Sugar and Spice / l.h ✔️

1

~Maeve's POV~

I stood on the football field, dressed in my pink and black cheerleading uniform as I sweated under the heat of the sun. It was hot, perhaps far too hot to be outside in the sun. I was starting to regret having signed up to be on the cheerleading team again this year, even if I did think it was fun.

With my hands on my hips, I looked over at my best friend, Priscilla, and she laughed at the look on my face. I imagined I looked very unhappy, because I was. Sweating was not something that I liked, but who really did?

"Ave, have you talked to Des lately? She's been dodging my texts and phone calls whenever I try to talk to her." Priscilla asked, the smile on her pink lips fading into a frown. I just about cringed, knowing exactly why it was that Desirae had been ignoring her texts and phone calls, but it wasn't something that I could say. If Priscilla found out, it wouldn't be from me and I'd promised that.

"No, I'm sorry." I said honestly, shaking my head as I sent her an apologetic smile. Sure, I knew why Des was ignoring her, but I hadn't actually spoken to her in a couple of weeks. Now that she'd had to drop out of school to help pay for bills, she was working a lot, so we didn't talk very often. I missed her a lot, though, so I made a mental note to myself to try to check in on her sometime this week.

Priscilla sighed and waved me off, looking disappointed but not surprised. I think she knew that Des was busy and was having a rough go of things lately, since her mom had gotten fired and her dad left, leaving them with nobody to pay the bills. Even worse was her mom wasn't even looking for work, so Desirae had to get a job herself and drop out of school to be able to keep a roof over her head. It saddened me, so I tried to help her out whenever I could. We'd been friends since we were in the sixth grade, after all. Not just Des and I, but Des, Priscilla and I had all been friends since then.

"Aw, if it isn't cast away May." I heard a familiar voice sneer from behind me, causing me to frown and turn around. Not to my surprise, I saw Nicolai there. He was my ex-boyfriend, who I had dated and then been dumped by after three months passed and I was still not ready to give him my virginity, hence his nickname "cast away May" that he had given me after we broke up.

I frowned at him and crossed my arms over my chest, trying not to let him get to me. "What do you want, Nicolai?" I asked, staring at him. Really, it was a shame that he was such a piece of garbage because he was really attractive, and even more of a shame that I'd only found out after I'd dated him how horrible he was. The only reason he had dumped me was because I wasn't ready to go all the way, so he gave up on trying. It really hurt me, because I had already really fallen in love with him by then and he hadn't cared all along. I felt stupid, used.

Beside me, Priscilla scowled at him and protectively stepped closer to me, even though if either of us had a better chance in winning a physical fight against him, it was certainly me. She was thinner than me by a lot, and she only stood at about five foot two while I was five foot five, which still didn't compare to his five foot eleven.

However, both of them were both really attractive. Priscilla had long, wavy black hair that came to below her shoulders and cute trimmed bangs that just slightly fell into her grey eyes. Her Korean features were delicate and soft, very feminine, and she had light pink lips. Nicolai, on the other hand, was muscular and very masculine, with a sharp jawline and piercing hazel eyes. His brown hair was curly with the sides shaved a little while the top was longer and had a few blonde highlights throughout. Luckily for Priscilla, she was beautiful inside and out, though the same couldn't be said for Nicolai.

"Just wondering how you've been doing, Maeve-y." He said, feigning mock innocence as he smiled falsely. I narrowed my eyes at him, trying not to get angry. He knew how I was doing, and how I'd spent my summer, considering he dumped me right before summer had started. Yeah, I'd spent most of my summer crying and staying at home while I tried to get over him.

"I've been doing just fine, now that I don't have an asshole for a boyfriend." I retorted, giving him a smile that I knew was bitchy. It wasn't like me to be so catty, but he deserved it.

Normally, I was a rather sweet person. I liked making friends with everyone, which is why I was so popular and knew so many people, and I rarely got upset with people. However, Nicolai had used me and then dumped me when I didn't give him what he wanted, so I had the right to be upset with him.

Nicolai glared at me, sneering slightly. "Right." He snorted. "I'm sure you're just fine, huh? And that's why Jase told me that you were crying and wouldn't leave your house during the summer, because you were fine?" He mocked, making me freeze. Jase, my brother, was Nicolai's best friend. He was only a year older than me, like Nicolai, and we weren't very close at all. That said, I thought we were at least close enough that he'd choose my side in our breakup over Nicolai's, but he didn't.

My stomach churned and I frowned, unable to help how betrayed I felt. Was it really necessary for Jase to go telling my ex that I spent all summer crying over him dumping me? That was too mean!

"Shut the fuck up, little bitch." Priscilla sneered, glaring at him. She grabbed my hand in hers as he smirked in amusement. "Oh? What are you gonna do if I don't, pipsqueak?" He laughed, making me even more irritated. Although I didn't like him picking on me, of course, I'd put up with it. However, I wouldn't tolerate him picking on my friends. I just wasn't going to.

"Go fuck yourself, Nicolai." I scowled, flipping him the middle finger as I went to push past him. He laughed and turned around, grabbing me by my bicep to pull me to a stop. "I'd have to, because it's not like you'll do it." He mocked. If I was perhaps still a little sad about what he'd done to me, maybe that would've hurt my feelings, but I just laughed in his face. "What?" I grinned. "Am I the only option? No other girl will do it either, huh? How sad." I mocked right back, yanking my arm out of his hold.

He was visibly taken aback by my response, probably expecting me to just cry or something. Honestly, I probably would have if he'd said it a few months ago. He didn't seem to know what to say, but he did look pretty angry at me.

Not wanting to wait around for him to think of a response, I walked away, dragging Priscilla with me by my grip on her hand. Our cheerleading practice was pretty much over by now, anyways, and I just wanted to go home. We had the first day of school tomorrow and it was nearing seven PM, so I was over it. The only reason that Priscilla and I were here was because I was the captain of the cheer team and she was co-captain, so we were expected to figure out what we wanted to do when it came to new people signing up for the team this year.

"Do you need a ride home?" I asked Priscilla as we walked off the field and to the parking lot, glancing over at her. She smiled sheepishly and nodded. "Ya, my mom is probably making dinner, so she can't come and pick me up right now." She said. I sent her a smile. "Okay, I'll drive you. You're only a few streets down, anyways."

We both got into my car and I drove to her house where I dropped her off before I headed home. Because my brother was on the football team with Nicolai and he'd been at the field, he'd gotten left behind at school since I was the only one of us with a car, but I didn't care. He had totally humiliated me and been a rather bad brother lately.

It's what he deserves.