“You know you don’t have to go, right?”

            I looked up at Jeremy, who was hovering over me, crossing his arms. Currently, I was on the gym floor sitting Indian style. Sounds of basketballs being dribbled and students talking loudly filled the room. In my anxiety of having to ignore Chris all day, I had forgotten my gym clothes, and in turn, couldn’t participate with them. Lance was sitting out with me as well, but he was still in a grumpy mood about having to stay out in the hallway for both periods of biology. Jeremy raised an eyebrow, waiting for my response to his statement. “I know,” I finally sighed. “I figured that out five minutes after he assigned it.”

            “I’m not allowed to hold detention either,” he responded, frowning. “Otherwise I’d make you or Casey stay after with me everyday. I don’t know why I have to be here until three… It’s not fair.”

            I ignored his rambling, focusing on my own problems. “If I skip, Chris will just come to my house, and my mom’s home today. I don’t want it to be awkward. She’ll know something is up right away and try to butt her way into it. She’ll take Chris’s side too, because I think she likes him more than I do.”

            Jeremy squatted, his mouth now turned into a playful smile. “You could always stay with me. Hang out in the gym after school that way he won’t be able to find you. And you can keep me company.”

            “I’ll stay after too!” Lance added, his eyes lighting up. “This is a perfect chance to hang out with you!”

            “We can ask Casey too,” Jeremy said, nodding. “It’ll be like a mini party.”

             I debated about it for a moment. I really did want Chris to apologize first, but wasn’t a day and a half enough time to let him wallow in his guilt? He probably was already planning to apologize. But then again, I was curious as to what he would do if I continued ignoring him. If it got to the point where he got too angry with me I could always back out and apologize to him. “Okay, that sounds good,” I finally responded, giving Jeremy a little grin.

            “Good!” he said, clapping his hands together. “Now I’m excited. Casey!” he cried loudly, waving her over. “Come here!”

            The brunette jumped in surprise before turning to look at him. Unfortunately for her, her partner had just thrown a basketball, which hit her in the chest. She winced, turning to scowl at James. He gave her a sheepish look. Shaking her head, she began to jog her away over to us. “What’s up, Jeremy?”

            “Mr. Ross,” Lance and I corrected her immediately.

            She rolled her eyes. “Right. What’s up, Mr. Ross?”

            “Want to stay after school with me, Holly, and Lance? We’re having a party.”

            Cocking an eyebrow, she turned to me. “What’s this? You actually have time to hang out with us?”

            Lance smirked while I scowled at her. “If you just ask me when you want to hang out, I will. I don’t spend every waking moment with Chris, you know!”

            She chuckled. “I’m just teasing you, Holly. I can stay after, but I’ll need a ride home…”

            “I’ll give you one,” Jeremy and I chorused. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, Jeremy will,” I told Casey.

            Casey opened her mouth to say something, but abruptly closed when she noticed my look. I knew she was going to mention that she lived down the street from me so it would be pointless to have Jeremy drive her. This would be a good chance for them to have some more alone time. Jeremy agreed vigorously to driving her home and she ran off to join James again, looking a little bit flustered.

            “Oh my god, ew,” Lance commented, wrinkling his nose. “What is up with all you girls have crushes on older men?”

            Jeremy sighed dreamily. “I just can’t help it… They’re like, totally manly, unlike you, Lance.”

            He rolled his eyes. “Please, spare me.”

            Suddenly there was a sharp shout of pain from the other side of the gym. Jeremy’s head immediately snapped in the direction. I followed his gaze, my eyes landing on a student lying on the ground with other students starting to surround him. My lips turned up in amusement when I realized it was Aaron on the floor. Lexi bounded over to him looking worried. After a few moments Jeremy started toward him too. I pushed myself off the ground too— I wasn’t going to miss the chance of giving Aaron a taunting look while he was sprawled out of the floor.

            “Aaron, are you okay?” Lexi asked, squatting down next to her brother. “What happened?”

            “I just tripped,” he responded roughly, looking away from her. “I’m fine.”

            “Let me help you up—”

            He slapped her hand away. “No. Go away.”

            “Hey,” I protested, scowling at him. “Don’t hit your sister.”

            “Stay out of it,” he snapped at me.

Using his hands, he pushed himself up to his feet. A grimace of pain crossed his face and when he tried to take a step forward, he pulled his weight of his left leg, sending him toppling to the side. Jeremy easily caught him. “Are you okay?”

He pushed away from Jeremy. “I’m fine! Ow,” he hissed, putting his weight on his foot again.

Jeremy frowned. “You should probably go to the nurse. Someone will have to walk with him. Lance, will you—”

“No.”

Aaron smirked, his eyes landing on me. “Holly will help me. Right, Holly?”

I gave him a flat look. I didn’t want to help him, but he was asking in front of everyone. “If I have to.”

“I can take him,” Jeremy interjected, shooting a dirty look at Aaron. “Holly, you should stay here—”

“You’re the teacher,” Aaron cut him off, looking smug. “You can’t leave. Hand me off to Holly. She can handle it. She’s a big girl, isn’t she, Mr. Ross?”

He scowled. “Fine. Here, Holly.”

Reluctantly, I dragged myself forward. Aaron wasted no time in wrapping a strong arm around my shoulder and putting more weight than necessary on me. It took all I had to hold him up and stay on my feet under it all. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of me sinking under him. We headed for the gym door, him hobbling and me struggling to stay upright. Fortunately for me, the nurse’s office was just down the hall. At least I didn’t have to drag him across the whole school.

“So,” he started as soon as we were out in the empty hallway. “How’s your relationship with Mr. Ross?”

“Fine,” I grunted.

“And with Mr. Heywood?”

I shot him a glare. “We have no relationship.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Since when are you guys not friends?”

“We’re still friends,” I responded with a sigh.

“Has he confessed his love for you yet?”

I ignored him, focusing on the tiled floor. It really didn’t make sense that he knew Shawn but didn’t know it was Chris and I dating. Was Shawn playing some kind of game with him? Why would Shawn tell him it was Jeremy and I dating? Why wouldn’t Shawn just say it was Chris I was dating? My mind hurt just thinking about it. I couldn’t be sure of anything with Shawn. He could have some great mastermind plan that both Aaron and I were unaware of.

“Holly, I need you to do me a favor tomorrow,” Aaron spoke up again.

“That’s too bad,” I responded.

His eyes lit up in amusement. “Let me rephrase that. You have to do me a favor tomorrow.”

“I don’t have to do anything, Aaron.”

“You don’t want the faculty finding out about you and Jeremy, right?”

I laughed through my nose. “I don’t need to worry about that.”

“Oh yeah?”

“They wouldn’t believe you, Aaron. You have no proof.”

He tightened his arm around my shoulder. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Holly.”

My heart skipped a beat. What did he mean by that? There was no way he could have any evidence against Jeremy and I because we weren’t a couple. I easily calmed myself down. “You’re lying,” I said, calling my bluff.

“You can think whatever you want,” he responded smoothly. “Just know I can destroy you two at any moment. You don’t want him to get fired, do you? Or you getting expelled when I say you were getting good grades out of it?”

I took a few deep breaths through my nose to keep myself steady. Aaron was all talk. “There’s no way you have proof of us together.”

“I could show you if you like.”

I paused, making both of us come to a halt. He cocked an eyebrow, the corners of his lips twitching up. Was he lying? Or telling the truth? What evidence could he have? My mind raced, but nothing came up. Jeremy and I had only kissed once, and I was positive he didn’t take a picture— he had been frozen. Jeremy and I didn’t write notes to each other. We hardly talked in school aside from gym class. Even at the dance we weren’t together besides when we arrived together. Aaron couldn’t have anything. “Show me,” I demanded confidently.

“Sure,” he responded, sticking his free hand into his back pocket and producing his cell phone. “You sound pretty dubious. I’m sure this’ll change your mind.”

An uncomfortable feeling spread through my stomach. A cell phone? That meant it had to be some type of picture. But there were no pictures of Jeremy and I in any kind of revealing position. Were there…?

“Take a look,” Aaron offered, holding out the phone.

Holding my breath, I took a close look at the picture he was showing me. My heart nearly stopped beating. It was a picture from the wedding. Immediately I began to panic. Who had taken this picture? Jeremy proposing to me had been a joke! No one would believe this picture, right? I stared at it again, my heart sinking. It did look pretty convincing. Jeremy was kneeling on one knee on the ground, one of my hands in his. To top things off he was in a suit and I was in a dress. But still… “N-no one is going to believe this picture,” I stated as coolheaded as I could.

“Well maybe not with that picture alone…”

Now my heart did stop. Aaron used his finger to slide to the next picture on his phone. One of Jeremy and I slow dancing. Inwardly, I groaned. That wasn’t good. “How did you get those pictures?”

“Wait, wait, I have one more!”

I held my breath in anticipation. There couldn’t be anything worse. Jeremy hadn’t pulled any stunts like that in a long time.

“Here.”

When my eyes landed on the next picture, they widened. It was a picture taken from behind us. Jeremy was kissing me on the cheek, his face visible on at a side view. You could only see the back of my head in the picture. My eyebrows furrowed together. I couldn’t remember a time where Jeremy had kissed me on the cheek. I didn’t even own that blue striped polo I was wearing in the picture… I nearly gasped when realization hit me. The reason I didn’t remember the scene was because that wasn’t me. It was the other Holly. Jeremy’s cousin.

“I see you recognize the picture,” Aaron commented, snapping his phone shut. “Now you understand I can easily tell on you guys, right?”

“Did Shawn send you those pictures?” I interrogated, narrowing my arms. He would be the only person who would send Aaron pictures to get me in trouble. Maybe having Aaron think Jeremy and I were dating was part of a bigger plan.

Aaron snorted. “Shawn’s in jail. What do you think?”

“That one of his followers did it,” I responded, gritting my teeth.

“My lips are sealed,” Aaron told me, placing a finger against his lips. “I just wanted to let you know you really do have to do what I ask you to. I bet you’d feel like crap Mr. Ross got fired because of you, right? As long as you do what I say, I won’t tell.”

I kept my mouth shut. Apparently Aaron didn’t know that last picture wasn’t me. But even so, there were those two other pictures where it was very obvious it was me in them. The faculty didn’t know about the other Holly. They would just assume that third picture was me and that I was in a relationship with Jeremy. “What do you want me to do?” I finally responded with a sigh.

An expression of superiority crossed his face. “Well first of all—”

Before he had the chance to move, I snatched his phone from his hand. Surprise crossed his face as I swiftly ducked out from under his arm, turning to run back to the gym. If I could delete those pictures, I was home free.

“Holly!” he shouted after me.

I ignored him, flipping open the phone. Seconds later I felt my arm being tugged back in a rough manor. The phone nearly slipped from my hands. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing Aaron glaring at me. He reached for the phone but I quickly moved it out of his way. How was he standing on his ankle? Wasn’t it injured?

“Give me my phone,” he ordered, clenching my arm in his hand.

I winced, shaking my head. “No.” I attempted to push him away, but he just held onto me tighter.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” he warned, yanking my body closer to his. With his free hand, he grabbed the front of my shirt. “I’m not someone you want to mess with.”

I held my ground. “I’ve fought off gangsters tougher than you, Aaron.”

In one, swift motion he had me against the brick wall of the hallway, one of my arms pinned behind my back. “I wouldn’t be too sure.”

“What do you want from me?” I demanded, clenching my jaw. I wasn’t going to show him I was afraid of him.

“Payback,” he replied simply. “Shawn was like my father. My father who you sent to jail.”

“He tried to kill me—”

Aaron cut me off. “The least I can do for him is get his revenge. He asked me to do one simple thing.”

“What?”

“Make your life hell.”

I glowered at him. “Yeah? Well guess what. It won’t work.”

“I’ll see about that,” he said, reaching for the phone again. “Now give me that.”

“No!”

He pressed into me harder. “I’ll tell on you.”

“You can’t without your phone!”

“Give me my phone,” he growled, grabbing my arm and slamming into to the wall.

I shut my eyes, holding onto the phone tighter. This was the only thing threatening Jeremy’s job and my senior year. I wasn’t letting go. Suddenly I felt something sharp sinking into my arm. My eyes flew open and I noticed Aaron’s face at my arm. He was biting me!

“Stop it, you creep!” I shouted. “Ow!”

“Phone.”

“No!”

I closed my eyes again as he tried smashing my arm against the brick again. There was no way I was letting him get it. I couldn’t do that to Jeremy. I couldn’t risk my high school career. As Aaron brought my arm away from the wall again, I opened my eyes and chucked the phone as hard as I could against the ground. It hit the ground hard and the batter came sliding out. Hopefully the fall broke it. Now I just needed to get Aaron way from me…

“My phone!” he cried, glancing at it before glaring at me angrily.

I flinched and closed my eyes, expecting him to hit me. Hopefully a teacher would walk by…

“You’ll pay for that—”

“Hey!”

As if my wishes were heard, Aaron abruptly moved away from me. My eyes snapped open, only to have dread wash me. Chris was standing there, his angry gaze boring into my eyes. He was holding Aaron by the collar of his gym shirt. I quickly switched my gaze to the phone on the ground, but Aaron stepped on it to make sure I couldn’t grab it. It took all my control not to scream.

“Ms. Evers, what’s going on?” Chris demanded.

“Holly took my phone,” Aaron complained, grinning evilly at me.

My chest heaved in anger, but I didn’t say anything. If I did, Chris was definitely going to kill Aaron. I didn’t want him getting fired too and then getting sent to jail again.

“Ms. Evers?”

I swallowed, looking everywhere but at him.

“Stop ignoring me,” he said in a surprisingly hard tone.

“Uh-oh, the teacher is getting angry,” Aaron commented, amusement leaking in his tone. “I better go before I get in trouble too. See you tomorrow, Holly. Don’t make plans for after school.”

I glared at the back of his head as he started walking down the hall, not staggering in the slightest. Was the ankle just a trick?

“What does he mean, Holly?” Chris inquired, moving closer to me.

I looked up at him for a split-second— a big mistake. His piercing eyes caught mine and I found it impossible to look away. I just wanted to kiss him… No. I couldn’t kiss him.

“Why are you ignoring me?”

My heart nearly broke at the desperate tone in his voice. It took all I had to force myself to look away. He had to apologize first… I couldn’t forgive him until he apologized.

Luckily, the bell saved me from having to answer. My shoulders sagged in relief and I hastened away from him. I could deal with him later. For now I had to get away from him before he interrogated me about Aaron, or started making me feel guilty. I grumbled to myself. Chris was going to be pissed. I should have just punched Aaron and ran… No, I couldn’t have done that. I would have been suspended. I sighed. I really needed to confront Aaron outside of school.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. I barely focused in Spanish class. When the final bell rang, I hurried to the gym, going the long way to avoid the science wing. I needed to talk to Jeremy. He was shooting a basketball when I entered the gym a few moments later. A three-pointer swished in the basket and he let out a cheerful whoop.

“Good job,” I commented, making him jump.

He gave me a sheepish look. “I thought I was alone.”

“Nope. So, guess what?”

“Chris caught you coming down here?”

I shook my head. “No. Aaron has a picture of you proposing to me.”

Jeremy blanked. “What?”

“Remember? At the wedding? Yeah, I guess someone took a picture of that and it got to Aaron. He also has a picture of us slow dancing and a picture of you kissing the other Holly, but it looks like me.”

Jeremy ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “Shit…”

“If he shows the office those, we’re screwed.”

He swore a few times more. “How did he even get those pictures?”

“Probably someone with a connection with Shawn.”

“That bastard,” he growled, clenching his fists. “You’d think now that he was in jail we wouldn’t have to bother with him.

I cupped my elbow with my hand, letting my gaze drop to the ground. “Guess not… As long as I do what Aaron says, he won’t tell anyone though.”

Jeremy’s feet appeared in my field of vision as he grew closer to me. “Don’t give in to him, Holly.”

“But Jeremy, I don’t want you to be fired.”

“Worry about yourself. I have two jobs.”

“If he tells I could be expelled.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

He sighed. “Okay. I really hate to say that, but maybe you should just listen to him until I figure out a way to fix this. If he asks you to do anything illegal or something you’re not okay with, tell me. I’ll tell the office something that’ll only get me in trouble.”

“But Jeremy—”

“No buts. You should feel lucky Chris isn’t in my position. He needs this job. I don’t. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure something out…”

Before I could say more, the gym door opened and Casey and Lance appeared, laughing together. Jeremy and I relaxed our tense states. “Hey guys,” Lance called. “What’s up?”

“Playing some basketball,” Jeremy and I responded simultaneously.

Lance cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? Should we have a two-on-two match?”

Casey grinned. “I like that idea.”

“I’m up for it,” I said. Anything to get my mind off Aaron. And unlike volleyball, I was actually okay at basketball.

“What will the teams be? Lance and Holly against Casey and I?” Jeremy suggested, picking out a basketball from the rack next to him. “Would that be even?”

“Are you good at basketball?” Lance inquired.

Jeremy kept his face emotionless. “I’m okay.”

“Casey is good, so she’ll match you well then. Holly, are you ready to take them down?”

I swung my arm like a sailor. “Ay!”

“Then let’s do this,” Jeremy said, grinning again. “Come on Casey. Well let you guys start with the ball.”

We started the game, and just like that, all the tension in my body from earlier was gone. Instead of thinking about Chris and Aaron, I had to focus on stealing the ball, passing the ball, shooting the ball, blocking Casey and Jeremy… It was a good distraction. Unfortunately for Lance and I, Jeremy had lied when he said he was okay at basketball. He was like a white Michael Jordan. He and Casey were tearing us apart.

“Interception!” I shouted, smacking the ball to the ground as Casey tried to pass it to Jeremy.

“Run, Holly!” Lance all but screamed at me.

“This isn’t football!” Casey added with a laugh.

I ignored her, dribbling the ball as speedily as I could toward the other side of the court. Jeremy was hot on my trail, shouting distracting things at me. Soon I found myself laughing too hard to keep running straight. “Lay off, Jeremy!”

“I’m going to get you!” he told me, his voice far too closer for comfort

“Shoot, Holly!” Lance yelled from the other side of the room.

I came to a stop, raising my eyes to the hoop. It was a little further than I thought it was. Just as I pushed the ball away from my chest, Jeremy crashed into my back, causing us both to fall to the floor. My face made a sickening splat as it hit the floor. Instead of it hurting though, it only caused me to laugh harder.

“Score!” Lance shouted after a second. “Three pointer!”

“Are you okay, Holly?” Casey called, running over to us. “Lance, stop celebrating!”

Lance shot her a dirty look. “Sometimes it takes sacrifice for good things to happen.”

I rolled my eyes at him, attempting to push myself off the ground. “Jeremy, get off me.”

“I can’t believe you made that shot,” he complained, rolling off my legs. “Luck of the Irish.”

“Makes sense, since I’m Irish…”

“You are?”

I nodded. “A whole lotta Irish.”

“I am too,” Casey pitched in, holding out a hand to me.

Jeremy frowned. “How come you never wear those Kiss Me, I’m Irish shirts?”

We both made faces. “Why would we?”

He shrugged. “I would, if I was a girl.”

“I think you can get them for guys,” I commented thoughtfully.

“Hey!” Lance called, jogging up to us. “Are you going to chitchat all day, or are we going to continue the game? We need like 100 points to catch up, Holly.”

I shook my head at him, grinning. “Okay, okay. It’s your turn to start with the ball,” I told Casey. “Go get it.”

“Lazy,” she muttered before dragging to the corner of the gym where the ball had rolled.

I stretched, letting out a long yawn. “We should go get ice cream after this, or something.”

“I’m up for it,” Casey agreed, coming back toward us with the ball. “We can stop at the Village Green.”

“Ooh, is that the one with forty-one flavors?” Jeremy asked excitedly. “I love the Birthday Cake—”

The sound of the gym door opening cut him off. All four of us turned toward in. In strode Chris, not looking the slightest bit happy. He froze when he saw all of us. “Uh oh,” I muttered, feeling my high coming down.

“You run while I distract him,” Jeremy whispered.

“I don’t know—”

“Go!” Jeremy demanded, shoving me in the direction of the locker rooms. “Go through the boys. No one should be in there.”

After a second I of hesitation, I decided to do that. Chris really didn’t look too happy at the moment. I didn’t want to talk to him until he cooled down.

“Holly!” I heard him shout after me.

“S’up, Topher?”

“Move Jeremy.”

Jeremy grunted and I guessed Chris punched him or something. Resisting the urge to stop to see if he was okay, I winged open the door to the boy’s locker room, and hurried down the steps. Seconds later it opened again and Chris demanded me to stop. My eyes widened slightly. Just how fast could he run? My question was answered when I only managed to take about seven steps after reaching the bottom of the stairs before he grabbed my arm, yanking me to a stop.

“Holly,” he started, his grey eyes piercing into mine.

I looked away, my heart hammering in my chest. “Go away,” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

“Look at me,” he demanded, grasping my chin in his free hand, and forcing me to look at him.

I closed my eyes, biting my lip. He was too close… I wanted to kiss him.

To my surprise, I felt his lips brush against mine. After a moment they pressed harder and he let go of my chin, moving his hand to the back of my neck. Unable to stop myself, I kissed him back, wrapping my arms around him. He moved me backward so I was against the cool, tiled wall of the locker room. I pulled him closer to me, deepening the kiss. Thrills of electricity went through me when he ran his hand down my back and then back up. Our lips moved together in perfect sync, making my head spin.

Eventually he pulled away, leaving us both breathless. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, resting his forehead against mine.

“Chris—”

“No, let me finish. I shouldn’t have got angry with you. I shouldn’t have left you at the restaurant. That was a total dick move by me. As soon as I was halfway home I realized my mistake and went back, but you were already gone.” He clenched his jaw. “I should have stopped before I even started. I’m sorry, Holly. I was jealous Jeremy kissed you. I was pissed you’d rather go to him than me. I’m your boyfriend, Holly. Why don’t you want me to help you? Why do you prefer Jeremy over me?”

“That’s not it!” I cried, slapping my hand over his mouth. “It’s not that I don’t want you to help. I need you to listen to me, Chris.”

He nodded his head. “Okay,” he mumbled into my hand.

“If you say something to Aaron, he’ll get Jeremy fired and there’s a chance I can be expelled. He has stuff on me, Chris. That’s why I said you couldn’t tell him. He can’t know that I told you.”

“But he’s threatening you,” he responded in a hard tone, easily pulling my hand away from his mouth.

“And I can handle it,” I pressed. “I’ve been through worse. You should know that.”

“I don’t want to see you go through that again.”

I shook my head. “It’s different, Chris. This time it’s my battle. You don’t need to worry about me.”

He snorted. “It’s not a choice, Holly. It’s an automatic reaction.”

I pressed my lips back to his for a brief moment. “You won’t say anything to him, right?”

“I won’t,” he promised begrudgingly. “If he ever threatens you physically I want to know though.”

“I’ll let you know,” I vowed. “I don’t think he wants to physically harm me though…”

Chris scowled. “Then what was that in the hallway earlier?”

“Er, well, he has pictures of Jeremy and I on his phone…”

A sigh left Chris’s lips. “I can probably guess what they are of… Come on,” he said, offering me his hand. “I don’t want to discuss this now. I have a feeling I’m going to be mad. We’ll discuss it later. I want to play basketball.”

“You do?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

“You never pinned me as the sporty type.”

He grinned. “Really? Then I guess I have a chance to impress you.”

“Good luck,” I responded, smiling back at him.

He swiftly planted a kiss on my nose. “I don’t need luck. I have skill.”

When we emerged from the locker room, Casey, Jeremy, and Lance were all sitting cross-legged on the ground playing crocodile. I raised an eyebrow at them. Casey grinned sheepishly at me. “Well, this is awkward.”

“He apologized first, right Holly?” Jeremy asked, springing up from the ground.

I nodded. “Yes. He was a good boy.”

Chris scowled at Jeremy. “Come here, you brat.”

Jeremy shook his head. “Uh-uh. No way. If you want to be angry with me, take it out with this basketball.” He tossed the basketball in his hands to Chris.”

“Okay, stay still so I won’t miss—”

“No!” he cried, flinching as Chris raised his arm. “Not by throwing it. By beating me in a match. Let’s do Holly and Chris against Casey, Lance, and me.”

I pretended to crack my knuckles. “Prepare to go down this time, Jeremy.”

He smirked at me. “I should be saying that to you.”

“I remember in high school you would cry when you lost to me,” Chris commented casually.

“I wasn’t crying! I had something in my eye!”

Lance snorted. “That excuse is way over used.”

“I’m serious!”

Casey gave him a pitying look. “Wow, Jeremy. I don’t think I can look at you the same way.”

He scowled at her. “I didn’t cry!”

“You’re in denial,” I stated.

“I’m not!”

“Yep, denial,” Lance, Casey, Chris, and I agreed.

He snatched the ball from Chris’s hands. “Oh, it’s on. And guess who’s going to be the one crying this time?”

 “Not me,” Chris responded casually. He glanced at me. “Holly’s on my team. I can’t let use lose.”

I smiled back at him. “Don’t worry, Chris. I’ll be able to support us if you can’t.”

He scoffed. “We’ll see.”

Jeremy tossed the ball to me. “Since you guys only have two players, you start.”

“Okay,” I responded, bouncing it back to him.

He caught it and sent it back. The game was on.

______________________________________________________

This chapter was the fruit of my procrastination. Not bad, if I do say so myself!

READ THIS. If you are one of those people who write on Wattpad's Facebook wall when it goes out, cut it out. If there are at least ten posts before you I think you can figure out Wattpad is down. Comment on a post that's already there or something. DO NOT spam their wall. Do not harass them. They only have around ten workers to keep this site, that tens of thousands of people from all around the world, use. It's young. It will have problems. They have to change it to make it better, and they site can't be in use when they make changes. I'm sure they don't appreciate those of you who swear up a storm, like it's their fault the site isn't working. They don't have to word 24/7. I don't see anyone working 24/7. They have lives too. For future reference. I get so angry seeing all the mean comments and the same comments when Wattpad goes down on their wall. It's like... really? 

Okay, my rant is over...

Long chapter. Vote? :D Purty please? I'll give you a whale! And Facebook in link~

Today's song is Firecracker  by Four Letter Lie. It's such a cute song.