me & tomfoolery

Cold as Ice pt. 4 | Shilo Sanders Short Story

"Just because you gave my brother a football, doesn't mean you need to talk to me."

Tennessee was back to her usual and kept brushing Shilo off. They were walking across campus together and he was trying to have a simple conversation on the way to the practice facility.

"We doing this again?" Stopping along the path, Shilo didn't care who had to walk around them. This back and forth with Tennessee was getting tiring considering they worked in the same environment. He couldn't even be her friend in peace, let alone understand why he was developing a liking to her.

"Doing what?" She asked with an annoyed expression on her face. Men were never this persistent. Why on earth did he keep trying? She didn't believe she had the patience to keep pushing him away without saying the absolute worst to be left alone.

"You act like you don't wanna be around me." His tone being different than normal alerted her deeply hidden ability to care. "I don't wanna be bothering you, I thought we could at least be cool."

She felt bad. Everything about him seemed innocent but she just couldn't trust it. There were too many factors and it just didn't seem to add up.

Letting her guard down, she opened her body language which he noticed. "Listen, we can be cool okay. Just don't piss me off."

"Forreal?" She squinted and pointed at him, "You're starting."

"Okay, okay." He raised his hands in defense. "Is it too much to ask for you to eat with me in the cafe?" He was hungry and honestly didn't mind being late to his training session.

"One, hell no. No offense but too many people get me anxious so it'll be worse if I'm sitting next to you." Tennessee didn't like attention and being around Shilo and Travis for the last month had brought more eyes on her.

It was already something that her best friends were very popular on campus and always had people coming up to them to talk. She preferred the background, it was peaceful there.

"I get it, okay so we can stop past the Union?"

"No, I'm not about to aide and Abed to you being late. We can stop at the to-go counter and keep it pushing." Shilo didn't argue. Although he didn't care about the repercussions, he appreciated that she cared about his commitment.

"Who's your partner for that new project?" Tennessee didn't want to think about the project in Dr. Stein's but here she was, talking about it. "Melvin. Who the hell names their child that anyways?"

That unnecessary laugh that erupted from his throat caused her to snort. "That's really your laugh?"

"Should it not be?" He didn't think anything was wrong with his laugh. "It's terrible. You might want to find a new one."

"You're something else, honestly." He shook his head. They had about five more minutes into the walk before they would have to go their separate ways.

"Shilo, are you ready to study with me tonight?" Bria asked walking up to him. She didn't look Tennessee's way. It wasn't surprising but it did her rub her the wrong way. They knew each other through Dallas, it was no reason to be rude.

Instead of listening to their conversation, she walked forward going into the double doors that lead to her job.

"Tonight? Bria, our study session isn't until Thursday. Go on with that."

Shilo picked up the pace as he jogged through the doors to look for Tennessee.

Damn she moves fast.

He went into the coaching offices to catch her before she clocked in but he was too late. Nessee was unhooking a mat from the wall. It was another day for her and these next few hours would be easy to knock out.  Being a senior really put in perspective that she would eventually have to go out into the world and figure it out on her own. Many days were spent stressing over grades and overall performance because those things mattered.