Once Again

Chapter 4: August 1993

  "Sarah, hey wait up!" Rhys calls after me.
  I turn to see my small energetic friend pushing his way through the crowded junior high. He slings his backpack over his shoulder and gives me that winning smile.
   "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad to see you!" I say under whispered breath "I have no idea where I'm going."
   "Let me see your schedule. We probably have home room together." I hand him the small piece of paper clutched in my hands and he scans  it. "Yep, Bauer and Bailey,  same homeroom. I've got you."   
    I smile with relief. He grabs my hand and leads me through the throngs of other tweens trying to make their way to class. This is the first time he's held my hand and it feels like it's sending electricity up my arm. I get goosebumps despite the warmth. Nothing like when Patrick Griffin held my hand and it was all clammy and sweaty the whole time.
   That day Rhys becomes not only my soccer buddy but school friend. He helps me find all of my classes, sits with me at lunch, and introduces me to some of his friends, one of which includes Rachel.
    We had become fairly close during the soccer season. I had picked up on the sport faster than either I or my parents thought. Rhys would always volunteer to pair up with me for shooting drills and scrimmages. He encouraged me and never made me feel like I was incapable. We sang popular songs on the radio helping push each other during our runs. If any teams we played against were giving me a hard time he'd stand up for me. I don't know why he took such a liking to me but I was grateful for it.
   I liked his friends too. They were all friendly and popular but not in an arrogant way. They all seemed fairly self-assured for kids their age and I hoped it would rub off on me. We would all hang out at lunch talking about pop culture and things we wanted to do on the weekends. After school we frequented the Dairy Queen nearby or jumped on the trampoline at Rachel's house. They were good kids and my parents were grateful I was able to find a friend group fairly quickly.
   I'd been pretty resentful of them moving away from Cincinnati. A place I'd lived since birth. I went to a small private school there too where I knew the same kids since we were in diapers. Decatur was a whole other beast with 400 kids in my class alone. Under those circumstances, I could have very well fallen into a bad crowd, but I think Rhys may have been my one saving grace in avoiding that turn of events.
   Despite Rhys's Teen Beat looks and affable personality, he seemed to be unaware of his effects on the opposite sex including me. Girls flirted with him openly and he seemed oblivious. He was friendly with everyone and responded as if it was all platonic. Sometimes, I think he suspected my crush when he'd do something like wrap his arm around my shoulder or horse-play with me and I'd get flustered, but he'd just tease me about it and move on like it was nothing.
   Rachel picked up on it though. One day, after  our other friends had left she asked me if I liked Rhys. I blushed wildly and tried to deny it, but she said she had lived her life already liking people in secret so she knew when someone else was doing it. I was the first person Rachel came out to and that evening cemented our bond. We talked to each other about our secret crushes and eventually were able to talk to each other about other stuff that we kept hidden from others like how my mom drank too much and her dad had affairs.
   It wasn't in high school that things between all of us started getting complicated. Rhys and I seemed pushed towards a messy but inevitable track once puberty hit. It was like our hormones skyrocketed all our feelings, insecurities, and inadequacies into overdrive and we would spend so much time trying to untangle and get back on track. Nothing was ever easy again like it was that first year together.