Tainted Love

Chapter 1

"I cannot, no, will not fail my classes this year Sophie!" I looked into her brown eyes with a pout. 

"You'll be good, I'll help you" she pressed her black spaghetti strap dress and grabbed my hand with a reassuring smile. " Vanessa this is your year, your seeing a therapist, taking your pills, using the methods. I am so proud of you"

I looked off. This was my sophomore year, last year I let everything slip from me. Like a dark cloud ruining my vision of what I wanted in life. 

"Vanessa?" her voice broke through. I returned her smile. 

                                                                               -

Classes always seem shorter on the first day, something about the rush of meeting new people and of course specifically cute boys.  Sophie and I always like to sit and watch the varsity football team practice. The third week into September we brought water bottles to hand out to them, show them we care.   

When I saw him, it hit me like a sack of bricks. Everything slowed down and the only person I saw was him. He walked toward me, jersey hung on his shoulders, his pants clinging to his waist emphasizing his toned body. His caramel skin tone was.....smooth......perfect. His eyes were a soft blue-

"You're drooling" with two words, reality returned. Sophie looked at me smirking. She gave me a water bottle and said "Here, his name is Nick"

I laughed and ran to him hoping he didn't see me gawking. 

"Hey, I'm Vanessa" I looked him in the eye and smiled like a freak. I looked like a gawking freak! "Do you...uhm...want some water" I shifted from foot to foot smiling.......like an IDIOT.  He was cute that's about all I knew and yet my tongue was heavy and my feet kept moving like they had no weight. Then.......he smiled.

"I'm Nick" He took the water bottle from my hands and gulped it down. Taking deep breaths, he just looked at me with those eyes, beautiful blue eyes. "Thank you, this is perfect"

"oh-uh yeah, you're welcome" I looked at the ground and chuckled. His eyes were getting too intrusive. "so uhm how was Practice?"

"It was good" He peeked under my head so that our eyes connected again. "I prefer to see who I'm talking to"

I chuckled again and returned to looking him straight in the eye.

"Vanessaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" I turn around to see Sophie waving her arms around to get my attention. 

"I-I should go," I say, biting my lip. Running towards Sophie I turn back one more time and smile.

                                                                                          -

The following Friday the school hosted a prep rally for this year's kick-off homecoming game. Big crowds didn't sit well with me last year so I just never attended, but I wanted to do good this year. Sophie, Derek, and I sat at the bottom bleachers. We were always a close nit group since about 3rd grade. Sophie was the rich transfer student lost in the public school system until she found me and Derek. Her parents thought prep schools would have shielded her from the real world.  Derek has enough money to set him up with the right people and a nice money cushion for a year of traveling. I didn't grow up like either of them, raised by a single mom depending on food stamps, child support, and welfare checks to pay rent and buy food.

"Vanessa, where are we going today?" Derek looked at me smiling with his bright whites. His skin resembling smooth milk chocolate, his brown hazel eyes were soft. His jawline sharp and his body built from thirteen years of gymnastics. Derek was the kindest person I have ever known. "I need to look at suites for the dance next week"

"Yeah, I called into West End they put some dresses on hold for me. It would be so fun if we all went together!" Sophie twirled her curly thick black hair with her slender fingers. Her jet black hair, olive skin, and her emerald green eyes made everything look good on her thin waist and slim legs. All the boys fawned over her but her loyalty lay with some college boy named Nathan. She's head over hills for him and it's adorable something girls envy...including me. 

"Okay. Sure!" I knew I could never afford anything in the store but I would go because I loved them. They were everything to me. 

The lights went off and the teens went crazy when the football players burst through the Foxwood highschool banner. The spotlight went directly to the star quarterback, Nick. He smiled at the crowd. When his gaze fell on me my heart jumped and I couldn't help but smile like a giddy pre-teen seeing Justin Beiber in concert. All the players jumped on each other screaming and hollering at the crowd to be louder, and they listened. 

"Do you wanna go?" Derek and Sophie asked in unison. Their eyes were full of concern knowing my track record of social anxiety and full-blown panic attacks.

"I'm good" I smiled reassuringly. I wasn't lying either. When I kept my eyes on nick the crowd slipped away and the noise wasn't overwhelming. I felt okay.

The rest of the assembly went on for about another hour and then the bell rang letting everyone out of school. I looked at Nick and then to my friends, I found myself hoping one day he would be walking out of school with me.