Thin Ice

This Ship Has Sailed

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Excuse the mistakes

I SWEAR TO GOD WHY ISN'T THIS CHAPTER LETTING ME CHANGE IT FROM R-RATED?!

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“These documents about Napoleon are fascinating and all, but I have a question for you.”

“Do you, now?” I asked slowly, and I finished highlighting a quote in one of the documents we were supposed to annotating in history. We had a substitute teacher, so today’s work was mostly busy work.

I looked up at Dane, who was sitting next to me, and whose document was practically blank. “You know she’s checking this when she gets back tomorrow, right?” I pointed out, and I gestured towards Dane’s lack of annotations.

“Mrs. Link loves me,” Dane replied with a dismissive shrug. “Besides,” he added, “I can do this tonight, after practice. The documents are short, and I only have to underline a couple things to get credit.”

I rolled my eyes and glanced back down at my paper, since I just wanted to get it done, but I felt a finger jam into my arm repeatedly before I could even read the next word. “Dude, what?” I asked, sitting back in my chair and looking at Dane once again. I wanted to annoyed, because he’d been distracting me all class, but then Dane just had to smile, which forced me to smile in return.

It was contagious.

“I said I had a question for you,” Dane repeated, leaning towards me. A week ago, our history teacher had let us pick our own seats for a while, and naturally, Dane and I had gravitated towards each other. We’d also gravitated towards the back so we could have whispered conversations without getting yelled at. It’s like once you venture past the third row of five, the history teacher forgot you existed.

“Alright,” I replied, dropping my pen on the page, “Shoot.”

“I was wondering if you would come sit with me at lunch today,” Dane said, and he actually looked a little nervous. “I mean, I know you like to just sit with Penny at lunch and have girl time, or whatever, but I think that—”

“Sure,” I said simply, interrupting what could’ve ended up being a long tangent.

“Yeah?” Dane asked, looking amazed that my answer had been that quick and effortless.

“Why not?” I replied with a shrug, and Dane smiled. I decided not to tell him the reason I had said yes so quickly was because Penny was at a doctor’s appointment might end up missing lunch. I had honestly considered eating outside, since I hadn’t actually considered the possibility of sitting with Dane at his table.

That wasn’t because I didn’t want to, or that I was afraid of asking because I didn’t want to sit at a table with all guys. I mean, c’mon; I play on an all guys team. Sitting with a ton of them at lunch wouldn’t bother me, partly because over half the table was actually on my team.

No, it was because Dane always looked like he was having fun with his friends, and I didn’t want to seem like the clingy girlfriend. I don’t really get girls who pretty much demand to sit with their boyfriends at lunch while they’re sitting with their friends. Yes, I would obviously love to hang out with Dane, but I didn’t want to demand his attention all the time. We hung out during gym and history, as well as after school or practice a lot. I didn’t want to overdo it.

“Awesome,” Dane said with a triumphant grin, and then he picked up his pen and nodded towards his document packet. “Now,” he said, feigning seriousness, “Stop distracting me because I need to get this done.”