"I promise you the moon!" That's what I think of with this adorable poster by @irisyuan_jello. Thank you! 

And HBD to @saras.greentea! I saw your comment on my Instagram that it's your birthday today, and wanted to give you the shout out :)

Chapter 30: Drama, not theater

Luke was the only person I knew who could lean on Chad's car without problems. His usually playful expressions were gone. His blue eyes had no glint in them. 

Luke was not playing around.

His body language was casual, but his words were not. "I'll give you three seconds."

I stood on the pavement beside Christopher Hayes. Hayes held a basketball under his arm, staring at the other guys with very little understanding. They hadn't given him any context.

One minute, he'd been playing basketball with Luke.  The next minute, the whole gang had shown up with a car full of drama.

Now Art was hiding behind the dark tinted windows of Chad's car. After Luke's warning, and without delay, he crawled out of the backseat.

He squinted up at the daylight and his face was already anguished. It was like watching a mouse venture out into a trap.

Chad reached in and grabbed Art by the scruff of his shirt, yanking him out faster. He didn't have the patience to count to three.

Art had given up on yelling by now and raised his hands in defeat, "I'll tell you everything I know, but it's not much."

Subtly, Austin pulled out his phone to start recording. He did it without drawing any attention, and I had to respect that he thought about getting evidence.

Art's scared eyes were entirely focused on Luke while he told the story. "Don't tell coach this, or I'll lose my scholarship. But some nerds asked me and a couple other guys on the team if they could buy our jerseys. It wasn't just me-"

"Ah man," Austin cursed, interrupting the most important part of this conversation - AKA the actual confession. "I wasn't recording. Can you start from the top?"

Luke gave Austin a confused look and Art seemed nervous to see a camera pointed at him. 

Chad shoved Art to keep talking.

"I don't know what happened to the jersey, ok?" Art said, "They bought it.  I don't know why they asked for it, maybe to impress girls or whatever, but they paid. Straight up cash."

"What's this?" Christopher Hayes asked, annoyed. "You're getting aggressive about dealing basketball uniforms? This is the preppiest sh*t I've ever heard."

A uniform dealer... yeah, doesn't have a ring to it. 

Austin summarized rapidly, while still recording Art's confession, "Someone broke into Millie's house and left a basketball jersey dripping in cat's blood on her bedroom door."

Chris slowly looked from Austin to me. He raised his eyebrows, "Carry on."

"I... uh..." Art continued, before breaking eye contact with Luke and staring at Chris. "OK, why is Christopher Hayes here? Isn't he the biggest competition we have for state championships every year?"

Luke shut that question down. "You're the last person to question loyalties. Keep going."

I exhaled, feeling my heartbeat faster than recommended. Maybe this is what exercising feels like but, if it is, I'll live longer without.

Luke had a firm grip on Art and was not going to let go until we got to the bottom of this. His expression was cold and unforgiving.

So, Art continued, "I didn't know what to do. When I heard you were going after my jersey, I panicked. It was never stolen Luke, I sold it."

"To who?" Austin asked, zooming in for the closeup like he was directing an indie film.

"You probably won't know him. It's another junior, a nerd. His name's Aiden."

"That doesn't ring any bells," Austin sighed, lowering the camera.

Art quickly corrected himself, "Oh wait, sorry, no. His name's Kaden."

..

That's a big frickin' difference.

..

Chad exhaled, "What a letdown. This is a dead end."

We were feeling very different things right now.

I couldn't blame Chad for not having the backstory. He didn't know about my ex-boyfriend who dumped me and was now apparently harassing me to never find happiness again. Kaden was a piece of work, I knew that. But this is a whole new low.

Luke looked down at the pavement, to control his anger.

He then slowly, very slowly, turned his head towards me. "Is that-"

I nodded, "Yes."

His jaw clenched. "OK."

I didn't really expect myself to do any of the things I did next. I'm not known for having the greatest reactions, and here I found myself thanking everyone.

"Thank you Austin and Chad for finding Art and thank you Art for telling the truth," I said, "Sorry Chris for disturbing you with another absurd situation like this and Luke... you've done so much for me. I'm going to finish this."

"Not alone," Luke said.

Austin lowered his phone and stopped recording, "Then I'll roll credits."

Luke walked over to me and his hand softly touched my cheek.  He curled a loose strand of hair to behind my ear and asked, "Do you not want me to come with you?"

"I do but I have to get to Kaden first," I said, "He's at school for mathlete practice and they're going to finish soon. I'll be safe and I know you need some time to wrap this up."

"Fine," he nodded, "But I'll be right behind you."

I nodded and kissed his soft lips.  He had been so serious and determined a few seconds ago, I'd almost forgotten how soft he was with me. 

"Thank you and, please, when you do come, resist violence," I told him. 

Every ounce of my body wanted to get to Kaden and finish this.  I knew Luke wanted to get physical and that was the last thing I wanted. He was practically dreaming of beating Kaden up now.

I have been living in a marginal to low state of fear for the last few months. Someone has felt the nerve to try to intimidate me, to blackmail me, to humiliate me in front of my family and then to violate my home.

Putting a face to fear is the best way to get rid of it.

I'm not scared of Kaden.

I'm angry.

**

The guys said goodbye to Christopher Hayes and left Arturo in the middle of Alpine with no obvious way home. Chris didn't show him the way to any bus stop, so Art was left trying to call a Lyft.

I was in my car and driving back to school. Today has me feeling like a yo-yo, running back and forth on the same lines.

My eyes stung from tears. I've been haunted by the threats of a blackmailer. I've been doubting myself, feeling guilty for my happiness. The blackmailer made me feel like I was hurting myself by choosing Luke.

I was so shaken, I arrived at the school parking lot and parked diagonally across two lines, halfway across the street. I mean, really bad parking.

But it was a Sunday and there were about 10 cars in the entire school parking lot. My hands were shaking as I unbuckled my seat belt and stumbled out of my car.

**

~Luke's POV~

We weren't far behind Millie and, in Chad's car, we caught up fast. I saw her fall out of her car and sprint to school. I've only seen her run that fast for coffee.

And that time we saved Dupree after he fell into the lake.

Chad was driving and whistled as he stared at the world's worst parking attempt. "She is the worst driver I have ever seen."

"You haven't met yourself yet," I told him, making him stop in the middle of the street.

I walked over to her car, since she had left the door open when she ran out of it.

"Austin, can you call your math tutor? Ask him where the nerds practice on Sundays," I said as I slammed her door shut for her.

We had no idea where to go to find 'mathletes' in this school. If we were looking for athletes, we wouldn't be having these problems.

"Yeah, sure," Austin scrolled through his phone and dialed. Two seconds later, his tutor picked up.

"Joe. Hey man, it's Austin... No, we're still good for a session tomorrow. Where do your buddies do math on Sundays?... And where's that exactly?... You're there now? OK."

He hung up and nodded. 

I wanted to get to Millie fast. I could only think about how upset she was right now and how much I wanted to destroy this guy. I needed to control myself. I knew Millie didn't want me to beat him to a pulp.

The three of us walked into school. There was an unusual calm about the place.

"I have never been here on a Sunday," Chad said, staring at the empty hallway in front of him, "I'm breaking values I never knew I had."

**

~Millie's POV~

I stormed into the theater room. Mathletes like to practice here to stimulate a competition environment and help us overcome stage fright.

The school theater group had booked it out every weekend until December. This was the first week we got to practice here – and I was ready to teach the mathletes drama.

"Austi- oh, hey Millie!" Joe exclaimed when I walked in, "Glad to see you joined! You haven't been to many practices lately and I was worried you were going to quit again."

"Hi Joe," I greeted him and stood in the aisle, looking up at the stage.

Four mathletes were standing on the stage with Kaden in the center. He was always in the center. 

I marched towards the front of the stage. The lights were so bright up there that they were practically shining.

I called up to them, interrupting their buzzer round session, "Hey everyone! Hey. Can we have a quick time out? I need to chat to Kaden about something."

"Millie, not now," the team captain said, "We're practicing. You're late so you can join the next round."

'It's not about practice."

"Then keep your social life out of our club. I told everyone that bringing you back in may lead to distraction after you and Kaden broke up-"

The doors to the theater closed with a really loud bang. They came in with a big entrance.

And I really felt sorry for the mathletes.  They should've let me have a quick chat with Kaden before Luke came.  Now... well... RIP. 

The mathletes tried to see who just walked in. The lights on stage were shining directly onto them, so they had a hard time making out more than shadows in the back of the auditorium.

One of the three shadows said, "Sh*t. Which one is he? They're all nerds."

A second shadow started moving. He passed by Joe and said, "Hey suspender boy."

That was Luke. 100% Luke. And in all the millions of scenarios that I imagined confronting Kaden, I hadn't imagined Luke Dawson involved.

**

"Hello! Imposters, who are you? Name yourselves!" the team captain said, standing on stage and yelling at the three walking shadows.

"I feel like we're in some fantasy elf game," Chad commented in response, "Who is this guy?"

Luke, Austin and Chad took their time walking to the front of the stage. This was new to them - walking in on a mathlete training session in a theater room they had never seen before.

"This room has been reserved for mathletes from 2PM to 4PM," team captain continued.

Luke, Austin and Chad had almost reached the front by now - and they still ignored the team captain.

"What's a mathlete? Is that a made-up athlete?" Chad asked Austin, still feeling uncomfortable about being at school on a Sunday.

Austin shrugged and replied back to the team captain, "It's 4.03 if you want to get technical, which makes this a free for all."

"Yeah, well, no one has this room after us so we can practice here-"

"You talk way too much for a guy who doesn't know what's going on," Luke shook his head and asked me, "Which one is he, Millie?"

Luke glanced over at me and I felt like an invisible insect just turned visible.

From onstage, one of the other mathletes piped up, "I think that's Luke Dawson. The senior that a lot of people talk about."

"We know who he is, Toby," Kaden scowled, on stage with the others.

Toby added meekly, "I think my girlfriend has a crush on him." 

Luke was looking at me to point Kaden out. I had frozen up, trapped between these two worlds. 

It didn't seem real that Luke Dawson, Austin Taylor and Chad were all here for me to confront my ex-boyfriend.

That sounds stupid. They were here to confront a cat killer, blackmailer and intruder. I was here for Roger and my feelings.

I pointed at Kaden, "You're a cat killer, aren't you?"

"What the- what kind of insult is that?" Kaden snapped back, "And why are these guys here? Are you friends with them now? That was not a thing when we were dating."

Kaden has heard the rumors about me and Luke.  I'd asked Luke if we could keep our relationship low key, since I've only experienced negative attention from people finding out about us.  But no matter how little PDA we did and how careful we tried to be at school, it had started to leak. 

And Luke was totally fine with that.

"That's her ex?" Chad asked, staring up at Kaden, "Millie really traded up with Luke." 

"So this is... is that..." Kaden chuckled to himself to get things back under control. He always laughed when he was nervous, "She's still not over me. You must be insecure to be confronting me like this."

Luke retorted, "Insecure is paying for a high school sports team uniform that I'm not even on."

Austin laughed and shook his head, "It sounds so stupid when you say it out loud."

"It is," Luke said, staring Kaden with an I'm-going-to-end-you expression, "Very stupid."

Kaden's face turned to fear in a very similar way Art's did half an hour ago. His mathlete teammates stared at him, confused why he would do that too. 

"Get down," Luke ordered him off the stage.

"No."

"I am trying very hard right now not to lose my control," Luke said, "Because my girlfriend wants me to be a better person. You are making it very hard for me to be a better person."

Austin took a seat in the front row. He looked like he was settling in to watch a show.

To them, Kaden was a nuisance. Luke needed zero back up to handle this one.

"Are you threatening me?" Kaden asked, keeping hold of his aggressive tone.

He really should drop that fast.

Kaden wasn't used to dealing with Luke or his friends.  He was like the little king in own little pond and had never stepped foot into the ocean. 

I tried to help out, "Kaden, you really should tell us what happene-"

"Since when do I accept orders?" Kaden snapped back at me, "You had to run to others to try to make me to-"

Luke interrupted us then and there, "OK, Millie, I'm sorry but I tried. I gave him a warning, and he didn't listen."

"Don't hurt him," I said.

Kaden looked from me to Luke and then back to me again, "Why? What's happening? What are you going to do?"

Luke pulled himself easily onto the stage and walked towards Kaden, who was backing away in terror, yelling out no. He expected others to help out, but no one did.

"Don't hurt him!" I called out, louder.

It was embarrassing watching Kaden try to run away from Luke, but Luke grabbed hold of him and took him down the stairs.

"Walk," Luke shoved him, "Have some dignity or I'll carry you out."

**

I couldn't run after Luke and Kaden immediately. The moment they left, the other mathletes swarmed me to ask what happened. They had a million and one questions.

I looked to Chad and Austin for help, but they calmly stood up from their front row seats and walked out of the auditorium. They were just following the drama.

"Kaden bought a basketball player jersey and it's the same jersey that was used to intimidate me," I gave the five second summary, "I don't know or what he wants but-"

"He bought that jersey for his girlfriend," Toby said, "His new girlfriend I mean. Not you."

Oh, mother of a weasel and flying ants.

We have the wrong guy.

A/N: We made it to chapter 30... with so much more to come!  Please vote if you're an OG and still here :) This chapter was meant to come out on Tuesday but it's here early! Next one will be on Wed/Thurs

Player Next Door was back on the Teen Fiction hot list today at #1 so thank you so much - HUGE thank you to the RR's.  You've been adding so many funny comments to the first story and I love it! Tag me in your comments and I'll try to catch them!

Aaand, a little fun fact - some of my friends inspire how I write these characters. So I'm going to post some real life scenarios with them on my Instagram (@NatalieInACorner), starting with a photo of an afternoon with Chad haha!