More Than Friends - A Hayes Grier fanfiction

Chapter 26 - Cheer showcase

“OMG I’m so mad.” She screams as we dodge traffic on the highway. I am concentrating more on her not killing us then what she is saying but I nod along anyway. I scroll through my twitter feed and see if any of the boys have said anything. Nothing has come up so far. Thank goodness. I spot a sign for a motel and tell Molly to turn off. Since we left even though we had another night we both think it’s best to book a room in the motel so mom doesn’t worry if we turned up at home early. We park in the car park and wheel our bags into the reception. A ginger woman with a friendly face is perched behind the desk and she smiles when we trail in.

“Hi girls! You need a room?”

“Yes please. Can we have a double please?” I say and the woman nods. She keeps throwing Molly cautious looks when she spots the tears on her face but she doesn’t say anything. She hands us a room key and I give her enough money to pay for one night. Thank god mom thought she was paying for our room at the hotel in Greensboro or we would be screwed. We go to our room and fall on the beds. It’s only three-ish but we are both tired after the incident. My phone buzzes and I see Jack G has tweeted after the event. I open twitter up and find Jack’s account to view the tweet.

“Great day meeting fans!” it reads. That’s it? I think to myself. Molly is sobbing to herself, her face in her pillow. I pat her shoulder sympathetically but she shrugs me off.

…

I wake up in the morning to my phone going off. An alert reads “cheer showcase” and I remember where we have to be. “Molly get up we have to go to the showcase.” I yell, probably waking up half the hotel. I hop in the shower to wash my hair then, when I get out, I blow dry it so it is nice and poofy.

“Curled or straightened?” Molly asks, her sadness from yesterday almost gone.

“Straighten it.” I say and she follows my orders, plugging in the straighteners. I pull my hair into a bun so I can do my makeup. I start with primer, foundation, concealer and powder then do a bit of bronzer on my cheekbones. My skin is already quite tan so I don’t need loads. I do my eye makeup – smoky eyes with winged eyeliner – then apply a coat of bright red lipstick to my mouth.

When Molly has done her quiff and ponytail I take the straighteners off her and do my own hair. Once my hair too is in a huge quiff and I have put my bow into my hair, we grab our uniforms off of the hangers in the wardrobe and put them on. I slip on my Ugg boots and we pack up our stuff to leave. We have to be at the gym by one o’clock and it will take us about an hour to get there from where we are now. My phone tells me it is eleven now so if we set off now we will have time to get a bite to eat.

We check out of the motel and the nice woman from the desk waves us goodbye, complementing our outfits as we go. We get into the car and speed out of the car park, both of us hungry, having missed the hotel’s free breakfast.

We are on the highway when my phone begins to ring. It’s Hayes.

“Hello?”

“Sophie, where the hell are you?”

“We left Hayes.”

“Why the f… what happened?” He yells then takes a short breath to calm down.

“Jack G… he was flirting with some fan of yours, Molly got pissed so now we are cruising down the highway.”

“Everyone was worried about you guys. We thought you got, like, kidnapped or something.”

“We are fine. But we have a cheer showcase thing to get to and we still need breakfast.”

“I’m just glad to hear you are alright.” He sighs with relief.

“Thank Hayes.” I grin. Suddenly my phone begins to buzz again and I see that Tanner – for the first time in ages – it trying to call me. I make up a lie that we need to get gas to Hayes then ring Tanner back.

“Tanner?”

“Hey babe!” He sounds excited to hear me so I mentally forgive him for not contacting me.

“What’s up?”

“Not much. Just wondering if you were free today?” He asks hopefully.

“Tanner… I’m sorry I have a cheer showcase today.” I don’t know why I am apologising but anyway…

“Oh can’t you like miss it?” I scowl when I hear him say this.

“No? I committed to the team Tanner. I can’t just miss an event like this.”

“Alright calm down.” He half yells. I furrow my brows again.

“I’ll come watch your show then.” He breathes and I give him all the details. When I hang up the phone my face falls. I don’t think I like Tanner anymore…

…

We arrive at the gym at one o’clock on the dot and run into to get ready for to warm up our tumbling. I join Madison and a couple of the other girls and we chat for a bit until Kayla yells at us to practise our tumbling passes. I run up and throw a roundoff, layout, full. I get a little applause from Madison and the other girls and I curtsy to them as a joke. Kayla gets us into a circle and gives us a little pep talk before the show.

“This is what we have been building up to guys. So put on a show and remember to smile, be fierce with a capital F and HIT all your stunts please.” She pretends to pray making us all laugh.

We gather behind a blue curtain which has been drawn around the mat and wait for Kayla to signal us to go out. I take a few breaths to calm myself and listen to the buzz of the crowd behind the curtain. Molly gives me the thumbs up from beside me and then Kayla lets us go out. We gallop out, bouncing on the mat and waving to the crowd like it is a real competition. I go to my place at the front of the mat ready to start the routine. At centre stage I quickly check out the crowd and, to my surprise I see Kaitlyn, Alyssa, Tanner, Noah and Kyle. I smile at them all and then my eyes stop when I see him. Hayes is sitting beside Kyle, Megan nowhere to be seen, his eyes locked on mine.