This is a short tidbit posted to give me a break from Sandman. It's from a the BandStory on my LJ and features Christian Lincoln, blonde haired cheerleader, and Joshua Harding, star Running Back. These are all my original chara although they're secondary to the story. XD The background to it all is Christian and Josh dated a bit back in Freshman year and were deeply in love. Christian wanted to take their relationship to the next level, Josh wasn't ready for that.. She 'cheated' and they broke up on really bad terms. After a year of fighting and avoiding each other Josh gets together with Ashleigh Valentino, one of Christians fellow cheerleaders, who makes them make up as friends. Christian is supportive of the relationship although she still is in love with Josh. without further ado...

Christian opened her front door, throwing her book bag down next to it, and walked up the stairs of her house completely exhausted. With Cheer practice and after school tutoring with Kai, every other day, it was no wonder. She paused as the glowing number on the answering machine, caught her attention. 3 new messages. Her mom still hadn’t gotten in and her dad was out of town on another business trip so there was no one to answer the phone. Groaning, she made a complete 180 and trotted back down the stairs, pressing the button on the side of the cordless to make the messages play and plopped down next to the end table to listen.

The first one was her dad saying he’d be home Wednesday night. The second was from Medlee that morning about practice. The last message made her stomach turn as soon as she heard the familiar female voice over the speaker.

“Hey auntie Rissa, Hi Uncle Jacob and Chris! Oh, you’re never gonna guess what! Give up? I’m coming to visit next Friday! Isn’t that just the best?-” she squealed. Christian thought the exact opposite. That had to be one of the worst things to happen since World War II. Christian couldn’t stand her cousin Sari. She was a bitch and prep in the truest sense of the word. At least she only had to deal with her for a few days. That was the good thing about Sari’s visits: They were always short. Her head turned as her mom stumbled through the door with bags in hand and a grin on her face.

Marissa Lincoln was a short blonde woman who had an incurable love of sales. If it was on sale, she was going to buy it, her father had lovingly coined her, the ‘queen of bargain shopping’. She took a habit and turned it into an art form. Christian got up from her seated position to help her mom with her latest acquisitions.

“Oh, you’re home.” Mrs. Lincoln chirped happily as she handed a couple of bags to her daughter, “You won’t believe it. I found the cutest tops at Ross today and I mean at a steal!” Christian raised an eyebrow at the sheer amount of bags now cluttering the coffee table.

“I’ll say.”

“Oh I got you the cutest white top to go under your cheer uniform and some things for me of course and even some things for your cousin Sari… I wonder if I should mail them to her... she never seems to get them.” Christian sighed. Oh, she got them of course. Although she trashed them the very moment she did. Sari was just evil like that. Christian often got articles of clothing from her mom and other family members, that she didn’t like but wore anyway simply out of love for the person who’d given it.

“Speaking of Sari…” The blonde teen said in distaste, “She’s gonna be here next Friday. She left a message.” Her mom lit up at the news. Not knowing what a two faced whore her niece was, Mrs. Lincoln loved when she came to visit. Christian could see the little gears in her head turning.

“That’s great! The three of us can spend some time together. Oooh we can even have a girl’s day! You know, go out to eat, to the movies…shopping...” She grinned at her daughter like Christian was supposed to be excited. She rolled her eyes at her mom.

“Fun, fun, fun.” She mumbled sarcastically as she started unpacking the clothes and folding them neatly. Mrs. Lincoln obviously missed the sarcasm and made an excited sound. “I know! I can’t wait. By the way,” she turned to Christian, “How is Joshua doing? I’ve been meaning to ask about him but-” Christian’s mom trailed off as her daughter averted her gaze. Josh was still somewhat of a touchy subject for her. “Is everything okay between you two now?” she asked testing the waters.

Christian pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Yeah actually were okay now. We decided to just be friends.” Her heart felt like lead in her chest at those words but she pushed a grin on her face. No need to make her mom worry. “He’s got a new girlfriend. You remember Ashleigh, right?”

Her mom paused in folding a flowered blouse and made a sound of disbelief. “Ashleigh? The short brunette?” Christian nodded and Mrs. Lincoln shook her head sadly. “He’s so heartbroken, he’s delusional...That poor boy…” she murmured under her breath. The young blonde made a choking sound as she fixed her mother with a shocked look.

“Mom!” she spluttered at her mom’s ‘let’s-be-real’ look.

“Oh come on, Christian. You are ten times cuter than her.” She smiled and Christian smiled genuinely back at her. Gods, she loved her mom. She shrugged, feeling a need to stick up for her fellow Cheerleader. “Ashleigh’s cute. I mean she’s fun and quirky. I can’t say I blame him.” Although she meant to sound encouraging, it came out resigned and dejected. Marissa Lincoln patted her on her back comfortingly.

“He’ll come around, honey. It’s okay. Why don’t you call him and invite him over for dinner? I’m making his favorite tonight anyway.” She hefted the clothes in her arms and started to make her way upstairs, “I won’t take no for an answer! You tell him I said that.” Her mom called over her shoulder leaving her to the task at hand. Sighing, Christian walked over to the phone and picked it up, subconsciously dialing Josh’s number from heart. Even though it had been ages since she’d dialed it. They had been angry at each other for so long; this actually was the first time she called him since they had broken up. They called it truce after he and Ashleigh had gotten together a few days ago. Actually, Ash had called it truce. She deemed it necessary because they were both going to be a part of her life now and they had to learn to either get along or get out.

“Hello?” Josh’s voice yanked her out of her thoughts and she found herself at a loss for words. Resisting the urge to slam the phone down on the hook from nerves alone, she forced out a greeting.

“Hey… Josh. It’s Christian.” She honestly expected him to hang up right then and there as she heard movement in the background. What if he was with Ashleigh right then? She forced that thought out of her head. She would just die if that happened. Point, blank, period.

“Hey…” he said after a few seconds of silence, unsure, proving that this was way too awkward. “Is everything okay?” Translation: Why the hell are you calling me?

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I-” She took another deep breath. Who knew a phone conversation could be so hard? “My mom asked me to invite you to dinner, if you can come, t-tonight to catch up and stuff. Uh- she made your favorite…” She stammered her way through the conversation, feeling stupider by the second. There was more silence. “If you’re busy or had plans I’ll just tell her-” She started backpedaling.

“Okay.” Christian paused in her tirade as that one word stunned her half to death. Okay? Was he serious?

“Huh?”

“It’s only dinner, right? What time?” He sounded either slightly annoyed or really tired, resulting in her becoming even more nervous. “The usual time. Seven thirty...”

“Alright, see you at seven thirty.” And he hung up leaving her to stare at the phone as if it had just morphed into some alien object right in her hands. Josh was coming over for dinner… should she change? What the hell was she going to wear? What if it turned out to be incredibly awkward? It was just going to be the three of them after all. Why was she even making a big deal about this? Swallowing the lump in her throat, Christian hung up the phone, placing it on the table and backing away from it like she expected it to attack her before she ran up the stairs.

Joshua Harding ran his fingers through his short brown locks before knocking on the door of the Lincoln residence. He didn’t even know what possessed him to agree to dinner. Well then again Ashleigh did say for them to try to get along and he was trying to put forth an effort to put this whole thing behind him. They both were. He looked up in alarm as the door swung open, half expecting to face Christian then and there. Instead Mrs. Lincoln pulled him into a warm embrace.

“Oh my goodness, Joshua! It’s like you get more and more handsome each time I see you.” She laughed as she pulled away to look him over. He smiled down warmly at the petite blonde. There was something about Marissa Lincoln that just made you feel at home. It was never that awkward ‘boyfriend trying to impress his girlfriend’s parents’ relationship with them. It was more comfortable, more like family or old friends. “Christian told me all about you and that Ashleigh girl. Really, Joshua…” She said chidingly. He gave the older woman a semi offended look. Just like his ex, Mrs. Lincoln said what it was she wanted to say without consequence.

“What? I like Ashleigh! She’s interesting.” He defended.

“ I know, I know… Quirky is what Christian called her, I think.” She looked up thoughtfully and shook her head before ushering him into the house, “Come on in, out of the cold. Dinner’s ready, I just have to take the pot roast out of the oven.”

Josh looked around the cozy house as he shrugged out of his letterman. Not much had changed since he’d last been there. A new painting, a few extra rugs and an end table or two he didn’t quite remember. He did notice one thing was missing.

“Jacob is out of town on a business trip and Christian is upstairs.” She responded as if reading his mind, “You can go on up if you want.” He immediately shook his head at that and she gave him another chiding look as she folded his jacket over the couch arm rest.

“Really I’m okay. I can wait until she comes down.” He doubted he really needed to be in Christian’s room right now. How much more uncomfortable did they need to make this dinner?

“Well then you can help me in the kitchen. “ Mrs. Lincoln grabbed his arm and practically dragged him off to the kitchen where she gave him a stack of dishes and put him to work setting the table. That was exactly what he was doing when his ex came down the stairs. They locked gazes for a second before avoiding looking at each other all together. Christian walked over to her mother’s side to offer her help with dinner but was immediately cut off.

“Christian Abigail Lincoln, I know I raised you better than that.” Her mom fussed, nodding her head in Josh’s direction, “We have a guest in the house and you’re just going to walk right past him and not say anything?!” The younger blonde slowly turned in his direction to see him leaning against the table, staring back at her with his arms crossed over his chest and gave him a short wave.

“Hi.”

“Hey.” He responded back as Mrs. Lincoln rolled her eyes, opening the door of the oven. “Oh you two really need to grow up…” She snorted, gaining both of their attention, “You’re acting more like Kindergarteners than High school students. Well? Go on, sit down…” She pressed as she lifted the casserole dish out of the oven.

“Hey, I’ve got that Mrs. Lincoln.” Josh offered, moving to help only to be fixed with a menacing glare.

“I thought I said sit.” She growled out. He backed off, his hands in the air defensively, and took a seat at the table. He forgot how demanding she could be. Christian tried to smother the snicker that was dying to come out at the sight of Josh succeeding to her mother, unsuccessfully.

Joshua turned to her and quirked a silent eyebrow, ceasing her snickering right then. Flushing, Christian reached for the dinner rolls in the center of the table, placing one on her plate before passing it to her ex as her mother dished out the rest of the food. Marissa Lincoln took her place at the table before grinning at them both.

“Now isn’t this cozy?” A little too cozy for their tastes, Josh and Christian kept their attention on their plates while Marissa provided the conversation. “Joshua, did Christian tell you that her cousin Sari’s going to be in town next week? You haven’t met her yet have you? Oh she’s a real gem!”

The younger blonde snorted at that. She was a gem alright, one that should have stayed buried. Josh caught the sound and looked up to meet her gaze. Apparently her and her cousin didn’t get along, not that Chrissy was easy to get along with in the first place. He smiled softly at her and she swore her heart stopped beating in her chest as she averted her gaze. They finished up the meal in silence, Josh throwing her mom complements on the food every so often and Christian doing the same.

He got up and started collecting the dishes once they were done and she immediately made a dash for the deck outside. The awkwardness of the situation was smothering her and she really needed some fresh air. Inviting him over to dinner was probably the worst idea her mom ever had. After a while she heard the screen door shut behind her, but didn’t bother turning around.

Josh fixed her with an unreadable expression before shoving his hands in his pants pockets. “Are you okay, Christian? Because you haven’t said two words to me since I walked in the door.” She nodded without turning around.

“I just- It takes some getting used to, you know, being normal around you again. I’m so used to the dirty looks and the name calling I really don’t know how to act now that were- friends.” He could tell by the way she said it that, that last word left a bad taste in her mouth.

“You don’t want to be friends? So you’d rather me bitching at you?” he asked incredulously. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be friends; whatever he was willing to give she would take. She would just rather him. All of him.

“It’s not that.” She finally faced him with a sad smile, “Thank you… For coming to dinner. It meant a lot to her.” She gestured inside, where her mom was happily doing away with the dishes. His gaze never left her although she couldn’t keep hers on him. She was acting like she was afraid of him. Striding up to her, he braced his arms on the railing on either side of her and narrowed his gaze in suspicion.

Christian responded by moving as far back as possible, until the wooden railing was digging into her back. “Why are you running away from me?” he asked pointedly, trying to hold her gaze. She kept looking away from him and it was frustrating as hell.

“I’m not. I invited you to dinner and-” her speech faltered as Josh let out a low growl.

“That’s not what I mean and you know it.” She was backing down. Closing herself off to him. Complacent. That was not the Christian he knew. Christian was a fighter, confident, Sassy, a smart ass and he loved it. This girl, he barely even knew and he hated her. She averted his gaze again and it took all he had not to strangle her for it. He reached up and gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him.

Christian’s eyes widened, knowing exactly what it was he was trying to do. He was backing her into a corner. Quite literally. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she tried to control her breathing. She couldn’t stand to have him this close, touching her like this when all she wanted to do was kiss the living daylights out of him.

“S-stop it, Josh.” She tried to force some authority in her voice and failed. He moved closer, his eyes hardened in a challenge. “Make me.” He growled out, lifting her chin and her gaze to meet his, “Is it that hard for you to look at me?”

“Yes it is.” She bit out in slight aggravation. Their faces mere centimeters apart; he dipped his head down slightly as if he was going to kiss her. Christian shut her eyes tight, all of her confusion, want and nervousness boiling down to one emotion: Rage.

Christian shoved her ex away from her hard and he backed off not in the least surprised at her reaction as her ice blue eyes narrowed at him. “I said knock it off.” She seethed too pissed to take in his cocky smirk. There. Now that was the Christian he remembered. She was so pissed she was trembling. First he loved her, then he hated her, then they weren’t speaking and now he was trying to kiss her? She was tired of being Josh’s personal yo- yo. In love with him or not, she wasn’t going to let him treat her like this!

“Have you lost your mind?!” She hissed, whirling around to face him as he moved and propped himself up on the deck railing, “What the fuck was that? You’re with Ashleigh now, You chose her over me, even though I practically begged you to take me back so don’t you think for one second that you can just walk in here and-”

“Come here.” His words were calm in not slightly amused and that only succeeded in ticking her off more. She looked at him as if he just asked her to bow before him and lick his shoes clean.

“Excuse you?!” Rolling his eyes at her he reached out and grabbed the sleeve of her shirt, pulling her into his embrace. She struggled of course, leave it to her to make everything more difficult than necessary, and he ignored it. The more she resisted the more he tightened his grip on her until she looked up at him with angry, tearful eyes.

“Why are you doing this? You don’t want me!”

“I never said that.” He responded back, “I do want you-”

“No you don’t. You hate my guts. You said so.” She growled, resuming her escape attempt. Josh met her growl with one of his own. Now she was really pissing him off.

“Don’t you dare sit here and try to act like you know one thing about how I feel! Now, shut up and let me finish, because you need to hear this!” She stopped moving although she glared evil death at him but he could give a shit less.

“I do want you. That never changed. And I know I said some things when we were fighting but most of that I didn’t mean. I didn’t hate you exactly, I hated the fact that I still cared about you even after what you did.” He leaned his head against one of the support beams and sighed warily at the sky, trying to think of the best way to explain this to her. “Love is something that evolves, it changes. And I love you, Chrissy, I never stopped. So before you go off saying stupid shit like I hate you, you need to know that it’s still there. It’s just not the kind of love you want from me, right now. But it’s the kind that you need.”

Christian looked up at him completely dumbfounded, tears trailing down her face. It was conformation that there was no more romance between them but he put it in such a way that it didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would. But it still hurt a lot. He looked down at her with that wry smirk that used to drive her nuts.

“Would you stop crying already? You’re scaring the hell out of me.” She glared at him only half amused as she frowned before pushing herself out of his now loosened embrace.

“Leave it to you to say something completely heart wrenching and then top it all off by being an ass about it.”

“And I meant every word. Think you can handle that?” Christian turned away from him and he frowned. Gods he wished she’d stop doing that.

“I can try.” She murmured before receiving a swift kick to her backside. With a yip, her hands flew to the accosted area, before she whirled back around to glare at a very smug Joshua Harding.

“What the hell?” She yelled at him and he snickered.

“Bet you won’t turn on me again though... Look at me when you’re talking to me.” He demanded only half kidding.

“How about I just kick your ass?!” she growled out before tackling him.

“Careful, I might like that.” He grinned catching her in order not to be thrown off the banister.

Josh stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked home from Christian’s house. It was already dark out and the streets were still damp form the rain earlier that day, making traffic almost non-existent. They’d made dinner at her place a once a week routine. Things had progressively gotten better between them, to the point where they were able to joke around with each other at school even, and Josh couldn’t be more grateful for it. He still had love for her and Christian being reserved around him all the time was killing him more than she or Ashleigh would ever know…

He made a sharp left in an alley way behind a lot of old closed down stores still deep in his thoughts, He didn’t notice the person on the ground in front of him until he had tripped over him. Catching his balance the dark haired boy turned around to apologize only to come face to face with someone he thought he’d never see again.

“Bradley…”

Grey met grey and although he was more than a little scuffed up Josh would recognize that man’s face anywhere. He visibly paled as they stood there and stared at each other blankly, one out of mystification and the other out of clear disillusionment. The man on the ground pulled himself up to a sitting position, the back of his plain white T shirt soaked as well as his ripped and dirtied blue jeans, as he peered up at the trembling teen before him. And then he smiled. Josh couldn’t stand that smile. It was devious, as if he had a secret that could make or break you, but was perfectly content to hang it over your head and strangle you with it first.

“Long time no see. Little brother.” From the tone of his voice alone Josh could tell he was high as a kite off of something or another. Joshua couldn’t help the twinge of disappointment that assaulted him. Even though he had sworn him off, part of him still cared about his brother. They had been through a lot together in their lives and they had always had each other’s backs when they were little. Bradley made sure no one messed with him when they were being carted from foster home to orphanage, soothed him when he was scared and in return Josh worshiped the ground his older brother walked on. The dynamic duo, they were a couple of hell raisers, until Josh started to straighten up his act, then things went bad between them. As it was Josh hadn’t seen or heard from Bradley since eighth grade.

Bradley Harding raked his younger brother with a sneer. “I see you’re still mommies little bitch, walking around here, trying to act all bad ass.” He broke out in giggles as Josh stiffened. “What? Did I strike a nerve? I always knew you were a puss. You let that Bitch break us apart, but that’s cool though. I’m not mad at you.” Bradley’s grin widened as he stood up shakily and dusted himself off. Stumbling forward he threw one of his arms around Josh only to have him pull away.

“What happened to you? I thought you were in rehab.” Josh’s gaze narrowed on him as Bradley pretty much died laughing at that.

“Rehab? Are you stupid?” He snickered before attempting to sober up. “You always were gullible as hell. You crack me up, Josh. You believe everything that whore tells you?” Josh clenched his fists as he tried not to let what his brother was saying get to him.

“Don’t talk about her like that…” He growled through clenched teeth as Bradley cracked up again and wiped at his nose. Josh was grateful for his mom and he was not about to let this scum, that called itself his brother, disrespect her.

“So how’d you like my birthday present, last year?” Something about the way he said that made Josh’s blood run cold. The tone of voice and that smile again. His heart pounded in his chest as he backed away. “What birthday present?” He hadn’t gotten so much as a call from his brother.

Brad’s smile widened as he made a tisking sound. “I paved the way for you Josh, You should be thanking me , but then again what are brother’s for?” He fished around his pockets for a cigarette, placing it in his mouth before grinning back up at his little brother.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Joshua asked, now thoroughly confused. Bradley took a seat back down in the middle of the street. “That girl you were with, the hot blonde… Kind of tightly wound. I unwound her for you. Didn’t take much…” He light cigarette in his mouth and took a hit before blowing the smoke in Josh’s face, making him cough. “A little dancing, a roofie, and ecstasy pill or two and I was a made man. You should have hit that when you had the chance,…”

Josh couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t believe what his brother was saying. Part of him wanted to accuse of him of lying. It was something his brother never flinched at. But something in the reserved way he said that pointed in another direction.

Brad took another hit, “Over eager as they come but you want to know the funniest part…” Brad snickered and took the cigarette out of his mouth before grinning at his brother who was on the verge of seeing red, “She thought I was you! You should have heard her. She must have really loved you man, I’ve never heard a girl scream like that…” he imitated her in a falsetto.. “Oh Josh! I love you! Yes ! Yes!” before he promptly burst out laughing.

That did it. Something inside him snapped and Josh didn’t realize what he was doing until he heard the sick sound of Bradley’s jaw breaking from the impact of his fist. Good. He wanted the bastard to bleed. His head was spinning. After all the things he’d done. The things he’d said about Christian. He didn’t even give her a chance to explain herself, he just jumped to conclusions. Josh felt like a rank bastard. He should have been on the other side of his fist with his brother.

His eyes blazed to almost a pitch black at that thought. Hell No! This Prick raped Christian! He was not like him! They weren’t even on the same playing field! The next thing he knew he was being hauled to his feet by force as two men practically dragged him away from Bradley’s now crippled body. Although the fucking prick was still laughing.

“If you ever come near her again I swear to God I’ll kill you!” the teen seethed Shrugging off the men who had a hold on him. Bradley just grinned that secret grin of his, even with his broken jaw. Joshua never wanted to kill anyone more than he did at that moment. And all the anger and hatred he felt for his brother came back in a rush. He made a move for Bradley again only to be pulled back again.

“You’re a smart kid, Josh. Just walk away, man. Don’t fuck up your life like this.” Joshua glanced up at the man who spoke, vaguely recalling his face as familiar. One of his brother’s friends… He took a deep breath and backed off, running a shaky hand over his face. Walk away. He needed to just turn around and walk back home.

“Get him out of here…”He growled at Bradley’s friends, “before he ends up in a body bag. And if I catch him anywhere near this neighborhood again…” he growled again. No words were needed to describe what Josh was going to do to him. Screw the body bag... they were gonna need Ziploc snack baggies to put him in when he got through. Bradley’s friends nodded enthusiastically before hauling his brother up on his feet.

“C’mon. Let’s get out of here.” One said as Brad snickered.

“See you around little bro,” he grinned over his shoulder as his friends looped his arms around their necks, “Tell mom I said hi..” and then he broke out into another fit of giggles as they walked away.

Alright you guys... this was just a little spoof i put up from the BandStory... It's a collab between my friends and I. I doubt I'll continue it on FictionPress but there is more about the whole gang on my LiveJournal account to be found in my profile. ^^ The story is posted over me and my friends account and is nowhere near compleation even though we must have like whole books on this written already.. seriously! anywho review if you liked it and go check out Jenlinkitty and Unseen_shade's LJ accounts as well as mine (Hyper5) Oh and plz review!