He said he loved me... (completed)

The competition

Chapter 5: The competition

While I sat there, letting the anger seep over me like a dark cloud, I realised what Kate meant by not letting it get to me. Seriously, think about it. If I let her get away with it now, then I won’t be able to stand a chance, but Nico and I are already on the friendly terms and it could still work… as long as I don’t let him be around her too much.

“Oh, it’s on…” I said to myself, out loud and fluffed my hair and ruffled my dress and Rambo-style walked out of the alleyway with Kate following close behind and walked up to Nico.

“Hey! I believe I haven’t introduced you to my cousins yet… they’re from Lithuania so their English isn’t very good. Gina. And Kate.” I pointed out, with a fake smile on my face.

Silently thanking Lauren Camp in school for being so cruel to me and teaching me how to ignore her and keep a fake smile on without making it look too fake.

“Hi” Kate said shyly.

“hey!” Gina mimicked my tone and shook hands with him.

Oh no, she didn’t! My turn to step up a gear!

“We’ve been hanging round but I don’t know your name… I’m Monika- with a ‘k’ not a ‘c’!” I said brightly

“I’m Nico, I moved down here to stay with my auntie and uncle since my parents kicked me out” he said, looking very cool about it, not at all embarrassed.

“How come? I hope you don’t mind me asking” I said

“My parents can’t handle me!” he laughed

“Whatever” I said and rolled my eyes and for good measure smacked him gently on the arm.

“So what you guys playing?” I asked, daring myself to look directly in his eyes, which I find very hard to do with most people.

But when I looked up, my attention was quickly diverted to the cute beauty spot in the middle of his eyebrows! It looked so cute! I then diverted my attention to look into his eyes, which were really easy to look into if I’m honest; they were clear light brown and looked very honest. Wow, I really am falling for him, I thought.

“Nothing, just throwing the ball around. Not much of a game” I smirked, I could listen to him say that all day, I didn’t dare look at Gina, but I could imagine the look of fury in her eyes.

“Wanna play a real game then?” I asked him, grinning like an idiot.

“Sure. What did you have in mind?” he raised his eyebrow, which immediately made me jealous because I was still unable to control that muscle as yet.

“Hmmm…. I don’t know… what about Rugby?!” I cried, suddenly very pleased with my fast thinking.

Rugby is the game to play when you want to get your hands on someone or if you want to tackle them, so either way, I’m fine!

“Rugby?! Not quite the thing I imaged, but ok. Are you sure you’re not too much of a girl to play?” he teased me.

He’s starting to understand me… “Bring it on!”

We started to play with two teams, me and Gina against Nico and Kate. It was a very interesting game actually, if you count the times I’d tripped Kate and Nico up then I would definitely win a medal or something. Gina on the other hand, tried to trip me up, me being on the same team as her made no difference. She’s been throwing daggers at me with her eyes form the moment I started to talking to Nico, but do you think I care? No! because she brought this upon herself! She done it to me, so why can’t I do it to her?

A couple of times during the match, when I had the ball, Nico would grab me from behind and hug me! Well, almost! But I can tell you that he held on for a few seconds more than necessary, which means that maybe, there’s some chemistry between us! During one game, when I had to run after him, he started to sing and take the mickey, but I swear, even though he wasn’t trying his voice was beautiful! I asked him if he sang, and he replied yes! I’ve never met a guy who loves to sing and is proud! We are soul mates! I love to sing too, and song-write… it’s like we were destined to meet one day… ok! Snap out of it!

When it was time for me and Kate and Gina to make our way back home, we said our goodbyes and he asked if I was gonna come around tomorrow! I replied yes! “See you around then” he said, waved at my cousins then went inside. My heart was thumping so much I was surprised it didn’t just bounce out of my chest! I was so happy it almost made me forget my backstabbing cousin. Almost…