I drop into a fighting stance while Nicole and Patrice figure out who's going to step up first. To my surprise, Patrice steps up first and as much as I hate fighting my best friend, I need to end this. These broads need to know I'm not the one.
Patrice swings at me angrily, and I deck her in the face, busting her nose. I knew it would end the fight before it even began. And sure enough, she's more concerned with her bleeding nose than fighting me.
Now it's Nicole's turn, but she raises her hands in surrender and backs up along with three other girls who don't want any.
Kimberly steps up and swings on me, but I block her punch and deck her in the face. Unlike Patrice, she keeps coming and her friends watch as I beat the crap out of her. I get her onto the ground and I'm driving my fist into her face repeatedly when I'm struck in the side of my head.
My ears are ringing...
One of Kim's friends snuck up behind me and I'm being dragged backward off of her by my hair. The group of girls closes in around me, blocking Drew and Dreux from getting to me so they can't interfere.
Now that they have me where they want me, they kick and stomp me, and I have to curl into the fetal position to protect my head and face. Nicole is amongst those trying to kick the crap out of me, and I'm about to give up when I notice girls being flung into the pool. My teammates are fighting girls off from behind while the Drew's are putting a dent in the girls in front of me.
The moment one of my teammates yanks me up onto my feet, I do a check of my body. Although I'm sore, I'm not dead. Drew is in Kimberly's face now, arguing with her, and her friends are getting their butts kicked by my teammates.
All they've done is piss me off. Searching the area, I scan around for Nicole, and the moment I find her I take off and deck her so hard in the face I knock her unconscious on the pavement. Tasting blood in my mouth, I spit it on her and turn around to look for the girl who decked me in the face like a coward. When I find her, she attempts to run, but my teammates block her in and it's just me and her.
"You and me, bitch. Let's go," I tell her.
She comes at me and I punch her so hard I knock one of her front teeth out. She waves her hands at me like she doesn't want anymore, but I'm not done with her yet. I grab her by her hair and start decking her in the face while she throws up her hands, trying to protect it. I don't stop until she's on the ground curled up in a ball crying.
"Any more of you bitches want some?" I shout, glaring at them. Suddenly no one wants none of what I got for them, and I'm almost amused. "What the fuck is this even about, anyway? Drew? He's the one fucking you stupid bitches, not me! Don't come for me unless I send for you!"
"Sid, you need to calm your ass down. You've made your point," Drew drags me away from his thot parade and into the light so he can assess the damage. "You're hella crazy, you know that?"
"I've been dying to do that for a while now. You have no idea. But this is all your fault. You know that, right?"
Nodding he says, "I know."
"You're the reason they're coming for me. I mean, is the dick that good that they want to jump me now?" I scoff.
A dark smile curves the corners of his mouth and his eyes rake over me. "You ready to find out?"
Laughing, I shove him back away from me. "You're so nasty."
"Hey Sid, you want me to kick them out?" Dreux asks.
I look at the girls whose butts I just kicked and a few others whose jabs I let slide. Someone picked Nicole up off the ground, but both her nose and mouth are bleeding pretty badly.
"Nah, I did what I wanted to do. Let them stay."
Dreux raises a brow at me like he thinks I'm crazy for allowing them to stay, but I've proven my point and now they know I'm no punk. He shrugs and allows them to stay, but he cranks the music up.
The football team, basketball team, and my teammates all come to give me my props. And they appoint themselves my protectors for the rest of the night.
Who needs family when you have friends like these?
Then a comforting thought hits me. Drew, Quincy, and my teammates. They're my family, too. I may have lost my entire immediate family, but I still have some family left. And the way my teammates stood up for me... I now realize they're more than teammates. They're my sisters.
"Is she okay?" Q asks Drew, concerned.
"She has a few scrapes and bruises, but her crazy ass is fine."
"I'm with Drew. That was crazy Sid. They could have seriously hurt you or injured you and kept you from playing ball," Chloe agrees.
"I didn't even think about getting injured," I realize and privately scold myself.
"That's because you let your hot ass head take over," Drew gives me a stern look.
Shrugging, I tell him, "I won."
"Yeah... this time. But you won't always have an entire team of people with you, Sid. You got to be smart. None of those girls are worth your basketball career, remember that."
He's right. I hate that he's right and I playfully poke my lip out into a pout. He laughs and pulls me in for a hug, but what he does with hands has me practically jumping out of my skin. They smooth down the slope of my back and then he cups my butt, squeezing both cheeks.
I haven't agreed to date him again, so I try to remove his hands, but he won't let me. He pins my hands behind my back with one hand and kisses me.
My mind goes blank.
Even my sore body doesn't object to his touch, and I hate that he has this effect on me.
"You two back together?" Jason asks curiously.
"No," I reply.
Frowning, Drew completely disregards my comment and overrides what I said. "We're working on it."
"I never said I would work on anything with you. We've got a lot of issues if that wasn't clear by your little smash buddies trying to beat the crap out of me."
"You want to be exclusive and I'm giving you that. You don't want to have sex and I told you we can work around that. What else do you want from me, Sid? Whatever it is, tell me, and it's yours."
Once again, he and I are the center of attention thanks to his loudmouth. "You can't be serious," Kimberly gawks at him. "He doesn't know the meaning of exclusive, so if I were you, I'd run for the hills."
"And why would she take any advice from you after what you and your friends just tried to pull?" Xerxes asks.
Briefly, I meet Em's gaze and realize she watched those girls jump me and did nothing. But Em is the least of my worries right now. I have Drew and his harem to contend with.
Taking me by the hand, Drew pulls me away from prying ears. He doesn't want everyone all up in our business. There's an empty cabana at the far back of the house, so he takes me there to speak in private.
"This isn't going to work, Drew," I tell him.
He sighs and takes my hands into his. "I love you, Sidney. I know I have a messed-up way of showing it and I know I don't deserve you, but I'm trying."
"Until when? Until you decide you want to have sex again because you're tired of not doing it? Or is it until you get mad at me because I did something you don't like?"
"Neither. It'll be forever unless you cheat on me."
"Me... cheat on you?" I look at him like he's crazy. "I'm not the cheater in this equation."
"I never cheated on you. You knew what it was, and you knew everyone I was with. I didn't hide that from you."
"It doesn't mean I didn't feel betrayed. I told you I wanted our first time to be together."
Drew sighs. "At least give me the chance to show you I'm serious."
Staring into his eyes, I relent. I could never stay mad at him, anyway. "Fine."
His lips curl up into a triumphant smile. He pulls me into him and this time I don't fight him when he kisses me. As soon as the kiss is over though I break free of his grasp and head back to the party. Quincy and Chloe are in the hot tub and I join them. They seem to hit it off pretty well whenever Q isn't ogling me. I'm hoping he'll be so into Chloe he won't even think about me anymore, because every time he glances in my direction, she looks disappointed.
Chloe's supermodel gorgeous and it's hard to make her feel insecure, but I can see that's the effect it's having on her.
Drew takes off his shirt and slips into the hot tub next to me. The moment he does, Xerxes, Em, Jason, Dreux, and several of his friends all climb in too. It's crowded would be an understatement. As if it wasn't already hot enough without adding more bodies to it.
"So... Sidney, is it?" Dreux fixes his gaze on me. "I like you, you got heart. You're a little crazy, but you got heart. What are you doing with this loser?"
I'm fully expecting Drew to get in his face, but he doesn't. Instead, he retorts without missing a beat. "Why don't you ask your mom since I was with her last night."
Laughter erupts all around, but Dreux doesn't find his comment funny. He looks like he wants to rip Drew apart until a beautiful, dark-chocolate skinned girl with a big booty climbs into the hot tub and heads straight for him. After that, his thoughts are of the beauty in his face and not Drew's dig at his mom.
"Can I ask you a question?" Em asks me.
Everyone in the hot tub suddenly grows silent. I guess they all picked up on the tension between us too.
"You can ask me anything, Em," I reply.
"Why didn't you snitch on me? I know you saw Xerxes and I, so why didn't you throw me under the bus? Why didn't you tell mom?"
"Well, one, I'm not a snitch. And two, regardless of what we're going through, I will always have your back. Even when you don't have mine."
"Dad doesn't want me talking to you," she blurts out.
"I'm not surprised. He hates me."
"He doesn't hate you. He hates what you represent."
"And what would that be?"
Em clams up. Like Grams, she knows something I don't.
"It's not my place to tell. It's dads and moms."
Not wanting to make a big deal out of it with so many watchful eyes, I drop the subject. At least Em is talking to me now instead of treating me like I'm invisible.
"I love you, Em."
Smiling, she replies, "I love you too, Sid."
"Does this mean you'll start showing up to my games again?"
"Yeah," she nods. "I'm sorry I let stupid family drama get in the way of our relationship."
"It happens," I smile back, giving her the biggest hug.
Drew is in my seat when I turn around, and he motions for me to sit on his lap. Reluctantly, I do just that and he wraps his arms around my waist.
"Seriously, are you two back together or what?" Em asks.
"Yeah," we both admit.
"I knew you couldn't stay away from her crazy ass," Xerxes laughs. "You've got my boy whipped and you haven't even given it up yet."
"We have each other whipped," I correct him.
"Yeah, since birth," his brother Scott teases.
Drew and his boys talk sports, and then he and Dreux get into a debate about football being better than basketball. They're constantly going at it, competing against each other, measuring their Johnsons whenever the opportunity presents itself. After a while, I tune them both out and catch up with Chloe. Even Em joins in the conversation and it feels like old times.
Occasionally, I glance over at Patrice fully expecting her and her new BFF to be glaring at me, but Nicole is nowhere to be found. Patrice is alone and I feel bad for her. I'm pretty sure it was Nicole who put her up to trying to fight me, and I hate the fact that I even let her get that close to me.
I let her into my inner circle and divulged some secrets to her because I trusted her. I know it's going to come back to haunt me. It already has tonight.
I motion for Chloe and Em to follow me and make my way over to Patrice. I want to get this over with so we can put whatever issue she has with me behind us. Nicole has done enough to me. I'm not letting her steal my best friend too.
Patrice immediately goes on the defensive when she sees us coming, but she doesn't back down. That's what I love about her. She's got a lot of heart.
"If you came to tell me how horrible a friend I am or to bust what's left of my nose, I'd rather leave," Patrice addresses me with her head held high.
"I just want to know why," I tell her.
"You talked to her about me behind my back. You told her I was a hoe."
"What? Patrice, I would never. Nor have I ever."
"She said you told her you didn't want to be my friend because I wasn't going anywhere in life," she sulks. "My feelings were hurt."
Frowning, I tell her, "I never said that."
"That had to be all Nicole," Drew chimes in inviting himself into our make-up session. "She played you to get back at me and Sid. That's how she works."
Patrice sulks and offers me an apologetic smile. "I kind of figured that after she pumped me up to get in your face and chickened out when it came time to back up her words. I'm sorry, Sid. I let her get in my head and I'm sorry."
Patrice and I hug, and Em joins in. "Someone needs to give Nicole a taste of her own medicine," Em shakes her head.
"I think Sidney covered that by beating the crap out of her," Patrice huffs. "But did you have to bust my nose?"
"I didn't want to."
"Yeah, well, I guess I had it coming," she grimaces.
Smiling, I pull her into another hug and drag her over to the hot tub. But everyone has since moved to the pool.
Drew has dipped off somewhere again, and I'm looking around, but I don't see him anywhere. He was just right here. Thinking he probably went to the bathroom, I sit on the edge of the pool, and a few seconds later Dreux sits down next to me. Em, Patrice and Chloe raise a brow at me, and Drew's boys are watching me like a hawk.
"Seriously, what do you see in Drew?" Dreux asks.
"I love him."
"Yeah, but you can learn to love someone else."
"I could if I wanted to," I nod.
"Then perhaps you just haven't met the right temptation yet," he purposely slips into the water and moves to stand in front of me.
He's bold, I'll give him that, but my heart is irrevocably Drew's. It has been since the day we met, and I haven't been able to get it back.
"I think you should save all of that temptation for big booty Judy that was in the hot tub. She's a beautiful girl."
"So are you, and you're more my type."
I blush and hate myself for it. I'll hand it to Dreux, he knows how to make a girl blush and he knows it. Once he achieves his desired reaction, he smiles and backs away from me, undressing me with his eyes.
I'm no fool though. Dreux's interest in me begins and ends with getting underneath Drew's skin, and I refuse to play into his games. I can't help but wonder where Drew is, though.
"Has anyone seen Drew?" I ask.
"His dad called and then he and Scott left," Chloe informs me.
"Did he go home? He has my keys and my phone."
"I don't know, but here comes Scott."
I follow her gaze over to Scott, who looks upset. He grabs his stuff and leaves when I stop him. "Where's Drew? What's going on?"
"Our grandpa just died," he sniffles.