Holding On Forever - Hillary NGO (a court of thorns and roses ebook free TXT) 📗

Heather sneered.
"That's it!" Kat yelled.
Kat came so close to choking Heather until Jen came up and pulled her away. Jen dragged Kat out of the store and back to the beach where Andrew and the other guys were. I quickly followed them out of the store before a fight broke out with Kat and Heather.
"Dang Kat! We didn't know you had it in you." smiled Jen.
"Sorry, I kinda went overboard. Heather is just so..."
"The B word." I answered.
"Yeah! She exactly like that!" Kat exclaimed.
We all walked back to the beach where our things were and sat down on some of the chairs already there. Andrew ran up to us with a fairly built tall guy that had light brown hair and hazel eyes. Why does he look so familiar?

"Hey guys!" cried out Andrew.
"One, we aren't guys! Two, hi!" we three said in unison.
"Okay... Well this is Ty..."
I interrupted Andrew with a high pitch scream. "Oh my gosh, is that little Ty?!?"
Ty blushed at the sound of his nickname I gave him when we were kids and looked at me. He shook his head and blinked twice before smiling at me.
"Aqua!? Is that really you?" Ty questioned.
I smiled right back at him and rose from my seat. He was so tall now, maybe around 6' give or take a few and he was only two years younger than me.
"Yes, it's me. How have you been?"
"Me! What about you? You just left one day without saying goodbye." Ty said quickly.
"Oh, I moved unexpectedly and now I'm back so let's forget about it." I replied trying to avoid that topic.
"So when did you come back?" Ty questioned.
"Last week," I replied while twiddling my thumbs.
Jen and Kat exchanged weird glances at each other before staring at me and Ty.
"Okay then," Andrew said breaking the silent. "This is Ty and he's part of the basketball team now. Even though he's a freshman, the whole team thinks he good enough and so does coach so he's in."
"Wait! Ty does your brother know about this?" I questioned him.
"No, I was going to tell him, but I didn't know how." Ty replied nervously. "I mean he's the captain of the football team and when he finds out he's going to destroy me."
Andrew laughed at that and ran off as one of his teammates called his name. Jen and Kat looked at the football's side of the beach and then at Ty.
"You need to tell him now." They both said.
I grabbed Ty's wrist and dragged him towards the football's territory. We passes the so called 'border' and tried finding Shay. I immediately spotted Shay sporting a well defined 6 pack and white knee length trunks. I walked over there to him still holding Ty's wrist. When we finally got there, I pushed Ty's back towards Shay and Shay turned around from his group of friends and smiled at us. This isn't going to be good.

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She finally came to her senses!

I turned around and saw her and my little brother Ty. Aqua looked nervously at me and lowered her head down so that she was staring at the sand beneath her feet. Something bad is about to happen.

I knew Aqua long enough to know that whenever she was nervous or afraid she looked down. Before I could ask her what's wrong, Ty spoke up.
"Hi big bro," Ty squeaked.
What's wrong with him? He never acts like this. Something major is going to happen.

"Okay then," I replied. "What's wrong now?"
"Um," Ty whispered.
"Speak up man."
My friends started staring at us and Ty finally spoke up.
"I'm on the basketball team!" Ty blurted out.
I clenched my fist and let them hang by my side.
"What do you mean?" I questioned him with anger rising in me.
"I'm part of the team now!"
"No you are not! You can't do that!"
Ty looked at me like I was crazy and spoke up. "You aren't my boss, I can do anything I want."
"I'm your older brother and what happened to playing football?" I screamed.
People started gathering around us and I felt my face flush with embarrassment.
"Let's talk about this somewhere else." I said through clenched teeth.
"Fine," Ty replied.
I stomped towards my car and Ty followed me gripping Aqua's hand.
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"What are you doing?" I whispered to Ty.
He smiled showing his dimples and replied, "You're coming with me. Shay will treat me easier if you were there."
I looked at him puzzled and just followed him to a silver car. Shay opened the driver's door and got in. The car roared to life and Ty pulled me to the backseat of the car, open the door and pushed me in gently. I scooted in and put on the seat belt while Ty did the same. I just stayed quiet during the whole ride until the car stopped in front of a two story house. Shay turned off the engine and we unbuckled our seat belts and headed inside. We walked up to the porch of the house and stepped inside. A familiar looking lady with shoulder length curly blonde hair and crystal blue eyes came out and greeted us.
"Aqua! Is that really you?" Shay's and Ty's mom said excitedly.
"Um," I answered. "It's me alright."
Before I could ask how she was, she ran up to we and gave me a hug.
"Don't ever leave like that again!" She ordered holding back her tears.
"I'll never leave my second mother again." I smiled at her.
She looked at me and then at Shay and Ty.
"Well, you guys go on I won't keep you guys waiting." Their mother exclaimed.
Shay shrugged his shoulders and stomped upstairs. Ty grabbed my hand and dragged me upstairs while their mother headed to the kitchen. I looked around the house as Ty pulled me upstairs to somewhere. The house looked the same with it's cream neutral walls and homey feel permeating throughout the house. We finally stopped at a door I recognize as Shay's and walked in. Shay was pacing around his room and looked straight at us.
"What the heck!?!" he yelled in frustration.
"I just like basketball better, okay? Plus I'm better at it than football." Ty screamed back.
"You can't do this. You know Andrew and I have a bad history!"
I then became interested and stepped forward holding up my hand in protest.
"Look Shay," I gently said. "I don't know what's with you and Andrew but I know that Ty really wants to play basketball and Andrew isn't going to punish Ty because you and him have 'history'."
Shay sighed and replied, "Ty get out of here. Now!"
Ty scurried out of Shay's room and shut the door. What the heck is happening? This better not be a trick!

Shay stepped closer to me that only a few inches separated us apart.
"Why'd you do that?" I questioned him.
"Because I need you to understand that Andrew is a bad guy..."
I raised my hand in protest again while stepping back a few inches and screamed, "Andrew is not the bad guy in this. You are! Andrew is the first person I could fully trust in a long time and he's more of a friend than you ever were, so don't you tell me anything about how bad he is because I'm probably sure you are worse!"
I turned around and tried to run out but I felt a strong grip on my wrist. I looked back and saw concern, sincerity and a hint of jealousy flashing in Shay's eyes.
"Aqua, look I'm sorry for what I did when we were back in middle school. I always regretted it and when I look back at it I realize how stupid I was for leaving my best friend behind." He finished his sentence with a sigh and finally let my wrist go.
I looked up at him to see any hints of mischief, but none whatsoever. His dark brown eyes were only displaying one emotion: regret. I wanted to forgive him, but I couldn't give him my trust again. Trust is like a mirror once it's broken, you can never look at it the same again and so that's what I did.
"Look Shay, I forgive you for what you did. However, I can't trust you right now. Okay?"
He nodded his head in agreement and stared at me.
"Also, I want you to allow Ty to be part of the basketball team. When Andrew told me Ty was the new member of the basketball, I saw Ty's eyes gleam with pride and I don't want you ruining it for him." I told Shay with determination in my voice.
He looked daze for a second and snapped out of it. Shay just nodded his head again and so I left him there and ran out of his room. Just as shut the door, Ty came up to me and lifted me up in the air.
"What's this for?" I laughed.
"Thanks for convincing Shay to accept that I was on the basketball team. That must have been hard considering he hates Andrew's guts." Ty responded.
"No big deal! I know you'll be great and can you please let me done?"
Ty lifted me down and my feet were finally back on the ground.
"Thanks!" I replied grinning at Ty. "Do you have Andrew's number?"
"Yea, why?"
"I just need to talk to him right now."
"Okay." He replied and then ran off to his room I'm guessing. He came back with a black iphone 5 and handed it to my with Andrew's number already on call.
"Ty, what is it man?" Andrew asked when he finally picked up his phone.
"It's Aqua," I stated. "Do you think you can ask Jen and Kat to bring my stuff home for me?"
"Aqua! Where have you been? Jen, Kat and I were trying to find you but it seemed you disappeared."
I laughed at the sight of them looking everywhere for me and said, "I'm at Ty's house..."
Before I could say another word, Andrew cried out, "I'll come and get you!"
The phone call ended and Ty looked at me strangely.
"What?" I shrieked.
"Nothing. Just that Andrew coming here and Shay's pretty much going to pound him to pieces."