In The Background

Chapter 2 (Analise)

"Umm... about that whole showing me at halftime thing, I can't. I have been keeping something from you, and I know that you are probably going to be angry when I tell you, so I am going to wait until after the game but I won't be here during halftime." I explained to her knowing that she only heard the not being here during halftime part because she was too busy watching her boy run the ball into the end zone.

"Okay, we are going to go to the parking lot and for the next nine minutes you are going to tell me that secret that you have been keeping, and then we are going to walk our happy butts back in here and watch the halftime show that these people have worked so hard on," she said over the roar of the crowd. I barely understood what she said before she was climbing over the railing and pulling me with her. 

We made it to the parking lot before she turned around and put her hands on my shoulders to stop me. "Does this secret have anything to do with the fact that you never want to come to the games with me?" 

"In a way, yes. I am on the dance team." I unzipped my jacket as I was saying it, taking the money out of the pocket and tucking it into my boot. "I was the one dancing the solo's tonight, and at halftime, I can't sit next to you because we are presenting a condensed version of our pep rally dance that we have been practicing since the middle of summer," I said nervously cracking my knuckles and looking at the floor.

"So, Let me get this straight. You have been lying to me since the middle of summer saying that all of those days we couldn't hang out was because you were teaching lessons at a different ranch when instead you were here working on a dance with the dance team that you are suddenly on?" I was right, she was fuming. 

"Umm... actually it has been since the summer before freshman year. I didn't tell anyone until this afternoon when you busted me with my dad. My mom, the team, and the coach were the only ones that knew and that is because they were there with me from the start." I told her looking back towards the field noticing that the score had gone up another 14 points since we left. Three touchdowns in the first 15 minutes of the game. This is going to be one of our good games. 

"Oh, so you have been lying to me while you were prancing around practicing googoo dances with girls that barely talk to you rather than spending any time with me because you didn't want me to know. I thought that we were friends." 

"What do you mean googoo dances? I was the fool that organized half of those dances. and I didn't want to tell anyone not just you. I didn't want anyone to know because I didn't want to have to talk about out." I had to chase her to even say that much. "I was afraid of people knowing and making fun of me or telling me that I wasn't made for it. I was self-conscious of something that I loved and I realize now that I am stupid for feeling that way, but at this point, I feel like it might have been a good idea not to tell anyone if they all acted like you are." 

"Like I am?" she yelled angrily, "I told you everything all of my life and yet here you are admitting that you have been lying for the past 3 and a half years!"

"Oh, you told me everything, like you told me about going out with the guy that I liked and then dumping him the next day. Like you told me that you were in love with my brother when we were younger. Like you told me about Matt. Or maybe it was like you told me that you were planning on leaving the country for a year or that you were following Matt to college and leaving me here because you knew that I wouldn't want to play the third wheel all of my life. Instead, I had to find all of these things out by your boyfriend or your mother. Or the texts and emails that you accidentally send me instead of whoever they were meant for. So yeah, you tell me everything just about as much as I tell you everything!" I yelled back at her before running to meet with the rest of the team so that we could dance our last dance and I can go home.