Chapter Thirteen
Chapter
thirteen
“OUCH, OUCH, OUCH, OUCH,” I provided as sound effects for my walk from my car in the parking lot to where Theo was leaning against the back of his, watching my slow progression. I placed the folded towel I’d taken from his house the day before onto the trunk next to where he was leaning.
“Such a baby,” he said, twisting toward me, like he wasn’t in any pain whatsoever.
“Are you not sore at all?”
“Not at all.”
I reached out and squeezed his triceps. He sucked in some air. I laughed. “That’s what I thought.”
“Fine. A little sore.”
“So you are human.”
He nodded toward my foot, then said, “Put your heel on the bumper for some hamstring stretches.”
I obeyed, making more pained noises as I did.
“Why’d you park so far away from me?” he asked.
“In case anyone drives by. They can’t see our cars together here at the school on a weekend.”
“We don’t want anyone to think our cars are involved in an inappropriate relationship?” he asked, his voice as sarcastic as his question.
I pointed in the general direction of the football field. “I told you, this arrangement cannot get back to Jensen or…” I’ll be made to look like an even bigger fool if I fail at this too.
“Or what?” he asked when I didn’t say my fear out loud.
“I don’t know—he’ll stop it, or he’ll know what’s coming, or he’ll start training extra hard.”
There was a smile in his eyes when he said, “I’ve seen that man train extra hard. I’m not worried.”
“Theo.”
“He won’t find out,” he said in an even voice.
“Great. We’re on the same page.”
“Great.”
I pulled up a browser on my phone as I continued to stretch. “Do you know of any mini triathlons happening around here in the next couple months?”
“No. Part of your payback? Did Jensen hate triathlons or something?”
“No, it’s what I told my parents I was doing, you know, instead of admitting what I’m really doing.”
“Weren’t they also pissed at Jensen for stealing your spot?”
“I haven’t told them.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m still trying to pretend it didn’t happen.” Maybe I didn’t want to tell them he’d so easily stolen the spot I’d worked incredibly hard for. Maybe they’d think that meant I wasn’t good at the thing I wanted for my future if someone with zero experience could steal it that easily from me. They’d think I was a failure.
I found a mini tri taking place in Pismo Beach, only about thirty minutes from us. I turned my screen and showed Theo. “The second Saturday in April. Same weekend as football tryouts. It’s serendipity.”
He squinted at my phone, then read one of the captions under the picture of the ocean, “Swim with the sharks? Is that their selling point?”
“I assume the biking and running portions are not with the sharks,” I said.
“Too bad.” He gestured toward my foot. “Other leg.”
I put my other foot on the bumper, screenshot the page, and forwarded it to my mom. My phone buzzed with what I assumed was my mom’s response, but it was Deja in the group chat: We still on for lunch at the diner today? I work till 1. But after that.
Maxwell: I need to hear all about training with the hottie.
Lee: I’m right here.
Me: I can hardly sit or stand. But yes!
“Do your parents think a triathlon with the sharks is a bad idea?” He obviously thought that’s who I was texting.
“Oh, no, just Deja and the guys confirming lunch today.”
“We’re going to lunch today?”
“Not you. Me,” I said. “With my friends.”
“Got it,” he said.
“Wait, do you want to come?”
“Absolutely not,” he said, straightening up and beginning to stretch beside me.
“Good, because after you pranked us into coming early to the party on Friday, you wouldn’t be welcome anyway.”
“Early? You were late.”
“No, I mean the real party.”
He laughed. “My grandma’s birthday was the real party. I invited other people after you got there because I realized you were embarrassed.”
I paused and reassessed that night. How he’d talked to his mom, probably asking if he could have friends over. How she’d argued with him for a couple minutes but then conceded. “Why did you invite me in the first place? You knew I’d be embarrassed to come to a family party.”
“I didn’t expect you to come. I had kind of thought you were kidding.”
“Nice,” I said.
“I know you don’t think so, but I really am a nice guy.”
I didn’t know what to believe about Theo. My instincts were telling me to keep him at a distance. Between what I’d experienced with him and the stories I’d heard from Jensen, I was wary. “My muscles say otherwise.”
“Your muscles are going to love me.”
“Both my brain and body hate you right now,” I said, meeting his eyes.
His mouth curved into a half smile, and he nodded toward the school. “Let’s learn some football.”
We headed through the halls toward the field.
“I didn’t invite Jensen to the party, by the way,” he said as we walked. “Someone else must’ve.”
“I figured.”
“But it was good, right? He saw you looking hot.” He winked my way.
“Are you saying I don’t always look hot?” I asked. Two could play at his ultra-confident game.
“Nope.” But that’s all he said. He didn’t elaborate. Safe answer.
“Did you tell Jensen about his stuff, by the way?” I asked.
“His stuff?”
“The stuff I brought to your house that I wanted to burn?”
“I didn’t talk to Jensen at all that night. I wanted to kick him out but got distracted with your revenge plan, and that sounded like a better idea.”
Who else could’ve told Jensen about the bag? Had Theo’s mom overheard me?
We arrived at a large chain-link gate that during the school week was open but was now very much closed, with a chain, a padlock and everything.
He let out a grunt. “Since when do they close the field?”
“Outside of football season? Almost always. We once got locked out of soccer practice.”
“And you didn’t think to say this on our walk over?”
I shrugged. “I thought you had popularity privileges. That you got the janitor to open it up or something.”
“No privileges,” he muttered. Then he looked up at the top of the gate as though assessing its scalability.
“I am way too sore to climb this,” I said before the idea became too firmly planted in his mind.
“Here, step in my hands.” He assumed position, hands clasped, legs braced, shoulder against the fence.
“I am not climbing this, Theo,” I said, unmoving.
“Come on, you won’t hurt me.”
“I will hurt me, ” I said.
“I’m beginning to think you’re stubborn,” he said, dropping his hands to his sides.
“Maybe you’re the stubborn one. Follow me.” I walked along the fence line as he trailed behind.
“Do you know a secret way onto the field?”
“I might.” If it hadn’t been fixed since last year.
The football field and the soccer field were one and the same at our small beach-town school. And last year, the entire girls’ soccer team had ended up here at midnight. It had been the day before Deja’s birthday; someone started a group chat that we should all meet at midfield at midnight because she was turning sixteen, and apparently this was the way to show how special that was. When we couldn’t get in, we found an opening on the far side of the field where the school fence shared a wall with the adjoining walking trail and neighborhood. We’d all squeezed through it and played a game of soccer in the dark.
I must’ve been wrapped up in the memory, because I didn’t hear the voices until Theo grabbed me around the waist and pulled me behind the janitor’s shed. The voices were on the far side of the fence, moving along the walking trail. Theo’s arm was still around my waist, both our backs pushed against the building, listening intently. It sounded like a group of kids.
He clearly came to the same realization, because he said, “See, I’m a vault with your secret.”
“Such a vault,” I agreed. Our breaths were heavy with the panic of the moment. I knew this because my right shoulder was tucked into his left.
His fingers tightened on my waist before he dropped his arm, retrieving it from behind me. “I think we’re safe now.”
I nodded, but neither of us moved.
After several more breaths, I pushed myself off the wall and peered around the corner of the shed. Most of the fence was crawling with morning glory vines, its purple flowers and green leaves providing a thick cover. “We’re good.”
We reached the corner. I pushed on the fence, revealing how the sides were only connected to each other at the top and bottom.
His eyebrows popped up. “What kind of delinquent are you?”
I stepped through the opening. “The kind that really didn’t want to have to climb today.”
He laughed, following me through.
“And if this year’s team is anything like last year’s, then there should be…” I kicked aside some leaves that covered a hole revealing a soccer ball. I picked it up and bounced it several times from one knee to the other. It was a little dirty but aired up, which let me know that either Deja had carried on the midnight birthday tradition with others or someone else had. For a second I was hurt I hadn’t been invited, but I’d done it to myself when I dropped out. Moved on with my life. I gave one last bump with my knee, sending the ball flying toward Theo. He caught it.
“Not too sore to knee a soccer ball, I guess.”
“I have put on my brave face,” I said.
“That’s what your brave face looks like?”
“What does yours look like?”
“No wincing is involved.” He dropped the ball and tapped it to me. Without a word we passed it back and forth as we walked to the middle of the field.
“Does football start with a kickoff too?” I asked when we stopped.
“Yes,” he said. “But that’ll feel easy after you master this.”
“If you say so,” I responded.
“Then the opposite team returns it and game play starts. The driving toward the endzone.”
“I thought you were going to make me learn the rules on my own,” I said.
“Yeah, well, we’re here.” He backed away from me, putting space between us so he could kick the ball farther.
“You better watch out. If you keep helping people like this, they might take your School Jerk title away.”
“Who awarded me that title? Jensen?”
“Among other people,” I said.
“And you agree?”
“I…” I hesitated.
“It’s time to start forming your own opinions, don’t you think?”
My mouth opened and shut. I wanted to say that I had plenty of my own opinions, but I wasn’t proving that very well. I was finally able to stutter out, “Jensen has taken over your spot in my book. But you still hold the cocky title. Walking around with your earbuds in all the time with that face and that body.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I was born with two of those things. Can’t really help it.”
“But you think you’re better than everyone.”
“You must agree that I’m the best to some extent. You chose me to teach you, after all.”
“I was desperate,” I said.
He smirked. “Good to know.”