chapter 19
(abbie.)

a week had gone by and everyone knew. not even just their group, the whole school knew about it. people would whisper and give abbie and jude dirty looks when they walked past, which chris was glad about. he was glad that everyone knew how much of a dick they were. he still hasn't spoken to abbie in person, he just sent her a small message explaining how he knew and that she wasn't allowed to speak with them. even when he does eventually talk to her, he still has no idea how he's going to word everything. he was currently in the gym hall with his lacrosse team, preparing for the upcoming game. every now and then he would peer over to the corner to see what dejah was up to, and nearly every time she would also be looking. "okay, bryce you go and get another ball." shouts matt, making bryce sprint over to the supply closet. chris had noticed a change in matt after the incident. he seems less alive than he did. it's like abbie had taken a chunk of his personality and colour with her when she left, leaving him with nothing.

as chris approached matt, matt quickly plastered on a fake smile "hey man, you good?" asks chris, patting him on the shoulder.

matt nods and parts his lips, "yeahh, just stressed about the game that's all."

chris looks at him with an uneasy look, slightly suspicious, "are you sure that's all? you know you can talk to me about whatever right?"

matt smiles and does his signature nod, "yeah, i mean look who we are against. their line up in insane." he says, pulling up his phone to show chris the players they were against.

chris skims his eyes over all the players and they were all amazing. he recognises a few names that tried for their team in the past, but one name caught his eye the most. "jude? are you fucking kidding me. his skill compared to these players are no match, how did he get in?"

matt shrugs, "i don't know man, he is good and you have to admit that. besides, i've seen him play recently and i hate to say it but.. he might the best in our school." matt sighs and puts his phone back in his pocket as he can see bryce making his way over with the balls in hand. "nice one, thanks." he says, taking the balls from bryces hands.

chris frowns and grabs bryce by the shoulder so they are now facing each other, "we picked you for a reason. we believed that you played the best out there, and you was good. but i want more. i don't wanna see you play 'good' i wanna see you play 'great.' that's how serious we are about beating their team next week, they have some real good players and i want to see you shine on that pitch you hear me?" he says in a stern voice. his veins slightly popping out from the arm that was still gripping onto bryce's shoulder.

bryce swallows and nods his head firmly, "yes, sir." he says, putting his game face on.

and the next hour, he could see a real improvement in bryce's play and technique. all he needed was that little encouragement from chris and he tried his absolute best. but curiosity got the best of him and he watched a few videos on jude's performances. he became angry watching him smiling and shit as he's playing, so he furiously switched off his phone and continued watching their team play. mainly bryce. he knows that bryce is the biggest threat to the other team and that jude is the biggest threat to them. they are both midfielders which is arguably the most important position in lacrosse. lots of running, playing both sides of the balls, taking shots from the attackers and getting hit by defenders. all while wearing the least pads to run faster.

the bell rang and everyone was getting changed in the locker rooms, back into their normal clothes as they all start to head to lunch as normal. chris was waiting for dejah to finish her routine while matt was walking to lunch with bryce, probably talking about lacrosse or something but they had been getting really close recently. as chris was waiting by the door for dejah he spotted lana walking out of the girls locker room. she doesn't spot him at first, so chris shouts her name. "lana!"

lana looks around the room to see who shouted her name when she finally spots chris. she smiles and walks towards him, "hey chris. how's it's been i haven't seen you in a while."

chris smiles, "it's been.. rough. but i'm good, what about you? i see you're on the cheer team?"

lana giggles, "yeah, i've just got in recently. it's kinda intimidating when everyone else already knows the routine and i'm just learning, but it's so much fun. can't wait to cheer you guys on next week. dejah can't stop talking about it. she really likes you, you know that?"

chris raises an eyebrow and can't help but smile, "i know. and you will get used to it, i'm sure you're great." he laughs, spotting dejah walking towards them, "speaking of dejah, she's coming over here now, but i'll see you around." he smiles, walking past her to meet dejah half way. "hey, you."

dejah smiles, "hey. what were you and lana talking about?"

chris laughs and begins to walk towards the exit door, dejah following close behind, "oh nothing. just about how excited you are to cheer my team on."

dejah stops in her tracks, making chris laugh, "that little bitch! i'm gonna kill her when i next see her." she laughs, pushing chris away from her playfully. chris laughs and picks her up making her scream, "chris! don't you fucking dare drop me or i'm gonn-" she says, stopping mid sentence as she can see abbie walking towards them by herself. she can feel her whole body tense up and she feels like she's going to throw up just by seeing her face.

chris gently puts her down, "how about we go the other way." he says, re directing her through the other hallway. he turned around to see abbie watching them walk down the hallway and she looked like she was crying. she was definitely going to try and talk to them, but chris wasn't ready and dejah definitely wasn't ready either.

dejahs sighs, "i just will never understand why. why she would throw everything away for him. she knew everything that he put me through and she still choose him over me, over you, over liv, over nick and how did she manage to choose him over matt! it's just crazy beyond belief." she rants, as she continues to sluggishly walk towards the cafeteria.

chris wraps his arm around hers, "it's honestly horrible what she did to you and matt, and you guys didn't deserve that in any way shape or form and she's stupid if she thinks we will ever take her back. our group doesn't need her, and you guys are so much more mature and stronger than they ever will be." they make their way to the table where matt, nick, liv and bryce are sat. the whole table glance at each other as they see chris and dejah cuddled up together.

"so, are you guys like.. dating now?" asks nick, smirking with liv. dejah rolls her eyes and takes a seat next to liv. chris sits down next to bryce and rests his head on the table.

"you guys didn't even answer the question-" begins nick, being cut off by the death glares chris and dejah was giving him, "oh shit, did i touch a nerve on this sensitive topic. i beg my finest pardon." he scoffs, smirking slightly at the end at the use of his wording that he found funny.

"you sound british." laughs bryce, "i beg your finest pardon." he says, mocking nick, making him roll his eyes followed by him flipping bryce off.

liv taps her phone to reveal the time but also unexpectedly revealing a message from abbie, "oh hell no." she says, sliding her phone down the table to show nick. he does a double take and scans his eyes over the message.

he furrows his eyebrows and shows it to chris, "the fuck." he says, opening the message.

"don't say anything!" she says, leaning over the table to see what chris is doing.

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abbie
ik u all hate me and ik ur all probably talking abt me rn but i wanna talk to u all. mainly dejah bc i owe her an explanation that i've been robbed off.

me
robbed off?? she doesn't owe u shit. pls stop msging liv

abbie
who's this?

me
chris.

abbie
give the phone to liv. if i wanted to talk to u i would've

me
oo ur a cunt
oh this is liv btw
that was my msg

abbie
i'm sorry
but pls let me talk to dejah pls i'm begging

me
why didn't u msg her then?

abbie
ur the only one who hasn't blocked me yet
i tried to talk to chris and dejah earlier but they walked the other way

me
don't blame them tbf.
it's chris but we will talk to u when we're ready to?? now pls stop msging liv

abbie
pls
it's been hell this whole week and i js wanna talk

me
it's been hell for you?? u must be joking. good bye abbie we will talk to u when we're ready.

abbie
k
seen

chris passes the phone back to liv who sighs and rubs dejahs shoulders. "ugh, why is she always there. like go away." she groans, putting her head onto the table. she couldn't even process how she worded some of the messages and how she's making herself the victim and how she's the one 'that's been through hell' when in reality it's dejah that should be saying that. in all honesty she didn't want to talk to her at all.

bryce looks up to chris and grins slightly, "we're up against that dude next week aren't we? that jude prick." he says, chris' full attention on bryce now, "that's why you were pushing me so hard. but you don't have to worry, we will win."

bryce's words of encouragement enlightened chris and a glimpse of hope arose within him. he started to wonder what would happen if they didn't win, and how humiliating and disappointed he would be. he would feel like he failed dejah and failed bryce and failed his team. "yeah.. we will." he says, pushing his lips together to form a quick smile before he looks away from bryce. he takes a quick glance towards dejah who's sitting there emotionless with her head still buried in her arms on the table.

"i'm gonna go to the bathroom, i'll be back" sighs dejah, rising from her seat to head towards the bathroom. nobody else really pays attention to her apart from chris who watches her walk the complete opposite way to the bathroom. he knew exactly where she was heading, but he decided not to follow. she needed her alone time.

liv and nick are now whispering and giggling all while glancing over at chris every now and then. matt notices it too, "what?" he asks, peering over at the pair then to chris.

chris raises a brow and watches the pair look at each other and smile, "oh nothing. just couldn't help but notice that chris and dejah have been hanging out awfully a lot. and that's very unusual considering they were just enemies like a week ago or something."

bryce laughs and does a full body turn to look at chris, "so that's who you were waiting for after practice" he says, making chris bury his head into his arms to hide his stupid smile.

the whole table laughs, "well, you should've seen then walking to my car before tonyas party. bro was looking at her with pure love AND they were holding hands." laughs matt, leaning over the table to lift chris' head from his arms, making him shove matt off him.

"oh my god you're all so annoying, i don't like her." he says, slightly smirking. the whole table shares a look as if to say, well that was a lie. "anyways, moving on from this conversation as it's making me want to throw up, who's coming to our game next week?"

"i'll only come if i get vip tickets." jokes liv, looking at chris who rolls his eyes playfully, "of course imma be there."

"same here." says nick, "buttt.. i'll be extra happy if you can snag some vip tickets for us." he shrugs, looking at liv for approval who nods excitedly.

chris groans and smugly shrugs his shoulders, "i'll see what i can do for you guys."

as dejah made her way towards the library, she was praying not to see jude or abbie as jude was always lurking in the library, and there's no doubt abbie would tag along with him like a little puppy dog. kinda like how she always felt the need to tag along so he wouldn't get mad at her for hanging out with her real friends. she entered the library and thankfully barely anyone was there, just a few familiar faces such as lana and this guy she recognised from the party. she sat down in one of the bean bags near the exit so that if she does so happen to see jude or abbie she can quickly leave using the exit door. she sits down and takes out her headphones, instantly growing sad when she remembers it's not the one chris bought for her but instead it was the one that jude bought her. she had completely forgot about it. a smile soon grew back when she saw lana taking a seat next to her, "hey! i just wanted to say thanks for helping me out earlier in learning the choreography. i'm lana by the way if you didn't know."

dejah smiles and analyses her. she had her hair in a messy bun and she was wearing a pink crop top with grey jeans with matching pink dunks. "yes, i know. you're stunning by the way." she points out, instantly seeing a smile appear on her face.

"you're so sweet. thank you so much, you're beautiful too-"

"do you want these beats? they're basically brand new." she offers, holding out the headphones in the space between them.

lana grows confused and looks at the headphones then to dejah, "are you sure? they're really expensive. i would feel harsh taking them."

dejah shakes her head and pushes the headphones closer towards lana. she hesitantly grabs them and puts them in her bag, "thank you so much. they're going to be a great help, i won't have to use my dodgy wired headphones anymore."

dejah smiles and starts putting her bag on her shoulders, "it's fine, i just.. didn't need them anymore. cya round lana." she says, before heading back to her friends table. she came to the library expecting to be there for the rest of lunch but lana put her in a good mood so she decided to head back. besides, she said she was going to the bathroom so spending the rest of lunch in the so called 'bathroom' would make everyone suspicious.

on her way back to the cafeteria to re join her friends she felt a hand on her shoulder, surprised, she turned around. only to be met with abbie.

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maisie
💌

BROS GOOFY AHH GRABBED HER BY HER SHOULDER 💀🙏
don't touch dejah pls n thankyou 😊😊😊😊😊
anyways stan bryce the little cutie he is 😇