“Have you realized that ever since we’ve been doing our morning workouts together it seems like we’ve been more in tune with each other?”
Jake agreed. “I thought the same thing, let’s keep it up.” Jake threw his wallet in his back pocket, tossed a shirt over his head and made sure to apply some deodorant.
“Hey where’s the fire, man? Aren’t you going out to McGirk’s with us for some drinks?” Mason asked.
“No, Lexi is waiting for me outside. I’ll see you later.”
Mason stopped Jake by placing a hand on his chest. “Lexi? As in the girl who completely hates your guts, Lexi?”
“She doesn’t hate my guts. At least I don’t think she does but yes that Lexi. I gave her and her friends field passes for tonight. I caught her right before she left. I’m giving her a ride back to her apartment.”
Mason laughed, “Wow you must be crazy about her if you are willing to shower and change like a maniac to just give her a ride home.”
Jake shrugged, “What if I am? It would do me some good to settle down.”
Mason faked horror. “As I live in breath, I never thought I would hear you say those words.”
Jake playfully punched Mason in the shoulder. “Fuck off.” Jake said with a smile. “I’ll see you later. Have fun at the pub.”
Mason took his towel and whipped Jake in the ass as he was on his way out. Normally Jake would turn around and tackle his friend but he had better things to do. When he exited the locker room he looked around but didn’t spot Lexi. His stomach dropped to a sickening feeling, thinking that she might have tried walking back to her place alone. He was going to kill her if some creep didn’t before him.
He was about to exit the building when he saw her leaning against the wall near the exit. She looked cute wearing her football jersey that was tight in all the right places and her short jean shorts. She looked up and their eyes met. He watched her fidget while he walked toward her and he relished in the fact that even though she gave off a tough persona, she could be human as well and show that in fact she could be vulnerable as well.
“Were you waiting long?” He asked.
She shook her head and her beautiful blonde locks shifted on and off her shoulders as her head turned. “No, I’m actually surprised at how fast you were.”
“Well I cleaned all my orifices, if that’s what you were wondering.”
A little smiled peaked on her lips. “For your information Jake, not every girl is thinking about your body and its orifices all times.”
Jake playfully acted like she hurt him. “Oh Lexi, how you hurt me with your words.”
She just smiled at him and they walked to his Jeep. Jake opened the door and helped her in. He desperately wanted to keep talking to her, to not drop her off so suddenly but he just started getting her to talk to him so he didn’t want to scare her away. He had to take what he could get for now.
They drove in silence to her apartment and Jake cursed himself the entire drive for not being able to come up with one single thing to say to her. What was wrong with him? He never had a problem talking to girls before but whenever Lexi was around him, it was like his mind went completely blank.
They arrived at her apartment way too quickly and he listened to the deafening sounds of her unclicking her seatbelt. He begged and pleaded in his mind for her to ask him into her apartment but knew that was not going to happen.
“Thanks for the ride. I appreciate it.” She was getting out when he placed his hand on her arm to stop her. She looked at him with those bright blue eyes that sent shivers down his spine. He didn’t know what he was going to say but he wanted to prolong their encounter a little bit longer. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet.
“Uh, thank you for coming tonight. I’m glad you had a good time.”
“No thank you, we had a great time and you really played great tonight.”
Jake wasn’t going to mention the fact that he could feel her presence on the field which spurred him on to make every pass perfect and every play a gain of yards. It was a lot of pressure but every time he succeeded it took all the energy in his body not to look over at where she was standing to search for her approval. The fact that she complimented him on his level of play tonight meant the world to him.
“Thanks.” He wanted to ask her out tonight, to go to the pub with him or get frozen yogurt like she was going to or even just talk in his Jeep but he didn’t. He lost all his nerve. Instead, he let go of her arm and allowed her to get out of the car.
She waved to him and pulled her keys out of her purse to let herself into her apartment. Jake rested his head against the steering wheel. He hated that he didn’t ask her to stay. He sensed a little hesitation in her step when she was shutting the door to his jeep but he was too much of a coward to do anything about it. What it came down to was he didn’t want to get turned down by her when he was so close to winning her over. No, he would take baby steps, because right now baby steps seemed to be working toward his goal of being with Lexi Knox.
He put his Jeep in drive and was about to press the gas pedal when he heard his phone chime with a text message. He looked at the screen and saw that it was from Lexi. Quickly he opened the message and read it.
Lexi: Thanks again for a great night. I look forward to watching you play in your next game. Go Bears!
Jake felt his heart surge with happiness. He was making leeway with getting Lexi to be on his good side. Things were looking up for him even though the timing was incredibly slow. The wait was worth it. Lexi was worth the wait.
***
“I hope Lexi doesn’t hate us tomorrow.” Parker said while shoveling a spoonful of frozen yogurt into his mouth. After spending some time with him, Margo noticed that he was kind of a slob when it came to eating his food. It was also endearing, he was like a little boy who had quite the sweet tooth.
“Well at least you don’t have to deal with her when you get home. She is most likely going to have my head. Did you see the evil look she gave me when we left her there with Jake?”
Parker laughed and shook his head in agreement. “I do feel nervous for you. You have to promise to text me in the morning to let me know you’re still alive.”
Margo tried to be cool about his suggestion to contact him. She would text him anytime he wanted. Her feelings for Parker had gone past infatuation. Here feelings turned into full blown obsession now. She couldn’t get enough of Parker, she felt like a border line stalker. She kept reminding herself to cool her jets because she didn’t want to scare him away.
“I’m surprised you didn’t have a guy lined up for tonight.” Parker said with a smile.
“What are you talking about? You’re a guy.”
Parker playfully flexed his arms. “Hey look at that! I am, aren’t I? Who would have known.”
“It’s kind of hard to miss.”
Parker gave her a strange look and then started laughing. “Oh no you don’t, babe. I know what you’re trying to do. You are trying to use your feminine ways on me. Not going to work, I know your track record, you’re like the female version of Jake.”
Margo cringed at the thought of being compared to Jake, well what seemed like now as the old Jake. Yes, she had her fair share of men but she was nothing like Jake. She could at least tell you who she had been with, Jake probably had no clue. She also didn’t like that Parker recognized her wild ways. She didn’t want him to think she was a slut. That would significantly lower her chances at ever being with Parker. Not that she was sure if she could be. She still wasn’t sure how Lexi would feel about the feelings Margo has been harboring for her best guy friend.
She decided to laugh off his comment instead of becoming offended. “Oh, you caught me.”
Parker tapped her on the nose with is finger. “I knew it. So guess who talked to me today?”
Curious at the change of subject she asked, “Who?”
“Sierra from the basketball team.”
Trying to hide the frown that f
ormed at her brow, Margo tried to act supportive like a normal friend would do. Inside she was fuming, though. Why the hell would that bitch, Sierra, be talking to Parker? Oh Margo knew why, Sierra was talking to Parker like any other woman with eyes would talk to him. Margo plastered on a fake smile.
“Oh?”
“Yea, she suggested we go out sometime.”
Margo was practically grinding her teeth together. She put down the rest of her frozen yogurt on the table she was sharing with Parker and pushed it away. She was no longer hungry. Parker scooped it up and started finishing her cup.
“Well…that should, uh…be fun.” She said trying to be supportive. “Are you going to go out with her?”
He shrugged. “Don’t really know. I don’t want her to get the wrong impression. I’m really not looking for anything serious right now. I kind of want to live it up my senior year, plus who knows what next year will bring. I don’t want to be attached to someone, especially if I might be travelling all the time.”
The fantastic night Margo was having with Parker came to a grinding halt. He didn’t want anything serious. His words kept ringing through her head as she sat there staring at him. She felt like she was going to be sick to her stomach. She knew that having any kind of romantic involvement with Parker was a long shot but she didn’t know she had no shot at all. He wanted to have fun and that had been her motto all throughout college but she knew she wouldn’t be able to just have fun with Parker. She would get too attached.
There was only one thing she could do, forget about him, about having any kind of romantic involvement with him. That could be easy. She could just drown herself in the lacrosse team. There were plenty of extremely attractive guys on the team she could get lost in. Forgetting about Parker wasn’t going to be a problem at all, she tried to convince herself.
Finally was able to put some words together after her initial shock, Margo said, “Maybe she just wants a fling. Go for it.”
It pained her to say those words but she had to act as if what he just said didn’t destroy all her hopes and dreams for her senior year, or her future.
Parker gave her a quizzical look. “You think?” He licked his spoon and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Maybe I will.”
Well that was it, Margo thought. The end of any kind of relationship with Parker, after tonight she didn’t plan on spending any kind of alone time with him because her heart wouldn’t be able to take it. She had to cut herself off. It was the only way to get over Parker Hill.
Chapter 7
It had been two weeks since the night of the football game. Lexi had not seen or really heard from Jake since he dropped her off. His non-existence in her life could partially be because he had been on the road for back to back away games. Not that she was keeping track or anything.
She had seen a real change in Jake and it killed her that he hadn’t tried to pursue her again. She for sure thought that after the game he was going to ask her out. She wanted him to ask her out. When did that happen? Did she really want to go there? Yes, yes she did. He wasn’t the same guy from the past three years, he was different, he was a guy she could see herself falling for.
Lexi constantly heard gossip from other girls on different teams that Jake wasn’t his normal self this year and he had been keeping to himself instead of going out like he normally did. The girls were angry that he hadn’t been at parties but Lexi was secretly happy because it meant that he wasn’t putting on some kind of act just for her to get in her pants. If she wasn’t having such a bad week, maybe she would be actually excited about the fact that Jake was a changed man…well hopefully a changed man.
Starting her terrible week off with a speeding ticket, which was her fault of course but she wished the officer gave her a break, just this once, her crappy week continued. Her dad once again fell off the wagon and the only reason she found out was because her mom called her from the bedroom crying and praying that he wouldn’t find her. Lexi didn’t understand why her mom stayed with her dad. He was an abusive asshole. A long time ago, he had her good times with her dad when they were traveling around going to her softball games but once she hit high school and was able to drive herself, her dad stopped going to Lexi’s practices and games and started hitting up the bar more often.
Lexi never really talked about her dad to anyone besides Parker and Margo but they weren’t even around to talk to. Parker was too busy with Sierra, the new point guard on the basketball team, and Margo had been gone for nights on end. Lexi’s only guess was she was at the lacrosse house. Sometimes she worried about her friend and wondered if she was making the right decisions when it came to her sex life.
So instead of talking about her problems with the two closest people in her life, she bottled it up to the point that it affected her play, once again. She wasn’t hitting like she was supposed to and she made a few errors in the field at practice, causing the team to do thirty burpees for every error. Lexi’s legs were sore as hell, she felt like she could barely walk but she continued to work out in the morning and then attend the team’s workout later on in the day. She pushed herself harder and harder each day, and she knew why. She was running away from the pain her dad brought to the family and the pain she heard in her mom’s shrieking voice over the phone as well as the pain from not hearing from Jake.
Dead silence filled the locker room as Lexi walked in. Usually everyone was talking and joking around before practice but when she walked in, it was as if someone had died. Lexi looked around and all the freshman had their heads down. This wasn’t good. Lexi looked up at the whiteboard that hung in their locker room and saw her coaches hand writing.
Don’t bother going to the field, basketball courts at five.
Shit.
“What’s going on?” No one answered. “I asked what the hell is going on?”
One of the under classmen walked past her and said, “You’ll find out.”
Lexi grabbed her running shoes, slipped them on quickly and headed up to the gym. Her stomach was twisting in knots. Whenever they were asked to go to the basketball courts it was never a good sign. It meant something bad happened and they were about to pay for it.
Lexi walked into the gym and saw her coaches standing in a circle together discussing something quietly. Her head coach was swinging a whistle around her hand.
Fuck. Definitely not a good sign. Lexi spotted Margo and saddled up next to her.
“Hey, what’s going on?” She whispered.
Margo shrugged her shoulders and then stretched her quad. “You got me, but I’m assuming we’re about to get our asses handed to us.”
Lexi agreed with Margo’s obvious observation. Lexi looked at the rest of her teammates and once again the freshman looked guilty. This had to be their fault. What did they get into?
Her coach blew her whistle. “On the line” she shouted. “Suicides, ten, go!”
Lexi groaned and took off. Suicides were torture and ten in a row was unbearable. This was going to be really bad.
Lexi made sure to hit every line with her hand and to sprint her ass off in between line touches because if anyone needed to set an example it was her. She was the team captain and even though she had no clue what was happening she needed to lead her team. Her legs felt like noodles, she didn’t even feel like they were attached to her body as she sprinted up and down the basketball court. They felt like dangling muscles that for some odd reason were propelling her forward. If she knew she was going to be tortured at practice today she wouldn’t have done an extra set of lunges in the weight room.
They finally finished their ten suicides and looked back at their coach to see what was next. Everyone was trying to catch their breath, some girls were bent over but Lexi made sure to stand up straight even though she was sucking air.
“Freshman, do you care to tell your team why you’re all here getting your asses handed to you?” Their coach said. No one spoke up, which made their coach even angrier. “Give me ten more suicides.” Their coa
ch screamed then blew her whistle.
This was going to be one long night. Lexi heard Margo groan next to her and she silently agreed with her friend. Lexi tried to push back all thoughts that were floating through her head so she could slip into her blank space she visited when in these type of situations. She just let her body run on auto pilot. She felt numb, she had felt numb for a while now but today she truly had no feelings. She should be outraged, she would normally be screaming at her teammates by now to demand what was going on but she couldn’t, her emotions were checked at the door.
When they were done with another round of suicides, their coach looked at her. “Where have you been Lexi? You’re supposed to be leading this team and right now, you couldn’t lead a bunch of two year olds if you tried. Fifty burpees, go!” She blew her damn whistle again.
Lexi felt her face go blank. She really wasn’t being a good leader, she could barely control her own life. How would she be able to take care of a team? Was it because she had no purpose? Was that why she was so empty? She would be saying good bye to the sport she loved in less than a year and she had no clue what she was going to do with her life. She had no plans, at all. Or was it because of her family’s dirty secret? Or was it the fact that an extremely gorgeous man made her think he was interested in her but kept ignoring her?
Lexi waited for the rest of the team to finish up their burpees while she caught her breath.
“Anyone want to speak up, yet?” Still there was silence, what the hell? Lexi thought. “Ten suicides, and follow them up with fifty more burpees.”
Their coach’s whistle rang through Lexi’s ears as she plowed through the physical demand their coach gave them. Some of the girls were falling over and picking themselves back up. Lexi thought she was sprinting but when she looked up at where she was in the gym, she realized she was practically jogging but her legs couldn’t go any faster. It felt like cinder clocks attached to her hips as she tried to trek her way down the court. She tried to go faster but her legs wouldn’t budge, they were fried.