15 | Homecoming, Part II

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For most of the night, I blacked out. I felt loose, almost unhinged as Jordyn pulled me to the makeshift checkerboard dance floor that had been laid down over the NLDS logo in the center of the gymnasium. Blue and white lights danced on the high ceilings while we swayed to some amped up remix of a pop song I didn't know. As Jordyn slid closer into me, she snaked her arms around my waist and under my suit jacket, brushing her fingers down my spine. We didn't fit together. Two pieces from two different puzzles.

Across the dancefloor, seated at one of the round tables dotted on the edges of the gym, Kaia sat engrossed in a conversation with that hack Jackson. She laughed at something he said, placing her hand delicately on his knee. I'd never seen her laugh like that, brilliant and bright like little stars twinkling on a clear night, and it made something in my stomach flutter. When she looked up, her eyes met mine, and all the light in her dimmed.

Something stirred in me. Something sick and uncomfortable, and it took hold of me as I spun Jordyn around, pulling her backside into my waist and working my hands down her sides. I leaned down and just when I felt the skin of her neck against my lips, I looked up again. Kaia was gone.

Jordyn unwound herself from me and placed her hands on my forearms. "I'm just going to run to the bathroom before they announce Homecoming King and Queen."

Despite the fact that there was no way for Jordyn to know how much of the senior class voted for her (or I, for that matter), the anticipation in her voice was apparent enough. Before they announce us as king and queen.

I took a few deep breaths to swallow down my high before undoubtedly having to get up on the makeshift stage at the front of the gymnasium and keep it together while standing next to Principal Maddox. A crowd had begun to gather on the dancefloor while Principal Maddox in her librarian loafers and her black and white dress pitter-pattered across the stage like a penguin. I was flanked by Chris and Anthony, but Jordyn was uncharacteristically absent. I couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not.

"I'll cut right to the chase." The microphone feedback screeched as she tried to pull it down to her height. "It's time to announce this year's homecoming king and queen."

Principal Maddox gently lifted the tally card out of the envelope. Her smile should have been the first indicator, but the downward spiral of my dissipating high had my head in a fog. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind until it was too late - Jordyn's name was not on that card. "It is my pleasure to announce that your Homecoming Queen for this year's senior class is Kaia Greene!"

There was cheering, and maybe that only added to the shellshock. A lot of cheering. Sure, the field hockey team adored their captain, but Kaia's stature as a generally likable person extended beyond her teammates. Just because her and I were consistently at odds didn't mean that she had that kind of relationship with anyone else. It was just me.

If she was as shocked as I was, she didn't show it. The sequins on her two-piece outfit flickered under the lights as she walked across the stage to Principal Maddox. As she turned to face the rest of us peasants, the sliver of tanned skin that separated her top and her skirt was more apparent, showing off abs that half the guys on my team wished they had.

My name was definitely called next, but I was on another plane of existence. One where maybe I liked seeing Kaia up there. Maybe she belonged up there. Maybe I wanted to be up there with her.

"Dude," Chris slapped my arm. "Get your royal ass up there."

And in a rush of unjustified adrenaline, I did.

The crown they gave me was almost laughable, and not because it was cheap plastic, but because putting it on my head was a confirmation that nobody in that room needed. I had been, and always would be, the king. But I glanced over at Kaia, and the tiara fit her so perfectly, it looked like it had always been hers too.

I didn't dare look out into the crowd for Jordyn, but thankfully the glare of the lights forced my gaze down. An obligatory round of cheers and jeers pushed Kaia and I closer together for photo ops, our shoulders brushing and our cheeks heating up, although if it was from the lights or something else, I wasn't sure. I just knew I kind of liked it.

"You know, if you were plotting a coup you should have told me, I might have played along," I dropped my voice and leaned down closer to her, putting my hand on the small of her back.

"The entire point of a regime change is so the whole regime changes. You obviously wouldn't be involved, since you are the long-standing monarch." Her words had bite, but she smirked up at me and slid just a little closer.

We were ushered off stage for the mandatory king and queen dance. As I turned away from the lights, their remnants flashed in the corners of my eyes, but I still saw Kaia smiling at me, just like she had at Jackson earlier.

Still lost in my own head, I put all the energy I had left into focusing on the little glints of sequins on the back of Kaia's top and followed her down the four steps off of the makeshift stage. Last year a bunch of football players took a yoga class as one of our gym electives, and I remember the instructor teaching us that if you didn't want to lose your balance, you had to pick a spot on the wall in front of you and never break your focus on that one little spot. I might have succeeded too, if it wasn't for Hurricane Jordyn brewing in the distance, her eyes a storm of discontent, but that wasn't all. There was something else. Something sad.

I shot her an apologetic glance, but by then I realized her glare wasn't set on me. Her target was Kaia, and she was locked and loaded.

"Can I borrow her for a hot sec?" Jordyn's question was directed at me, but she put her hand gently to Kaia's forearm.

"Uh..." was the only semi-coherent thing I could produce.

It was Kaia's turn to shoot me daggers, but before either of us could process the situation, Jordyn was tugging Kaia away.

I opened my mouth to intervene, but nothing came out. I was a bystander waiting for two trains to collide, and I'd just busted the emergency break.

"What are you doing?" Jordyn whispered to Kaia, but loud enough that anyone within a four foot radius could hear her. For the time being it was just me, but everyone at this school had drama radar, and they were drawn to it like flies to shit.

"I'm sorry, I don't follow." Kaia shook her head, the curls in her hair catching the blues and purples of the lights.

Jordyn took a step closer to Kaia, and even with both girls in heels, Jordyn had several inches on her. It was like the standoff before a boxing match, but the blows here were subtle. Non-surface injuries. I took another step forward to keep myself in ear-shot, and maybe there was part of me that knew I needed to intervene, but the need to keep prying eyes away from what was quickly becoming a scene outweighed my moral obligation to stop a cat fight. A cat fight over me. Maybe it was the tequila, but I wanted to be sick.

"Look Kaia, you and I have always been cool, right?" Jordyn's voice was as even-tempered as I had ever heard it, and that was either relieving...or horrifying. "After all, we're both well-respected upperclassmen in our own ways."

Kaia shifted on her heels and crossed her arms over her chest. "Sure, so what's up?"

Jordyn sighed. "I get it, okay? You like Dallas. I mean, it's hard not to. So I can understand why you'd want to make sure you're the one standing up there next to him."

Something that resembled a laugh sputtered out of Kaia. "You're joking, right? That's what you think this is about? You actually think I have the time and effort to waste on something as inconsequential as fixing myself to be homecoming queen? This might be hard to believe, but some of us have other priorities. Maybe you just lost, and that's all there is to it."

A devilish smirk worked its way across Jordyn's face, cracking her pure, porcelain facade. "You really just think you're so perfect, don't you? Newsflash Kaia, you're not the only smart girl with connections at this school. Don't think I'm not privy to what goes on here. I know all about your 'academic rivalry' in class, and let's not forget that little stunt you pulled on the turf during the pacer test."

Kaia's back was to me, but I watched her shoulders tense as she processed the blow. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say it sounds like you're threatened by me."

A whiff of sandalwood punctuated the air as Rochelle appeared beside me, like a god damn fairy godmother ready to wave her wand and fix the mess I created. I didn't even look at her. I pinched her elbow.

"Do something," was all I could croak out.

But there was no stopping Jordyn now. She had Kaia in the crosshairs, and she was going for the head shot. "I see the way you look at him when you think nobody is watching. Maybe in some cheap, dollar store romance that enemies to lovers thing is cute, but not here. Here it's been me and him from the start. He's the king, and I'm the queen. That's all there is to it."

In what seemed like slow motion, Kaia reached up and took the tiara off of her head. She held it in her hands for a moment, the fake rhinestones glinting in the glare of the lights. She took a deep breath, and then with a loud CR-ACK, it snapped in her hands.

"It's all yours, your highness." Kaia placed the broken pieces in Jordyn's hand, then whipped around on her heel. Our eyes met only for a moment, and I was too shell-shocked to process it. I just knew it was everything you never wanted someone to look at you with. I rubbed the stars out of my eyes, and when they cleared, she was gone.

"You're a fucking idiot, you know that?" Rochelle snapped at me.

Jordyn waltzed up to Rochelle and I, as if she had no idea we'd been standing there the entire time. But Jordyn said it herself - she was far from stupid.

"I can't believe she broke my crown," she pouted. She held her arm out for me. "Whatever, it's fine. Let's go dance."

Everything slowed to a screeching halt around me. It was like I'd fixed the emergency break, but it was far too late. I'd left bodies in the wake of my mess, and I tasted the sour sting of bad tequila at the back of my throat. My entire body ached.

"Move," I sputtered out, shouldering my way past Rochelle and Jordyn and throwing myself through the swinging doors at the back of the gymnasium. The moment I tasted the crisp, night air, my stomach lurched. The stupid plastic crown fell off my head as I bent over with my hands on my knees, and tequila and bad decisions came spilling out of me, and all over the crown.

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It went without saying that a party at Anthony's followed every major school function. Ties had been discarded, suit jackets had been tossed off onto every table and chair, and girls wandered around off-balance even though they carried their heels in their hands.

Chris shuffled and reshuffled a deck of cards before dealing them out to me, Anthony, and Cal. I was drinking water, which definitely garnered curious looks from party-goers, but they all knew better than to ask questions. It's not like I had any answers to what happened, anyway.

"As if King Dallas hasn't won enough today," Cal scoffed. "If you win one more round of Bullshit I'm done playing with you for the rest of eternity."

"Just cards, or in general?" I nudged Cal with my elbow. "I still need a kicker, you know."

"Knowing Dallas, he'll start kicking field goals and extra points too," Anthony chimed in with an eye roll.

I could have bit back at Anthony, but he still had something I needed. I laid down what should have been a pair of 4's, but it was a King and a Queen. Chris went next without anyone calling out my bullshit.

"One 5," he said as he placed his card facedown in the pile.

"I call bullshit," Anthony shrugged. "You have the most pathetic poker face I've ever seen."

Chris groaned and took the pile of cards in the middle, shuffling them into his hand.

"Don't ever play cards in Vegas, buddy," I chuckled.

"Wasn't planning on it," Chris grumbled, working a hand through his mess of red hair.

I tolerated a few more rounds of bullshit (literally and figuratively) stone cold sober, and by that point my body had begun to shudder in pain. We eventually got tired of cards and ignoring people, but before we could dissolve into the party, Anthony pulled me aside. We huddled by the fridge, which seemed to hum louder than normal despite the general flow of the party crowd as people in various stages of inebriation passed by us.

"For you," he said, pressing a small baggie into my hands with two little white pills.

"How much do I owe you?"

Anthony shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Just keep making us all look good."

I took one and pocketed the other for emergencies. While my Vicodin was bound to run out, there was no guarantee that my pain would. I had to be smart. I sat at a stool at the kitchen island and spun my empty water bottle around like a top, waiting for the numb haze to kick in.

"Hey you."

Jordyn's familiar scent of vanilla and lavender enveloped me, and she draped her arms around my shoulders, her long hair tickling the back of my neck. Jordyn wasn't a big drinker by any means, but I could tell she was buzzed. She was more careless with her movements, running her fingers through my hair and brushing her lips by my ear. Something pumped through my bloodstream, and I prayed it was just the painkillers.

"Can you not?" I groaned, shimmying myself away from her grip.

"What's wrong?" She tilted her head to the side, like a puppy would.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." But the grip I had on the empty water bottle said otherwise.

"Do you want to talk?"

"No, I don't!" I finally snapped, whipping myself around in the stool to fully face her. "We don't need to do this, okay? We fuck, and it doesn't need to be any deeper than that. We don't need to talk about our problems to each other. In fact, I don't want to."

I didn't stick around to see the damage I'd done. I didn't care. I shouldered my way outside to Anthony's backyard and found a spot by the pool where I could sit and watch people whose lives were probably easier than mine. I should have been angry, and I should have been upset, mostly with myself, but I didn't feel anything. I was numb, just like I wanted.

there are fights for being my best friend
and the girls get their claws out
there's somethin' about hanging out with the wicked kids
take the pill, make it too real

the love club / lorde

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hi hello yes i have in fact rescued my teenagers from emotional siberia. they're doing great, aren't they??? (this was sarcasm, they're not doing gr8)

originally this homecoming situation was one chapter and for my sanity's sake i'm glad it was split up. thanks so much for being patient with me and my kids as i figure out my life and other projects, but hopefully moving forward updates will be more consistent! there's still quite a bit to go for PART II before we move into winter/the end of football season *dramatic gasp*

would love you know your thoughts so far! xoxo

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