Page 49 of Raise 'Em Up

“Don’t blame you.” Lucy laughs.

The next hour is filled with girl talk and laughter as we decorate the cookies. By the time we’re done, there’s icing all over our faces, but the cookies look good.

“I’m tired,” Serenity says. “Let’s order food and watch a movie or something.”

We all gather in the living room and order pizza. We put on a movie until it arrives. By the time we’re done eating, the movie is over.

“So, what do you want to do now?” I ask, yawning.

“I don’t know. I’m pretty sleepy.”

“We could play a card game?” Felicia suggests.

“Lame.” Ursula sighs. “The guys should be here, they’re on the team too. Then we could play truth or dare.”

“And dare them to do what?” Serenity asks. “Kiss one of us? Girl, you do know that all the guys on the team are dating Rylee? They would never.”

“Not my fault that she stole all of them for herself,” Ursula huffs and shoots me a glare. “Why can’t you save some for the rest of us? You're even starting in on the football team. Careful, Serenity, she seems pretty close with your guy too. Might take him next.”

“First off, fuck you.” Serenity glares. “And second, fuck you. And third, Rylee and Alex are just friends. She would never.”

“I’d never.” I nod, but I’m not playing into Ursula’s bullshit by getting upset. Mean girls love to hear themselves talk. I turn to the Sea Witch. “You do know we live on a campus with thousands of people. I’m sure there’s someone out there you can find. My five being off the market isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

“Five.” Ursula shakes her head. “I bet that pussy is used up already.”

“I don’t know. Want to find out?” I grin, opening my legs.

“Oh, gross!” She gets to her feet. “And catch whatever you have? No, thanks.”

We all burst into laughter as she rushes out of the room.

“I vote for Cards Against Humanity,” Lucy says.

“Oh yes, I wanna play that!” Serenity seems to perk up.

So we play a few rounds and it ends up being a good time. I laugh so hard, I almost piss myself. These girls aren’t so bad after all. Maybe with Missi gone, I can make some more friends.

Things are starting to look up with the team. Maybe I can let my guard down just enough to breathe. It would be nice not having to watch my back anymore.

Now these are the kind of parties I like. Tonight, it’s just the cheer team and a few of their friends. Some of their boyfriends are chilling as well. Nothing too crazy. The music isn’t blaring, and there’s not a bunch of passed out drunk people on the ground.

“Hey, baby.” Donny grins, pulling me onto the dance floor. “Dance with me.”

He’s drunk, and while he seems to be having a good time, I don’t like it. He’s been off lately, I see it. It’s small, subtle things, but since he ran away from his teacher and Serenity called me telling me that he wasn’t in a good head space, I’ve been worried.

I know he has a past, and that he has nightmares. I know whatever happened isn’t good. It breaks my heart. I wish I could help him, but I don’t know how, unless he tells me what’s going on.

“I love you,” he murmurs against my neck.

“I love you too, baby.” I turn my head to the side to kiss him.

We dance for a few songs before he tells me he’s tired. Colton takes him to bed, telling me to stay and have fun.

Colton isn’t big on parties, so I know he doesn’t mind.

“Hey, party people!” Alex's loud, booming voice fills the room as he crashes our party, bringing Trevor in behind him.

Well, it's not crashing, seeing as how they were invited, but they said they couldn’t come due to a football thing. Guess whatever that was is done now.

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