Chapter 12

"I fricken hate you!" I pouted, crossing my arms over my chest with a teasing smile to let him know I was just kidding.

"Sweetheart, if you actually did you wouldn't agree to be my girlfriend," Tommy said and bared his perfectly white teeth.

We were on our way to the track meet which was taking place at our school, and Tommy insisted on walking with me.

I smiled back at him before making our way through the crowd. It was the first meet of the season, so naturally, everybody was here, even the other team's school.

"I hate crowds," I whispered to myself as I looked at the opposing team greeting their guests. I didn't take the time to find out which school we were racing against so it was still a mystery to me.

"Ah, Rory and Tommy!" I heard Cooper's voice boom to the side, and we turned to face him.

"Hey, man," Tommy waved before doing that universal guy handshake that somehow they all knew.

"Coach is having a word with the team," Cooper nodded in the direction of the field where I assumed the team was with Coach. "He wanted the entire team," he added before we took off to the group.

"First meet of the season, guys!" Coach shouted, scanning over the team. "We gotta start out good. Get it, got it, good?"

I looked around the team to make sure nobody was missing. Brett , Joey, Cooper, Tommy, and Xander were here, as I expected. I smiled to myself, knowing Mckenna wasn't going to bother to show up. But bad things happen to good people, and I turned around to be met with her cake face.

"Hello, Aurora," she snarled, looking me up and down. I scoffed and rolled my eyes before turning around to rejoin the team discussion.

"And if you guys didn't know, we're against the Eagles," Coach announced.

"The Eagles?" Xander asked with widened eyes. "As in Eastview Eagles?"

"Yeah..." Coach nodded slowly. "What's wrong with them? You scared, son?"

"Of course I'm not scared, Coach," Xander rolled his eyes and scoffed. "It's just that I, um, used to go to Eastview and know some guys on the team," he said and averted his eyes to the field.

"Well, we're starting soon, so hurry up. Drink water, stretch, do whatever you guys need."

The team dispersed, and I headed over to Xander who was practically radiating anxiety.

"Hey, what was that about?" I asked, scrunching my nose in concern and looking up at him.

"It was nothing," he said with a shake of his head. "I mean, it was something, but it's nothing you need to worry about."

I opened my mouth to respond, but I was cut off by a brief kiss planted on my cheek.

"Hi, babe," Tommy said and boyishly grinned.

"Uh, hi," I breathed out and returned the smile.

"Babe?" Xander repeated, his eyebrows raised causing his forehead to crease.

"Yeah. It's been official since yesterday," Tommy nodded.

"Oh, um, nice, man," he responded uncomfortably after he inhaled. He rubbed his neck, looking between Tommy and I with a crease settling between his eyebrows, but it disappeared as soon as it came.

A moment of silence stretched between the three of us, none of us knowing what to say, but a nasally voice interrupted the stiff silence.

"Hi, Xander," Mckenna's looked up at him under her lashes, in what I think was an attempt to be seducing. She latched her claws onto his arm like her life depended on it.

"Uh, hello, Mckenna," he said slowly and obviously uncomfortably.

"So, I bet you're going to-" she croaked, but was cut off by the familiar whistle of Coach. We gathered around along with the rest of the team.

"Line up, guys," he said excitedly. "It's game time."

And with that, we hooted our way to the starting line, more than ready to beat the Eagles out of the sky.

♛ ♛ ♛

"Congratulations to Southridge High for the first victory of the season!"

The crowd shouted along with our team, in celebration of the referee's words. Eastview obviously wasn't having it as most of them rolled their eyes with scoffs. It wasn't a usual track and field meet, more of a cross country one, and we easily won by a couple minutes.

The sun had already gone down, providing coolness to our sweaty, flushed forms after running. The scent of alcohol faintly hovered through the breezy air. At every sport event, someone would bring alcohol, although it definitely wasn't allowed.

"Southridge, Southridge!" I added to the chanting groups then spun to Xander on my right. "That was so easy!"

He laughed, nodding his head. "Yep, I can't believe I used to go to school with those shitheads," he said, a puff of white fog leaving his mouth along with his words due to the cold night.

"Ah, if it isn't Kings," An unfamiliar voice boomed behind us, causing most of the crowd to quiet down and stare.

Xander and I spun around to be met with a broad guy, clad in orange and purple: the colors of Eastview.

"Matthews. I would say it's nice to see you again, but I'm not fond of lying," Xander gruffed calmly, a small smirk dancing on his face with a hint of amusement.

I looked between the two, trying to connect the dots as to what was happening.

"But lying is your specialty, I thought," the black-haired boy lowly returned.

Sensing trouble, Brett, Joey, Cooper, and Logan stood behind Xander. Liv appeared from the crowd to stand beside me. I looked around for Tommy, but he was nowhere in sight, and Mckenna was on the side, like she always is, and was just watching the exchange with wide eyes.

"What do you want, Bradley?" he said tiresomely, but still managed to look authoritative.

So Bradley Matthews is his name, I mentally noted.

"You know what I want," he snarled and narrowed his eyes. "Everybody at Eastview knows after that f*ck up of yours. No wonder you were sent to this pathetic excuse of a boarding school." The tense atmosphere shifted into a sharper one: the type of one that had the hairs on your neck stand still.

Xander absentmindedly stepped closer to Bradley, making the height difference apparent as Xander was a couple inches taller which made him a ton more intimidating.

"Don't speak of her as if it were my fault," he snarled, venom pouring from his every word.

"I f*cking loved her!" Bradley shouted as he reached his breaking point and inevitably broke. His face was red with anger, and I was pretty sure I could see a vein popping out of his forehead.

"I did too!" Xander barked with just the same amount of aggression. "She was my family! And you can't blame it all on me; it was both our fault."

"It was never my fault. It was all you, buddy."

After that last line, there was silence. No shouting. No yelling. Just utter and pure silence as the two raging boys glared holes into each other. But it didn't last long as the first sound to break it was the snapping of Bradley's jaw as Xander's fist made contact with it, catching everybody off guard.

Joey, Cooper, and Brett darted to pry Xander away, but nonetheless, he pounced on Bradley and kept landing hit after hit on the poor guy's face.

Never have I ever seen a side like this to Xander, I don't think anybody has since everybody was shocked at the outburst. A hard black absorbed the warm grey in his eyes with every punch he landed.

It was obvious that Xander had the upper hand in the fight, but a knot still pulled in the bottom of my stomach at the amount of aggression. Blood was pouring from both their faces as Bradley struggled to defend himself. The loud sounds of clenching and cracking echoed through the empty night sky.

In realization that the other boys wouldn't be any help, I bolted to Xander's side to attempt to pull him away, but I was to no use as the two boys were going at it.

I heard Olivia shout for me not to get in the middle of it, but it was a spur of the moment choice: a dumb one, at that.

Stupidly, I got in the middle of Xander's fist that was in the process of reaching Bradley's face, and it inevitably reached me rather than him. My body slammed onto the dirtied cement from the impact of the punch, and my vision was almost immediately clouded with dots as Olivia rushed to my side.

Xander, realizing his fist didn't make contact with Bradley but with me instead, pushed him to the ground and dashed to me, cradling me in his lap as he sat down next to me.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," he said and threaded his hand through his dark blond hair. The boys from the team and the other Southridge students swarmed around us.

"Call- Call the ambulance or something!" He snapped his head up and yelled at the bystanders, his voice slightly cracking at the end. "Now!"

I kept my eyes wide and open, but it proved to be difficult as they kept drooping, desperate to shut.

"No, don't you dare close your eyes," Xander said, grabbing my face closer to his. "Stop, stop, stop it!" he repeated, but the words seemed to be fading, along with the hectic chatter among the bystanders.

And my drooping eyes unwillingly gave into it as the black dots soon became clouds, and Xander's words became hushed whispers.

♛ ♛ ♛

Well how'd you like this one? At the top is the cast for Cooper James! He literally is so cute aw.

I tried my best with the fight scene lol sorry if it sucked ahaha. And I know Aurora seems like an idiot, but she's just a "tough cookie," as my grandma would say lmao

And yeah, I'm gonna try to show more of Olivia's plot in this book if you guys want! Also this book has 450 reads!! WHAT HOW!! I know it may not seem like a lot, but every read or vote means literally the world to me and makes me day ten times brighter :)

So I hoped you guys liked this one!! I love you.

-sophia ♥︎