FRAT LINE-KNJ✔️

+48+

MALIA

The energy in the air right now is intense.

The second to last competition and stakes are higher than ever. I'm not surprised that we've made it this far. We worked hard for this, we deserve it. We have a point to prove and we will.

We are not the teams before us at Georgia Tech. I don't think they were expecting this from us. After last year, I don't think that anybody thought we would show up again.

But here we are.

Hyping ourselves up on the sidelines as we watch another team's dance routine. They're good, crazy good. A few of the girls are a beat or two behind but it's nothing that ruins their choreography too much. I pay attention to their feet, the thrust in their bucks, how clean their moves are.

I'm nudged in the arm and drawn from my focus. I look at Camryn to see what she wants. She nods in her head to the right.

"Ain't that the cheer team?"

I glance in the direction that she's talking about and my eyebrows raise.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Taija asks as she spots them.

"Maybe they're in city for a competition." Kaia suggests.

"No." Taija and I say at the same time.

"Tyrell said they didn't have one today and the guys didn't have a game today, either."

"I talked to Namjoon the other night and he told me what days that the basketball team was free. He didn't say anything about the cheer squad."

Granted, I hung up on him and haven't answered a single call of his since then. But still, he didn't mention it. I don't know what him and Chloe talked about but the fact that he didn't want to tell me makes me think it was some bullshit.

Every time I bring her name up with valid points, he catches an attitude with me like I did something wrong. He's not about to make me feel crazy. We're not doing that again.

"I guess he didn't say anything about showing up here either, did he?" Kaia asks.

My head whips around to see the guys standing by the cheerleaders. Tyrell is looking around and taps Midas when he finds us. He points in our direction and Namjoon looks directly at me from across the room. He looks pissed.

Good.

Camryn jumps up from her spot on the bleachers and runs over to them. Midas engulfs her in a hug and laughs when she squeezes him. Tyrell looks at them in feigned disgust. The other girls walk over and greet them. I hug everybody but Namjoon. He stares me in the face and I pretend he isn't there.

Until he snatches me up and pulls me to the hallway.

"Ow. Let me go." I swat his arm. "Strong ass boy. Get off me." I pull my arm out of his grasp and he stands in my way, preventing me from moving.

"Why haven't you been answering my calls?"

"I didn't feel like talking."

"Right. But when Ty called you yesterday, you answered on the second ring."

"Okay..." I look at him and he licks his lips as his left eye narrows. His jaw clenches and he rubs his forehead. He's getting upset and he looks good as hell. His bangs have been growing out and falling onto his forehead.

He's building more muscle and it's making his shirts look tiny. They still fit but his biceps are going to cause the sleeves to burst at the seams.

"Malia, please stop fucking playing with me in this building. Next time I call you, answer the phone."