Crushing on the Enemy (5 page)

“This is my father's house. He bought it. He paid off the mortgage not you,” Alyssa yelled.

“You're father's not here, anymore, Alyssa, you know that,” he said angrily.

“And you shouldn't be either,” she spat at him.

“Cody, just leave her alone,” her mother said stepping in between them.

“You're really going to let her get away with it, then?” he asked.

“Get away with what, Cody, telling the truth?” her mother snapped turning towards him, “This isn't your house. It's mine, and it's Alyssa's home. So just leave her be!”

“Fine!” Cody said and stormed from the room.

“Are you okay?” her mother asked.

Alyssa nodded and sat down on the bed. She could hear Cody storming down the hall and then down the stairs. They listened together as the front door opened and then slammed shut. Alyssa wasn't sure what to think.

“Officer Bryant called me,” her mother sighed, “He was your father's best friend.”

“I remember,” Alyssa nodded.

“Says he's worried about you,” she said.

“Because I'm sneaking out to meet boys?” Alyssa arched a brow.

“No, he says you looked miserable,” her mother answered.

“I am miserable, Mom,” Alyssa told her.

“Tell me what's going on,” she said.

Alyssa looked into her mother's eyes and broke down into sobs. She didn't want to talk about anything, but slowly she told her mother what happened with Ryan Matthers.

“Teenagers can be so cruel,” her mother said when she finished speaking.

Alyssa wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew that things were changing, or at least she hoped they were. She wanted her mother to be happy, but Cody had been her oppressor since he moved in.

Sunday passed in a lazy haze. Alyssa kept her phone in her pocket as she lounged on her window seat. She kept waiting for Jake to call. Her mind would go back and forth between longing for the phone to ring and hoping that he had lost her number. Nothing made sense to her, so she did nothing.

Monday morning she slept through her alarm and drove to school late. Her mother had already left for work and there was no sign of Cody. He hadn't returned home on Sunday either. Alyssa was too afraid to hope that he was gone for good, because she didn't think she could survive her hopes being crashed again.

Alyssa knew something was wrong as soon as she walked into her second period class. Usually she would be greeted by the girls from her squad and guys from the team, but no one acknowledged her. None of them even spared her a glance. She heard one girl laughing and turned to look. It was Katie giggling away as she doodled Alyssa in a lip lock with a rattlesnake. Anger boiled in her veins, but she made herself take her seat.

“Just get through today,” she sighed silently.

The morning passed painfully slow and lunch was an agonizing event. Alyssa had attempted to sit with the girls at lunch, but every time she tried to sit her lunch tray down an object appeared in her way. In the end she threw away the untouched food and spent the rest of her lunch period crying in a bathroom stall.

Alyssa managed to make it through her afternoon classes without breaking down in tears again, but that wasn't saying much. For the first time in her life she was dreading cheer practice. Usually, she took refuge in being with her squad, but everything had suddenly changed. She wasn't their leader anymore, somehow she was their enemy.

Alyssa's hands shook as she walked to her locker. She felt heavy and depressed, but tried to keep her school spirit smile plastered to her face. Her smile turned to a frown and then a grimace when she arrived at her locker. Someone had written the word “TRAITOR” in big black letters across the locker's red surface.

She had to bite her lip hard to keep from crying. A few snickers came from those closest to her and Alyssa clinched her hands into tight fists at her sides. She took a deep breath and put in her locker combination. Alyssa opened the locker carefully, making sure to stand back, because she didn't trust that the vandalism didn't go farther than tagging the locker.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she found that her belongings were safe and undamaged. She placed her books inside and slammed it shut. Alyssa power walked to her squad coach's office, because she wanted a chance to talk to Mrs. Bowens before the rest of the girls. She was being branded a traitor for reporting a crime against the school and it pissed her off.

With each step Alyssa became more determined. When she arrived at Mrs. Bowens's office, the older woman greeted her with a frown.

“I need to speak with you, Alyssa,” she said.

Alyssa sat down across from her and took a deep breath. The tone in the older woman's voice didn't bode well for her, and she knew it. Alyssa could already feel everything she had worked for slipped through her fingers.

“Some of the girls say they have reason to believe that you helped vandalize the field and only called the cops when you became afraid you would be arrested,” Mrs. Bowens said.

“That's ridiculous, I love that filed! It's my second home,” Alyssa said feeling outraged.

“I don't think you were involved, but I do think the rumors will damage school spirit. You will retain your title, as head of the squad, Alyssa, but I'm sitting you out of the cheering next game. I can't help it, Alyssa, I won't have this damaging school spirit, too many futures are on the line,” the coach said.

“What about my future?” she asked, “What about me?”

“You'll be fine, Alyssa, this is only high school,” Mrs. Bowens sighed, “You'll get more academic scholarships.”

“You think I'm not going to cheer at the university?” Alyssa asked.

A feeling of betrayal bit into her belly and she feared that she would once again dissolve into tears.

“This scandal may damage your reputation, dear,” Mrs. Bowens frowned.

“This isn't fair! I didn't do anything wrong!” Alyssa snapped.

“Sometimes things aren't fair, but you have to make the best of them. You should have known dating a boy from the Rattlesnakes would have consequences, Alyssa,” the coach sighed.

She opened her mouth to say that she wasn't dating Jake, but then remembered what she had told Officer Bryant. Mostly, she had lied to him, because she wanted him to believe that his dead best friend's daughter was a normal happy teenager. Well, that and she sort of liked Jake. He had a redneck charm that appealed to her, even if it would make her mother cringe.

“Go change for practice, Alyssa,” the coach said, dismissing her.

Alyssa quickly changed into her practice uniform and headed out to the field. She was thankful that she was the first to arrive, because her eyes grew wide when she saw Jake and the other members of the Rattlesnakes' football team cleaning the field.

“That's how they got out of being arrested,” she thought to herself, “They must have made an arrangement with our school board. I wonder if they'll be banned from playing the rest of the season?”

Her eyes settled on Jake, who was working hard beside his teammates even though he wasn't part of the crime.

“I hope not,” she frowned to herself.

A couple of the boys noticed her and flipped her a bird, but Alyssa didn't respond. Instead she began her stretches without taking her eyes of Jake. Their eyes met for a minute and he flashed her a conspiratorial grin before returning to his task.

Her heart skipped a beat and she blushed. Alyssa's smile only faded away when Coach Bowens and the rest of the squad arrived on the track. With a sigh she resigned herself to three hours of torture.

Alyssa tried hard to lead the girls in their normal practice, but none of them seemed interested in listening to her. Instead they broke into small groups and practiced individually. Giving up wasn't something Alyssa was accustomed to so she spent the time practicing by herself and then ran laps for the last hour.

She left fifteen minutes early, hoping to avoid the rest of the squad, but they had already helped themselves to her belongings. The jeans and t-shirt that she had worn to school was now covered in red sharpie.

“TRAITOR!” and “SNAKE LOVER!” was written on every inch of her clothing. For a moment she considered telling the coach, but couldn't bring herself to admit how much their actions had hurt her. She walked to her car and avoided making eye contact with anyone. Jake smiled at her as she walked past, but she pretended not to see him.

Alyssa ran to her car, fearing they had vandalized it too, but thankfully there was only a small note tucked under the windshield wipers. She snatched it up and stared at it in disbelief.

“Keep on smilin'” the note said in big curvy letters and ended in a smiley face.

Alyssa's heart skipped a beat when she realized it was Mattie's writing. Was she aware of what was going on? Of course she was, most of the school had to be aware. At least Mattie seemed to still be in her corner, even if she didn't deserve it.

Alyssa didn't stop to pickup something to eat on the way home, because she didn't want to take the chance of encountering someone else would sneer at her. She sighed in relief when she found that Cody's car was still not parked in the driveway.

“At least I should have a quiet evening to catch up on homework,” she sighed and killed the engine.

Inside she found her mom crying at the kitchen table. Her hands shook as she crossed the room and stood by her side.

“Are you okay, Mom?” she asked softly.

“Yes, honey, I'm okay,” her mom said and attempted to wipe away the tears that had fallen freely down her cheeks.

“Then why are you crying?” she asked and put a gentle hand on her mom's shoulder.

“I filed for divorce today,” she said.

“What?” Alyssa asked.

“I don't want to talk about it right now, honey,” her mom said.

“I'll give you some time alone,” Alyssa nodded.

She secretly dumped the ruin clothes in the trash bin without telling her mother. Cody would be gone from their lives for good now, but would her mother survive it? Alyssa hadn't seen her mom look so broken since her father died.

“I miss you, Dad,” she sighed leaning back against the bin, “I wish you were here. I think you'd like Jake and you would have told me what a jerk Ryan Matthers was before I spent three years crushing on him.”

Alyssa pulled her phone from her pocket and stared at its cracked screen.

“Are you ever going to call me, Jake?” she asked.

“He's most likely still cleaning the field,” a voice answered from behind her.

Alyssa startled and nearly dropped her phone as she turned to face the owner of the voice.

“Mattie!” she said, wide-eyed.

“I figured someone had to save you from the divas,” Mattie grinned.

Alyssa threw her arms around the other girl and cried tears of relief that soon turned to tears of pain and sorrow. She told Mattie everything that had happened since Ryan asked her out, in painstakingly slow detail. Alyssa knew Mattie most likely knew the events, but she was thankful for the listening ear.

“So when do I get to meet your boyfriend?” Mattie teased.

“He's not my boyfriend,” Alyssa giggled.

“Not yet,” Mattie laughed.

Jake had volunteered to help his teammates clean up the Panthers' field in hopes of getting back in their good graces, but it wasn't working. The guys were still refusing to talk to him, but Jake tried to keep a good attitude about it. After all, he's not the one that made the mess, but he was helping to clean it up.

What he hadn't told the coach or his teammates was he had another motive for helping with the cleanup. He wanted to see Alyssa again. Jake had spent most of Sunday trying to work up the nerve to call her, but in the end he spent the afternoon arguing with himself in the mirror. By the time he went to bed he had a headache and didn't want to think about it anymore, but that night he had dreamed about her.

His heart skipped a beat when she walked onto the field. He grinned at her, but could tell she was having a much harder time of things than he was. Jake had always been content to letting most things go, but seeing her upset made him want to change the situation. He wanted to hug her and tell her that it would eventually pass and she would be okay, but he knew talking to her in front of the others would only make things more difficult for them both.