Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own characters!
Charity held her breath as the judges began announcing the winners. She knew they had done pretty well, all things considered.
"In Third place, The Warriors of Bear Creek!" The announcer called out. Shrieks and applause deafened Charity.
"And in Second Place The Ravens of Tree Hill!" She continued. Charity turned to Lauren with a huge grin.
"We didn't suck!" She yelled loudly. The rest of the squad burst out in laughter. Charity and Lauren were lost in a sea of hugs as the girls laughed and celebrated.
After receiving their trophy and posing for about a million photographs, Charity was finally able to break away. She had been scanning the crowds for Derek with no luck. After he had punched Tyler and admitted his true feelings, he'd taken off. Charity had tried to follow him, but she had lost him before she had even gotten out of the gym. She'd slowly wandered back to Lauren, only to find the rest of squad there as well. When Lauren had told her about Lila's latest disappearing act, Charity had been livid. Luckily she and Lauren had been able to convince their mothers to help them out.
"You guys did a great job." Tyler called out, jogging up to her. She winced as she saw how badly his eye was bruised and swollen.
"Thanks. How's your eye feeling?" She asked as they walked.
"It's definitely been better. I hope Coach doesn't bench me for fighting though." Tyler responded with a shrug. Charity nodded, hoping he didn't notice that she was only half listening.
"So, have you talked to Derek?" He asked, motioning her over to the bleachers. Tyler sat down and patted the seat beside him.
"Not really. I asked him why he hit you and he said that he was looking for me, to apologize, and well, I guess he didn't like what he saw." She explained dryly. Tyler watched her intently as she spoke. She wanted to turn away from his gaze but she was sure that would give him the wrong idea.
"If he had found you before I did, would you guys be together?" He asked her, leaning closer to her. Charity didn't know what to say. She couldn't deny the fact that she had been drawn to Tyler since she'd gotten here, but Derek, well, he was different. Charity didn't know what it was exactly that made him so different, but she found herself thinking about him all the time and when she wasn't with him, she wanted to be.
"I don't know. Probably." She replied weakly. She didn't want to hurt Tyler. She really liked him and if she'd never met Derek than she would have been ecstatic to be with Tyler. But she had met Derek and he was everything she wanted.
Tyler nodded, tearing his eyes away from her. Charity wanted to take back her words but it was too late.
"I'm sorry I messed things up for you guys. I should have listened to Lauren. Go find him. You guys belong together." Tyler said with a small smile, shooing her off. Charity raised her eyebrows, not believing what she was hearing.
"Go already, its cool." Tyler said in exasperation. Charity stood up and smiled at him. She held out her fist to him.
"Friends?" She asked with a grin. Tyler knocked his fist against hers.
"Friends." He agreed, nodding. Charity gave him one last smile before hurrying off to find Derek. She hoped that he would forgive her.
Most of the crowd had already thinned out. She found Lauren and Jenny chatting with Lauren's mom.
"Hey guys, have you seen Derek?" She asked them as she hurried over. Jenny shook her head, and Lauren looked at her quizzically.
"Does Tyler know you're looking for Derek?" Lauren asked with a hint of anger in her voice. Charity looked at her strangely. Since when did Lauren stick up for Tyler?
"Uh, yeah, he told me to. We're just friends." Charity replied slowly, wondering what was going on with Lauren. Lauren only nodded.
"No I haven't seen Derek. Where's Tyler?" She asked. Charity pointed to where Tyler was still sitting on the edge of the bleachers. Lauren hurried off in his direction.
Charity didn't have time to wonder what Lauren was doing. The buses would be leaving in less than an hour and Charity had to find Derek first. She quickly jogged out of the gym and before she had gone two feet, spotted Derek and his teammates leaving the building. Charity ran across the room, shoving past people, trying to catch up to them.
"Derek, wait!" She called as he was walking down the sidewalk, back to the hotel. She jogged through the grass, until she was in front of him. When he wouldn't answer her, she stood in the middle of the sidewalk, right in front of him, blocking his way.
"Derek, will you just stop for a minute, please?" She asked in exasperation. He was acting like he was five and it was frustrating her.
"Why should I wait for you? Shouldn't you be with your boyfriend?" He asked icily.
"Well, I suppose if I had one." She replied with a shrug. His eyes widened and he turned to his teammates, telling them that he would catch up.
"I thought you and Tyler were together now?" He asked, his green eyes drilling holes into her blue ones.
"When I couldn't find you, I ran into Tyler. He told me about your ex, so I assumed we had no future. So when Tyler told me that he liked me, I guess I just reacted. Then the next thing I knew you were trying to knock him out. Anyway, Tyler and I talked and we decided we were better off as friends." She explained.
"So the other night, it was just a mistake, right?" He asked carefully. Charity hesitated for just a second before replying.
"Right. It was just a bad combination of alcohol and jealous ex-girlfriends." She said lightly. She knew that it was more than that but she wasn't about to admit that to Derek when she was this close to getting him back.
"So do you think we could start over?" She asked hopefully. Her heart sunk when he began to shake his head.
"No, you can never really start over, but I do think we could move forward." He said with a sly grin. Charity let out the breath that she had been holding and jokingly punched him in the arm.
"You scared me to death!" She laughed, glad to see the familiar twinkle in his eye. Charity bit her lip as she watched him smile. She needed to be careful this time. She could already feel herself falling for him and she had been down that road once and it hadn't ended well. Charity remembered laying in the hospital bed after the wreck. No, it hadn't ended well at all.