Why Wait?

13

~~~volleyball court~~~
"I just don't know if I want to try," I tell Sidney.

She rolls her eyes. "I drive five hours to come and see you. You are going to try."

Sidney grabs a volleyball and hands it to me. "Lean more on your other leg. When you bend down, don't use your hurt knee."

I nod. "Go to the other side. I want to try a jump serve."

Smiling, she sprints over to the other side of the court. She squats down and tells me she's ready.

I roll my arm a few times to get it slightly warmed up and then throw the ball up in the air for a jump serve. I timed it perfectly and my palm smacked the ball over the net and straight to Sidney. She bumps it up in the air before catching it.

A smile was stretched across her face. "That was perfect. Did you hurt yourself?"

I shake my head. "Not really."

"That's good," she says excitedly. "Now if you can move around without hurting yourself, then we'll be good to go."

We spent the rest of the day trying to get me to where I was comfortably able to play.

I was about to serve another volleyball when I hear clapping from behind me. Turning around, I see the guys - obviously excluding Austin seeing as though he's been busy lately.

"That was crazy," Ty says, walking over to me. "I mean, I knew you played and that you were probably good. But I didn't know you were that good."

I smile. "I'll take that as a compliment."

He goes to try a jump serve. But as he jumps up in the air, he trips over his shoelaces and falls down on his face. The ball comes back down and hits him in the back of the head.

The gym was silent for a few heartbeats before I finally started laughing. Pretty soon, Sidney joined me and we were down on the floor wiping tears from our faces.

"That's the funniest thing I've ever seen," Sidney says when we catch our breath.

I was still trying to control myself from bursting out laughing again. He shoots me a fake glare. "Hilarious," he mutters, making me and Sidney laugh again.

After a while, everyone starts sobering up. "It wasn't that bad," I finally say. "Just... tie you shoe next time."

Then Sidney looks over at me. "Isn't that the dude you're supposed to date?"

I roll my eyes at her subtleness. "Yeah. You've met before."

She looks at me with wide eyes. "Did you finally dump Cody?"

Oh. I didn't exactly tell her that we broke up. I just thought she already kind of knew.

"Um, yeah," I say awkwardly. "We did. A while ago."

She nods, her eyes narrowing. "Okay," she says slowly.

An awkward silence settles across the gym and I find myself wanting to cry. It's not everyday I let out my feelings. Austin already worries about me enough without having to deal with my messed up life. There are things that Sidney knows. Things I haven't told Austin yet. Things that I don't plan on letting out right now.

"... just start?"

I look up. "What?"

Sidney gives me a sympathetic look. "I was saying that we have this gym rented out for a couple more hours - courtesy of your wonderfully famous brother. Should we just start?"