Play With Me

Grover Embankment Players, 1

Affiliate 1

HE'D NEVER TRIED to kiss me, even when we practically shared the aforementioned bed for half of the summer. And then he was gone. For five tormenting weeks. I idea I was going to die after day two.

Just today, my torture was over. Today, Anthony Mitchell returned. My all-time friend and futurity married man.

Not like I had informed him of that nevertheless, but it wasn't necessary. Everyone knew it, and I couldn't await to merchandise my last proper noun, Matthews, for his. Tony and I had been hanging out since kindergarten. We were inseparable, except for the few hours every day when he had soccer preparation and I had—well, some time to write how much I loved him in my diary for the sixteen millionth fourth dimension.

Lisa and Tony, that went together like Bonnie & Clyde. Like Lois & Clark. We were M&M, really.

The door bell chimed.

My centre banged against my pharynx as I tossed my diary to the side, struggling to disentangle the quilt from around my legs. I finally flopped off the bed together with the comforter.

"I'm coming!" On the way downwards the winding stairs, I raked my fingers through my long, brown hair to requite it the final flake of oomph before I rushed to open the door. A sunbeam hit me first, then Tony's long-missed good looks followed. His tousled blond hair fell over his brow, almost touching his pretty blue optics. He wore a white shirt half open, and I always had to fight really hard not to drool over his naked peel.

Easily shoved into the pockets of his shorts, he only stood there and looked at me. Then his mouth curled into his typical sly grinning. "What is it, Liz? I know you lot're dying to hug me."

I flashed my teeth, which now were perfectly straight after wearing braces for two years, into a broad smile and gave him the bear hug he expected. He dragged me exterior and twirled me nether the warm sun with my face buried in the crook of his cervix. Ah, he smelled so practiced, sun-kissed and all Tony. I never got enough of that special brand.

"How was camp?" I asked after he gear up me downward.

He mocked me by wrinkling his nose. "Tedious as hell without you, what else?"

"Yeah, right. As if."

To fully empathize him, one had to know that, autonomously from cheese crackers with mayo, soccer was Tony's greatest passion in the world. Just I appreciated his lie and stuck my tongue out at him.

Tony tsked. "Manners, daughter. If y'all want to kiss me, only say so." His face was close enough that his nose brushed mine. I swallowed the urge to tilt my head and do just that. But I knew he was teasing me again. So far, we'd never kissed. In regular intervals, I fell asleep in his sleeping accommodation when we played video games, or he would crash at mine when his parents were on business trips around the country. He let me rest my head on his shoulder, fifty-fifty played absently with my hair. But a osculation? Nah.

I was going to exist seventeen at the cease of this summertime and had started feeling a piddling weird because I hadn't been kissed yet. Only no one other than Tony would touch my lips, and if he needed a few more months to realize he wanted me, too, I could wait.

"Hey, want to become down to the beach? I got this pretty new swimsuit and oasis't tried it out all the same." In anticipation of our reunion, I had put on the neon dark-green bikini that morning time, and now pulled downwardly the collar of my pink tee to tease him with a glimpse. Dark-green was his favorite color.

He snarled similar a jaguar, with one corner of his oral fissure lifted. "I'd beloved to see you half-naked, Matthews." Just another tease, just information technology didn't affair. Goose bumps shot up on my skin. "Unfortunately, I have to laissez passer. I'chiliad going to run into some friends from the team down at Charlie'south."

My shoulders slumped. "Seriously? You just got dorsum, what, ten minutes ago? Didn't yous run across the guys enough at camp?"

"Hunter wants to discuss tomorrow's tryouts."

I pouted. Ever since Ryan Hunter had become the new captain of Grover Beach's high schoolhouse soccer squad, Tony'south training time had doubled. And more grooming meant less time for him to hang out with me. I hated Hunter.

"Cheer upwardly, girl. Why don't you come up along? You know most of the guys anyway, and I'll introduce y'all to the remainder. I'grand certain Hunter won't heed." He gave me no gamble to debate, or fifty-fifty trade my flip-flops for decent shoes. My hand in a tight grip, he hauled me downward the path through our front yard.

"Wait! I have no money on me."

"Don't need it. That unmarried soda you'll sip on for the next two hours won't ruin me."

I pulled my hair back and fastened information technology with a hair tie I had in my pocket every bit we ambled forth Saratoga Artery to Charlie'south Café and Diner.

A bunch of kids saturday around 3 tables in the shade of the wooden roof sloping over one-half of the outdoor area. I recognized a few of them from Tony'southward team. Sasha Torres, Stephan Jones, Alex Winter. Nick Andrews' arm was laid in a cast. The training camp obviously hadn't passed without leaving battle scars.

I was surprised by the many female faces there, though. "What's this?" I whispered to Tony when nosotros were still out of earshot. "Are you into co-ed grooming at present?"

"Cool, isn't it? We played a few games together in Santa Monica, and Hunter thought information technology would be fun to get together a mixed team hither, too."

Some of the girls looked familiar, and I fifty-fifty had Spanish with Susan Miller. Simply a scattering of them I swore I had never seen earlier. Like the ane who stood as we approached and kissed Tony on the cheek with her awfully brilliant-red-painted lips.

"You lot're late, Anthony. I near thought you wouldn't come."

Anthony? The only person I ever heard calling him that was his grandma.

"Hi, Chloe," he replied in a strange, deep vocalization I'd never heard earlier. His easily rested on her hips. He dipped his caput and allow her buss his other cheek.

She winked at him then gave me the strangest in one case-over I ever got. The spite in her eyes fabricated me feel every bit if I roughshod short in the looks and manner department in her book.

My glance skated to Tony's face. What the hell was that? And seriously, he didn't have to drool over her shamelessly long legs when she sat downward once more and swung one over the other. Her white mini dress must have shrunk in the wash, because something red flashed underneath.

Tony shouted our society to Charlie behind the bar. A Coke and a Red Bull. The Red Bull certainly wasn't for me. But when did Tony start drinking that nasty stuff? Scarlet-lips-and-white-dress had a bottle of that in front of her, too. I started feeling really awkward suddenly.

"Mixed soccer teams, huh?" I grumbled at Tony while nosotros saturday downward—he opposite Chloe, and I betwixt him and Nick with the cast.

"The tryouts are tomorrow, Matthews. I can put yous on the list, if you're interested," Ryan Hunter called out to me, a mocking glint in his deep brown eyes.

The fact he even knew my name defenseless me off guard.

"Liz and soccer?" Tony laughed side by side to me. It hurt in a weird way. "Yous might also endeavor to go an elephant to dance the tango. Correct, Liz?"

I directed an irritated scowl at my supposed best friend. He didn't fifty-fifty notice when the unabridged bunch joined in on the laugh.

"The elephant office hits dwelling house," Barbie said to the redhead next to her then flashed me a cruel smile.

Sorry, what? I was a perfect size XS. My v-feet-four might seem a little short to her Amazonian six-pes-something, but I was in no style fatty. I picked upwards my dropped breadbasket from the ground and decided to punish Tony later for pretending not to take heard that. In all the time we had been friends, not once had he let anyone insult me without breaking their jaw. Okay, messing with Chloe's face would be a fiddling drastic, but he could at least have said something to defend me.

Since he seemed to take forgotten how, I returned the saccharin-sweet smiling to the Barbie clone. "I tried puking up my meals in ninth grade, but that seems to exist more your thing than mine."

The laughter died, and Tony choked on his swig of Red Bull while the rest of the grouping pretended to be conversing in lowered voices. The but sound, a chuckle, came from the place where Ryan Hunter sat.

Chloe frowned at me as if I'd spoken a strange linguistic communication. "Did you just insult me?"

The funny thing was she really meant it. I cut a glance skyward and sipped on my Coke.

Thankfully, Tony got a text message from his female parent not long afterwards that. Mrs. Mitchell was hoping to see him once again earlier she and her married man had to leave town for two days. Tony looked at my glass of soda and asked me if I wanted to stay with the others.

I downed the drinkable in three seconds, already standing. "Nope, I'm ready."

He shook his caput, just smiled, and let me walk in front of him.

"See y'all tomorrow, Anthony," Barbie cooed.

I ignored the rising estrus of jealousy and resisted the urge to glare at her over my shoulder. Instead, I counted the tiles on the floor to the exit. One, two, three…

"How about it, Matthews?" Ryan Hunter said as I passed him. "Will yous become out for the team or not?"

I stopped, stunned that he was serious about it. My optics fastened on the easy grinning he cast me. "I—"

Tony's hands on my shoulders gently pushed me forward. "You lot shouldn't tease her. She'due south just not made for soccer."

My heels dug into the ground. Non because he'd tried to save me from answering, only because of her snortling laugh backside me. "Know what?" I turned to face Tony with a determined glare. "I think I'll just give information technology a shot."

"You're shitting me."

That didn't require a reply, but I raised my brows at him anyway.

"Cool, then you lot're on the list. We meet at 10 on the field."

I turned to Hunter's amused tone and gave him a polite smile. "I'll be at that place."

A ball cap shadowed his face as he lowered his chin, simply I could feel his gaze skim downwards to where my cut-off jeans ended then travel slowly farther down my naked legs and back up. "Bring shoes." He smirked and winked at me.

This sent a shiver skating down my neck. Tony shoved me out of the café before I could effigy out why.

Nosotros walked most of the way in silence, until we were close to home and I exploded right in his face. "I tin't believe y'all did that!"

"What?" He looked at me, baffled, similar a toddler who was robbed of his sucker.

"You let that girl insult me and didn't say anything."

"Yous had everything nether control. And she didn't really insult you lot."

"Oh, right. Yous did! You chosen me an elephant."

Tony took my hand and pulled me with him. "You know it wasn't meant similar that. I don't see why y'all're throwing a fit at present. You've never liked soccer. When did that modify?"

"Today. Now I love it."

"Yep, I tin encounter that. Then desperately that yous want to be a player." He rolled his eyes. "Please, tell me you're not doing this considering of Chloe."

I'm doing it for you, idiot. Only it would have taken more than than a crazy afternoon to tell him that. I gritted my teeth. "That girl can get lost in her closet full of Barbie dresses."

Suddenly, his arm was wrapped around my shoulders, and he pulled me close to his side equally we walked on. "If I didn't know any meliorate, I'd say you're jealous of her."

"Nosotros've been best friends since we grew out of our diapers," I moaned, slightly comforted past his comprehend.

"And I promise we'll nevertheless be when we need them again." His laugh rocked me with him. "Chloe is but a daughter who likes to play soccer. But you're the but girl I know who tin spotter East.T. without bursting in tears."

Fifty-fifty though there was an obvious annotation of admiration, I couldn't help but feel a chill sneak around my centre at the way he said it. Like I was one of the guys and not a delicate girl similar Chloe. I wiggled out of his embrace, and a snort escaped me.

Tony quirked his brows. "What?"

"Nil."

"Are you mad at me?"

"No," I grumbled.

He waited a second, eying me with skepticism. "Okay. Is this i of those moments where yous say no but actually hateful yes?"

Another growl. "No."

He slapped his easily to his confront and then slowly dragged them downwardly, glancing helplessly at the sky. "You know I don't speak this linguistic communication. Just tell me your problem."

"At that place is no problem!" I ran up the path to my house, slamming the door behind me.

Chapter 2

AT 9 THIRTY the following morning, I answered the door and plant Tony outside. Hands braced on the doorframe and head hanging, he cast me a sheepish grin as he looked at me from under those incredibly gorgeous lashes.

"Notwithstanding mad?"

I swallowed. The endless voice communication I had prepared for him the previous evening—including words like ignorant, idiot, and dumbass—slipped from my mind. "Never again telephone call me an elephant," was all that came out in a low mumble.

"Promise." The silly boy pouted and even crossed his heart.

I smiled. "We're good then."

Tony's metallic green mountain bike leaned confronting our low picket debate. I grabbed mine from the shed, and we cycled to the loftier schoolhouse soccer field together. Shut to fifty girls and boys from tenth to 12th grade had gathered in forepart of one of the goal posts. Someone was handing out numbers as nosotros joined them. Already a member of the team, Tony didn't take to participate in the tryouts. Merely I lined upwardly to get mine.

"Xl-seven…Matthews," Ryan Hunter shouted to Susan Miller, who wrote down names on a list. He gave me the sticker, which I was supposed to pop on my chest, and smiled. Then far, I hadn't seen Ryan without his brawl cap, except on rare occasions, and and then from far away, too. Only today, the dominicus played in his dark hair that fell devilishly over his forehead, giving him a whole new advent. His unexpected good looks took me unaware, and he caught me staring. His thing-of-fact tone changed to a sly rumble. "Good luck, Matthews."

When everyone got their numbers, he raised his voice over the chatting crowd. "Okay, everybody. For a footling warm-upwards, I want you to run iii laps around the field then come dorsum hither."

Panic kicked me in the gut. "Is he kidding? Iii laps?"

"Don't say yous already regret going for the team."

I hated Tony's I-told-yous-and then chuckle every bit he dragged me from the trimmed lawn and started jogging next to me. Swallowing my antiphon, I tried to lucifer his pace—incommunicable, of grade, when 1 of his strides measured 2 of mine.

Shit, one lap seemed like ten miles. Screw Hunter and his warm-up. Past the fourth dimension I was washed, I complanate on the grass, hearing cipher but my own erratic animate. Give thanks the Lord I had a risk to grab my breath as forty-vi candidates attempted to score goals before it was my turn.

Tony got me a drink from the water libation while I mimicked a dead frog for several minutes. My mouth and pharynx felt like the desert. Equally he stepped over me, his shadow was a welcome respite from the sun. I sat up, longing for the loving cup of water he held out to me.

But when I grabbed the plastic cup, my heart sank. "Then little?" I held the mouthful of liquid against the lord's day, turning it this fashion and that, seeing if it would miraculously become more than. "There's something seriously wrong with your head."

"Not at all." He laughed. "Only since yous can inappreciably breathe after this short run, more water would make yous ill. In fact, it would be better if you lot just rinsed your mouth with this and spit it out."

I offered him a sneer. "Tin can I spit it into your face?" Not waiting for his comeback, I downed the fiddling water he granted me. The sip evaporated on my natural language in an instant.

"Matthews! Your turn!" That was Hunter, and when I turned in his direction, the soccer ball came flying toward me. Praise my mad reflexes! I caught it earlier information technology hit my churning breadbasket. Tony pulled me to my feet and gave me quick instructions on how to hit the brawl for the best affect.

Aye, correct. As if I really wanted to know that. I placed the ball on the ground so kicked information technology toward Frederickson who stood in the goal. It dropped to the lawn several feet in front of him then rolled on as if out for a relaxing stroll before it touched his left shoe.

My axle at Tony was full of fake enthusiasm. "Hey, what do y'all know, I got the direction right."

"Come up on, Matthews." Ryan came jogging toward me with the brawl under his arm. "I've seen you kick Mitchell's butt harder than that."

Beaten and exhausted, I was ready to surrender, but when he offered me the soccer brawl, his lips curved into a mocking smile, which prompted me to evidence him wrong. I accepted the challenge.

He planted the brawl in front of me, only so he had me take several steps back. "At present take a short run and put a picayune more power in your thrust."

"Ah no, don't permit him make me do that," I begged Tony, grabbing his shirt in growing horror. "We both know I'll just trip over the damn thing."

The boys laughed, and Tony pried my fingers loose from his collar. "No, y'all won't. Tell yous what, if y'all hit Frederickson straight in the chest, I'll purchase you a chocolate decadence ice foam sundae. Deal?"

Ice cream? If there was the right incentive… "Deal." I started forwards and kicked hard, aiming for the redhead guarding the net. The soccer ball dropped neatly in Frederickson's artillery.

"Well done!" Ryan told me. Then he sprinted back to the depression desk-bound where Susan took her notes and chosen Cynthia Ramirez to endeavor her luck.

Unspeakably proud, I turned a smiling confront at Tony. But my smile got lost the moment I glimpsed Barbie girl continuing with him.

Easily laced behind her dorsum, she rocked on her heels in front of him. Her boobs pushed out and then far, she could take staked him in the heart. "Volition yous be at Hunter's party later?" she asked him in a sickly sweet vocalization.

I gulped. Ryan Hunter's parties were legend. I could only rely on the gossip in school of form, simply rumor had it his father was friends with Chief Berkley, and and so Ryan could turn up the music to a maximum all night. Beer flowed in countless rivers, and he fifty-fifty had his ain pool table. The closest I had been to his house was when we collection by to get to the library, simply information technology looked large plenty to conduct several halls. Getting an invitation to one of those parties meant stepping up into the absurd league.

Not that I cared about hanging out with jerks like Chloe—yuck. But Tony had been to many of his parties, and he never told me much about the events backside those doors. That alone sharpened my curiosity.

He would go this evening for sure. The fact the Barbie clone would exist there likewise had my heart slipping to my pants. I put up a nonchalant face while I really felt similar bawling and trudged over to the water libation to get a drink larger than the fly pee Tony had brought me after the warm-up.

The afternoon dragged on with more exercises that involved passing the ball back and forth, zigzagging over the field with short kicks, and finally a count of how many times one could juggle the ball in the air without losing it. I got an amazing two and a half.

This was information technology. I was washed with soccer. May the ball rot in hell and the players die of thirst. I didn't give a damn if I made the team or not. Playing brawl in the scorching sun was for morons anyway.

I wiped the sweat off my confront with the towel Tony had brought, and so stuffed information technology back into his backpack, and stomped off.

"Hey, where practise y'all call back you're going?"

"Dwelling."

Tony defenseless upward with me. "Y'all tin't. Ryan hasn't announced the new players yet."

"Like I intendance."

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and used my speed to propel me in the opposite direction. "Y'all don't want to know if yous're on the squad?"

Trying to wiggle from him, I gave him a hard stare. "Nope."

"Where's your spirit gone?"

"Where has your eyesight gone?" I stopped dead. "You saw what a miserable histrion I am."

"Ah, I've seen worse. Actually, I'one thousand pretty proud of you. This was the first time yous came into contact with a soccer ball and you almost got a goal on the second attempt. All yous demand is a little training."

I found that hard to believe, but the expression in his optics told me differently. He meant it. Confused, I gave him a sideways glance. Unfortunately, Chloe intruded into my view as she came skipping over to united states like the tooth fairy. Her perfectly manicured fingers wrapped around his biceps as she bounced up and down before him.

"Come up, quick. Hunter's naming the players in a minute. He already told me that I was on the team."

"I'thousand not surprised." Tony immune her to drag him away from me. "You proved in army camp you lot're a natural at soccer."

"Only at soccer?" She winked at him and skipped away.

My molars suffered from the hard grinding I did. The affair was—I needed to become a member of this team, desperately. How else could I fend off this bimbo?

Ryan Hunter held a list in his hands as he stepped in front of the expectant crowd. "Nosotros need eleven new players. I'll call out the names of those who fabricated information technology onto the team. If yours is amid them, well done. If non, I'm sorry but hope you'll try once again side by side yr. You've all shown great enthusiasm today." He cleared his throat and reeled off the new players. "Stevenson. Jones. Summers—"

Since Barbie jumped with her friend then, I figured I now knew her last name.

"—Smith. Jackson. Daniels. Hollister. McNeal. Miller. Matthews. And Warren."

My jaw hit the dirt. I pivoted to Tony. "Did he just say Matthews?"

"Judge he did." His featherbrained grin made me want to slap some seriousness into his face.

"I'k going to play?"

"Yes," he chuckled. "At present go your things, I owe you a sundae."

I really made it, and he owed me ice foam. What a freaking fantastic twenty-four hours. I jogged to the bench and slung my backpack over ane shoulder. Certainly, I had the about stupid grin in the world pasted on my lips. It slipped equally the word owe got stuck on repeat in my heed. What if he had asked Ryan to let me onto the team even if I was a miserable player? At the thought of depending on Hunter's mercy, I felt awfully embarrassed.

I had to know, and Tony would spill—even if information technology meant I had to threaten to crunch his entire six months' supply of cheese crackers, which he kept hidden under his bed.

Whipping around, I bumped into Ryan.

"Congrats, Matthews," he cheered. "You handled the tryout quite well."

"Yeah, whatsoever." Pissed at something I didn't however accept proof of, I shoved past him simply so stopped. "What does Tony owe you for putting me on the team?"

For a moment, he looked confused. Then he laughed out loud. "You don't want to know."

My hands fisted around the strap of my backpack. Hell, of form I wanted to know.

Turning to leave, he glanced at me over his shoulder. His optics sparked with a glint of mischief. "See yous at my firm, Matthews."

Holy shit. Did he only invite me to his party?

Chapter 3

THE SUNDAE WAS yummy, but then was Tony as he licked vanilla ice cream off his spoon. I couldn't take my eyes off his lips the entire hr we sat at Charlie's. Unfortunately, the boy was like a fortress. Bolted downwards. He refused to tell me what he had to give Ryan for letting me play on the team. Well, he actually said he didn't owe Hunter anything, but I didn't buy it.

At viii thirty that evening, Tony picked me up at my door and drove united states of america to Ryan's house in his mother's machine. I had no idea what people wore to those parties, merely since it was still over 60 degrees in the evening—not unusual for Northern California in August—I chose a night grayness tank top and black hot pants. Judging by the smirk I earned from Tony, I supposed I had settled on the right clothes.

Equally we entered the lane of Hunter's mansion, a long queue of cars told me just how big this party was. Tony appeared unimpressed and maneuvered into a spot at the corner, but I had a hard time closing my rima oris. "How many guests is he expecting?"

"Tin can't say. Usually, there are a hundred to a hundred and fifty. If his parents are gone, the number might well become up to iii hundred."

Heck, I didn't fifty-fifty know that many people if I counted all my friends, family unit, and their pets together. Nosotros walked up the drive then climbed the marble steps to the door with the bowed top. The music blasted through the wood then we figured we didn't need to ring the doorbell. Tony jiggled the handle, and it opened easily.

Sean Paul'southward She Doesn't Mind was blaring from the many speakers equally nosotros entered. Bodies bumped and ground against each other in salacious moves I only knew from films. Several boys shouted a chat over the noise and drank beer from bottles while groping the butts of the girls with them. Some people kissed in the dim light.

I clung to Tony'south comforting biceps. "Oh my God, don't go out me alone in this place."

He laughed, or so I thought when his ribcage shook slightly, considering I couldn't really hear him. But his arm pressed my hands tighter to his body as he pulled me into the mass of people. Not all of them were kids. It seemed Hunter had a lot of older friends, too, ranging from sixteen to almost twenty-five.

A small group of girls from my history class gathered in the eye of the room. Simone Simpkins grabbed my arm when nosotros passed them. I had to lip-read to empathize that she wanted me to bring together them.

"I'll get you something to drink," Tony shouted in my ear.

I nodded and watched him walk away with a weird quiver in my tum. What if he never found his fashion back to me in this blasted place? The distance he put between usa was chop-chop filled with the throng of strangers. Shit, I shouldn't have permit him become.

Turning back to the girls, I tried to join in the conversation, only by and large I but stood in that location and nodded, pretending to understand what they said. Simone handed me a bottle of Corona when Tony hadn't come back later ten minutes. Parched by the heat in the room, anything cool was welcome. I moisture my lips with the beer so licked information technology off. Okay, this stuff wasn't one-half bad. I took a existent sip. A little bitter, but quite palatable. I had downed one-half of the bottle when my caput started to feel lightheaded.

Across the room I thought I spotted Tony. I waved adieu to the girls and headed off toward the back. The crowd thinned a little there, and I could really move without rubbing confronting other people'southward sweat. But Tony was nowhere in sight.

A high arch in the wall connected this room to the kitchen. I headed at that place and found Ryan standing in the doorway, leaning one shoulder against the wall. The sleeves of his black shirt were rolled up to his elbows, and the jeans he wore were ripped at the hems. Black was a color I loathed on Tony. It made him look way also demonic. With Ryan it was different. The top buttons undone, he looked mysterious. Kind of sexy. Him looking like the devil was cool.

His gaze flickered my way then stayed as he sipped his beer, watching equally I drew closer.

It would accept been patently boorish not to say hello to the host, and so I stopped before him and lifted my hand in greeting. The music wasn't every bit loud back here, and I really defenseless his hi.

"You take a nice identify. So full of…people," I said, feeling awkward and a piffling stupid for not knowing how to start a cool conversation.

"Yes, thanks." He moved away from the wall and leaned closer to me then I could hear him. "It was virtually time Mitchell brought you here. He kept y'all away from this place long plenty."

Huh? I frowned. Tony was the reason I hadn't been invited to any of Ryan'due south parties nevertheless? That bloody wretch. Simply then he probably figured I wouldn't feel comfortable among this drinking lot and with all the noise. I, the idiot that I am, proved his betoken the 2d we came hither by clinging to his arm like a frightened cat.

"Practice y'all know where he is?" I said into Ryan's ear, thankful that I didn't demand to shout and impairment my vocal cords fifty-fifty more.

"Nope." He took another swig from his beer.

Sighing, I sipped mine too, not liking it very much anymore. I grimaced. Ryan suddenly took me by the wrist and pulled me into the kitchen. He placed his beer down on a counter, popped open a can of soda, then lifted the beer canteen out of my palm and replaced information technology with the Sprite, closing my fingers effectually information technology.

"You shouldn't drink beer," he said in a stern tone. "Particularly not in this identify."

Yes, I didn't desire to end up someone's groping puppet, similar most of the other drunken girls. Thankful for the Sprite, I done away the bitter aftertaste of the Corona in my mouth.

"You did really well today." A smile slipped to his lips.

"I was lousy. And yous know information technology. I however don't get why you chose me to play on your team."

Shrugging, he drank from my discarded canteen. "I don't know. Maybe I but want you there."

Jeez, the teasing in his vocalism made the hair on my artillery stand on cease.

"Do a little endurance preparation every day, and you'll exist a capable thespian."

I'd e'er screwed upwardly at athletics. I even tried jogging a few mornings at the showtime of this summer to get in better shape, just it didn't work for me. One-half a mile was the nearly I could manage earlier trudging dorsum home, panting and frustrated. "I guess I'yard defective the motivation to do that. I'grand like a lame duck at running."

"What you demand is a personal trainer."

That made me laugh. "You want the job?"

Ryan pursed his lips and studied me for a moment as though I had simply offered him good coin for stinking piece of work. He shrugged. "Sure, why not? If you promise to show some enthusiasm, I promise to be at that place."

That sounded like an interesting offering. After all, I had to work on my endurance if I wanted to final an entire soccer game. I certainly didn't want to give Blondie whatever more than ammunition to use against me, especially if I broke down subsequently the first half. Her satisfaction would ruin me. And Tony needed to see I was fit for more than merely playing stupid video games with him.

Yeah. Training, it is.

Strangely enough, the idea of having Hunter coaching me sent a shiver of anticipation through me. He was the captain of the soccer team. It felt like an accolade to personally railroad train with him, and it sure would lift my condition at schoolhouse from boilerplate to super cool.

"Okay, deal."

He gave a slow nod. "We'll outset Monday morning."

Groovy. That meant suicide was delayed one more than solar day. His gaze locking with mine promised I wouldn't entirely regret my decision.

Someone shouted his name behind me. "We're starting a game of pool. Are you in?"

Ryan pushed away from the counter. "There in a sec." So he ran the cool oral fissure of his beer bottle along my cheek. "Enjoy the dark. And any you do, stay abroad from the strawberries."

Dumbstruck, I stood rooted to the spot as he brushed past me and walked away, chuckling.

I swallowed a huge swig of Sprite to cool downward. Susan Miller came in at that moment. Her confront lit up when her gaze fell on me. She rushed over. "Hey, await who information technology is! Now we're both on the squad. And honestly—" She paused, and her optics darted left then right to make sure we were lone in the room. Her voice dropped a notch, as well. "I've never seen a prettier house than this. I've wanted to come to Hunter'due south parties for ages, only he never noticed me in school. I don't think he even knew my name until I told him at tryouts."

"Yeah, me too." Or so I'd thought until yesterday when I found out he really knew my name.

"Will you lot wear your sports dress for preparation or get a real soccer jersey?" Susan seemed and then excited, I couldn't sympathize her enthusiasm. What girl would voluntarily play soccer? Well, if there wasn't a guy on the team she wanted to recognize her anyway.

I shrugged. "No idea. Think I'll starting time with what I have. But shorts and a tee. Anything else is too expensive to purchase with my allowance." And no way would I clothing those horrible shoes with spikes on their soles. Simply the outfit was zilch that really concerned me. "Listen, did you encounter Tony anywhere this evening?"

"Not after you came in with him earlier. Why?"

"Haven't seen him much. I just wonder where he is." I threw my empty soda can in the trash and pulled an apologetic face. "Mind if I go looking for him?"

Susan was absurd. "Practise that. I'll find you lot afterward."

I went back into the hall and wandered around the ground floor, hoping to find Tony somewhere. Only the shoving and bumping of sweat-drenched people soon got on my nerves, and I kept closer to the walls instead. When I reached an arch leading to another room, I peeked inside. No blond caught my eye. My shoulders slumped with disappointment. But then a few guys shifted to the side, and I spotted a pool table and someone leaning over it in an eye-catching way.

By now I was pretty practiced at recognizing Hunter'due south black hair.

He held the cue low over the green felt, aiming the tip at the white ball. Some colored balls fanned out on the table too, simply as information technology looked he was going for the black eight.

"Come up on, Ryan, give a friend a chance. You can't pigsty the brawl just all the same."

I pivoted to the left to see who was pleading with Hunter. I didn't know the tall boy'due south name, but the expect on his face up was hilarious. One would call up his life depended on Ryan's hitting or miss.

"What's your problem, Justin?" Still working on positioning the cue perfectly, Hunter grinned. "Afraid, your mama'due south going to find out y'all're playing for money?"

Simply then I noticed the stack of dollar bills at the edge of the table. They seemed to accept a sum of about ane hundred bucks in the pot. My jaw dropped. 50 from each? I didn't get half as much pocket money in one calendar month.

"My mama doesn't give a damn. Simply I really, really need this Spiderman comic. It's an original," Justin whined.

I felt really bad for him. Intrigued how the game would finish, I moved effectually the edge of the wall and stood facing Hunter across the room. Narrowed eyes and knitted brows gave away how tense he was. The cue moved astern just a couple of inches. He'd shoot any moment.

But so his dark eyes looked up…and remained fixed on me. His body froze, only his chest moved with each breath. Heads turned in my direction. My eye drummed a little faster, and with all the attending, my cheeks warmed uncomfortably.

I grimaced. "Is something wrong?"

Ryan didn't answer, but Justin victory-punched the air every bit he rushed to my side. He laid his arm effectually my shoulders, smiling like a loon. "You just saved my life, hun."

"Ah…aye." My gaze switched back to Hunter. "And how so?"

He started grinning, besides, but didn't seem as happy as the guy next to me. More than like he knew crap was about to autumn.

"He can't play when someone'southward watching him," Justin well-nigh sang into my ear. "Totally screws up and then."

"But you all are watching him," I pointed out.

At the back of the room, someone laughed. "Yeah, but we're not girls."

Chuckling, Hunter straightened and chalked the tip of his cue, lips tight, eyes set on me. Although my beingness there patently amused him, I didn't desire to trouble him, peculiarly where money had a paw in the pie.

"Sorry," I croaked. "I'll leave you guys solitary then."

"Uh-uh, no fashion, hun!" Justin's arm remained house effectually my shoulders. "You're my insurance to get that comic book. Yous stay."

His antics made me laugh, fifty-fifty though I felt like a traitor.

Ryan, who hadn't said 1 give-and-take in all that time, slid his tongue over his bottom lip, then the left corner of his mouth tilted upward. He took a deep breath and leaned over the table in one case more. Everyone kept silent. Justin crossed his fingers next to my face, no doubt praying for Hunter'due south miss.

I never idea a single shot could get an entire room this tense. Including me. Ryan cleared his throat, his gaze moving dorsum and along betwixt me and the white ball. All of a sudden he dropped his forehead to the edge of the tabular array and laughed. "Take your money, Andrews. I give up."

The room cheered as though the unthinkable had just happened. Justin pressed a kiss to my cheek and hurried to grab the bills. I stood rooted to the spot, staring at Ryan, who at present braced his palms on the pool table and hung his caput. Just when he looked up, there was a flash of amusement in his eyes again.

"I'm so sad," I mouthed, non fifty-fifty trying to raise my voice over the other guys' celebration.

"You are banned from this room," he mouthed back, a smirk on his lips. Then he walked effectually the table, slowly, measuring me with each step he took. I pressed a petty harder against the wall, welcoming the coolness seeping through my pinnacle.

He stopped right in forepart of me, the cue in one manus, the other placed against the wall next to my caput. "You just cost me 50 bucks," he drawled with a smile.

"Aye, I know." I put on a sad puppy await. "But he really, actually needs this comic book."

That made him express mirth. "Siding with the enemy. I should have known." With his paw on my back, he ushered me through the arch in the wall, back into the main hall. "For tonight, this room is off limits for you."

"Oh why?" Playfully pouting, I glanced upwards at his roguish eyes. "It'due south then much fun to lookout you…spiral upward."

He didn't permit his smile slip as he leaned in a lilliputian closer. "Off you get."

***

Quick, go your copy from Amazon and find out how the party continues. 😉