5
‘Fallingforyou’
— The 1975
Scott
The following day I arrive inside math class like any other day. I immediately spot Lara in our usual spot. Early like always. Or maybe I’m just late.
I watch her from across the room; she’s not paying attention, just drowning in her book. She looks beautiful as her eyes glide across the pages. I snap out of it. That is my enemy, I’m not supposed to like her.
Ever since Lara and I got in a class together, this is the most time I’ve spent with her in years. I used to ignore her when I saw her in the halls. She was never my priority.
I sit down next to her.
“You’re late again.” I roll my eyes.
“By a minute, Butterfly.” I put my backpack down on the desk and begin rummaging through it, looking for my math book. Shit. I forgot it.
“How do you forget your math book?” she asks, squinting her eyes at me like she heard my thoughts.
“I just do.” Yesterday was a busy night; my parents were arguing all night. I also woke up late, so I had to rush.
“We can share mine.” She moves her math book from her side to the middle so we can both see.
My body heats up.
One tiny act of kindness from Lara and now I’m sweating?
“You seriously have pink everything.” I motion towards her pencil. I’m trying to distract myself from the sudden heat.
“What do you want me to write with? My toes?”
“Let me guess, you painted those pink too.” Lara goes quiet, so I know I got my answer. Lara has only owned one nail polish, because I guess it’s “expensive”. I always tell her to try a different color from the glitter magenta, but she doesn’t.
Every time I see someone with pink nail polish, all I can think about is her. Especially if there's glitter.
I look down at Lara’s outfit. Lara is wearing a white long-sleeve shirt, a small baby pink puffer, and some jeans.
She has a hat that she already took off and set next to her workbook.
She is so overdressed for school. I’ve never cared that much about fashion.
I just usually put something together that feels right, and it’s mostly because I also do not like getting up early in the morning.
I finish my work and shut my journal. Lara has already finished; she is doodling in her notebook. I watch her draw a small cat. Lara is so weird, but it’s in a good way, pretty weird. Not ugly, weird. Forget I said that actually. Everyone's unique in their own way.
“You remind me of a dog,” Lara says abruptly.
I stifle a laugh. “Why?”
“You’re excited about everything, you basically wag your tail when you’re happy.” My lips make a line. “I want a golden retriever.” Her eyes are filled with longing, still looking at her notebook. Lara is now drawing a dog.
“Why a golden retriever?”
“They are adorable.”
“Is it because dogs remind you of me?” Her gaze snaps up at mine.
“God no.” Suddenly, the door bursts open wide, and Danny and Ashton waddle in.
Ashton whistles as he discreetly walks over to my table.
It’s not very discreet at all.
“Excuse me?” Mrs. Maggie asks, jumping up from her desk.
“We have a pass.” Ashton hands her a piece of paper, then they both pull up a chair from the corner of the room. They sit right at the table with Lara and I.
“What are you two doing here?” I laugh.
“We were bored,” Danny says, laughing softly. “Mr. Kale keeps talking about how his wife divorced him, and we were getting kind of sick of it.”
“I mean, I would divorce him too, I don’t want my last name to be Kale.” Ashton shrugs.
Ashton turns to look at Lara, who is now trying to make herself look small so no one talks to her. It’s not working.
“Who is this?” Ashton leans in, looking at her notebook, she shields it with her hands. Her eyes land on his, her expression contorts into a face of annoyance.
“Mind your own business,” she snaps at him. I grin. There she is. I hate how shy Lara became after middle school; she used to be so outgoing and kind, but now she surrounds herself with horrible friends.
“This is Lara.” I introduce her, putting my arm around her teasingly. She shrugs my arm off her, giving me a disgusted look.
“She doesn’t seem to like you that much, Scott,” Ashton says, smiling at her. I give him a dirty look. Obviously, she doesn’t seem to like me that much; we are enemies.
“I don’t.” Lara gives me a dirty look from the side that makes Ashton and Danny laugh. I can already tell they like her.
“Ooo, you going to take that, Scott?” Danny holds a fist to his mouth, emphasising the Ooo, which makes Lara laugh, the sound rich and rare coming from her. She never laughs.
“I guess so.” I shrug. Danny has dark skin and very curly hair. I have curly hair, but it’s closer to waves most of the time. Ashton has blonde hair and blue eyes. His eyes are the brightest shade of blue possible, piercing almost.
“Where’s Axel?” I ask them. They both look at each other before answering.
“He didn’t show up to school today.” That’s odd, especially for Axel. He may look like he smokes a pack a day, and acts rude towards us; he never misses school. Whoever rejected him really affected him.
“That’s weird,” I say, tapping my pencil on the table.
I look back over at Lara, her leg is shaking.
This situation is too social for her, I can tell.
Especially because it’s people she’s never met.
My friends aren’t the nicest people ever, but they wouldn’t be rude to her or anyone unless it’s playful or if they start something.
People may just stereotype us as rude jocks.
We are much more than that. I place my hand on Lara’s outer thigh under the table, and her leg stops shaking immediately, which makes me smile to myself.
“Our basketball game got pushed until after winter break," Danny states. Ashton makes a frown. We are going against our rival school, so it’s a big game for us. Capital vs Blackwell.
“Lara, you should come,” Ashton says, his eyes lighting up as he gets the idea.
“And watch Scotty warm the bench? No, thank you,” she retorts. Ashton and Danny both laugh.
“He’s actually surprisingly good,” Danny says. Ashton nods in agreement. At least my friends think so.
“I’d rather slam my tongue in a car door.” Ouch.
“Pleaseeee,” Ashton begs, putting his hands together. Lara pauses for a moment, then sighs.
“Nope.”
“Damn it!” Ashton shouts.
“If you two are going to disrupt, I'm going to send you back to class.” Mrs. Maggie says sternly.
“Yes, ma’am.” Ashton and Danny both say in unison.
5 years later
‘Out of the woods’
— Taylor Swift
Lara
“Oh my god, we are actually doing this,” I tell Aurora as we walk into the stadium. The loud chatter of people sitting on the bleachers fills my ears.
Aurora drags her date along with us.
“Obviously!” she shouts cheerfully, getting the attention of the people surrounding us.
We walk over to our seats, sitting down in the bleachers.
There’s music playing over the speakers quietly.
“We just want to see what he looks like now.”
I know what he looks like due to social media.
It doesn’t hurt to see in person, I am not going to talk to him though… Right?
The basketball players start filing in, getting into their starting positions, and that’s when I see him, wearing a number 13 jersey with ‘Delgado’ written on the back of it.
My breath hitches; it feels like the whole world stops.
‘Out of the Woods’ by Taylor Swift begins playing in my head.
It’s probably my all-time favorite song right now, and the lyrics match my heart beats as I stare at him on the court.
The purple jersey looks ungodly on him. I’ve always pictured him playing in the big leagues, and now here he is.
I can’t take my eyes off him as he begins dribbling the ball when the game begins. I watch him make the first basket, yet he doesn’t look happy. He usually looks happy when he plays basketball; this is a new expression—an unreadable one.
“That’s him! Number 13, right?” Aurora asks, her date looking confused.
“That is Scott.” My Scotty. I watch him like a hawk. He’s really good, like really good. I don’t know much about basketball, but I do know the goal is to put the ball in the hoop. I watch him do exactly that, and the crowd roars.
“Who is this guy you keep talking about?” Michael from Tinder asks us. I completely forgot this guy was here; he hasn’t really made an effort to talk to us, just letting us do our own thing. I can tell he’s doing all this to sleep with Aurora.
“Her ex-situationship, or relationship? It’s confusing.”
Aurora pats me on the back. I want to escape, to leave.
Instead, I keep my eyes on the game even though I have no idea what’s going on, but just being in the same vicinity as Scott makes my heart beat faster.
There’s a second he turns around where I feel like he’s staring right at me, but he turns away the same second.
They ended up winning the game, 106-98. Scott scored a lot of points. I wasn’t keeping track; I was mainly focused on the fact that I'm in the same room as him. The same room as him. We walk down the steps towards the exit, when I hear someone call my name.
“Lara?!” I spin around to see Ashton and Danny jogging after me. I haven’t seen them in forever. My eyes completely light up as they run over to me.
“Ashton! Danny!” I hug them both tightly. It’s been so long. They were such good friends to me when Scott broke my heart. They are still good friends. I call Ashton every time I need him, and he does the same when he needs me.
“I missed you!” Ashton says, squeezing my arm as I pull away from the hug.
I stare at them both. Danny got taller, and his curly hair is way longer than before.
He looks like he’s in desperate need of a haircut.
Ashton, with blonde messy hair, his blue eyes still the same bright ones.
Ashton is still pretty short compared to Danny.
They both are wearing Scott’s jersey number.
“I missed you guys, too. What are you doing here?” I ask them.
“I could ask you the same thing, aren’t you and Scott enemies at the moment?”
The question catches me off guard, right, I forgot I’m showing up to Scott’s game, without permission, and Scott is still their best friend.
Well, it’s not like I need permission to go to a basketball game that we paid for… Michael paid for.
“We wanted to see if he’s any good.” Aurora pipes in, giving them an awkward smile. I watch her look at Danny for a very long time, her eyes not leaving his.
“I hate him,” I answer. Truthful and blunt.
“Yeah, sure you do,” Axel mumbles from behind. I didn’t even realize he was here, yet he’s still a stick in the mud. I’ve never really talked to Axel that much, ever since he came out to me a few years ago. I was just there to support him.
“He left me, he made his choice.”
Then my heart stops when I hear the most familiar voice, the one I listened to for hours nonstop, the one that told me he loved me.
“Lara?” Ashton steps out of the way, and I see Scott, dripping in sweat, wearing a grey sweatsuit, the beads of sweat dripping from his forehead, glistening on his skin, making his face look even more defined.
His sharp jawline, his perfect nose, and his curly hair damp with the sweat from playing in the game.
His adult features are even more perfect in person.
He stares at me with wide eyes—his gorgeous green eyes.
“Awkward,” Aurora grumbles, and Ashton tugs at Aurora’s arm, motioning for her to leave us alone for a moment.
There’s so much I want to say as everyone walks away, I know they are still eavesdropping, especially Ashton and Aurora.
I don’t say anything, though. I raise my hand and slap him across the face before he can say anything else.