A Fresh Start

A fresh start 7

I began to giggle. “Um” I started, then giggled again. I think he could see how nervous I was.

“You know what, scratch that. How about this, if I win, we still kiss, but if you win, I’ll walk you home. Better?”

I smiled. His knew offer really didn’t make a difference. There was no ways I was going to win. I just learned how to play today, and he is really good. Despite my fears, I agreed to his new preposition.

He grinned. “Great.”

He collected all the balls and put them in the triangle. He put them in the middle then looked at me. “Do you want to break?”

I laughed thinking he was joking, why he stood there looking at me, I knew he was serious. “Um, no. I’ll let you have the honors.”

He laughed “Alright.” He took the Q-ball and hit it right in between the first ball and the second. All of the balls scattered. To his surprise…and mine, he didn’t make one in. He glanced at the table just to check, and when he was sure, he looked at me as if telling me it was my turn. I took a deep breath. Let the games begin.

I looked at the table, and observed all my possible shots, just like Eric told me I should do when he was showing me the game. I saw that the 1-ball was right next to a pocket and I was sure I could hit it…I just wasn’t sure it would make it in the pocket. I lined up my shot and took it.  The ball bounced off the corner, what I was afraid it would do, but then it landed straight in the middle pocket. I was shocked. Jake just smirked at my excitement and we continued the game.

**

We had been playing for a while. I’m pretty sure Jake was going easy on me, because he seemed to be scratching the ball a lot…but he was still good enough to make sure he was one step ahead of me.

It was my turn again; I had been doing pretty well so far. I saw one of my solids in the corner, close to the pocket. It was the only shot I had. I wasn’t sure I could make it, but I tried…and failed.

“Shit!” I said without thinking

“Hey it’s fine. You could’ve made that shot, you just have to focus.” He picked up the ball and put it back where it was, then he rolled me the Q-ball. “Try again.”

I picked up my stick and looked at the balls. ‘I can do this.’ I said to myself. I took a deep breath and hit the ball. I had closed my eyes, but when I heard a ‘plop’ noise, I knew I made it in. The smile on my face grew huge.

“There you go beautiful.”

I blushed a bit. Just then my phone started to ring. It was my mom, telling me that I need to come because it was late and she had dinner for me. I sighed.

“What’s the matter?” he asked

“Nothing, that was just my mom. She wants me to come home.”

“Oh, alright. Well we will just count the balls and whoever has less wins. Okay?”

I nodded and smiled. A lump in my throat grew, I was sure he had won, and by the look on his face, he knew too. He counted the stripped balls. He had four left. Then he went to the solids. ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ I counted to myself. ‘Four…I have four too!’

I looked at him. “Four.” I said shocked.

He nodded. “Looks like it’s a tie.”

“So…what does that mean for the bet?”

“I guess it’s off…but it’s late, so, I’ll walk you home.”

I began to grin. “Okay.”

We walked over to the door and he opened it. My house was only a few houses away, but I was still happy he wanted to walk me home. When we came up to my driveway, we just stopped and looked at each other for a minute.

“Well, this is me.” I finally said.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Um, I guess I’ll go now…”

“Okay.” I said and he turned around to leave. I watched him walk to the end of the driveway, then I called his name.

“Jake!” I said running over to him.

“Yeah?”

Without thinking I kissed him and broke away just as fast, but he grabbed me and lengthened the kiss, and I just followed his lead. When we finally broke apart, he looked at me. “What was that for?”

“Well, you walked me home. I thought it was only fair that you got your side of the bet too.”

He smiled. “Ill see you in school tomorrow.”

I nodded. “Kay.” Then we both  walked off.