The Wallflower And The Jock {on hold}

6. Breaking News

6. Breaking News

The birds chirped in the background while I tried to concentrate on my target.

Ready

Aim

Throw!

With all the force I could muster, I threw the soft ball to Brent, laughing when he missed and rolled towards the fence in my backyard.

“Hey! You totally cheated!”

“Oh really? I didn’t know you could cheat in playing catch.” I replied triumphantly.  “You just can’t admit that you, the star football player, missed to the quiet girl.”

He merely huffed as he ran to chase after the ball.  He soon got back to his original spot, where he rolled the ball on his glove to get a better grip.

Focus on the ball, not the person.

The ball. Not the person.

 “So what do you think of Barbara?”  I barely caught the ball as he threw it toward me, the weight of what he had just said tugged against my heart, and I pretended not to show the disappointment that I felt inside.

“She’s alright, I guess.” I threw the ball. “Why do you ask?”

He caught the ball. “Nothing, I just wanted to ask your opinion on her.” He threw the ball back to me.

“Why would you need my opinion on her?” I asked suspiciously while I threw the ball back to him.

“Because, well…” He looked at the ball in his glove. “I want to ask her out.”

This time, I was the one who missed the ball.

I quirked my eyebrow, I definitely did not expect that.

I didn’t exactly know what to say.  Do I congratulate him? Yes Zoe, because it’s such an accomplishment for him to ask somebody out.

Or maybe I should just tell him that it was a bad idea.  She was senior, after all.  And she was totally out of his league. Oh who are you kidding, she’s totally into him. He’s popular and hot remember?

Woah, woah.  Did I just call me best friend hot?

“Zo!” I snapped out of my thoughts.  “You okay? You’re starting to scare me, you know.” He said, a small smile playing on his lips.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”  I ran my hand through my long ponytail. “I just didn’t expect you to say that, I guess.”

You seriously have to stop spacing out, man.

“So what do you think?”

I took a deep breath.  “Don’t you think it’ll be hard?” I let out a nervous sigh. “With her being a senior and all.”

“I think I could make it work. That’s what happens when you like someone I guess.” 

The second those words were out, I started feeling queasy, down to my stomach.  But I completely ignored it as I gave him a proud smile.

“Then you should totally go for it.”

Now, where was that ball?

***

I walked in to school.  It was a normal day, or so I thought.

“Zoe! Zoe! Zoezoezoezoezoe!”  I heard a voice call me from behind me. I turned to see a dark ponytail bobbing up and down the hallway as she made her way to me.