Hidden Feelings and Hesitations

[7] Frankie

I slid into a seat towards the back of the bus and shoved my hands into the pocket of my hoodie. Music was blasting through my headphones as I tried to prepare myself for the night's game. We were playing a pretty difficult team and I really wanted to beat them. They weren't our rivals, but they were super cocky when they won. In my opinion, that was the worst thing a team could be.

The other girls sat on the various benches around me, each in their own little world. We weren't really supposed to be talking on the way there. Coach always said the drive home was for bonding—if we won.

Just as the bus was about to start pulling forward, Claire Fulton dropped into my seat, her bag in her lap.

I moved one of the speakers off my ear and pushed the button in the center to pause my music. "Hey, man, you want to talk or something?" One of my eyebrows slowly rose. We didn't normally sit together.

She glanced down the aisle to make sure Coach hadn't heard me before turning her attention back to me with a grin. "I hear you think I'm hot."

I let out a soft laugh, knowing word had gotten around since the party a few weeks ago. "You are pretty fine," I told her.

"Fine enough to have sex with?" she teased and sent me a wink. My insides flipped around at her close proximity and the way she was passing her eyes over every inch of my face. Haylie's name felt like a distant memory.

Blush started to cover my cheeks as I smirked and let my gaze fall down her body, though I couldn't see much with her hoodie and warmups on. "For sure."

"Maybe I'll have to take you up on that." My eyes snapped back up to hers, not sure I'd heard her right. She had to have been flirting with me as a joke. That's all the girls around here ever really did. I didn't care, I took it in stride and played along, but there was something different about the way she'd said that.

"Are you serious?"

"We'll have to go on a date first, but if you treat me right, then you just might get lucky."

"Okay, Claire, that's super hilarious, you can stop fucking with me now." I reached up to fix my headphones, but her fingers wrapped around my hand to stop me.

"Who says I'm fucking with you?" Her voice had dropped to nothing more than a whisper. I watched, captivated as her bottom lip got pulled into her mouth. "I'll make a deal with you."

"What's that?" She was still touching me, still half holding my hand. My heart was beating hard in my chest and I wondered if she could feel my racing pulse through the spot where her pinky connected with my wrist.

"If we win tonight, you can kiss me. But if we lose, then both of us have to forget this ever happened."

I didn't know what to say to her at first. Part of me still felt like she wasn't being genuine, but I didn't want to say the wrong thing and screw up my chance at actually spending time with a girl who was interested in me. Eventually, I just nodded and managed to say, "Deal."

Claire gave me another smile and let go of me before moving to the seat across the aisle. The crush I'd had on her since last spring had been relatively dormant lately. It was small, but still there, just under the surface and waiting for the moment she brushed against me while she was guarding me or if all of us were screwing around in the locker room and dancing in our underwear after practice or a win. She was the only other person on the planet that I wanted to do things with besides Haylie—well, only other person I knew because let's face it, both of them were incredibly attractive, but they had nothing on some of my celebrity crushes.

Things with Haylie were still tense. She'd been around a little more now that whatever was between her and Logan was in full swing. He brought her to all sorts of shit that used to be reserved for just the four of us. That meant I often got dragged into conversations with her, since it would be rude to ignore her and answer someone else in the group who had spoken. I still hadn't told anyone about what happened at the party liked I'd promised. I hadn't even told Harrison, which was killing me because I told him everything. I knew that if she were anyone else, I wouldn't have kept the secret.