you would imagine.”
There’s laughter from the crowd.
“But I shouldn’t be the one who’s speaking to you right now. I’m not the one who puts the hours into choreography and rehearsals. I’m not the one who’s encouraging and helpful, and I’m not the one whose hard work and determination has made my last four years so much fun. I’m just the one who’s gotten the credit.”
I glance back at the cheerleaders, who are looking back at me in confusion, glancing between themselves.
I turn back to the crowd; some look curious, some look bored, but I don’t care. I should have done this a long time ago.
“Everybody on your feet for the true force behind the cheerleading squad, the one who makes us all tick and the one who deserves all your applause. Give it up for the true captain of the cheerleading squad, the one and only Sasha Bridges!”
There’s silence for a moment, total surprise at my words, but then I hear Sophie let out a cheer that’s quickly joined by Jennifer and the rest of the cheerleaders, and then the rest of the gym joins in as a startled Sasha is pushed forward by the other girls until she’s standing in front of me, looking like she’s about to burst into tears.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she whispers.
“Yes, I should have. I should have done it a long time ago.”
I hold out the microphone to her as the cheers get louder.
“You deserve it.”
She takes it with shaky hands and turns back to the crowd, and my cheeks ache because I’m smiling so wide.
She really, really does deserve it.
“Hey.” I turn away from Jennifer at the familiar voice and see Brett standing to the side.
I grin at him. “Hey.”
Jennifer looks between us for a second before leaving us to it.
“You enjoy the show?” I ask.
“Yeah, it was cool.” He looks away for a second before looking back at me. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay?”
I blink at him. “I’m fine.”
“You are?”
“Yeah, I’m totally fine. I know it was the last performance and all and it was really fun, but I’m not going to cry myself to sleep or anything.”
He chuckles. “I didn’t mean that. I meant with this being the beginning of the end. It makes everything closer.”
He means it makes my day of reckoning closer, and it does weird things to my heartbeat that he’s the only one who’s noticed that this might not be easy for me and has cared enough to ask.
“I’m good.”
“You guys were awesome.”
“We were, weren’t we?” I wink at him. “Not bad for an un-preppy cheerleader.”
He chuckles. “It’s pretty cool that you gave Sasha her due and had everyone applaud her like that.”
Sasha…of course he’s thinking about Sasha. She’s his crush. “Yeah, well she deserved it.”
He nods. “You guys all looked great.” He blushes slightly and clears his throat. “You look good…in your uniform I mean.”
My eyes find his, and for a second I can’t look away from his clear blue eyes. Him paying me that compliment means more than anything Dan Summers ever muttered when he was trying to get me into bed. It makes me want to step closer to him, and talk to him and that makes my heart beat nervously in my chest and I don’t know what that means. And then, because I’m me and apparently can’t take a compliment from Brett without messing it up, I ruin the moment completely. “Oh yeah? If only I had longer, darker hair, you’d almost confuse me with your dream girl.”
He doesn’t say anything to that.
“Your crush,” I continue, in case he hasn’t gotten the point. “Your bae, your boo, your ultimate fantasy.”
He still hasn’t said anything, instead just staring at me evenly with those clear blue eyes.
“I’m talking about Sasha, by the way.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
I don’t know what to say next, don’t have a clue how to break this weird spell that seems to have come over us, but in this moment, I’m not sure I want to. I want to stay in this moment with him looking at me like this with my heartbeat going crazy with possibilities.
“I broke up with Dan Summers,” I blurt out, because it suddenly seems very important that he knows this. “Not that we were really a couple or anything, but we’re not hanging out anymore.”
“You’re not?”
I can’t tell if this news interests him or not, if he cares or not.
“Yo, Brett!”
He turns at the shout, and we both see Dane and Jason