Chapter 10
TEN
COLLETTE
I sat in my car outside the academy’s dorm entrance, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel as I waited for Olivia to come out. I couldn’t believe she’d gotten me into this…and now she was making us late.
We were supposed to be on our way to Ethan’s football game and yet, I felt like I was on my way to the dentist. It was going to be painful, I just knew it.
Which was why I’d tried to cancel on Olivia all day at school today only to have her sigh and look me in the eye as she told me to stop being a wuss.
I finally groaned and told her if I had to go, then I was driving so I could decide when we left.
She’d squealed and hugged me. And now here I sat, waiting.
I’d texted her about ten times only to get a thumbs-up emoji as a response.
It was hard, sitting here, waiting for my best friend to finish beautifying herself.
Not that I could blame her. After all, we went to a school with absolutely no boys.
It wasn’t a wonder why she was taking her time.
I was about to turn my car off and climb out to hurry her along, but the door opened and she stepped out—in a mini skirt and a tank top. Half of her hair was pulled up onto the top of her head in a messy bun.
She smiled and waved as she hurried over.
I glanced down at my dark red hoodie and jeans and blew out my breath. I wasn’t going to be jealous. I wasn’t going to be jealous. I needed to keep chanting that in my mind because the green monster was starting to awaken inside of me.
Which just made me feel worse. What kind of friend was I? I couldn’t be happy for Olivia when I felt bad about myself. But I couldn’t feel good about myself, especially when I was around my practically perfect best friend. It was a vicious cycle.
The passenger door flew open and Olivia dropped down onto the seat. She grinned at me as she reached up and grabbed her seatbelt. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly. The click of the buckle sounded in the silence as I pulled away from the curb.
“It’s okay,” I said. I swallowed a few times and felt my irritation with my situation lessen. It wasn’t Olivia’s fault and she shouldn’t suffer because of my issues.
After all, if I let it bother me, that made me a pretty crappy friend.
“So, tell me more about Ethan.”
I paused at the stoplight and glanced over at her. She was grinning like a fool as she studied me. I shook my head and pressed on the gas as soon as the light turned green.
“Oh, no. We are not going to go there. Ethan is just a friend. That is all.” I was grateful that I sounded more confident than I felt. My feelings for Ethan were beginning to change and I was one hundred percent sure those changes were felt only on my end.
Ethan was the unsuspecting guy that I was finding myself falling for. But how could I not? After all, he was exactly what I didn’t know I wanted in a guy. He was sweet. Funny. Sexy. Gosh, that boy. He lifted me like I weighed nothing and when he wrapped his arms around me?
I felt small and protected.
I never knew I could feel like that.
Olivia snorted and my cheeks flushed. Crap. I had told myself to stop thinking of Ethan like that and yet, here I was breaking my own rule.
“What?” I said as I tucked my hair behind my ear.
“Nothing.” Then Olivia leaned over. “You’re just blushing and you got this goofy look on your face. I have a feeling that a certain brooding football player may be the source of that reaction.” Then she raised her hands and made air quotes as she said, “But you’re just friends so what do I know?”
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel as I calmed the butterflies in my stomach. “We are just friends.”
“Uh huh.”
I glared at her. “We are.”
“Mmhmm.”
“Olivia,” I groaned as I turned on my blinker and merged into the lane next to us. We were a few streets away from Oakwood High and I needed her to believe me before we climbed out of the car. I couldn’t have my friend ruining what I had with Ethan.
She was sweet but she was about as subtle as a bomb.
Olivia must have picked up on my desperation because she nodded and held up her hands. “Okay, fine. You’re just friends.”
Relief coursed through my veins as I glanced over at her. She was snapping her gum and staring out the window. “Does he have any single friends? You know, for someone who doesn’t want to be just friends with a hot football player?”
I cleared my throat and shrugged. “There are a few guys on his team that I think are single. One is Ryan and the other is Cooper. They’re both cute.”
Olivia smiled over at me. “Okay, okay. I can get on board with that. Can you ask him to introduce me?”
I shrugged as I pulled into the parking lot, narrowly missing an overly supportive parent who sprinted past. He was completely decked out in hunter green and silver attire. Another parent appeared in similar garb and they both high fived before they disappeared between the parked cars.
“It’s like some weird social experiment here,” Olivia said, craning her neck for a better look at a mom hoisting signs that said “We’re #1!”
“Sports parents are different than ballet parents,” I said as I pulled into an empty parking spot and turned off the engine.
The type of parents surrounding us was only the tip of the iceberg.
The students who were flocking into the stadium were just as strange.
To us, at least. For a second, I wondered what my life would be like if I’d gone to a normal school with normal kids.
If I’d grown up with boys in my life and surrounded by people of all shapes and sizes…
But I hadn’t. And watching a horde of teen guys walk past my car with their, all booming voices and indecipherable shouts made me feel like a stranger in a strange land. I was fighting the urge to slip my key back into the ignition and getting the heck out of here. This was so not my scene.
I knew how to be around Ethan when he and I were in the studio but out in public? How was I supposed to act?
We weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend, and besides Olivia, no one else knew that we spent time together. I’d say we were friends, but even that didn’t feel right. Friends didn’t have clandestine rendezvous after dark, now did they?
We were secret…somethings.
How do secret somethings act in public?
“Relax,” Olivia said.
I glanced over at her. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she studied me. Then she smiled. “He invited you, remember? He’s going to be so excited that you’re here.”
I swallowed as I nodded but didn’t move to get out. I took in a deep breath and turned to look at Olivia. “How do I act? I mean, we have fun in the studio but this is the first time we are doing anything together…in public.”
Olivia chewed her gum with a thoughtful expression before she reached out and rested her hand on mine. “It’s just a football game. I’m guessing he’s going to spend most of his time on the field throwing a ball around.” A smile spread across her lips as she held my gaze. “But I could be wrong.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Well, duh.”
Olivia chuckled as she climbed out of the car. “Other than that, just let him lead. From what I can see, he likes you.”
I raised my eyebrows. That word likes had so many meanings to it and I wanted to know which one she meant.
She sighed. “I only saw the two of you together for, like, a few minutes so I can’t confirm or deny, but from what I did see, he didn’t seem repulsed by you. And he was pretty insistent that you come to his game.”
We slammed our doors at the same time and Olivia waited for me as I made my way around the car. Then we fell into step with each other as we headed to the ticket booth.
“From my experience, guys don’t just invite random girls places. So I’d take it as a good sign that he wants to see more of you.”
I stared at the ground as we walked across the parking lot.
On one hand, I didn’t want my best friend to lie to me.
But on the other hand…I desperately wished she’d lie to me.
I wanted her to tell me a big old whopper about how it’d been so crazy obvious that he was into me.
One second in the same room and she’d been overwhelmed by all the sexual tension.
But Olivia didn’t lie, and I was left trying to figure out if the phrase ‘he didn’t seem repulsed by you’ was something to cheer about. “So, I should think he at least tolerates me?” I peeked over at Olivia.
“He probably more than tolerates you, but I can’t say for sure. Not when you’d pretty much kept this huge part of your life a secret from your best friend.”
She sort of yelled that last part and I shot her an apologetic look. She just laughed. “It’s okay. I already told you, I forgive you.”
We were standing at the window now. An older woman wearing a shirt that said “Football Mom: This Beauty raised her Beast.” She had a green and silver hat on complete with black streaks across her cheeks.
I raised my eyebrows, trying to imagine my mother doing something similar in support of me, but couldn't picture it. The woman behind the counter didn’t seem to notice that I was staring. Instead, she handed me two tickets and I handed her a twenty.
“Man, I wish our parents were this supportive about dancing,” Olivia said as I handed her the second ticket and we fell into line to enter the stadium.
“I was just thinking that. You’d think for artsy people, they could at least come with a sign or something.” I nodded toward the group of giggling girls that were holding a sign that said “Run, run, number twenty one.”
“Yeah. You’d think,” Olivia said.
We handed our tickets to the guard. He took them, ripped them, and then waved us through.
Once we got through the gates, the chaos didn’t end. Parents, siblings, and other Oakwood students were all running and weaving through each other as they either stood in line for concessions or tried to push through to get seats.