Hanging With The Boys

08.

"TODAY IS THE day I confront Evan about his lack of communication." I say as I walk towards the lacrosse field with Luke afterschool. "I mean, he could say the same thing about me, couldn't he? The lack of communication, that is. It's not like I've tried texting and he hasn't answered. But I shouldn't have to do that, should I? He's the one that left halfway through the dance to go help his brother look for his lost cat. Which I admit is sweet. But still, he should be the one to check in. At least a, 'Did you get home safely' text would've been nice." I ramble, but before I can say anything else, Luke stops me and turns me to face him.

"You have nothing to worry about. He'd be stupid not to be interested in you." He says.

"Wait, you think there's a possibility that he may not be interested in me?" I ask, suddenly starting to feel more panicky.

"I mean there's always that chance. But no. Of course, he's interested. Why wouldn't he be? You're amazing. I'm just saying that if he's not interested, he doesn't deserve you. In my opinion, he doesn't deserve you anyways."

"You're just saying that because you don't like him." I laugh, rolling my eyes at how ridiculous this all is.

This time last year, the biggest thing I was worried about was getting to school and trying to last the day without people talking about me and not having to go to the girl's bathroom to cry my eyes out in one of the stalls. Or to walk the halls without people laughing and whispering. Now here I am, with an amazing group of friends, something I've never really had before, who all care about my wellbeing, while I try to figure out if a guy likes me or not. I guess this is what normal teenage girl life should be like and it feels nice to finally be able to experience that.

"Exactly. But it's your call on what you do with your relationship." Luke says.

"You're right." I say and then march the rest of the way to the field.

I make the decision when I'm a couple steps away from Evan to be forward about the situation. To cut to the chase. "Hey." I say when I approach him, giving him a quick hug and then kissing him. He kisses me back straight away which I guess is a good sign. "Is everything okay? You haven't been texting lately." I say. "Everything's fine. I just had to do a bunch of work on Sunday and yesterday. School's been crazy lately." He shrugs. "Yeah, I understand." I reply, not sure what else to say. "Oh, did you find the cat?" I ask, suddenly remembering his brother's lost cat. He seems slightly confused at first but then remembers. "Oh yeah. Turns out he was stuck in a box in the basement the whole time." He laughs.

The coach blows the whistle and the players start to make their way to the field. "Good luck!" I smile, giving him another quick kiss and then I make my way to sit next to Luke on the bleachers.

"I think that went well." I say, sitting down. "Well, there was kissing so that must be a good sign." Luke jokes. "Shut up." I say, bumping my elbow into his ribs jokingly and rolling my eyes. While the coaches discuss who knows what, I watch Evan talk to his friends. I can't hear what they're saying but they look back at me a couple times, so I wave. He waves back. "You're popular." Luke comments. I smile. I guess I was just overthinking things before. Everything seems to be great between us.

Ian comes to join us just as the game starts, sitting down on Luke's other side. I pull my homework out of my bag, deciding to get ahead since I won't be home until later. I can't let myself fall behind just because two of my friends and my boyfriend are lacrosse players and have at least one game a week.

"Oh no." I hear Luke say as I finish my math calculations and am just about to move on to my punnett squares for biology. I look up to see the beginning of a fight on the field. Number 7 from Anderson Prep and number 3 from Riverview. "Oh my gosh, that's Forrest and Evan!" I say. "Shit, you're right." Ian says. They push each other a couple more times but then seeming to think better of their actions, they separate from one another. They both take their helmets off, Forrest brushing his hand through his hair and Evan wiping sweat from his forehead.