Playing with the Player

Chapter Nine: You looked beautiful tonight

"Chapter Nine: You looked beautiful tonight"

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WE HANDED IN our papers for the New York trip after the bell rang. Most of my classmates were at the party last night so practically everyone looked like a mess except for Emily- she had perfect makeup on and a tiny blue skirt. No doubt she was freezing.

The party was great. Dave and I danced for a long time and he brought me home.

Speaking of the devil...

"What are you looking at?" My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to see what Dave was staring at with shocked eyes. He was staring at the small corridor between the lockers as I walked over to him.

He caught my gaze and shook his head. "It's nothing," he answered vaguely, diverting his gaze to his feet.

I pried over his shoulder and saw Kristen and Liam waving sheepishly at me from behind Dave. Their faces were flushed red.

"You're not telling me something," I prodded my finger into his chest.

"It's nothing- like I said," he waved it off, rolling his eyes. He grabbed my hand that was poking into his shirt and enclosed it between his hands. I felt that same tingly feeling spread all over my hand as it did a few days ago when he did the same thing.

I tugged my hand back but he held it tightly so it didn't move. He watched me with a grin on his stupid face as I struggled retreating my hand. "Can you let go of me?" I snorted.

"No," he simply said, his grin morphing into a full-blown smile.

"Hey guys," Kristen came up to us, smiling sheepishly.

"Hey Kristen," Dave smirked at her like there was an inside joke happening that I wasn't a part of.

I cocked my eyebrow at Kristen, but she shook her head and started talking about the broken coffee machine in the cafeteria. She was exaggerating a little bit, but I agreed that it was a problem as big as the break-up of Brangelina. Her words, not mine.

When the bell rang Kristen said her goodbyes and Dave, who was still holding my hand but now in one hand, looked at me. "What's your next period?"

I sighed and averted my eyes to the ceiling. "Math..."

"That sucks," he sighed.

"I know..." I agreed.

"You're getting late to class," he pointed out as he pointed at the big clock above the lockers.

"I know," I repeated and hurriedly headed to my class.

"Hey Madison," Dave exclaimed after I took two steps away from him. I stopped in my tracks and turned around. He was still holding my hand and gripped it tighter. "I forgot to tell you; you looked beautiful tonight."

I think my heart jumped up my neck and cut the air supply off to my brain because it was getting foggy. "Uhm, thanks," I mumbled as I let go of his hand. He smiled, one where his dimple showed on his left cheek, before I swirled around again. I didn't dare turning around to look at him and kept walking away towards my classroom.

Why was this affecting me so much? Breathe, Madison. Breathe.

But I couldn't deny the warm feeling that spread all over my body at the compliment. I couldn't decide if I liked the feeling or not. It was undoubtedly strange.

I opened the door of the classroom and stepped inside. Everyone's eyes directed towards me. "You're late." My math teacher stated. His bushy grey eyebrows formed a frown.

"Sorry.." I mumbled and walked over to my seat. Not really feeling sorry.

"I'll expect you join us in detention this afternoon, Miss Cole." He said, continuing to write something on the board.

"Great," I muttered under my breath as I took place beside Paul. He heard it and chuckled.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After detetion, we quickly changed and ran to the field. Coach yelled at us for probably two minutes for being late even though we were just ten minutes late. Yeah, you could say he was passionate about the whole being-on-time thing...

I kicked my ball in the air and it landed perfectly in the top right corner of the goal. I smiled in satisfaction. Today's practice was intense, but nevertheless fun, because who doesn't love soccer?

"Nice shot, Cole!" Coach yelled from across the field.

As I turned to look at him, I noticed Dave staring at me with his arms crossed and a smile tugging at his lips. His ruffled hair threw a shadow over his eyes, but they still sparkled with amusement.

I walked over to him. "We could win Saturday, I can feel it," I chirped as I stopped in front of him. He took a step closer.

"We're going to win," Dave stated. I felt his hot breath fan over my face. Suddenly, I got insecure about my red face and the sweat covering my body. I fixed my ponytail and tried to ignore those thoughts immediately. Since when did I get insecure about my looks?

"How are you so sure of that?" I questioned. I dropped my gaze to the ground.

His hand cupped my cheek as he raised my head back up so my eyes met his again. "Because we have you on the field, of course," he said in a 'duh' tone, his eyes twinkling as he kept his gaze on me. My cheeks flushed red at the compliment. I quickly looked away so he wouldn't see the effect his words had on me.

He dropped his hand and left to join our other teammates. I blinked at his retreating figure and followed him to the boys. Coach demanded everyone to silence and started listing up our positions for the game on Saturday. "So, Cole and Wellington are going to be in front-"

"I can't be front row! You know I suck at quick passes," Justin whined.

"Dude-" Hale began as he rolled his eyes.

"Stop doubting yourself, Justin," I interrupted Hale as I patted Justin on the back. "You're one of the best strikers on the team. We need you to score." He grumbled but stopped complaining.

Coach explained the rest of the position to the boys and surprisingly Dave was the center midfielder. Normally, Liam would be our center, so he looked quite annoyed when he was placed as the right midfielder. After everyone knew their positions, we played a short game and my team won. We played 6-3, I scored three, Luke scored one and Dave scored two.

After the training had ended, I dried my face with my shirt. I changed into a new shirt and dumped my sweaty one in my bag.

"Are driving home with us? We can drop you off at your place," Justin suggested when I caught up with him and the boys.

"She can come with me- we live across from each other anyway," Dave suggested and he slung an arm around my shoulders. I rose my eyebrows.

"You do?" Paul asked, seeming surprised.

"He told us this morning, idiot," Justin said, "but I guess you were too busy ogling Poppy."

Paul's face turned bright red and everyone laughed. He had this thing for Poppy since a few months. "I was not!" Paul tried to defend himself.

"Oh, poor Paul, we all know you were." Justin winked at Paul, who looked uncomfortable. Paul punched Justin hard in his stomach, which made him groan in pain. When the laughter died down, everyone started to get into their cars.

"We should go," Dave muttered and I nodded. We walked over to his motorcycle and he handed me his helmet. I put it on without questioning and hopped onto it behind him. I didn't hesitate this time before putting my arms around his torso.

He cleared his throat and turned his head around to face me. "Ready?"

"Heck yeah!" I chuckled. The engine roared to life and we took off. I felt the wind blow through my knotted hair. Except for a few bumps here and there, the ride home was pretty comfortable. We stopped in front of my house.

"Thanks for the ride," I said as I took off my helmet and gave it back to Dave.

"Anytime." He smiled.