𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔, cassie howard

[̲̅10]

➿"Actually Daniel, I think it's best if you go. We can talk later" Cassie proposed with fake sympathy as she observed the boy in front of her walk away with a roll of his eyes, not expecting a reply from him, anyway.

It's not like whatever he wanted to talk about was of any relevance to her at that moment whatsoever.

Not when the latina's protective stance beside her remained as she too watched Daniel fade in the distance, while she stood close enough that her woody perfume with coffee undertones and her constant smell of tobacco infiltrated Cassie's system and could make her short-circuit and act out of impulse like that Friday night.

Selena moved to stand in front of the blonde, back leaning against the door frame as she looked past her shoulder to confirm he was gone. When her eyes were back on Cassie, she failed to recognize the nervousness radiating off of her, arms crossed and swaying lightly on her feet as she looked back expectantly.

Truth be told, Cassie was feeling a lot at that point. She felt guilty; for kissing someone else when she loved McKay, for ignoring Selena when she clearly had been having a tough day.

She also felt completely defenseless in front of the Flores girl, recollecting the couple of times they have kissed and how her head just goes empty and void of any reasoning or coherent thought.

And the worst part, she didn't know how to feel about the fact that she was battling herself not to look down at her glossy lips and that she wanted to feel them on hers again.

"Are you okay?" She gets asked, and is only able to nod as she focuses on putting herself together. "What're you gonna talk about with that guy? He's always staring, kind of a creep if you ask me" Selena asked again, this time brows furrowed in confusion since she had never seen them having a conversation up until that point.

What she did remember were his wandering eyes on the girl's figure in the pep rally at the cafeteria. He was Cassie's type, but she knew he had no chance. Finding a way in between Cassie and McKay's relationship was pretty much impossible, or so she thought.

"Yeah. I fucked up more than once on Friday" Howard mumbled in honesty, without giving a second thought to the words.

Selena simply nodded in understanding at what the words really meant. Of course she thought it was a mistake, and having expected anything other than that was a really stupid thing.

But she compromised to being a good friend and to take the rejection and to suffer and long in silence again. It was part of the whole thing since the very beginning. She would never be more than her friend, and she let herself forget that.

Nodding seemed like the only thing she could do at the moment to acknowledge it without embarrassing herself even further.

Because everything she had done up until that point seemed embarrassing. The letter Cassie read, the dumb spark of hope, the confidence that Cassie would want her enough to cheat on her boyfriend, the hiding from her, and then the chasing her around.

It was all fucking dumb and she should have known better than to think something would change out of the blue.

That, until she noticed Cassie's eyes widening as she realized what she said and the hurry in her words as she tried to explain. "Wait, no, that's not what I meant–"

Before she could explain herself and take back the words, Selena was shaking her head 'no' and interrupting her, with zero desire to want to prolong the disappointment. It's not like Cassie owed her an explanation anyway, she thought. "It's alright"

The Howard girl pressed her lips together, swallowing her words awkwardly when neither of them made a move or bid goodbyes. The Latina observed her every move in silence and noticed when she was about to talk again, probably just a casual sentence to kill the silence.