The Problem with Blue (#opennovellacontest)

Chapter 3

"Would you say that we're friends?"

"What?" I pant, running down the soccer field. When I glance over at Miles, someone slams into me and steals away the ball, tripping me in the process. Sitting on the ground, dirty and covered in grass stains, I watch as Miles deftly gets it back and kicks it past the goalie and into the net. The coach blows the whistle signifying the end of practice, so I drag myself up off of the ground and towards the locker room.

I grab a towel and head to the showers, waiting to strip off my dirty uniform until after I pull the curtain across one of the private stalls. I turn on the hot water and close my eyes, contemplating my poor soccer skills and lack of coordination.

"Seriously though," Miles says from the shower stall next to mine.

"Fuck, Miles!" I answer, startled when I hear his voice. "Why are you asking me this here?"

"I don't know. I was just wondering. If I wasn't friends with Alex, would you and I still be friends?"

I turn off the water and wrap the towel around my waist. Miles steps out of the shower at the same time, trying to untangle his brunette curls with his fingers, and follows me over to our lockers.

"Honestly? Probably not." I see the hurt expression on his face out of the corner of my eye and realize how bad that sounded. "I just mean that if you and Alex's weren't friends, I can't imagine you would ever be motivated to just approach me out of nowhere and want to hang out or anything."

I shimmy my boxer briefs up my legs before I remove the towel. Behind me, I can hear my teammates all walking around and talking. I have no idea how you can carry on a casual conversation with a naked person. When it comes to nudity and changing clothes, I have a strict policy of staring straight ahead at my locker. Of course, Lilly has seen me in various states of undress, but much to her entertainment, I generally insist on the light being out.

"Why are you thinking about this?" I ask, aware of his silence. At first, he just answers with a sideways glance and a shrug, but then he starts talking about Alex graduating next year and both of us still being Juniors. I reach into my locker and pull clean clothes out of my gym bag, but his words all turn into background noise the second I spot the corner of a blue envelope sticking up out of it. I stare at the distinctive color for a minute before touching it, trying to decide if this is really happening or not.

"Finn? Are you ok?"

"Yeah," I answer.

"What are you looking at?"

I immediately step forward to prevent him from seeing into my locker.

"Finn, you're acting weird. What's in there?"

"Nothing...I....I don't want to talk about it here." I quickly get dressed and throw my dirty clothes in my bag and zip it up. I wait until Miles has changed and is ready to go before I walk out into the hall with him following close behind. My heart is pounding, but I don't fully understand why. I head straight to the double doors that lead outside, thankful when the fresh air fills my lungs. It's about a 20 minute walk home, but curiosity is killing me, causing me to walk even quicker.

"Finn! What's going on? Slow down!"

I slow down enough for Miles to catch up but don't stop. He finally grabs my arm and jerks me back.

"Are you mad or something because I asked if we were friends?" he asks.

"No! I just..." I look up at him and my impatience lessons when I see the concern on his face. I sigh and then unzip my bag, digging around until my fingers feel the smooth paper and pull it out. I feel him looking at me, but now that my eyes are on the blue envelope, I can't resist and know that I'm not going to be able to wait until we're home to open it. Just like the first, there is no name on it anywhere, only the same robin's egg blue color. I slip my finger under the flap, and carefully tug it open, trying not to rip it. The paper slides out easily, my hands slightly shaking as I unfold the single white sheet. This time, it only has one typed sentence.