~CHAPTER THREE~

“I can’t believe this!” Andrea shouted.

“Obviously,” Matt said quietly. “You’ve said that before.”

“Like three hundred times before,” Ryan added just as quietly, earning an agreeing nod and grunt from Matt.

The three of them were all at Ryan’s apartment, hanging out, like they would do nearly every Saturday. Really, Matt and Ryan were the one’s “hanging out,” as they had been challenging each other to different video games all morning, and were still going strong. Andrea, however, was pacing the space behind the couch that the two men were sitting on, as she talked about what had happened at the dance showcase. Sine she and Ryan had left the competition, it was all Andrea could think about, let alone talk about.

Ryan, for the first few hours, listened to his friend and tried to offer his advice about the situation, but even Ryan, who prides himself on being understanding, could only take so much of Andrea’s complaining, and eventually began ignoring her, letting her vent, but to only to herself.

Matt, who was less understanding than Ryan, tried to get her to shut up, but even he could recognize a lost cause. There was nothing anyone could say to make her stop right now.

So the two men didn’t even bother looking away from the television screen when Andrea started talking again. They just continued playing.

This time around though, Andrea had broken out of her trance and was looking for a reaction from either of the young men, so she had overheard their snarky comments about her.

Unaware that Andrea had been listening, Ryan and Matt continued shooting the virtual bad guys.

At least they did until the monitor suddenly shut off.

Both boys let out sudden cries of shock, and briefly panicked, unsure of why the monitor had seemingly shut itself off.

It wasn’t until Matt turned around to search the couch for the remote, hoping that either he or Ryan had sat on it, saw Andrea standing behind the couch, TV remote in hand.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Matt cried. He had finally been close to beating Ryan—which was something he had never done—but his chances were ruined when the TV had shut off, and that didn’t make him too happy with the girl.

“You weren’t listening,” Andrea said simply.

“!” Matt yelled so loudly, Ryan immediately worried that his neighbors—above below, and next to him—had heard. “Do you kn— ”

“Matt,” Ryan said, somehow managing to sound louder than Matt with out actually yelling. “Calm down. It’s not like she destroyed the game.”

“But she—”

“Matt,” Ryan repeated, a little more sharply than before. Matt wanted to retaliate again, but Ryan shot him a look, forcing him to stand down. Satisfied, Ryan turned to Andrea. “Why did you turn the TV off?” he asked calmly.

Andrea suddenly realized that maybe turning off the TV without warning maybe wasn’t the best idea. “I was trying to talk to you,” she answered, feeling sheepish. Ryan was the only person she had never fought with, and part of that was because he wasn’t a very confrontational person and almost always kept his cool.

“Andrea,” Ryan sighed, running a hand through his hair. “You’ve been basically saying the same thing over and over again for the past day and a half. ‘I can’t believe this’, ‘How could they?’ Stuff like that. After a while, you can’t expect people to react or listen intently to it.” Ryan explained all of it calmly, trying to diffuse the situation.

But his speech didn’t work on Matt.

“I think you’ve discovered why your crew left,” Matt grumbled, more to himself than the room, but it was loud enough that Andrea heard him.

“Excuse you?” Andrea snapped, turning her glare on Matt. She knew she shouldn’t have confronted him. She should have just let the comment slide. He was just looking to start trouble, and she knew that.

But Matt had touched a delicate subject, and Andrea just couldn’t—and wouldn’t—let it go.

Ryan, on the other hand, fell onto the couch, his head on an armrest, his hands covering his face. At least he had tried to stop a fight.

Though they usually got along great, Matt and Andrea and Matt stood on different ground on enough topics that they would fight sometimes, and when they fought, the fought like the siblings they never were or had; they were out for blood.

“You heard me,” Matt said, crossing his arms over his chest, just as Andrea had.

“I did, in fact,” Andrea spat back. “Glad to know we’ve established that I’m not deaf. Would you care to elaborate on your comment?”

Matt smirked. “Your ‘crew’?” he said, using his fingers as quotation marks for “crew.” “They left you because you, Andrea, are a . You think you’re entitled to everything!”

“That’s only what you think,” Andrea said with a shrug. “You don’t know me that well, Matt. Besides, you couldn’t think of anything less schoolboy-ish to call me other than ‘’? You’re losing your touch.” She was angry, but Andrea remained calm. Ever since she was little, she had realized that staying calm during a fight had a much larger affect on her opponents than yelling like they were.

Matt rolled his eyes. He had fought enough with Andrea to know her tricks. “You don’t get it do you?” he spat. “I talked to Corey the other day.” Matt paused, waiting for a response from Andrea, but he didn’t get one. She was staring at him, wide-eyed. She wasn’t shocked that Matt had ever had contact with Corey; they had been friends for a while. What shocked her was that her current friends and her old friends were talking, and apparently they talked about her.

“You know what he told me?” Matt continued, pausing again.

Again, Andrea didn’t say anything. She simply narrowed her eyes to glare at Matt, almost daring him to continue.

Which he did.

“He told me why they left,” Matt sneered. “You were so busy bossing everyone around that you let opportunities that the rest of the crew wanted to take pass by. He said that you didn’t seem to care. Then they met Jay.” Matt paused again, relishing in how angry he was making Andrea, just be mentioning Jay’s name. “Jay takes the opportunities you passed up.”

Andrea’s hands were in fists, and they were almost shaking she was clenching her hands so hard. “You know what?” she hissed, taking a step towards Matt. Ryan, sensing trouble, was now watching the exchange as though it were a tennis match, eyes bouncing from one friend to the other. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

Matt scoffed, feigning as though Andrea’s small advancement hadn’t scared him. “You only think of yourself! All you do is dance or bother Ryan. I mean, seriously, do you have a family? Or did you just treat them so badly that they kicked you out, just like your crew did?!” Matt was shouting now, but Andrea didn’t care. She wasn’t even angry anymore. She just couldn’t believe Matt would be so angry to resort to insulting her, especially by saying things like that.

Turning to Ryan, she said, “I’m really sorry if I bother you, and I’m sorry for ruining your game.” She grabbed the jacket that she had thrown on the couch when she had walked in earlier that day. “I’m going to go. I’ll see you, I guess.” Andrea walked out of the living room and the house, leaving her two friends to stare after her, not saying anything.

“Does this mean that I won the fight?” Matt asked when they heard the front door shut.

“!” Ryan yelled, throwing one of the couch’s pillows at Matt instead of answering the question.

“What?!” Matt cried as he tried—and failed—to put his hands in front of his face before the pillow made contact.

“Dre loved her crew,” Ryan snapped. “The reason she didn’t take any of those ‘opportunities’ as you called them was because she wanted to make sure they were amazing dancing-wise before they focused on performing for audiences. Everyone just got impatient, and when Jay showed up promising a quick debut, they jumped on the opportunity,” Ryan finished, mocking Matt a little.

“Oh,” Matt said quietly, suddenly feeling really sheepish.

He felt even worse when Ryan continued. “And her family? Her family decided she wasn’t worth it. She was told she couldn’t go into the family business—which she did want to do—and they kicked her out.”

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