One of the Boys

I changed in the locker room, and came out smiling as I hopped over to my friends. "Hey beautiful," Brayden opened his arms and I jumped him into a kiss. I was the couple that the old me would have hated.

"You two are sickeningly adorable," she made a face at me and then mouthed the word dysfunctional. I raised my eyebrows and she shrugged. "So how about that game," I released and the three of us started walking to the parking lot, "you all sucked."

I let out a laugh, "it was all Mills, the boy is completely and utterly mental, I don't know what happened." I shook my head at De's face and then changed the topic, "so who is ready to party."

Brayden gave me an unsure look and I questioned it. He tilted his head, "its just, its a high school party."

"Lighten up college boy," I smiled, "I heard there's going to be some really hot underage girls there." I winked, "I won't tell if you won't."

De rolled her eyes, "you two are completely disgusting, please wait till I leave next time."

I laughed, "then boy are you going to hate this car ride." I wasn't serious, it was basically spent singing songs as obnoxiously as we possibly could. We were serenading each other and cracking up while doing so. "I wish for once," i shook my head as I skipped toward the door, "that we could go to a party without cheer sluts." I nodded at one that walked by.

"Yup," De nodded at Brayden, "she prefers to be the only slut."

"I'll drink to that," he raised his arm and looked at me. I merely crossed my arms and walked ahead of him. "Kidding babe," he wrapped his arms around my waist. I bit my lip and forced a smile, there was nothing I hated more than the word babe.

When we walked through the door I smiled at Brayden, "wanna go grab me a drink?"

"Sure, babe," he kissed my cheek and walked away just in time because I couldn't fight my eye roll anymore. De started laughing and I looked at her. "Pet names," I tilted my head, "it's the only part of functional relationships I can't get used to."

"If you call what you have functional," she huffed.

"What's that supposed to mean," I looked at her shocked, "we are sickeningly adorable."

"He is adorable and you're a great actress," she smiled and then walked away.

I walked in the opposite direction mimicking her and then jumped when someone tapped my shoulder. "Just thought you could use a drink," Tyler handed me a red cup. I looked down at the cup and he laughed, "it's about fifteen percent vodka and seventy five percent cranberry juice. Wouldn't want a repeat of last time."

I stuck my tongue out, but took it anyway. "You're a good friend McKluskie," I raised my cup.

He raised his in response, "still not my last name." We tapped cups and then both took sips, his substantially larger. Colton, aka our back up quarterback, walked by. "Good show, sophomore," Tyler slapped his ass. He looked back and gave Tyler a weird look before continuing toward his preconceived destination.

I laughed, "and you give Hayden a hard time."

"The kid did good," he put his arms out defensively, "he deserved a love tap." We both continued laughing and then he looked up blankly. I turned around and saw Mills by the front door. "I didn't think he'd show," Tyler said in a loud whisper, "I don't know what to do, what if he talks to me."

I bit my lip and turned back, "that's not a chance I wanna take." I slid down to a slouch, "please tell me you have a room I can hide in."

"Anything upstairs that's not occupied," he winked at me. I got up and decided upon the back staircase to draw less attention. "Should I tell Brayden," Tyler wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I hesitated a second, "give it a bit." I ran up the stairs. I found a room upstairs and lied on the bed relaxing for a good forty minutes. I had come to parties and slept through them in the past so it wasn't like it was a weird thing for me. The only problem was my stupid mind was running so I couldn't sleep. I lied there waiting for my mid to shut off so maybe it would be relaxing. So naturally when the door opened I fell off the damn bed in shock.

I peaked up from the side of the bed to see who had ruined my piece. A sigh of relief and then a bang on the door. Then he turned around and looked at me, "it had to be you."

I stood up and crossed my arms, "my thoughts exactly."

He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down, "am I interrupting?"

"You wish," I huffed as I sat down on the bed keeping my arms crossed. "What are you doing here anyway, Mills," I raised my brows.

"Same as you," he smirked a bit and I raised my eyebrow for him to clear it up, "hiding out."

I let out a laugh, "well we all know why you're hiding out." I put my hands to my neck and pretended to choke for emphasis and then went back to my guarded position. "But what would I be hiding from?"

"Me," he said it tentatively.

I let out a huff, "why would I hide from you?"

"Fine," he shrugged, "then maybe you're hiding form your boyfriend." I was going to object, but the fact that he had put air quotes around the word "boyfriend" had just hit me.

"What's with the air quotes," I was somewhat offended.

He laughed, "come on Tanner." He made his first movement in my direction. I went back to crossed arms. "You don't like this guy," he was at the edge of the bed, "you're just trying to prove a point."

"I do like him," I immediately protested, then smirked, "and if in the process I just happen to make you eat your words, then it's a bonus." I got in his face, for emphasis reasons. Yeah he kissed me, again, in hind sight I should have seen that coming. I pushed him away, "Dammit, you have got to stop doing that."

He looked at me, "this is killing me, Tanner." He shook his head, "you and that guy."

"I'm sorry I'm making you jealous," I tried to fight the smirk, "but you're the one who didn't want to like me, you know, because I'm not relationship material." I let the smirk come out, "it looks like you were wrong."

"I didn't mean for you and him," he pointed toward the door, "I meant for us."

I raised my eyebrow, "us?" I laughed and stood up, "there was, is and never will be an us, and you made that clear to me."

"Forget what I said," he looked down at me.

"I...I..." I was going to say can't. Then there was a knock on the door. "Rae," the familiar voice of Brayden said, "are you in there?" My eyes lit up.

"Oh my god," I whispered, "go hide." He shook his head no. "Please, could you for once help me out and just hide," I begged, "nothing happened and I don't want him to get the wrong idea." He opened his mouth to say something and then reluctantly went to the closet. "Yeah, I'm in here," I yelled at the door.

He walked in, "I've been looking all over for you." He kissed me and we both sat down on the bed, "why you hiding out up here."

"People," I nodded, "they're just so fucking annoying." He laughed and kissed my forehead. "I swear I told Tyler to tell you where I was," I smiled an innocent smile.

He smirked at me, "was this all a clever ploy to get me in bed."

"You got me," I smiled and pulled him closer to me. We started kissing and then he pulled away.

"Rae," he said, "there's something I need to tell you." I looked at him confused, but nodded for him to continue. And he did the unthinkable, "Rae, I love you."