Maddie's pov:

Monday morning I woke up to a bunch of text messages from Leo.

She had apparently felt sick Sunday night and did not wake up any better. She wouldn't be at school today.

And even worse, she wouldn't be at the game tonight.

Today was going to be a boring day.

My first few periods were fine because Leo wasn't in those classes anyways, and I had some other people who I could talk to.

However history was the class I wasn't looking forward to. It was right before lunch and usually Leo and I would walk outside together after to the courtyard.

When I got to class, I walked to the back row and took my usual seat, except this time the desk next to me was empty.

It had been a few minutes since the bell had rang, which is of course when Dylan decided to stroll in.

The only seat left besides the one next to me, was in the front row. She looked at that desk, then looked back towards me. She walked right past it and sat down next to me.

"No Leo?" She asked.

"Sick." I replied. She nodded.

Mr. Mathew's started the first half of the class off with talking. Dylan kept glancing over at me and I tried to pretend that I didn't notice.

When there was about 15 minutes of class time left, we were finally allowed to work on our essay assignment that he had just gave us. He really doesn't give us a break.

We were allowed to collaborate with people on it so the room was filled with people talking and brainstorming ideas.

After a few minutes Dylan swiveled her body in her chair to face me. She didn't say anything.

"Yes Dylan?" I asked her without taking my eyes off my paper.

"Well.. I was thinking, you know since Leo's not here" she started to say. "You should join us for lunch today"

I turned my head to look at her. Her arms were resting on the edges of her chair and she had a genuine smile on her face.

I sighed and dropped my pencil to my paper. "Look I appreciate everything you did for me, but I really don't need your pity. I've been getting a lot of it recently"

Her smile dropped slightly.

"Hayes I'm not trying to pity you" she said. "Look I just like talking to you if you can believe that. But if you'd rather sit with your cheerleader gang I won't be offended"

I immediately felt bad. I know she's just trying to be nice. I thought about it for a moment before looking at her.

"Sorry. And I will gladly accept that offer... couldn't say I really wanted to sit with the underclassman" I said. I gave her a light smile and she did the same.

When the bell rang for lunch, I stood up and awkwardly waited for Dylan to do the same.

We walked out of class and grabbed food from the cafeteria on the way to the courtyard. Then we walked outside.

We didn't say a word to each other during the walk.

When we got close to the table I could see all of Dylan's friends already there.

When Valerie saw me, she nudged Shane and Gabriella who turned to look at us.

"god I'm sorry...feel free to leave at anytime" Dylan whispered, referring to her friends.

I laughed and shook my head. "don't worry about it" I said back.

"Hey" Dylan said, stopping once we reached the table. "Maddie's gonna join us today, Leo isn't here....I offered..."

Valerie or Shane didn't say anything so Kacey spoke up.

"Cool!" She said while she looked at me. "Come sit" she said, making room next to her. 

"Thanks" I said, smiling at her as I sat down.

Dylan walked around the table and sat between Shane and Valerie, across from me.

"So how was history?" Shane asked, looking between Dylan and I.

"Boring as always" Dylan answered, right before she took a bite of her sandwich.

I nodded in agreement and took a bite of my pizza.

"Is that Olivia Newman?" Shane asked, making Kacey and I turn to look behind us.

Olivia was walking side by side with Brady.

His arm was around her.

She saw all of us looking and waved. I waved back and turned back around.

"Damn he really has a thing for cheer-" Shane started to say before Valerie elbowed him.

"ow" he said, rubbing his arm. Valerie shot him a look.

"no it's okay" I said to her. "He definitely does have a thing for cheerleaders.. and I'm glad to be done with him"

Although I should remember to warn Olivia about him later.

Valerie nodded and smiled at me.

The table was quiet until Dylan changed the subject. "So who are you guys playing tonight?"

I had completely forgotten about the game until she had brought it up.

That's when I suddenly remembered why tonight was gonna be so bad.

We were playing Hillcrest.

Mike didn't play football, but I knew for a fact he was going to this game because he had wanted me to come with him. He said he had friends on the team.

I don't know what I was going to do. I mean at least before I had Leo by my side. Now I have no one.

"Um... Hillcrest academy" I said, snapping back to the conversation.

"The all boys school?" Shane asked. I nodded.

Dylan gave me a funny look. "Wait isn't that where-"

"Mike goes? Yeah." I said, finishing her sentence.

The table was quiet again. No one knew what to say.

Eventually Valerie and Kacey broke the silence and changed the subject, which I was grateful for.

I stopped listening after a few minutes and played with the plastic fork on my tray.

After a little while, the bell finally rang.

Everyone stood up and grabbed their trays and bags.

The question that I had even thinking about for the past 10 minutes was about to be answered, and I really hope that that answer would be 'yes'. Otherwise I was screwed.

"Hey Kacey, Dylan" I said quietly to them. They turned their heads to look at me. "Can I talk to you guys for a second?"

"Yea sure" Dylan said and Kacey nodded. "Hey we'll catch up with you guys" she said to Shane and Valerie.

"Whats up?" She asked.

"Um well... look this is a big ask so I totally get it if you say no-"

"What is it" Kacey said, laughing at my nervousness.

"Well Leo won't be here tonight.. and I'm just really worried about seeing Mike.. I feel like if I'm by myself I'll end up talking to him and then.. I don't know" I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Are you asking us to come to the game?" Dylan asked.

I nodded. Kacey sighed.

"I'm really sorry Maddie, my little sister has a dance recital tonight and as much as I don't want to go, she'd throw a fit if I wasn't there" she said.

"But maybe I can-" she started to say.

"No no don't worry about it. That's way more important than a football game." I said to her. "Really don't worry about it." I said again, reassuring her.

I started to walk away when Dylan threw her hands up.

"Uh hello?"

"Hi?" I said, making a face at her. She scoffed.

"You gonna ask me? Or are we just a package deal" she said, gesturing between Kacey and her.

"I'll leave you guys to talk" Kacey said quietly, while she slowing but quickly walked away.

"I don't know..I didn't think it'd be much fun for you to go alone." I said to her.

"Doesn't need to be fun. As long as I can assure that you and Mike are an appropriate distance away, while maybe throwing a few punches his way-"

"You're not a body guard" I said, laughing.

"Damn. That would be fun though" she said, laughing as well.

She looked at me for a moment before looking away.

"Seriously I'd be happy to be there. Just in case he does something stupid again."

I nodded and smiled. "I really appreciate that" I said, looking at her.

She smiled back at me and kept the eye contact.

"Shit. I have a test right now" she said, suddenly looking away. I laughed as she grabbed her bag from the ground and slung it over her shoulder.

"It's not like you studied for it"

"True" she said, pointing at me. "You going in?"

"no I have a free" I said.

"Cool then I will see you later" she said, giving me a thumbs up.

"Yeah okay" I said, and she speed walked towards the building.

I took a deep breath and smiled.

I was actually now looking forward to tonight.

_________________________________

An:

Sorry for the long break but he's another chapter for yall! 💜

See ya next time for the game 😘😏

Also ngl I totally forgot I created Olivia 😭😭 idk why I did that..

Peace!