ROSES & THORNES

Practice gone wrong

I had exchanged my tee for my gym close, a sports bra and running shorts. I resembled the cheerleaders practicing on the other end of the field. The sun beat down in continues waves of tourcher. How on earth did this kids stand being out here for more then two minutes? I pulled out my sorry MP3 player along with my sketch pad. It was about the only thing that could take my mind off the perspiration already beginning to form in various places. I came from northern California, and I was use to experiencing some of the heat that the southern part tossed at us. But this was just too much. It was the end of September for crying out loud!

I was deep into my drawings and Coldplay when someone sat down beside me. "I didn't take you as the...peppy type."

I turned to see Trevor's mysterious smile. "Oh, um, hey."

His smile grew. "Shouldn't you be over there?" He pointed towards the girls shouting cheesy rhymes into the wind.

I gawked. "Me? Oh god no! I'd eat a bowl of nails before I became a cheerleader."

He laughed in a deep melodic tone. "Good, because I find those girls highly annoying." His eyes looked out onto the field.

"Yeah, I feel exactly the same way." I closed my book, suddenly feeling very self conscious with another person around. I wasn't use to people seeing my work. Not even Jeb had seen it.

"So, you're not one of the cheerleaders, and I'd bet a buck that you're not one the testosterone jocks, so what are you doing here?" His smile was tantalizing.

"I was here first, so you tell me what you're doing here?"

He shrugged. "I was giving the campus a once over; checking out the football team."

"You? You play football?" I took another look at his all black attire, dark hair the fell in a thick skater cut, and mysterious persona. "I didn't take you as the 'football type'."

He shrugged again. "I didn't really say I was gonna do it. And what type do you take me as?" A playful grin danced on his face.

"I...don't really know. But I didn't take football as a main game for you." I played with my fingers.

"Well, I'd much rather write more then anything else."

"You mean write write?" Boy, he just kept surprising me. We could be a comic book duo.

"Yeah, I want to be a journalist." His eyes became distant as he thought about his future.

"That's...way better then football. Stick with it."

He rested his chin on his hand. "You think so?"

"Of course! There's more...depth to it, it's genuine." I realized afterwards I'd just kind of took a bash at my boyfriend, calling him shallow. "In most cases anyway." I added quickly.

We were then quiet. I watched as the coach called time. The guys dispersed, some going for water, others headed towards the bench. I spotted Jeb's glistening shirtless body coming our way. Before he could reach us, I saw Abercrombie and Bitch coming his way. Her long tanned legs caught up with him quickly. She flung her red mane and positioned herself in front of him, blocking his way. I couldn't see what she was saying because her back was to us.

Jeb sighed heavily with his hands on his waist saying something slowly. Serena spoke back, thrashing her arms in the air. The went on for a while, apparently it looked like they were arguing.

I was getting pretty annoyed sitting there watching like a sad puppy.Why were they even talking to each other in the first place? But, it was none of my business. Whatever it was about it could stay between them. I tried to ignore it, but there was no way that I could, not after she'd stretched up on her toes and kissed him. He put a hand on her lower back.

My mouth fell open. What the hell was that?! She just kissed my boyfriend, and he kissed her back. No way was I going to watch that. I grabbed my stuff and ran towards the gate exit. I could hear Trevor calling after me.

All I wanted to do was crawl under a rock. They kissed, right there in front of me. Neither one of them thinking twice about me. Not even my own boyfriend, ex for that matter. I knew it had been too good to be true.

"Abby!" Hearing his voice only made my steps go faster. "Abby! Wait!" He soon caught up with me, grabbing me by the arm.

I quickly jerked it away. "Don't you dare touch me!" I quickly wiped a tear away.

"Abby hold on, can you just hear me out?!" His eyes were pleading.

"Just go away okay! I want nothing to do with you!" He followed me all the way back towards the front of the school.

"Abby, come on please! Let me explain!"

I turned on him. I was dizzy with the sickening image I'd seen. The very girl who hated my guts and who's guts I hated had been kissing my boyfriend. He didn't even try to push her away. "Explain what?! How you just kissed some stupid cheerleading trash red head right in front of me?! Is that what you want to explain Jeb?!"

"Abby, it was nothing like that, I swear." He tried to take my hand in his, but I had yanked it away.

"Really, because that is sure as hell what it looked like."

"Abby, look-"

"I don't want to hear it Jeb. Whatever that was back there, you can keep it because I am done. We're done." I took off from the school parking lot, not caring that I had more then two miles to walk home. I just wanted to get as far as possible from him.

"Abby!" I ignored his voice as he begged me to come back.

Something told me not to trust this. It was to unbelievable to be believable.

Falling for a guy sucked. Because when you fell for a guy, no matter how strong your walls were, you turned into a girl, and when you turned into a girl, you developed feelings. And when you developed feelings, sometimes the guy you fell for turns around and hurts them.

Falling for a guy and scraping your heart was no fun.