Not An Ordinary Sports Romance

Chapter 3

There is silence in the car for the next couple of minutes, while Jessi and Charlotte process everything that has been said in the past hour, and Mei is asleep. I slow down the car as we are approaching the entrance of our gated neighborhood, man, did our parents not trust us-four kinda adult girls-to choose an actual populated place to live in. To be honest, I wouldn’t trust us.

“Wait, I don’t get one thing,” Charlotte pops out of nowhere.

“Which is?” Jessi asks.

“Why is Squidward over there still sulking? I mean, Daniel didn’t cheat, shouldn’t she be jumping with joy, calling him? Having phone sex with him? Or sexting? Literally anything?”

“Yeah, why is that?” Jessi directs to me.
They have a point actually. I should be jumping in joy, calling Daniel every couple of hours-no minutes- to tell him how much I miss him, how much I wanted him to be on this trip with, how much I miss sleeping in his big, warm embrace.

“Well, for starters, Daniel didn’t call, text, or even email me to try and comfort me throughout the trip. He didn’t even call me that night after the… y’know.”

“So you’re mad-or sad? -at him cause he didn’t try to apologize for something that he didn’t have any control over?” Charlotte asks

“Yes,” I respond.

“Well FYI, I am also mad at him. For you,” Jessi notifies me.

“Thanks for the support Jess.”

“Anytime babe.”

“Alright then, guess we’re all mad at Daniel. If Mei agrees,” Charlotte adds. I can’t help the smile that sneaks up on me and spreads across my face.

“If Mei agrees to what? What am I agreeing to exactly?” Mei groans, waking up.

“To hating Daniel for not contacting Bella in any way and trying to apologize for getting non-consensually kissed by Cindy, even though it was the farthest thing from his fault,” Charlotte lets Mei know.

“Oh, yeah, totally hating Daniel right now. Damn him and his hot Italian accent,” Mei says with a fist in the air.

“Hey your boyfriend is Italian too y’know, don’t go hating on mine when yours is basically the same,” I protest. Before Mei could answer, a squeal-a very load one-comes out of Jessi, why? Because the house is in view. But everyone goes quiet once we see that the garage door is half way open, with a big black car sticking out of it, and not just any big black car, Daniel’s big ass car. In our garage.
                                                                                 
                                    ♤

I pull up in the driveway, because Daniel decided to park in our garage. And since I’m the only one of the girls who owns a car-other than Charlotte, but her car is in the shop getting fixed or something-It’s technically my garage.

My garage that is supposed to take my car, my not-the-size-of-a-fucking-truck car.
I kill off the engine, and there’s a stillness in the car. Everyone saw the car, but no one saw lights coming from inside the house.

Or any noise, not even the TV’s sounds are coming out. I guess you could say we were waiting for something to happen, no one wanting to leave the safety of the car.

If Daniel was here, then the rest of the guys would be here. But guys make noise, lots of it, and there is not even a squeak coming from that house-where they dead, or maybe kidnapped? I carefully open my door and step out, eyes flying like a wasp from the house-from the windows upstairs to the front door-to the spots I step my foot in while walking around the car from behind to go and see what’s going on.

I hear a sudden pop, and my head spins around so quick, I think I snapped something. But it’s just the girls following my lead.

“Bitch you ain’t goin’ in there alone. If you die, then we die,” Charlotte says in a hushed whisper.

“True that,” Mei adds, also in a hushed whisper. The three of us jump when we hear scream from Jessi, and turn around to simultaneously hush her, very aggressively may I add.

“Girl why do you think we’re whispering, huh? What if the murderer heard your load ass? Then what? We all die, that’s what,” Mei shout-whispers to Jessi.

“I’m sorry, but I saw something move in the living room window,” she says as tears begin to form in her eyes.

Bark bark

We all freeze as we hear barking coming from inside. Maybe the boys came to surprise us and ended up getting eaten by a wild dog? I know it’s a stretch, but it happens. Right?

“Isn’t that Diva’s barking?” Charlotte asks, giving up on the whole whispering thing.

Bark bark

“Oh yeah, it is,” I answer. Diva is my two-year-old Shih Tzu, she has black hair from her dad-with some brown highlights from her mom that only appear in the sun-and dark brown eyes, also from her dad. Everyone told me to get a white dog, or a brown one cause they thought Diva was ugly cause of her dark colors. But I told them all to shove it right up their asses cause I’m keepin’ her learned that from my grandma-yes, she calls Diva her Our Little Disappointment, but she loves her.

“Didn’t you leave her at Daniel’s place a couple of days before our trip?” Charlotte asks. The barking getting louder now.

“Yes, yes I did,” I respond. And that’s when it hit all three of us. I say three because Jessi is still figuring things out.

“Wait a minute,” Jessi interrupts, wiping her tears from the scare earlier. “If Diva is here, and you left her at Daniel’s a couple of days before the trip…”

“You need us to walk you through it hun?” Mei asks, with genuine concern for Jess’s brain cells.

“Then Daniel is also here,” Charlotte continues for Jessi.

“Right, that’s what I was gonna say.” Mei and Charlotte role their eyes at Jessi, while I’m busy digging up my keys from my tote bag.

“Got it,” I announce as my fingers finally wrap around the keychain, resulting in all heads turning my way. I approach the door, now completely reassured that there isn’t a murderer or a man-eating dog in my home. Diva defiantly knows that I’m here, since her barking has turned into whining.

I climb the stairs to the front door, all three girls behind me. But there’s a pause, cause I forgot which key unlocks the door. Great. Just great. I fumble around with the keys, until the door swings open on it’s own.

Are you dumb? Doors don’t just open on there own. Someone obviously opened it from the inside cause your ass was taking too long.

Well obviously, since the man of the hour is standing right in front of me.

Oh, well then, bye.

Useless conscience.

Back to the topic at hand. Daniel, all six-foot five of him, is standing in my doorway. His frame is taking up all of the door’s frame. But he doesn’t look all that good if I’m being honest.

With his disheveled hair, the stained, grey sweatpants and the white shirt-atleast I think it was white- Daniel doesn’t look so good.

Bitch he looks good all day every day.

Shut up author.

Oh, so I can't admire my creations? Well fuck you.

Bitch.

Whore.

“Hey,” he says in a gravelly voice.

“Hey,” I say back.