Betting on You

11

e l e v e n

Our school won the soccer game, not that I was paying much attention to their playing.

Harmony was constantly talking; Not asking questions about the game, but asking questions about the players. Which were mostly not appropriate to be asking so incredibly loudly because she wanted to be heard over the roaring of the crowd.

When I did manage to tune her out a few times, or when I had assumed she had run out of things to say, my eyes drifted to player number seven, dashing left and right and scoring or assisting every now and then. I couldn't help but count his shots too, watching him and Jared often steal the ball from each other only to get yelled at by the coach, Coach Baxter.

In the end, I had ended up losing count as to who, between the two, had ended up scoring the most points, but by the way that Jared kicked the goal post after our team had won the game, I assumed Luke had won.

Regardless, we all stood up from the bleacher bench along with the rest of the crowd, and I slung my purse over my shoulder as we walked down the stairs and to the ground.

Once all three of us made it, Harmony slipped away to use the washroom and Jaime slapped my arm, causing me to yelp, "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"She's a total drag, Madds!" she whined, and I bit my lip as I contemplated whether to agree with her or make up some excuse because she was my cousin.

I groaned, "I know, I know," I admitted, "But I'm trying to lay off because her parents just got divorced."

"It seems like she's been this way, for like, years before their split," she nudged my shoulder, shaking her head, "She talked about doing it with almost every player on the varsity team and then called me easy when I said I thought Michael was hot! That's such a double standard!"

"I promised my mum and Aunt Marge I'd.. help her out a bit," I shrugged my shoulders, glancing around as the crowd was beginning to head towards the parking lot. Stephanie was hosting tonight's victory party as co-head cheerleader or whatever title it was that she held, so that's where most juniors and seniors and slightly popular underclassmen were headed. "Yeah she's a lot different than I remember but she's going through something."

"More like planning to go through something; All the guys in upper class." she rolled her eyes. While I understood her frustrations, I still wanted to give Harmony the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, everyone handle's their hurts and hardships in different ways, and I had to come to terms with the fact that this was her way.

"She's just.. grown up in different circumstances." I tried to defend again.

"I-," she huffed, shaking her head, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know. I just-.. you know how I get with Steph, and Harmony's like.. almost basically exactly the same as her."

I couldn't help but smile, shaking my head as well, "Trust me, I know."

In that moment, Harmony had slipped back over to us, her fingers flying on the keyboard of her phone, "You know what?"

My eyes widened, "Uh, know the way to.. Steph's party," I cleared my throat as I glanced to Jai, seeing her smirk at my attempts to cover, "You want to go to that or..?"

"Luke will be there too, ya?" she looked up from her phone, glancing between Jaime and I and I frowned, looking to Jaime to see her raise her brow.