king and queen

ten

Alexa's POV

We walked back into the room and I wiped the cry marks off my face.

Ugh.

"Dallas, I might have to end practice early to fix my makeup."

"It looks fine."

"Yeah, until the huge lights are shining on me and you can see where the water from my eyes leaked down my face."

"Well then, better get started now."

I still felt like I was getting charity from him. Everything changed once I mentioned my parents.

I went through the dance and he didn't have a word to say through the whole thing this time.

"I like it."

"Be honest. Change it. Say what you need."

"No. It's fine. Only problem is, I don't know if I'll be able to memorize all of that by Wednesday."

"Well, we can always practice outside of our designated time. Like at my place or something." He stared at me blankly. "Okay. Or not. That's cool too." I thought for a moment. "Actually, I might have an idea if you're up for it?"

-

We finished up the dance and it still needed some work. But we've got a total of one hour left to perfect it.

"Alright, Alexa, we've got good things going. Good luck at your game tonight."

"Thanks. See ya next week, Dal."

"See ya."

We went our separate ways and I thought hard about what I said earlier. The thing about not judging a book by its cover.

I didn't really know Dallas. I always thought he was some cold-hearted delinquent who didn't have any sort of emotion. I was contradicting to my own statement about how you need to look deeper in a person to understand them and why they do the things they do.

Maybe Dallas wasn't all bad.

The game went by and we won 31-14!

The girls and I collectively walked the track back to the locker room to get our stuff.

"Alexa!" Someone yelled.

I looked over. "Hey, Dallas!" I said with a wave.

Delancey turned around and slowed down to keep up with me. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah. We worked through our differences a bit. Took some effort, but hey he's cool when ya talk to him a bit."

"Alexa, you're the only girl I know who would be able to get through to Dallas Winston."

I giggled a bit. "Imma go say hi. I'll catch up in a second!" I ran to the fence and walked along with him. "Hey, Dallas! Whatcha doing here?"

"Well, haven't been to a football game in a while and I kinda forgot we don't suck. Needed to get out. Not like we had anything better to do." He looked back at Johnny as he was talking to Marina Adello. I grinned. "He seemed to find more interest in her than anything else, though."

I grinned a bit. "Hey, you doin' anything after? I was gonna go get some food. Wanna come?"

"Dal!" Johnny called out. "Rain check. I'll meet up with ya later!"

Dallas rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess I'm free."

"Great. 'Cause I was really craving a good late night dinner and I didn't wanna go by myself. Don't leave. Imma go get my stuff, alright?"

"Alright." Dallas said. I saw him crack a small grin as I took off to catch up with the girls.

"Alexa," Delancey started, "you goin' out with Dallas?"

"Yeah. Gonna head to the diner for a quick dinner."

"No, I mean like... y'all got something going on between ya?"

I laughed. "Oh, goodness, no. His schedule opened up and I figured to take him with me. I feel like he could use a friend."

"You're too nice, Lex. He's gonna hurt you. You've heard the rumors about him."

"Rumors are just rumors. Sometimes you gotta look deeper to understand who they really are."

Dallas' POV

"Dal, ya sure you're okay with us hanging out?"

"Yeah, I'm hanging out with Alexa. Gonna go get some food."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She just offered. I got a couple bucks on me."

"Interesting." He muttered.

"How so?"

"Well, I'm just wondering what more there is to it. You gonna make her dine and dash? Or... oh! Leave her with the check, because Lord knows she'd never do that."

"What? Jesus Christ, man. No. We're just getting food."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you like her?"

I thought for a minute. "She's alright. I was wrong about her."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, but I meant like... you got a thing for her?"

"Nah, not like that." I said without hesitation. "But she makes me curious. I swear, five minutes in that closet and now she's got me wondering."

"Johnny! You coming?" Marina called out.

"Yeah. One second!" He grinned. "Well, I better get going. I'll see ya tonight, okay? Don't do anything stupid."

"Wasn't plannin' on it. You too, man."

"Wasn't planning on it."

Alexa's POV

We all got to the locker room, did our end of the game stuff, and packed up.

"Alexa, you goin' on a date?" Natalie asked.

"No. No, no, no. Let's not get that going around."

"Dallas Winston doesn't just hang out with girls. I heard that he slept with seven girls from the same friend group." Jane said to Caroline.

"What friend group even has seven girls?" I asked, more to myself than anyone there.

"Seven? That's all? I heard he's slept with at least twenty people!" Delancey said.

"Guys! Stop. Even if he's been with the entire upper west side, it wouldn't matter. We aren't doing anything. And I wouldn't recommend going and talkin' about things you don't know. Never know what's going on. Saying stuff like that can hurt someone more than you'll ever understand."

I packed up my bags and everyone giggled to themselves about my little speech.

"Stay safe, Lex." Delancey called out.

"I will, I will."

I went outside and saw Dallas looking around.

"Ready to go?" I asked from behind him.

"Let's bounce. I'm starving. Can't wait to go devour a nice order of fries right now."