Chapter 3

“Alright, practice is over for today. Pack your crap up and get the hell off my field!” My coach calls from the sidelines as we finish our final sprint of the day.

I wipe my sweat covered brow on the back of my hand. I’ve been training this afternoon for two and a half hours, but the heavy summer air makes time go much slower and the session seem so much longer. It’s harder to breathe when the air is this hot, every intake of breath feeling like I’m swallowing fire. It doesn’t help that I have already overexerted myself and I’m trying to gulp down mouthfuls of air and water at the same time.

I collapse into a heap on the floor by my workout bag, my head pressed into the dry grass and my free arm held over my eyes. The sun was blinding me through my closed eyelids and I need shade, even if the rest of my body gets cooked. I blow out a heavy breath as I hear my friends on the soccer team walk over to where I’m laying and grab their stuff that’s laid all around me.

“At least practice isn’t going to suck like that for the rest of the year.” A voice I know well says to my right and I crack open an eye to look at her. My best friend April is putting her long auburn hair back up into a high ponytail, her thin elastic headband hanging loosely around her neck like a necklace. Her green eyes are looking at her feet as she forces her cleats off without untying them, a long sigh escaping her lips as she wiggles her unconfined toes. “Preseason is finally over so we won’t be training like that for a while.”

“We’ll just be training more nights a week.” I remind her as I push myself into a sitting position. My dark hair is falling out of the bun I’ve had it secured in, so I pull it out and copy April with the ponytail. “That means less time for you to hang out with Derek.”

I say his name with teasing behind every syllable and the harsh shove I recieve in reply is all I need to conclude April didn’t find it funny. I laugh anyway, letting my head fall into her lap as I do so. April has been crushing on Derek Forrester since she was eleven years old and we were all in the same homeroom in middle school. We’ve been close friends for as long as I can remember, including my other friend Faye and my boyfriend Clay. Faye hates everything about soccer so she joined the cheer squad so she could act supportive of her two best friends, especially considering we were both made captains at the end of last year.

That and the fact the squad comes with us to every game that isn’t on the same night as the boys football team, meaning she gets a lot of days off school like we do.

“Stop saying I like Derek.” April hisses as she pulls slightly on my hair. April’s eyes dart across the field to look at a cluster of girls on the team who are heading towards their cars. One of them being Derek’s gorgeous girlfriend Raven DeNiro. She plays in defence with me and we’re good friends and teammates on the pitch, but add April into the mix and Raven turns into an enormous bitch. I mean, you can undersand why because it’s obvious April likes her boyfriend and they spend all of their time together, but being nasty won’t get her anywhere., especially with April and Derek being so close.

“One, she can’t hear us. Two, she can’t do anything about it.” I grumble as I push myself to my feet and grab my stuff off the floor. I find my eyes following Raven’s retreating figure, my gaze glued to the fact she’s not wearing her shirt anymore and is laughing in a sports bra and short training shorts. I cringe and scold myself for staring, looking down at my white socks that are covered in dirt and grass stains from a slide tackle I made during training, knowing that they’re going to be a bitch to get out. Nobody knows that I like girls, and staring after them when they’re wearing barely any clothing isn’t the best way to protect my secret.

“Everyone knows you like him April, there’s no use denying it.” I sigh, pulling my cleats off my feet and shoving them into my bootbag, followed by my socks. I shove my bare feet into my sliders and hoist my bag onto my shoulder. “Just be more discreet if you don’t want people to talk.”

“Lets talk about something else.” April sighs as we start to walk towards our cars, her green eyes pleading with me to drop the topic, even though I barely said anything. “Like how are you and Clay doing?”

I send her a warning glance and she throws her hands in the air. “Fine, let’s talk about soccer. It’s not like we talk about it every second of every day or anything.”

Clay and I have been together since we were fifteen years old. I remember the summer I started to look at him differently and see him as more than a friend. We ended up kissing at a birthday party up in a treehouse and we’ve been together ever since. The topic of “Clay and I” is a touchy subject at the moment because our relationship is starting to hit brick walls of varying sizes and strengths. We’re always fighting, never on each other’s side and barely seeing each other outside of school and group meet ups. It’s putting a strain on our group friendship but it’s not something that is going to get fixed anytime soon. Things got particularly bad earlier in the summer when I told him I didn’t want to have sex with him.

He didn’t force himself on me or anything, but his frustration was obvious. He starting shouting and saying I obviously didn’t like him anymore and it escalated to the point where we broke up briefly, until he came running back with his tail between his legs. As harsh and cold as he was, I took him back because as much as he was a douche in the moment, he’s my best friend as well as my boyfriend and I didn’t want to lose all of him. That, and it stops other guys from trying to get with me at parties and stuff.

Look where that got me. Staring after Raven DeNiro’s shirtless figure and coming out to myself.

“This season is our year.” I say with conviction. I’ve had a feeling deep in my stomach that something great is going to happen this year for our team, and it might mean that we make it into championships this year. I want that more than anything with it being my last season before going off to college. “I can just tell that coach has found some quality in JV or has some great news that she’s going to tell us about when we get back to school.”

“I hope you’re right.” April says, looking at me with a grin on her face. “Championships are in Florida this year and I really need a free holiday and a tan.”

We both laugh as we near our cars. I send a glance to the group of girls yet to leave a few cars down from me, and I glare at the back of Freya Pope’s head. “Hopefully coach has found someone to replace Freya because she’s selfish on the pitch and she couldn’t hit a barn door from an inch away. Her shooting sucks; how can she be a starter?”

“Because shes the only girl on the bench who’s strong enough to hold off defenders.” April says as she looks distastefully at Raven and Freya. “Some of the sophomores look good but they’re not good enough just yet.”

“Let’s hope she gets struck by lightning and coach has no choice but to play anyone but her.” I grumble as I pull my car keys from my bag. “Anyway, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, can you pick me up? My sister needs the car tomorrow for college?”

I agree and wave goodbye to my best friend and get into my battered jeep, my stomach whining at me to drive to Benny’s Burger Shack and order something disgustingly greasy. I look at my outfit and shrug, my training shorts and long sleeved tight training top fine to wear on a brief trip inside Benny’s. It’s a really bad idea to be going to get fatty, greasy food when you’re supposed to be at your peak fitness for the start of the season, but I’ve been working my ass off today and I’m craving a raspberry milkshake at the very least.

Benny’s is only around the corner from school so I arrived there in less than ten minutes, my open roofed Jeep allowing the cool evening breeze to cool my skin before I’ve even ordered my milkshake. Benny’s is usually pretty busy as it got voted the most popular local diner and fast food restaurant in the town, but today there must be double the normal amount of customers. The drive-thru is backed up all the way to the entrance and I have to park on the street because I can see from here that the parking lot is full.

I hop out of my car and make my way over to the diner, my eyes brightening at the short number of people waiting to be served at the fast food counter. I figure there is going to be a long wait time for food so I order some fries and an extra large raspberry milkshake before moving to the side and people watching whilst I wait for my order.

This has to be the back to school crowd in tonight. Most people opting to stay in and eat are families with younger kids, no doubt treating them to a last supper before they head back to school tomorrow. I scowl at the thought of waking up early tomorrow, my body will be stiff and aching from soccer practice today and the thought of having to wake up to an alarm has me shuddering. I let my eyes move from a family of five laughing at their daughter shoving fries into her mouth to an elderly couple sharing a slice of Benny’s town famous blackberry cheesecake. I can’t help but smile, hoping that one day I can have that with another person.

Clay used to be great, but we’re not like that anymore and we know it.

Despite the noise inside the diner I hear the door chime signalling someone is either coming or going. My eyes widen and my breath gets caught in my throat when I see who’s entered the shop. It’s a girl around my age, her hair the colour of white sand is skimming the tanned skin on her shoulders. She’s my height, maybe an inch or so taller, her curvy frame barely concealed in a pair of tight fitting jeans and a ratty band tee. My eyes travel up to her face and her bee stung lips, small, pierced nose with a small stud and dusted in freckles to her mesmerising grey eyes hidden behind a pair of thin wire framed glasses. Even from this distance I can tell that they keep changing colours, going from the colour of a cloud in a thunderstorm to a pale silver.

I quickly look away and swallow harshly before I get caught staring. I know most of the people in my town and I know that I’ve never seen her before. I’ve never in my life seen anyone like her. Not even Clay gets my heart racing and my mouth drying up the way glancing at her has. Plus, I’m not out to anyone and I’ve seen a couple of people from school in here. I think it would raise suspicions if I was caught ogling a girl in the middle of a restaurant.

I snap my mouth shut as she breezes past me, her fruity perfume wafting up my nostrils and making it hard to smell anything else. I’m in a fast food restaurant! It should be impossible for me not to be able to smell frying food. She quickly gives her order to the guy behind the counter before moving away and heading in my direction.

I look anywhere but her as she comes and stands beside me as we wait for our food. She pulls out her phone from the back pocket of her jeans, the movement causing her arm to brush lightly against mine and her hair to flick against my cheek. I don’t think she noticed but I sure as hell did.

My own phone pings with a text and I fish it out of my shorts, my face whitening as I see I have a message from Clay. You know, that boyfriend you have Alex?! I scold myself for getting caught up in the mystery girl stood beside me that my brain forgot I’ve been in a relationship with a guy for the past three years. A guy I’m still in a relationship with.

CLAY:- u need a lift to school tomorrow? xx

I sigh heavily out of my nose as I try not to roll my eyes. Why would I need a lift tomorrow? If he ever listened to me he’d know that my car was fixed earlier this week.

ME:- no thanks I got my car back xx

I shake my head and slide my phone into my pocket just as my order is called out.

Only I’m not the only person to move forward for fries and a raspberry milkshake. Mystery blonde bombshell tails me to the counter.

“Fries and an extra large raspberry milkshake?” The cashier says again.

“Me.” We both say at the exact same time and for the first time since I looked away, I look back. Her lips are pulled into an amused smile, her grey eyes appearing almost white. I can see her teeth pulling against her bottom lip, and I can’t help but laugh breathlessly at how stupid this is. How the hell did we order the exact same thing?

“If it’s order thirty seven then it’s mine.” I chuckle, handing over my receipt to the cashier who nods and hands me my order. Mystery girl nods her head and smirks, her hands held up in mock surrender as she pretends to back up.

“Alright, I know when I’m beaten.” She grins, exposing her perfectly straight white teeth. Her voice is different than what expected but better than I imagined, a west coast accent clinging to the ends of some her her words. Could this girl be any more flawless?

“Better luck stealing my food next time.” I respond, winking her way before breezing past her and towards the door. I scold myself when I realise I didn’t get her name, or find out if there’s any chance I’ll see her again, but I guess it’s for the best if I’m trying to repair things with Clay.

That doesn’t stop me from swaying my hips that little bit more, just in case she’s watching. You know the saying, I hate to see you leave but I love to watch you walk away?

For the hope of my sanity I hope she’s loving the show.