AN: Thanks to everyone who commented, liked, and asked for more. This is now a full-fledged chaptered fic! Please note that I've changed the rating to T for teens and up. They are in high school after all...
Thorne pulled into the school's parking lot that Saturday afternoon full of nerves. He had spent most of the morning going back and forth between utter elation at the prospect of hanging out with Cress for two hours and the complete terror of hanging out with Cress for two hours. Four times he talked himself out of showing up to the game and four times he convinced himself he was being silly. The fifth time he thought maybe going was a bad idea after all, he flopped face first onto his bed and buried his head into his pillow. In the end though, the logical part of his brain won out and he decided that he couldn't let the hour he had spent researching high school football rules and regulations the night before go to waste.
By the time Thorne walked through the gates of the school's stadium, they were already through with the first quarter. The cheering was deafening and after seeing the sheer amount of people in the stands, Thorne began to grow anxious that he wouldn't be able to find Cress. He scolded himself for not having the forethought to ask for her number; at least he would have had an excuse.
Thorne shifted his weight back and forth as he nervously looked up into the stands in hopes of spotting Cress, but all he could see were hundreds of people clad in the orange and teal of East Commons High School's colors. To make matters worse, countless banners and pennants waved back and forth and some faces were even obscured with bright face paint. Thorne hoped Cress wasn't a face-painter.
Just as Thorne was beginning to lose all hope of spotting a tiny 5-foot-tall girl in the wild crowd, he saw a familiar lean figure with jet-black hair frantically waving a poster. Thorne started to make his way up the stairs to Kai when his gaze fell first onto Cinder, who was hollering into a plastic teal, cone and then to Cress—his breath hitched—with a guy's arm draped around her shoulder.
Thorne froze.
He never had any illusions that Cress was asking him out on a date, or even that she invited him for any other reason than to be nice to that quiet kid at school, but seeing her there now with some handsome guy's arm around her shoulder so casually filled him with dread. He felt his whole body deflate. Hoping no one had noticed him, he turned on his heels, ready to descend the stairs.
Someone called out his name. "Thorne! Thorne!"
Hoping he could pretend not to hear them over the roar of the crowd he kept his head down and continued walking.
Then, three voices called his name in unison. "THORNE!"
He turned around slowly and looked up. Kai, Cinder, and Cress were all waving for him to come join them. He noticed that the people around him were looking at him curiously, wondering why some of the most popular kids in school were calling to him. He could feel the heat crawling up his cheeks. He might have been shy and he might be awkward, but he wasn't a coward. Thorne set his jaw and made his way up the steps again, towards Cress.
"Thorne!" Cress's eyes lit up when he finally reached them.
Thorne felt a hand clap on his shoulder. "Hey, glad to see you made it." Kai grinned at him.
"Hi Thorne," Cinder greeted him cheerfully as she pulled him forward, squeezing him between herself and Cress.
Thorne stumbled forward.
"Oh, come on! Boo!" The guy with his arm around Cress's shoulder hollered at the field, completely ignoring Thorne.
Cress rolled her eyes and jabbed his ribs sharply with her elbow. The guy flinched and looked down at her.
"Julian, this is Thorne."
Thorne gave Julian a weak wave and Julian returned with an uninterested head nod. Cress rolled her eyes again before returning her attention to Thorne. She tried to hide her laughter, but failed.
"Aces, what are you wearing?"
Thorne looked down at his heather-gray t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Sadly, it had taken him thirty minutes to come up with something that made him look like he wasn't trying desperately to impress Cress. He looked at her slightly embarrassed and confused.
"Are you at a football game or doing laundry? Where's your school spirit?!"
"Oh." Thorne nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. He hadn't thought about having to wear school colors, but as the sea of orange and teal assaulted his eyes, he realized how clueless he had been.
Cress laughed again. She pulled Julian's arm off of her and reached up to remove the teal scarf wrapped around her neck. Go Warriors was scrawled along its length in orange thread. She draped the scarf around Thorne's shoulders. The lingering scent of her perfume almost made him dizzy.
"There. Much better," Cress said, smirking.
Thorne held one of the loose ends in his hands. "Are you sure?"
Cress smirked again. "Of course! I have to admit, it looks better on you anyways," she said, before giving him a wink.
Thorne smiled to himself and his grin grew when he noticed Julian trying to wrap his arm around Cress's shoulder and her batting him away. After the third time it happened, he had to disguise his laugh as a coughing fit. Cress patted him on the back.
When half-time rolled around, Cress leaned over to talk to Thorne. "This isn't so bad is it?"
Thorne grinned. "I have to admit, it's pretty fun."
"A-ha!" she exclaimed smugly. Thorne noticed her eyes dip down to his dimples before flickering back up to meet his gaze. He blushed.
With her guard down, Julian was able to snake his arm around Cress's waist and leaned in to kiss her neck. She stiffened, but turned her head towards him, eyelashes fluttering.
"Julian, can you get me something to drink, please?"
Thorne thought he could see disappointment in Julian's eyes and felt his own heart tug, recognizing the familiar pain, but then the boy's steel-grey eyes flashed to Thorne and he smirked. Taken aback, Thorne watched uncomfortably as Julian leaned in to kiss Cress and stood up.
"Sure thing, babe."
Thorne frowned as Julian walked off, instantly regretting any empathy he had for the guy. As he fidgeted with the teal and orange fringe at the end of Cress's scarf, Cinder leaned over him and practically hissed at Cress.
"He's so gross. If you don't break up with him, I'm doing it for you."
Throne leaned back, giving the girls some space.
"I'm not breaking up with him because we're not going out," Cress hissed back.
Cinder gave her a pointed look.
"Okay, I went out on two dates with him. That's hardly dating. And last night was a disaster. I don't even know why he's here. It's not like I asked him to come." Cress's eyes flashed briefly to Thorne.
Feeling incredibly uncomfortable sitting between the two girls, Thorne made to stand up, but Cress's hand on his shoulder stopped him. He sat as still as a statue, his eyes glued to his feet.
"Anyway," Cress said, her normal voice returning. "I'm going to ask him to give me a ride home and give him the bad news."
Thorne's head whipped up. "Really?" His face suddenly flushed with embarrassment at his own outburst. "I mean, yeah. Cinder's right. He does seem like kind of a jerk."
Cinder nodded approvingly. "I like this one."
Cress's smile returned. "You're going to like him even more when you find out he builds his own motored sail boats."
Cinder eyed Thorne. "Really?"
He flushed with embarrassment again. "Yes, but they're just model boats. Although, some day—"
"What kind of motor are you using?"
Cinder and Thorne began having a heated debate over how many volts he actually needed in his motor and the pros and cons of having a built-in noise suppression capacitor. He was actually enjoying himself and only realized they had been excluding Cress when Kai walked up to hand Cinder the snacks he had gotten for them.
Thorne turned bashfully to Cress. "Sorry about that. I guess I just got caught up with all my nerd talk."
Cress smiled at him. "Don't be. To be honest, we're used to it with Cinder and now she finally has someone to talk to about that stuff."
Cinder handed Thorne two bottles of water and a bag of Skittles. Thorne took them from her, slightly confused, and passed it on to Cress. She grabbed the candy and a bottle of water, winked at him, and called out. "Thanks, Kai!"
Thorne looked down at the water left in his hand and then over to Kai who was now "helping" Cinder stuff popcorn into her mouth.
"Uh—thanks, Kai," Thorne said.
"No problem. Sorry Thorne, I don't know what snacks you like so—" Cinder took the opportunity to punch her boyfriend in the arm as retaliation. He flinched and grabbed his arm in pain but laughed all the same.
"Here, you can share with me," Cress said, tearing open the bag of Skittles. "Hold out your hands."
Thorne cupped his hands in front of him and Cress dumped out the entire contents of the bag into them. She didn't look up at him as she fished around for the blue ones. When she was satisfied that she had found the last one, she popped them into her mouth all at once and munched happily. Cress laughed as Thorne looked at her incredulously.
After she finally swallowed, she stuck out her tongue revealing a bright blue streak. "Maybe that will put Julian off from trying to kiss me."
Thorne couldn't help but laugh. He let her help him tip the rest of the Skittles back into the bag and popped a couple into his own mouth.
"So how did The Rampion's maiden voyage go?" Cress asked, before taking a sip of water.
Thorne looked down, picking up his own water bottle and rolled it back and forth in his hands. "It was great." He lied. "But it would have been better with a first mate."
"I'm sorry I missed it."
Me too, Thorne thought.
"But, hey! There's always next time right?" Her smile was contagious and Thorne had to smile too.
"Next time for what?" Julian asked, returning with Cress's drink. He eyed the water bottle in her hand.
Cress laughed light-heartedly and held up the bottle. "Sorry Julian, Kai got drinks for us."
"Yeah, no problem," Julian said, but the look in his eyes made Thorne think that there definitely was a problem.
Thorne wanted to put a protective arm around Cress and tell Julian to leave, but he was also afraid of an actual confrontation. He was at least four inches taller than Julian, but from the look of Julian's forearms, Thorne knew that he would be no match in an actual physical altercation. The best Thorne could do for Cress was to scoot closer to Cinder a couple of inches so that Cress could put even the tiniest bit of distance between herself and Julian, but he knew that small gesture wasn't enough. Like he had told her last week, he wasn't a hero.
The crowd began to cheer as the teams made their way back onto the field, the game resuming. Julian took his seat next to Cress and Thorne clenched his fists. Cress stood up and cheered along with the crowd, pulling Thorne up with her. He waved his arms and hollered, hoping to drive away the anxiety that was crawling up his spine.
Luckily, Julian didn't try to put his arm around Cress the rest of the game and when there was a lull during the third quarter, Cress and Thorne took turns throwing Skittles into each other's mouths. When Cress accidentally misaimed and a Skittle hit the side of Cinder's head, she and Kai joined their game too. Julian didn't look happy, but he seemed more dejected than angry and Thorne almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
As the clock on the fourth quarter dwindled down, Thorne was jumping up and down with Cress and Cinder, hollering at the top of his lungs. He had even borrowed Cinder's cheer cone at one point which made Cress laugh to no end. There were only eleven seconds left in the game and Wolf had just scored a touchdown, making them just one point behind Luna High.
"They're going to go for it. Conversion. They're going to go for it," Kai chanted, punching his fist into his hand nervously.
Cinder chewed on her nails, just as nervous as Kai. Cress clutched one of the loose ends of her scarf, still around Thorne's neck, while he held the other just as tight. The ball snapped; Kinney, their quarterback was being pushed back by the defensive line, Thorne heard Cress squeak next to him while Cinder let out some colorful vocabulary. Kinney shifted backwards to the twenty-five yard line and started to make a run for it but the defensive end charged at him and in a last ditch effort he threw the ball wide. They held their collective breath as the ball spiraled in the air and a large pair of hands caught it. Not only had Wolf caught it, but he executed a spectacular back-flip over the cornerback's head, landing firmly on both feet in the end zone.
The eruption from the crowd rattled Thorne's skull.
"That's my best friend! That's my best friend!" Kai hollered.
"Hey!" Cinder yelled.
"That's my second best friend! That's my second best friend!" Kai corrected himself.
"Hey!" Now it was Cress's turn to be indignant.
"That's ONE of my best friends!" Kai's voice was hoarse now, but he kept on waving his poster in the air. A poster that had a large picture of a fierce wolf and #62 scribed in large orange block letters.
Thorne laughed, feeling almost as elated as Kai, and even joined the rest of the group as they all hollered the words to the fight song that the marching band had started playing. All of them except for Cress, who was singing—actually singing—and the words that weren't drowned out by the crowd were beautiful. Thorne looked at her, surprised, as if he needed another reason to be in love with this incredible girl. She caught his eye and wiggled her eyebrows at him.
As if Cress's voice put him in a trance, Thorne did not realize that the crowd had significantly cleared out until Cinder poked him in the shoulder. He turned to look at her.
"So do you want to come with us for pizza or what?"
Pizza? They were asking him to hang out with them?
"I—uh—" Thorne looked over to Cress.
"Julian's taking me home. I have a paper due on Monday, but you should go with them." She smiled at him encouragingly.
From behind Cress, Thorne could see Julian smirking and instead of feeling his usual pang of embarrassment or even sadness, an anger rose up in him. He didn't want Julian to take her home. He didn't want Julian anywhere near her.
"I can take you home if you want," Thorne blurted out.
Cress looked at him oddly. "No, it's okay. Julian can do it. You'll have a much better time with Cinder and Kai." Her usual smile returned to her face.
Thorne looked at her friends who were looking back at him expectantly. He did have fun with them today and they were a lot easier to talk to than he thought they would be. He could easily see why they were popular, but not in that snotty, stuck up way and Thorne thought maybe he could be their friend too.
"Yeah, sure. Let's go get pizza," Thorne replied to them. The words didn't feel forced and it surprised him.
"Great!" Kai exclaimed, gathering up all of their paraphernalia. "Wolf and Scarlet are going to meet us."
Thorne gulped. He hadn't realized that they would be coming too. Maybe it wasn't too late to change his mind, but then Cress waved goodbye to them and left with Julian. Thorne held her scarf in his hands and watched as they went, hoping that Kai and Cinder couldn't see the longing in his eyes.
AN: As always, a big thank you to my amazing beta lettered. Thanks for reading and reviews and likes are always appreciated.
