Chapter Four – Rebekah

Strobe lights flash everywhere around me, lighting up the room in different shades of neon, every so often giving me a better glimpse of the sweaty, writhing bodies on the dance floor, soaking up this terrible thumping music as if it’s the best thing that they’ve ever heard. The base line is so powerful that I can almost feel it rattling my bones, shaking me, causing each and every one of my organs to ache. It’s safe to say that I don’t like it here.

Someone who clearly isn’t suffering the same as me is Tia. She’s managed to find a podium in the middle of the night club’s dance floor with an actual pole on it, and she’s swinging her body around it like she’s waiting for men to stuff singles into her G string. The sad part is she actually does have an audience of guys with their tongues hanging out of their mouths. It’s like we’re in a meat market and she’s begging to be picked up.

“Hey there.” I jump as a voice whispers into my ear, tickling down the back of my neck. “How you doing?”

I know it’s dumb, but there’s a small spark of hope as I spin my body around. I know he isn’t out, I would be able to feel those intense prickles all over my body if he was, but there’s hope there anyway. Of course, it isn’t Bryn’s intoxicating face which greets me, it’s James. He’s been pointedly sending me signals all night long, even in the bar we came to before here. I’m not sure how to give him the hint that I’m not interested without upsetting him. I already have enough enemies on the cheerleading squad, Tia’s been singling me out and making a show of me all week long when it hasn’t even been me doing everything wrong. I don’t want the players to turn on me.

“Oh… hi.” I give James a polite smile before I turn back to scan my eyes over the crowd.

“Are you having a good night?” Nope, ignoring him isn’t effective. That gives him an excuse to squash his body up to mine. “I can’t believe you aren’t out on the dance floor shaking that sexy ass of yours.”

I roll my eyes and glare at him. “And I’m shocked that you aren’t fawning over Tia with the rest of them. Doesn’t she have some sort of claim over you? That’s what she’s been warning me about all week long.”

“Ah! I see.” He points his finger up as if he’s hit on something genius, which I highly doubt. “I wondered why you weren’t responding to me. I was starting to think that you must be a lesbian or something.”

“Oh, of course, there can’t be any other reason a woman would reject you.” Urgh, seriously? I would much rather be at home than dealing with this. “But no, not gay. Just don’t want to make any enemies.”

James circles his arms around my waist, seemingly not even noticing my revulsion. “Oh, don’t you worry about that, baby. There isn’t no one got a claim on me. Never have and never will. That’s just how I roll.”

“Sorry, James.” I take his hands and peel them off me. All of a sudden, keeping this guy on side is much less important. “But I’ve had enough of players in my life time. I don’t want to be a one time thing and I certainly don’t want to hook up with anyone who likes sleeping around. Been there, done that, been bitten on the ass.”

“But…” I can’t believe it. He still won’t cave! “I like you, and all that. You’re super hot.”

Gross. Honestly, does he think that’s going to work? I couldn’t even be described as hot even if that was something I considered a compliment. I don’t want to be the hot girl, I want to be the one that someone finds beautiful enough to start a happy ever after with. I guess that’s why it doesn’t ever work out for me…

“James, I can’t say this enough. No. Not gonna happen. Never gonna happen. Ever. And not because I’m gay or because I’m afraid of Tia, although I really don’t want to get on the wrong side of her, it’s because you have a long list and I don’t exactly want to be somewhere in the middle of that, okay? That isn’t me.”

“So, if I wasn’t a ‘player’ or whatever you think I am…?” he pouts out childishly. “Then would you consider me? And please say yes because I don’t think my very bruised ego can take a rejection from you.”

I chuckle and throw him a bone. Now that he’s turned off the flirting, I can cope. “Sure, why not?”

James cocks his head at me, giving me a curious look. “This isn’t because of Whitting, is it?” My blood runs ice cold at the mention of Bryn’s last name. “Because he was super weird about you before. All protective and stuff. It was weird because he isn’t ever like that about anyone. He’s usually so quiet.”

My head spins, I wonder if I can see stars as those words circulate me. Why would Bryn, someone who I don’t know and spoke to for a couple of minutes, be protective of me? I so desperately want to know more, I want James to tell me every single comment made and then dissect each one with me so I can analyze it all, but of course, I can’t. Not without being obvious, and James has probably forgotten everything anyway.

“Erm, no nothing has happened. That seems… odd.” I gulp noisily. “I don’t know why he would…”

“No, I don’t either. That’s why I asked. Hmm, maybe he has the hots for you and he doesn’t know what to do about it.” He nudges me playfully. “Now there’s someone who really isn’t a player. He might be a bit dull though. I’m not sure how long it’d take you to get seriously bored of him. He never comes out or anything!”

I love the way he says that he never comes out like there isn’t anything more to life. I am out and I wish I wasn’t. I would much rather be inside with Bryn somewhere, tucked away from the rest of the world…

“Oh, hey!” the red haired cheerleader, Mya I think her name is, grabs onto my arm and tugs on me. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” She gives James an apologetic look. “Cheerleader business, sorry.”

He doesn’t look too impressed but he takes the hint and walks off. Very quickly, he’s joined by some of the other guys from the team and he’s swallowed up by the crowd, causing the tight knot in my chest to loosen. I know that he calmed down towards the end, but I still prefer it when he isn’t near me.

“Hi, are you okay? Is everything alright?” I ask curiously. This is a girl that I’ve been in practice with all week long but I haven’t had much time to speak to anyone. Tia runs a very tight ship.

“Oh yeah, I just thought I better rescue you from James.” Mya rolls her eyes dramatically. “Tia’s been fuming all week about him seemingly preferring you and since you didn’t seem too into him I thought I’d save you the hassle. She’s distracted right now, but she’ll see you soon enough and I’m sure you want a break.”

There’s something about Mya that causes me to warm to her. She doesn’t seem like Tia and Flo, there’s a much nicer aura surrounding her. And she can’t be the only one who saw James talking to me, but she’s the only one who cared enough to come and attempt to save me. I don’t want to get my hopes too high for a friend, but what if this is it? Someone has to like me eventually. Why can’t it be Mya?

“Oh, awesome,” I say gratefully to her. “That’s really nice of you. Tia’s a bit… intimidating.”

“She’s a massive bitch,” Mya says bluntly. “But she runs the team well which is why we don’t kill her. Do you want to get a drink? I don’t want you to be stuck on your own here because James will come back.”

“Sure.” I laugh. “That sounds great, thank you. I’m Rebekah, by the way. I know we cheer next to one another but I haven’t had much time to talk to anyone really. It’s good to get to know someone.”

“Oh, you should come out to dinner with me and Amber sometimes, she’s the raven haired girl over there.” She points to the crowd and I nod despite not really knowing who I’m looking at. “She’s another one of the good girls. There are a few of us.” Mya links her arm through mine and smirks at me. “We aren’t all bitches, honestly!”

***

As I collapse into bed later that night, my head spinning slight from the booze, I have a giant smile on my face. Now that I’ve gotten to know Mya, Amber, and another girl called Jess quite a bit I don’t feel so alone. I haven’t come from far, it isn’t like I’ve uprooted my life and moved across the country, but I still don’t know anyone here. Or at least, I didn’t. I now have three new cell phone numbers in my contacts list which I feel good about. Being in the cheerleader’s group chat is one thing but messaging directly is another.

Now, practice won’t be so bad because I’ll actually have some people on my side.

But that isn’t the only thing that’s making me smile, James’ words have also had a massive effect on me. I keep churning them over and over in my mind. “Because he was super weird about you before. All protective and stuff. It was weird because he isn’t ever like that about anyone. He’s usually so quiet.”

I don’t know why he would be protective of me, but I’d like to imagine a reason. I would love him to be all cave man about me because he wants me to be his. I might not know him too well, but there’s a chemical attraction there. Something on a level so deep that it cannot be explained. I haven’t ever had that before, there’s never been anything quite so deep, and it thrills me. I would love to know how it would feel physically.

A naughty image creeps into my brain, one of me and him acutely alone where we can simply explore what this might be. We don’t even need to talk, we can just touch each other everywhere…

My heart begins to race at the thought and my fingers become itchy. They creep down my body without me even thinking about it and slide into the waist band of my underwear. My pulse core is crying out for some attention and in my mind it isn’t me giving that to myself, it’s him. Bryn is everywhere, his mouth on mine, the weight of his body crashed on top of me, his hands touching me in the most intimate of places…

A desperate pleasure comes for me quickly, it crashes through me at the speed of light, shattering me violently as I massage my clit as rapidly as I would like him to touch it. The pleasure is burning hot, it’s like a tsunami bucking at my hips. My hips roll into my hand, my other fingers knot up into my hair, and at the peak of orgasm, there’s only one word falling off my lips. Bryn. Right now, he’s everywhere, all of me, there’s nothing else in the world at all. Just me and him and this gorgeous pleasure completely claiming my body.

I think it’s safe to say that I am in a whole lot of trouble!