tonight, wanna come?"
Seconds away from shrugging out a sure, my smile suddenly slipped from my face as I remembered something. "Oh, shit, I can't. I promised my brother I'd be home for the whole of this evening."
She frowned. "Aww, no. Why?"
The corner of my lips pricked up in half amusement. "He's bringing home his new girlfriend," I sang out teasingly. "Poor bloke hasn't been able to shut up about her for weeks, so now he wants me to meet her."
"Oh, really?" Ava muttered, with narrowed eyes.
Knowing where she was going with this, I threw my head back dramatically. "Oh not this again," I groaned.
"Yes, this again," she snapped. "When we were ten, I gave your brother five fucking heart-shaped gummy sweets before asking him to be my boyfriend. And what did he do?" she laughed.
I let out a sigh.
"That's right, he fucking rejected me," she spat.
"Ava, babe, he was seventeen and you were ten, something tells me it was never going to work out. You know, for legal reasons..." I teased.
She paused clearly knowing I had a point before defiantly crossing her arms. "Well, whatever, I'm eighteen now, and he's twenty-five. So it's legal now," she argued.
I was about to propose another argument, but knowing it would likely fall on deaf ears, I gave up. If Ava still thought she had a shot with my very much adult brother, then who was I to change her mind?
"Actually, can I come too?" Ava said after a moment of silence.
"Lol, no," I said quickly.
She frowned. "And why, not?"
I laughed. "Maybe because I'm very sure you'll attempt to kill his new girlfriend, before eating up her remains for dessert,"
Scarily, she didn't deny my accusations nearly as quickly as I thought she would and instead continued to stare solemnly at me. "I wouldn't eat them...," she said slowly.
Genuinely scared now, I opened my mouth to speak before I was interrupted by the sound of a sharp whistle.
Turning to the front of the hall, I found our thirty-something-year-old blonde cheer coach standing towards the front of the hall with a whistle in between her lips.
"You all did well today, guys. We just need to work on getting higher in those stunts, and straightening out those legs. I want this to be perfect guys, okay," she called out.
"Yes, coach," everyone called back.
"Alright, guys, you're dismissed," she announced.
Shoving my book back into my bag, I clambered along with everyone to my feet. "Wait, not you Phoebe, stay back a second," the coach called out. Freezing a little in confusion, I turned back to face her.
"I'll call you later, okay," Ava said with a short smile before weaving her away around me to depart through the doors. As everyone gradually cleared away, I made my way slowly over to my coach.
Once we were alone, I cleared my throat. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
She gave me a curt smile. "That," she said, nodding her head down to my ankle.
Following her line, of sight, I found myself staring down at my heavily bandaged foot. It was a result of one too many harsh landings out of one of my more difficult tumbles. As much as I loved cheer, it could be an absolute bitch when it came to injuries. In a period of two years, I'd managed to pop out my shoulder, crack a rib, break three of my toes, and now on top of all that, I'd twisted my ankle. Plastering a fake smile of ease on my face, I shrugged. "And..what about my ankle?"
She sighed, giving me a sympathetic smile. "I know you can still do your stunts on it, but I need you back in tumbling as well. Do you reckon you can land on it?" She asked cautiously.
Nope.
"Sure, of course," I nodded.
A relieved smile crossed her face. "Excellent! I'll work you back into the tumbling part of the routine, next practice," she beamed. "See you then, have a good evening," she said, nodding her head for me to go.
Turning to go, I made it as far as the doors before I heard the coach call out my name. "Yeah," I said, as I turned back around.
"Sorry, Phoebe but would you mind doing me a massive favor and rounding up any lost property you find in the boy's locker room?" She asked while shooting me a guilty smile.
I was just about to mumble back a sure, but then I paused, latching on to one keyword. "The boy's changing room?" I repeated back slowly, making sure I heard her right.
She nodded her head. "Yeah, and don't worry, nobody's in there. The swim team should have packed up and left, a long while ago," she said while waving a flippant hand.
Relief instantly washed through me as I realized she didn't expect me to wander boldly in between a bunch of smelly, half-naked boys.
Giving her a nod goodbye, I rounded up my jacket and bag before making my way over to the locker rooms. Whistling a little tune to myself, I fished my wireless headphones out of my bag and hooked them over my head. As I scrolled through my phone for an appropriate playlist, I lazily pushed open the boy's locker room door with my hip. Now, what was I thinking to listen to...
Deciding on listening to an old classic, I swiftly clicked on the appropriate playlist. Soon enough backing track music pounded through my ears that I instantly recognized as the classic song; 'It wasn't me'.
Smiling, I cleared my throat and started to hum along. Grooving my head to the music, I hummed my way over to a bench and picked up a loose shirt that someone had left there.
Getting a bit too into the song, I did a little spin before dance-walking my way towards the shower cubicles. Finding a towel, shirt and shorts slung over the top of one of the shower doors, I grabbed them before lazily throwing them over my shoulder.
Hearing a faint, 'hey', over my speakers, I paused but figuring it was just a weird bit of the song, I ignored it and continued swaying along to the music.
"How could I forget that I had given her an extra key? All this time she was standing there, she never took her eyes off-"
Turning around, the last of my words died within my throat as I found myself staring into the startled eyes of my fellow classmate, Sebastian Diaz. Slowly lowering my headphones, I blinked back at him in shock, then to my horror, I realized he was absent of every single last item of clothing. Or, in other words, Sebastian Diaz, was stood before me stark naked. No clothes, nothing; he was as bare as the day he was born.
As my heart hammered away in panic; I could seem to do nothing else but stare. His tanned chest rose and fell with his every breath, and in fascinated horror, I followed them down to the deeply sculpted lines that marked his abdominals. They were slightly wet with shower water, and for whatever reason, they made me swallow.
Though voices in my head were screaming at me to stop, my eyes drew lower and lower and lower until-
Holy crap.
I was staring at Sebastian Diaz's dick.
"What the fuck is happening?" A male's voice shouted, breaking me out of my shock.
Lifting my head, I found myself once again, staring into Sebastian's very much frazzled brown eyes. Noticing his wettened dark hair, still clinging to his forehead and now dripping on the floor, I realized to my horror that I had interrupted him in his shower.
Letting out a squeak, I slapped a hand over my eyes and hurriedly held out the towel that I had previously flung over my shoulder. "Shit, shit, shit, please take it, please take it," I rushed out in horror as I frantically shook his towel.
He snatched it from between my fingers, and I waited anxiously as I heard rustling sounds before me indicating he was putting it on.
"Is your dick away, now?" I asked cautiously after a decent amount of time had gone by.
"Yes," he bit out.
Slowly parting my fingers, I gingerly looked between them to see if he was lying or not. Once I saw his towel was in fact, securely covering him, I found myself letting out a visible sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god," I murmured as I finally dropped my hand.
Sebastian recovered some from his flustered state; narrowed his eyes on me.
"What the fuck are you playing at, Phoebe? Why did you steal my clothes?"
Taking aback by his accusation, I stared at him dumbfounded while trying to make sense of what he was on about.
Shaking my head at him, I furrowed my brows in confusion. "Have you lost your mind? Why would I steal your cloth-"
The words died once more in my throat, as I followed Sebastian's line of gaze over to the stack of clothes that were still draped over my arms.
"Oh, my god, these are totally yours..." I whispered as realization struck me.
"Yeah, no kidding," he snapped with a bitter laugh as he snatched them rudely out of my hands.
Feeling mildly annoyed by how rude he was being, I frowned. "Well, there's no need to be rude. It's not like I knew," I argued back.
He lifted a perfectly raised brow. "You didn't know there might be a boy showering in the boy's locker room?" he repeated back slowly as though talking to an idiot.
Frustrated that he was making me sound stupid, I let out a groan of annoyance. "Well, not this late in the afternoon, no," I snapped in frustration. "Coach told me that everyone had packed up and left. So, I just came in here to help her look for lost property!"
I watched as his eyes danced back and forth between mine. "Oh, really," he murmured, his voice laced with disbelief.
"Yes, really," I snapped.
His lips pricked up a little. "Okay, if that's the case, and you're truly not a pervert, how come you didn't hear the sound of my shower?" he asked smoothly.
"Because I was listening to music, you idiot. What do you think this is, a necklace?" I scoffed, as I pointed angrily down to my headphones.
Tilting his head, he looked me up and down. "Yikes, and she's a moody pervert too. Your great qualities just go on and on, don't they Brooks," he taunted, his boyish smile breaking through his lips.
His words and smile instantly tipped me over the edge, so deciding to put him in his place, I took a cocky step closer to him. Sebastian's smile never faltered,
"You know, I've always wondered why and how someone could have as big a mouth as yours, Seb?" I smirked. "But today, I learned that it's clearly because it's accommodating for something else," I whispered. Then to drive home my point, I shot a very deliberate and pointed glance at his towel.
His smirk instantly dropped from his face to be replaced by a frown, confirming to me he got my message loud and clear. Though my comment was a big fat lie, there wasn't an ounce of my brain that regretted saying it. Someone had to put him in his place.
Scowling at me, his eyes flickered back and forth between mine before letting out a scoff. "Well, all I heard was a confirmation that you were looking at my dick. Guess, you're a pervert, after all, Brooks," he shrugged.
My eyes narrowed, and the two of us engaged in a weirdly long intense staring match; neither of us looking away.
Finally, after some time, Sebastian raised a brow. "So, are you hanging around, to watch me finish getting changed...or...," he smirked as he let his hand drift threateningly closer towards the tied part of his towel.
Finally stepping back, I rolled my eyes. "In your fucking dreams, Seb," I scoffed as I turned away. Re-firming my grip on my bag, I stormed my way towards the doors of the changing rooms as fast as I humanely could.
"See you around, pervert," he called out.
"And see in hell, bitch" I replied back, without even sparing him a glance.
As the door slammed closed behind me, I heard the faint sound of his obnoxious snickers break out in the distance. Digging my fingernails into my palm, I resisted the urge to scream.
God, I hated him...