The Secret She Keeps

Justin: Did you guys hear that two guys were trying to sneak out to peep on the girls changing last night?
Blossom: What??!!
Ashley: You don't say. How far did they get?
Justin: Coach caught them leaving the beach house so they didn't get far.
Blossom: Thank goodness.
Ashley: They got lucky then. If I caught them it could have ended badly.
Jack shivered at Ashley's comment as he looked down. He was having a flashback to many occasions of being bullied by Ash. He had a look of fear in his eyes as he put on his sunglasses to stare at the beach. Ashley then kissed Jack on the cheek.
Ashley: Only my Jack has the right to peep on me. Right baby?
Jack: Huh? Yeah sure.
Justin: So anything else exciting happen yesterday?
Kyle and Riley got food and headed to the table. They got their in time to hear Justin's question. Justin: So anything else exciting happen yesterday?
Matt asked Melissa and Courtney: "What do you two want for breakfast?"
Courtney said. "I can help if you want."
Matt shook his head. "No. I've got it." He hadn't missed Courtney looked exhausted and he was going to make her life as easy as possible today. He took their orders said he'd be right back and went to get the food.
Once Matt had gone off; Courtney leaned over and said something only Mel could hear to which Mel nodded and then said something back to her.
In response to Justin's question Courtney said. "Doug got into trouble last night for breaking curfew. He's on restriction."
Melissa saw no reason not to tell them figuring the whole school would know soon enough.
Jack was not shocked someone else got in trouble and he really didn't care as long as it didn't affect him. However Ashely raised an eyebrow with a crooked smile as she fed Jack a frozen sliced chocolate covered banana. Jack moaned as he ate it. He hated being spoiled by Ashley since it was embarrassing for him.
Ashley: Doug huh? Well it couldn't happen to a better guy. Word in the cheer squad is that he is rich, attractive and popular when he is not being an arrogant, misogynistic, ass-hat. A few of his minions tried to hit on me and intimidate my Jack. It didn't end well for them.
Blossom: You lifted them by their private places Ashley and left them crying on the floor.
Ashley: Guys like that have it coming. My Jack would never talk to a girl like that. Right baby?
Jack shook his head no since it was true that he was into other girls, he had food in his mouth and also Ashley would hurt him for challenging her.
Ashley: See? If a guy is into a girl he should be nice and use charm instead of force.
Justin chuckled at Ashley's comment.
Justin: Well as a precaution we should keep him away from Blossom.
Ashley: True that.
Melissa glanced over at Courtney as Ashley talked about Doug. She sipped her coffee and took a bite of her food all while trying to hold back saying anything. Mel wasn’t about to defend Doug; everything Ashley had said about him was true and more. It was really what most people didn’t know about Doug that made him dangerous.
As for Blossom, well, Doug never associated with scholarship students, even cheerleaders or other football players (outside of practice). He was only as cordinal to them as he absolutely had to be. He would never think to hit on or date one and everyone knew Blossom was a scholarship student. Melissa would never say that out loud because it was mean and Mel wasn’t mean. Besides that, though, the only thing protecting Blossom from Doug was that she was friends with Ashley. Ashley had quickly been developing a reputation for being a kickass; Doug probably wouldn’t have bothered dealing with that. She was a little surprised that Ashley and Blossom didn’t seem to know that she was dating Doug. She had assumed, being she was cheerleader, and most of the cheerleaders knew, they knew but she was apparently wrong in that assumption. Melissa was about to say something to the effect that people were beginning to know that Ashley was a kick ass; when she spotted Dante. Her eyes wandered in his direction, along with her mind.
There was something else going on than just that he had proven, repeatedly, that they were friends. Something more then the feeling of trust she had with him that she still couldn’t explain, as she really didn’t trust many people and not usually that quickly. Something she either couldn’t put her finger on or didn’t want to but whatever it was, she really wanted him to sit with them for breakfast.
Then Courtney got up and spoke to someone.
"Hey, " she said to Dante. "Would like to sit over there," pointing to table she had just gotten up from, "with us? I think the more people, that are friends with Mel, being around her today the better." She then added. "In case you hadn't heard Doug got in trouble for missing curfew. He's back at the school confined to the dorms. His entire group went to the boardwalk " Just so Dante knew it was safe to sit with Mel. In case there was any concern on Dante’s part. She figured Dante might be concerned for Mel's sake.
Ashley: Isn't that Dante?
Justin: Where has he been hiding?
Before Melissa came out of her daze to realize what was happening, Courtney was over talking to Dante. Had she been that apparent? Mel glanced around the table and couldn’t really tell but had Courtney noticed? Oh, now she felt like sinking into a hole. She wanted Dante to sit with them, she really did, but her life was a mess at the moment and well...her feelings for him only brought more complications. She didn’t really even understand the feelings she was having. Maybe, she was just having these feelings because he had been trying to help her or because he helped rescue her but so did Conner and she didn’t have any of these feelings for Conner. No, this wasn’t right, the timing was terrible, her life was in a bad place and yet she couldn’t help it. She put down her fork as she heard Justin ask where Dante had been hiding and sipped her coffee hoping she could hide anything she was actually feeling from showing on her face.

Ashley: Isn't that Dante?

Justin: Where has he been hiding?

Kyle had been paying more attention to the conversation and Justin, who he was sitting next to, to pay any attention to what Melissa had doing or looking at or he might have caught what had happened, as he was good at reading people.

"He's been probably trying to avoid to the girls that have been after him, after last nights performance. I heard they don't want to leave him alone." Kyle had heard some guys were interested as well but it was less likely they would hit on him.

Matt did notice Courtney look at Mel and then Mel's glance, he also had followed it to Dante so when Courtney got up he was pretty sure where she was going and why. He ate more of his breakfast though rather than saying anything and risk embarrassing Melissa.