I DON'T CHASE, I ATTRACT

CHAPTER SEVEN

7. I DON'T CHASE, I ATTRACT

------ Aaliyah------

I grunted and tossed the covers onto the floor. My entire body was aching and my nose felt dry and stuffy. Great, I’ve caught a cold now. I sniff and get up from bed. Looking around for Milo but he wasn’t in the room. He must have got out first. I headed to my washroom to get ready. I did my skin care diligently, with all the muddy water that had been rubbing on my face and the bastard's hands greasing my perfect skin, it was much needed.

A knock sounded on my door.

“Lily, we are going to be late. Mom asked me to come get you for breakfast.” Kirk calls out. He could never pronounce my name and Lily had just stuck with him. It was cute, but I bet he'd change it in a heart beat if I told him that, so I shut up.

“Aw, is Kirky late for his date with his girlfriend, Nora?” I teased him as I opened the door and ruffled his hair.

I’d once caught Kirk holding a girl’s hand when I’d gone to pick him up with mom after school. The girl’s parents had not come to pick her up after she missed the bus and, apparently, Kirk had asked her to wait with him, so mom drove her home. I’d teased him for it every day and never failed to mention that she was his girlfriend. He’d always grin and blush and I knew he had a soft spot for the girl, and Kirk didn’t have soft spots. He also bought her stuff when mom, dad or I took him shopping. He didn’t like to go shopping before then, but since her, he was always asking when we’d go shopping next. I thought it was super cute that he cared for someone.

“Nora is not my girlfriend. She’s gross. She chose josh for her art class partner and they won best art award.” He huffs and dodges my hand on his head.

“Ow. ” I said in silence, not knowing if I should scold him for calling a girl gross or let this one slide. I felt bad since I’d been the one to push them together. I honestly felt bad for him. Damn, this girl was absolutely brutal. Poor Kirk.

“You know what ? I'll get you two scoops of ice-cream after school. Don’t tell mum.” I grinned with mischief and his eyes brightened as he grinned back and did a zipping motion on his mouth before he ran back downstairs.

“I’m coming mom.” I yelled towards the kitchen.

I grab my clean cheer uniform and stuff it into my bag. This was going to be our first session after the break and I was looking forward to it. I have learned a few tricks I’d like to incorporate into our routine. Cheer competitions were a huge deal around here and competition was fierce.

The kids from the local schools wanted to beat us at something and this was the only opportunity they could get, so they gave it their all every year, and at every single sport. It only challenged us to work our asses off.

There’s no way I’d let a couple of hood rats steal my shine. It was my first season as captain of the cheer team. I couldn’t wait for the high light of my day.

I drag my school skirt up and throw on the white shirt, buttoning it up. I grab my blazer and throw it on. My shoes go on next, pairing everything nicely. I put on some concealer to hide my bruises from yesterday before going downstairs.

“Milo! Milo” I called.

“Are you looking for the dog ?” Dad calls from the kitchen where he’s dressed in his business suit and composing an email from his ipad, standing beside mom who was putting sandwiches into Kirk’s lunch box.

“Yeah.” I said and kissed them both on the cheek in greeting before sitting down and helping myself to some coffee from the pot.

“I took it back to the Castles. I didn’t know why it was helping itself to our carpet.”

“Dad! How could you?” I was dumbfounded.

“It’s theirs. Why wouldn’t I ?” He frowns like he really didn’t get it.

“Mom. It was mine first. I finally got him back. He came to me because Kieran wasn’t treating him well. He’s irresponsible.” I crossed my arms and protested to mom, who only shrugged, and I knew she wasn’t going to come to my defense.

“Actually, he was scratching down your door first and started munching on the carpet as soon as I let him out. You didn’t feed him before bed or wake up early to do that. So who is irresponsible now?”

“That’s only because Kieran didn’t feed him yesterday,” I countered.

Kirk slurped loudly from his smoothie and I tried not to scold him because he was going through his own little broken heart. Ugh

“Aaliyah, a responsible owner, would never shift blame but take responsibility for her actions.” Mom says as she wipes Kirk’s mouth, but he snatches the napkin saying something about him being a big boy and being able to do it himself.

“Are you sure this is not you trying to fight with the kid again? Maybe if you tried to….” Dad begins and mom also nods along.

“You guys always take his side and blame me. I’m your daughter, not him.” I forced the waterworks back as I got up suddenly.

“Lily, it's not like that. We just want to set you right.” Mom says, using Kirk’s nickname for me. She gives me a kind look as she rubs my shoulder.

As if on cue, a knock sounds on the door. Kirk rushes to open it although we always advise him not to and he always gets scolded.

“Kirk” Dad groans.

The door opens and my best friend comes in, grabbing Kirk and tickling him as he laughs and flails his arms.

She finally puts him down and greets my parents and I.

“Lily, Coco is here.” He smiles at me. Oh yeah he calls Chloe, Coco.

“Of course, Kirk.” I smiled back.

“Let’s go.”

“Chloe is giving me a ride today.” I tell mom and dad before we leave.

We had a carpool Karoake for Kirk’s sake and switched back to operation ‘KKK’.

Kill King Kieran after we dropped him

At the end of the ride, we couldn’t come up with a good enough plan.

We were going to lie to him that we heard the conversation and that Chloe had been there too and had proof, but it was likely to fail.

We walk in dejectedly but my face suddenly brightens and Chloe smirks knowingly.

Andrew Marin was back from summer vacation. His dirty blonde hair was held behind with a tie. His face had a smile on it that reached his blue eyes as he greeted those who flocked around him. He had become tanner and bulkier. Chloe smacked me lightly in the arm.

“Dude, stop eye fucking him already and go and talk to him.” She laughs.

Yeah, l’ve had the hugest crush on Andrew for like forever, but he would not look my way even once. He was captain of the basketball team, aka every girl’s crush too. He was the opposite of Kieran. He was the golden boy of the school and Kieran was the bad boy of the school.

“I wasn’t. What are you talking about ?” I blushed and walked away from her, head held high. I was going to walk past him like I didn’t know he existed.

I would rather pretend he didn’t exist than act like one of his fan girls. That just wasn’t me.

I believed in the ‘I don’t chase, I attract’ principle.