Beginner's Luck ▪︎ Dixie D'amelio/You

28. give her time

I went to the animal shelter.

After all, (Y/N) was right, the cats were a great way to make you feel better. Deep down, I wished she could be there too, picking up the cats and looking at me with a smile. I shook that thought off as I picked Mozzarella up.

I didn't want to go home, or go back to school the next day. I just wanted to stay there, where I felt all those problema didn't exist. Weeks ago, my only worries were my grades and my soccer performance. I was naive to believe I'd sense if something change. I didn't. And it was too late, reality was already slamming me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

The days went by slowly. I barely talked to Charli or Madison, and every time we did, it had a competitive tone to it. I had no idea why we were competing for a girl none of us could keep, but I was not about to let them get the last laugh.

It was practice day, and Claudia and I were stretching. Coach Stevens yelling about the big game being in a week. That was truly an important game, most of the scholarships came from the people watching us play the finals. I was as stressed out as ever, being the captain and having so much in my mind, and the coach seemed to smell it. Stevens had already given me about 5 lectures about "focus", "leadership" and "future". Deep down, she was right, I was unfocused, and I needed to be a good leader.

"I already signed us up to be in the same hotel room." Claudia took me from my thoughts.

"You're not staying with Madison this time?" I raised an eyebrow. They shared hotel rooms every time we went on school trips.

"She's been avoiding me, I'm sick of it." My friend rolled her eyes. Even though I knew why Madison was doing that, I'd been keeping quiet, and seeing Claudia hurt was starting to make me feel very bad. Yet another thing to worry about.

"Just give her time, she'll come around." I responded.

"She's being so selfish! I know that she probably has something going on but what's so bad that she can't tell me? She's hurting herself and me!" Claudia complained. I looked over at the bleachers, part of the cheerleading team was sitting there, already waiting for their turn to practice. The finals were stressful for them too, and Charli and Madison had been training like crazy.

"Why don't you just talk to her then?" I shrugged, trying to avoid the situation, still looking at the bleachers, particularly because (Y/N) was stretching near it, laughing at something that Madison said.

"Because I'll just be mean and make things worse. We'll graduate in a month and she's barely talking to me, I know that I'll explode." Claudia explained.

"Yeah. Tough." I mumbled, furrowing my brows when I saw Charli touch (Y/N)'s shoulder.

"I'll be right back." I said, running over to the bleachers.

"(Y/N), we're starting the warm ups, you can join the cheerleading team next year." I spoke up dryly, making my teammate raise an eyebrow at me.

"Go on, I'll cheer for you." I heard Madison say, feeling my blood boil.

"You should really look at me though, I'll make you your own cheer song." Charli said, making Madison and I glare at her.

"Careful, you might lose an ear with Charli's voice." Madison tease.

"Oh, shut u..."

"(Y/N). Practice." I almost hissed, interrupting Charli. The other girl sighed and ran away, going towards the middle of the field where all of us were reunited.

"Why don't you 2 focus on cheering?" I groaned, turning my back to them.

"Oh, we will." I heard Charli say. I could so easily turn around and jump her right now.

I played aggressively for the rest of the days, shouting orders at my teammates. While that might've come out as focused and direct, I was just plain angry. I was so angry that I left as soon as practice ended, going home to take a cold shower.

The silence of my house felt peaceful, giving me time to breathe, without Charli's singing and Madison's dancing towards (Y/N), I could run away from that stupid situation.

Laying on the couch, I decided to watch a movie and relax. I deserved it after all.

While I picked my movie, I heard the door open. Thinking that it was Charli, I didn't even look, still feeling mad. But I heard another known voice alongside hers.

"C'mon, my room's upstairs." I heard Charli. Looking away from the TV, I found (Y/N) with her. Oh, fuck no.

"Good afternoon, Charli. (Y/N)." I greeted dryly.

"Hi, Dix. Look who's helping me study Biology!" Charli said, her tone passive-aggressive.

"Oh, is that right?" I scoffed. My little sister just nodded.

"Don't get surprised if you get an F." I muttered to myself.

"I'll just go change. Wait for me?" Charli said to (Y/N), who nodded. My sister went up the stairs, leaving a shy (Y/N) waiting for her.

Well, this could be fun.

"Come sit, I don't bite." I spoke out, making her look surprised. Trying to hide her reaction, she approached me, sitting by my side cautiously.

"Look, Dixie, I've been meaning to talk to you about..."

"I know, I get it." I interrupted her, touching her forearm softly, giving her a smile. That hurt to do, but my will to annoy Charli making me keep up.

"It's ok to move on, but I was thinking..." I started stroking her arm.

"Maybe you could help me study some biology instead." I grabbed her hand, placing it on my thigh. (Y/N) almost choked. I'd never seen her without an answer or losing control of a situation, that was actually more fun than I thought. Freaking her out was fun, she deserved it a little bit.

"Uhm... I... Well I..." She started, tripping on her words, making me want to laugh.

"What happened? You were so smooth the last time we..." I leaned in, but was interrupted by someone by the stairs.

"DIXIE!" It was Charli's voice, she looked mad before adjusting her voice.

"Don't you have a movie to watch, come on (Y/N)."