The Love We Deny ✔️ [COMPLETED]

Chapter 19 - Pride

"You know you should try and hide it better if you're going to break the rules," Naomi said as she leaned against the locker beside me in the changing room. Most girls had already left, the only ones that were still around were on the other side, meaning no one would hear the filth coming out of her mouth.

"Back-off Naomi, I'm not in the mood for your crap today." I was tired, and being away from Kyle was starting to play with my nerves. After the tabloids debacle, I hadn't seen him at all. I wasn't avoiding him if that's what you think, but our paths simply didn't cross.

"Oh, I think you'll want to hear this, or maybe just look at this?" she continued. A shiver ran down my spine. She was too cheerful for these to be empty threats.

I was right.

As I turned my face to look at the screen on her phone, I noticed the picture Kyle had his manager takedown from the tabloids.

"I'm not sure what I'm looking at," I questioned innocently.

"Don't play pretend," she chuckled "I know it's you."

"That's not me," I replied, I sounded much more confident than I felt. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my skin looked paler than it did minutes ago.

"Are you sure about that?" she asked while she continued to smile at me. I was fucked. Her hand moved to her phone before swiping to the left a couple of times.

"What the fuck? Are you following me now?" I asked outraged. The pictures were from several days where you'd see me or Kyle enter the building. We'd never be together but, it would simply be used to confirm the people in the first picture.

I sighed running my hand through my hair.

"Nothing is going on, we just live in the same building. I tried to move earlier this year but my landlord won't let me," I tried explaining, although my voice was flat. It sounded nearly defeated. Why did she have to stumble on that picture? Of all people!

"Now, that's too bad," she answered without an inkling of empathy. No, she was enjoying this situation too much to care about anything else.

"What do you want Naomi?" I questioned as I sat down on the bench. If she didn't want anything she'd have already gone to Jenkins and I would be having a different conversation with a different person. No Naomi wanted to play games. She wanted to toy with me until she was bored.

"I'm not sure yet, but make sure you have your phone near you, I could call anytime," she answered before smiling at me sadistically and leaving the locker room.

I hung my head in my head, wondering what I would do about this situation. I felt stuck.

---

It's been a week since I last saw Kyle and it's been hell. I missed our late-night talks and I hated being pushed around by Naomi. Since the confrontation in the locker rooms two days ago, she'd already dared to make me clean her car...twice. Apparently, the first time didn't make it shine enough. Honestly, the entire situation was making me grow white hair early.

The Beacons were up against one of their biggest opponents this weekend at an away game and had been doubling their effort and practices to fix their performance.

I'll admit the tabloid and Naomi's threats were a cold shower I needed. I reminder that the cheering position I had now was a dream come true and that I wanted to keep it longer which meant not jeopardizing it in any way. With that in mind, I got back to the habits I had created for myself such as using a different door and so on.

"I want you in the meeting with the marketing team later today," Sandra ordered, interrupting my earlier thoughts.

"Absolutely," I quickly added it to my personal calendar as the corner of my mouth lifted into a smile.