The Fountain Girl

Chapter 17

Another snowy and freezing day, I walked straight up to Katie during lunch break to apologize. I was holding a card that I wrote the previous day to say sorry, meanwhile preparing my 'sorry face' before I approached her. "Hey, um, Katie... I just wanna say I'm sorry... I mean it was kinda rude of me yesterday-"

"Oh, no, that's okay. I forgive you," Katie said, brushing her hair aside. Her large eyes looked back at me, searching my face like they were trying to find a lie.

"Wait, really?" I asked her, not believing the fact that she would accept an apology that quickly.

"Yeah, of course. I have a boyfriend now, I feel better," she told me. I raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"I know that trick."

"Who said it was a trick?" She asked me rhetorically, as a boy of my age walked up next to her, a Jansport bag slung across his shoulder like a hipster. Damn hipsters.

"And who is he supposed to be?" I asked apprehensively, raising a finger to point at him.

"Colman," she replied, letting him put his hand on her shoulder, all couple-like. Ugh. "He's from the basketball team. Isn't he just cute?" She asked me, smiling at Colman.

I rolled my eyes. "So much for best friends," I told her, thrusting the card into her folded arms and stalking away towards my classroom.

In Astronomy class I sat far away from her, trying to avoid looking at her, especially since she had moved right next to Colman. I was so used to having her help me through the subjects that for the first time in middle school, I was struggling in class. My eyes were blank with confusion as the teacher explained the theory of gas giants. Meanwhile, I could see out of the corner of my eye that Jess wanted to talk to me, but I ignored her and continued hating the whole world for the loss of a best friend.

During Physical Education we had basketball, and I was on Colman and Katie's opposing team. They were chatting all lovey-dovey and holding hands. I almost spit.

I was the captain for my team and Colman was the captain for the opposing team. When the match started, I immediately put my 'game face' on and snatched the ball from Colman, throwing it straight into the hoop from half-court. Jess and her clique clapped from a corner in the court where they weren't doing anything, but I ignored them. Colman sighed with frustration but shook the blond hair out of his eyes. Just like Justin Bieber.

"It's okay, Colman!" Katie shouted at him but she was really looking at me. We made eye contact for a brief moment before looking away. I shook the red out of my eyes before getting my head back into the game.

"Here!" Jonas shouted as I passed the ball to him, closing in for the shot as he dribbled the ball on the floor, making a sound like thunder. Out of the blue, Colman snatched the ball from him and made a desperate sprint for our hoop. Halfway through, I smacked the ball out of his hands and dribbled it up to the opposing team's hoop, dunking it with so much force that the board shook.

My team won the match with 16-0, the best score my team had ever gotten. I glanced at Katie as she glanced back, staring daggers at me. "Basketball team, right?" I asked her, referring to her new boyfriend.

I went home by myself that day, repeatedly stuffing my face in my pillow, wondering how I had lost my best friend. Was it really my fault?

And that Colman, too. He had always been kind of a jerk. Always making fun of people, making himself look good in the presence of girls. That fake basketballer. I wasn't even sure if he was a basketballer.

"What did you do?" Anna asked me, looking at my frustrated expression, reading my mind.