Why Wait?

6

~~~Strike's dressing room~~~
I was playing a racing game against Luke when my phone rings, distracting me from the game and causing me to lose.

"Boom!" Luke yells when my car explodes.

I laugh. "There's no way that's fair. You cheated somehow."

He shakes his head with a confident smirk. "I beat you six times already. Just admit it: I'm better than you."

Rolling my eyes, I take my phone. Sidney sent me a picture of her in her new bathing suit. I send her a quick text, telling her she looks great, then look up at Luke.

He smiles. "Rematch?"

"You bet," I say, picking up the remote again.

We played for a couple more hours. He beat me every single time. I never even got past the midpoint. It's kind of embarrassing.

"I give up," I groan when my car decides to run out of fuel yet again.

"You are not good at this," Alex says behind, the amusement evident in his voice.

"Or maybe he's just impossible to beat," I say.

Alex laughs and take a seat between me and Luke. He takes the control from me. "No, he's not."

I watch them play for a few more minutes. Then, much to my surprise, Luke's car gets caught on fire before blowing up.

I curse under my breath. "Well that's just great," I mutter.

They laugh.

Chance walks in. "Hey, Luke, I need your help with something."

Luke nods and stands up. "Got it."

Alex and I start playing video games until I decided I was no longer in the mood to keep dying---virtually, that is.

"Do you want to go to Starbucks?" Alex asks, setting his control down. "I can buy."

I shrug. "I could use some Starbucks."

~~~Starbucks~~~
I learned that Alex is a very complex person. He's serious one moment and is laughing like crazy the next. I can never tell if he's joking or not. And he just makes me uncomfortable.

He's nice. I'll give him that. But maybe he's just pretending, like Cody did once. Then he turned into a huge jerk.

"You don't talk much, do you?" he asks me after a long story he told me about how he and his brothers got stranded with a Peruvian tribe. I had heard about it from Austin. But I hadn't thought much about it.

I shrug and give him a small smile. "Sorry."

He leans into the table. "You know, you're really pretty."

My cheeks flush and I look away. "Thank you."

He scoffs. "You're shy? You don't have to be shy around me, Kelli. It's offensive."

I let out a small laugh. "Right."

"So what about you?" he asks.

I take a sip from my iced mocha. "What about me?"

He shrugs. "Are you always this quiet around people? I noticed you didn't really talk when playing video games with my brother."

I give him a soft smile. "Sorry. I just... don't find anyone who can relate to me."

He cocks an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

I shrug. "It's hard to find someone who actually wants to be my friend. Or just use me to get close to Austin."