Only One

Chapter Twenty

[edited]
The spot the Brookes' had was at the bottom of the hill. My body tensed. I hated sitting at the bottom of hills for fireworks. One year when I was fourteen firework debre got into my eyes and I was a wuss about it. On my defense though, my eyes felt like they were on fire. I have always sat furthest to the top of the hill from that time on. Now I was panicked for a stupid reason. I'm sure even of that did happen it wouldn't happen to me. I mean there were a whole bunch of other people at the bottom of the hill, and if it did happen to happen to me I probably have the worst luck in the history of people who have luck.

I gulped and walked over slowly. Everyone was already seated and getting comfortable. While I was standing frozen Mrs. Brookes returned eliminating one of the two open spaces. The other open space of course had to be next to Parker. I went and sat down next to him. I tried to be nice and smiled. His same expression stayed, but after a few seconds I saw the corner of his lips quirk up. I set my purse down and unzipped it. I put it on vibrate and set it back in the bag.
"What type of phone is that?" Parker asks.

"The S5," I answer.

"How long have you had it?" He asks next.

"Only a couple of months," I state.

"It's big," he points out.

"Yeah it is,"I agree. I stretched my legs out and leaned back supporting myself upright with my hands behind me. I didn't know what to talk about. I don't start conversations anymore. I haven't started one in two years. Someone always had to talk to me first. Maybe I could talk about something Parker liked. Like soccer.
"So how's soccer going?" I asked slowly.

"It's good. Great actually," he says. He answered! Right away too! That hasn't happened in a long time.

"That's good. Where do you play?" I ask.

"Right center," he says.

"Cool."

"You have no idea where that is do you?" He asks.

"Not a clue." I crack a smile and Parker tilts his head at me. We look at each other snd then burst into a fit of laughs and giggles. I don't even know why we were laughing. It wasn't even funny. We were on the back of the blanket and our laughs caused everyone in front of us to look back.

"What's so funny?" Ashleigh asked.

"Nothing," the two of us said in unison. Ryan winked at me which made me blush. Mrs. Brookes smiled and Ashleigh turned around disappointed that we didn't tell her what was funny.

"So how's softball? Are you still catching?" He asks matching his body position with mine.

"Yeah I am. It's doing great. I love it," I smile to myself.

"Sounds like fun," he says.

"It is," I nod my head.

"That's good," he states.

"Yeah." I was silent. I was horrible at communicating with people. Especially with Parker now. It's like everything I know about conversations just floats away and leaves me speechless.

"Parker Brookes!" I hear someone call. I whip my head around and see Tyler approaching. "And Jenny Caligney! Even better!" I quietly groan and Parker steals a glance in my direction before turning back to Tyler.

"Look if you're only hear to make fun of Jenny, just leave," Parker groans. Did he just defend me? Am I hearing things? What is going on?

"What's gotten into you bro?" Tyler asks sitting down on th empty grass next to Parker. "You used to be saying things way worse than I have."