“No, you were robbed if you ask me. You were clearly the best.”
“Oh just fuck off, Ash.”
“What? I’m being honest.”
“Honest? Honest?” I bark. “You wouldn’t know honest if it bit you in the ass. Now get your fucking hands off me.”
When he still holds me captive, I drop my bag off my shoulder, allowing it to fall to the ground with a thud and slam my curled fist into his chest.
“I hate you, Ash. I fucking hate you and all of this is your fault. We’d have won if you weren’t here. It’s all your fault.”
I know I’m causing a scene and I know I look like a crazy person but all I can see is the disappointment that I know will be in Chelsea’s eyes for not achieving her goal and the guilt at knowing I was the one who fucked it up. I lost my count, I lost time. And all because of him.
“I fucking hate you,” I squeal again. Tears stream down my cheeks and drip from my jaw, but I don’t care.
I’ve been bottling this up all week and it feels so good to finally get it out, to scream at him after how he hurt me.
I’m not quick enough to pull my arm back and he manages to wrap his fingers around my other wrist, successfully stopping me from hitting him. Not that I’m under any illusion that I was actually hurting him, but it was making me feel better.
He flips us and pushes me up against the wall, my hands pinned above my head. My chest heaves as I stare at him, my eyes narrowed in anger, my teeth bared.
“I know you hate me, little one. You should, but believe me, I’m here for you.”
A bitter laugh falls from my lips.
Our eyes hold as we stare at each other, something crackling between us.
“Do you know how fucking hot you look in that uniform,” he says, his eyes finally dropping from mine. “I’ve been hard since the second you came out on stage.”
“Good. I hope it fucking hurts.”
“Ruby, I—” His words are cut off as two others call my name and come running over.
“There you are. Are you okay?” Chelsea asks as Harley stares daggers at Ash.
“Let her go,” she spits as if he’s nothing more than a piece of shit on her shoe.
He glances over at her and raises his brow.
“Sorry, red. None of your business.”
“Excuse me?” She wraps her fingers around his forearm and digs her red talons into his skin. I can’t help but smirk at her. “You’ve got my best friend pinned against the wall against her will, I think it’s very much my business, asshole.”
Chelsea ignores the two of them and looks at me.
“Is this him?”
I nod, wishing the ground would swallow me up and take me away from all of this.
“Unless you want a bigger issue than a couple of cheerleaders, then I suggest you let her go.”
“Not until she hears me out.”
“No, she doesn’t need to listen to anything you have to say. I’m also pretty sure you weren’t invited here or even have a ticket.”
Ashton swallows, confirming Chelsea’s suspicions.
“So if you don’t want security to haul your ass out of here, I suggest you walk away now.”
Thankfully, he releases me, and all the blood races back into my arms the second I lower them once more.
“Are you threatening me?” he asks, turning on Chelsea. His eyes drop to her obvious bump and I can’t help wondering what he must think about this situation.
“Yes, I fucking am, asshole. You hurt a member of my squad then you hurt me too.”
He shakes his head at Chelsea.
“Go on, underestimate me. I dare you,” she seethes.
He laughs, actually fucking laughs in her face.
“Looks like someone already had some fun with you, I’ll leave them to the games if you don’t mind.”
Chelsea’s lips press into a thin line but before she gets to react, I do.
“Hey, Ash?”
“Yeah.” He turns to me, a little relief seeping into his features that I want to talk to him. Good, this should come as a surprise then.
My arm flies out and my palm connects with his cheek with a loud slap.
“Stay away from my captain. Stay away from my best friend, and most importantly, stay the fuck away from me.” I run my eyes down his body before climbing my way back up. “I’ve been there, and it really wasn’t all that memorable,” I lie, turning away from him, swiping my bag from the floor and taking both Chelsea and Harley’s hands and leading them back the way I came from.
I feel his eyes burning into me until the door closes behind us, cutting off our connection.
“Are you okay?” Chelsea asks, coming to a stop in front of me.
“I’m so sorry.” My bottom lip trembles as I say the words to her.
“Sorry for what? I’ll go up against the likes of him for fun any day, you don’t need to apologize for that.”
“No, not that. We lost and it was my fault. He was in the crowd and I—”
“Whoa, whoa,” she says, holding her hand up to stop me. “We didn’t lose, Rubes. We came second. At nationals. It’s incredible.”
“I know, but it was your dream and I fu—”
“No. You didn’t fuck anything up. I watched that entire routine. It was flawless, Rubes. If you think you missed a step or miscounted, then it’s in your head because I can tell you right now that you, all of you, we’re spot on.”
“But—”
“It wasn’t our time. The other squad was incredible too. The judges must have seen a bit more spark in them or something. Us not winning is not your fault, Ruby.”
My bottom lip trembles hard as she looks at me with soft yet determined eyes.
“You haven’t let anyone down. I’m so fucking happy with second. We’ve all worked our asses off for this, and after the year I’ve had, it’s more than I could have ever asked for. But do you know what?”
I shake my head, too cut up to speak.
“Next year, you are going to lead this squad right back here, and I’ll be so fucking proud of you even if you don’t get through prelims because winning doesn’t matter, not really. What matters is this.” She squeezes my hand and the tears filling my eyes finally get to be too much once again and spill over. “You’re all my family and all I want is the best for all of you.” She pulls me into her arms and holds me tight, her bump pressing against my tummy.
Harley’s arms come around both of us before I feel more people surround me. When I finally look up, I find the entire squad around me, all with huge smiles on their faces.
“You okay?” Chelsea mouths and I nod because I am with my girls around me, I can take on the world, including Ashton freaking Fury.
“Good. Now we came in fucking second, ladies. Shall we go and fucking celebrate?”
A round of cheers and agreement sound out as we move as a group toward the lockers to collect everyone’s things.
Chelsea pulls me into her side, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. “You’re going to be a kickass captain next year, you know that, right?”
I bite down on my bottom lip to stop me from reminding her that they need to vote me in and instead nod in agreement.