Waiting on the Sidelines

18. Shake Some Sence

My friends were amazingly different. Becky was overjoyed when I told her that Reed had given me a rose. Sarah was indignant and insisted that he owed me bouquets before I even breathed in his direction again. And Sienna, she was more interested in the two tiny words he had written. "You're Amazing."

With the three of them around to work out my heartache and romantic dilemmas, there wasn't much left for me to think about, which was refreshing. School had been in session for a couple weeks and we were setting up for the pep rally and booster barbeque. I managed to luck out with only one class with Reed. Granted, it was literature, so it was usually in a block and longer than most other classes. But thanks to the power of seating charts, I was able to put myself on the other side of the room.

Reed was continuing to flirt with every girl in school. I couldn't seem to make sense of his note to me, the fact that he waited until midnight in front of my house just to see me home safe and then his behavior with these other girls. His partying was still a little out of control. I had skipped the last desert party, but Becky let it slip that he had drank heavily and ended up making out with two of the cheerleaders on the same night. Apparently the two cheerleaders weren't swift enough to realize that he was bouncing between the two of them, each leaving the party thinking Reed was their one and only boyfriend.

As amusing as the scene played out in my head, it also broke my heart just a little more. Yes, I was still sort of dating Tyler. I wasn't really sure what to call us, but he had texted me every night since our summer jobs ended and he drove out twice just to take me out for MicNic burgers.

When Buck arrived with his large truck filled with boxes of sports drinks and bags of ice, we all walked over to help him start unloading. I hadn't seen him since he helped me with the car, and I honestly missed the man.

"There's my girl," he said, coming over and giving me a big bear of a hug. Always in a sports coat, Buck was also showing off his red and blue dress shirt. This would look hideous on anyone else, but Buck could pull it off. He was dressed in his University of Arizona colors for tonight's festivities. I had heard that their scouts were joining him for the rally to talk over a few things. I knew this one mattered to him more than most.

Looking him over, I reached up and straightened his matching tie and brushed a little bit of ice chip from his lapel. "There, now you're ready to close that deal," I smiled, winking a bit. He was rubbing off on me.

Buck just laughed and patted my back before we all got to work unloading. I wasn't sure when Reed and Sean had joined us, but soon the truckload was moving to the tables much faster. I realized how when I went to grab a load of drinks from the truck and reached up to grab Reed's hand to pull myself up into the truck bed. We both realized it at the same time, stilling for a few seconds and letting the sensation of our connected fingers touch just a little too long.

I looked up at his face, startled, and he was just staring down at our hands when suddenly he moved to put his hands in his pockets and jumped down from the bed of the truck, careful to avoid my eye contact. I just sat back on the edge of the wheel well, pretending to catch my breath a little. Buck walked up then and climbed up into the truck and sat on the wheel opposite of me.

"Well, if you say it's break time then it must be," he chuckled, rubbing his hands on his knees and bending forward a little. "Ooooof, I'm certainly not the young man I used to be."

He just looked up and smiled at me and I reflected his emotion as best I could. His grin disappeared quickly though. "What's eatin' at you, sugar?"

I stood up and started to lift another box, just shrugging. I had a feeling he could read me if I looked at him, so I was careful. "I don't know. Just in a bit of a funk, I guess. Probably just the new school year. Classes are hard," I lied.