Chapter Six Summer
Chapter Six
Summer
Tag is fun…or at least more fun than I expected.
Coming here tonight was a risk, but the only thing I could think of that would be worse is letting Amanda and the rest of the team talk shit and think they can walk all over me.
I’m here at Frost Lake whether they like it or not.
Whether I like it or not. They aren’t ruining my senior year or my chances at a soccer scholarship.
So I didn’t really have much of a choice but to come and show them that I’m not going to back down easily.
Still, I spend most of the night wishing I could make a smooth exit without anyone noticing.
Standing in the middle of a yard filled with people I don’t know is intimidating. MJ is nice, and a few of the other girls have been polite, if not friendly. But it’s clear no one except MJ is ready to welcome me to the team. I don’t blame them. I can feel Amanda’s wrath even from twenty feet away.
Currently I’m in a circle of soccer girls, which used to be a circle I thrived in. MJ is talking to Rina, a sophomore, about a guy I don’t know, so I’m off to the side trying to look like I’m perfectly content to smile and nod and be on the outside.
“Look at you making friends,” Rowan says as he steps up in front of me, holding a red cup. His smile is all charm and confidence, and I don’t detect even a hint of irony in his statement. He truly believes I’m fitting right in.
Try as I might not to, I’ve been aware of him all night. He’s a popular guy. No one is avoiding him like they are me.
“I wouldn’t go that far, but no one has tossed a drink in my face like I expected.”
He huffs a laugh like that idea is ludicrous. Is it though?
“Do you guys want to play washers?” Rina asks. She looks to Rowan and then me.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Rowan answers before I can, then shoots me a wink.
As we make our way over to where the washers game is set up, Rowan stays by my side. I can’t get a good read on him. Why is he being so nice to me? He hates my brother, and his ex hates me. There’s no world in which it makes sense that he wants to be my friend.
Rowan and I end up on opposite teams. Me and MJ versus him and Rina, but we’re standing together behind one of the boxes.
Two guys wearing Frost Lake High hockey T-shirts stop by to say hi to Rowan, and he introduces me.
“Brandon and Mark, this is Summer. She’s new.” Rowan takes a drink from his cup.
“You’re the Oakley chick.” Brandon grins as he shakes a finger at me like he’s heard plenty about me already and is finally putting a face to the name.
“That’s right,” I say, guarding myself against whatever response might come next, but Brandon just smiles. “We killed your hockey team last season.”
“We killed your…every other sport last season,” I say in response. Oakley has a great sports program across the board. But it’s true, our hockey team has been in a slump for as long as I can remember.
“Not boys’ soccer,” Rowan says with that signature playful smile.
“You barely beat us and it took two overtimes,” I say, thinking back to that game. Silas was pissed. He always wanted to win, but never more than when playing Frost Lake.
“But we still won.” Rowan practically beams. I fight an eye roll.
“It’s your turn,” MJ calls from the other side.
I wave in acknowledgment to her and Rina.
“I’ll catch you around,” Brandon says to Rowan, then tips his head to me. “Later, Oakley.”
I laugh off the nickname. I could think of worse things, though I doubt it’s going to make my teammates feel any better about me with the constant reminder from other people that I’m not one of them.
Rowan and I take our turns, then he says, “See? People like you. You just have to hang out more.”
“People are nicer to me when you’re around.” Which is true. “Well, everyone but Amanda.”
“Yeah, I noticed there’s some friction there. Do you two have bad blood or something?”
I shrug. “We beat them last season, but it never felt like a rivalry or anything.”
In fact, I think she was nicer to me then.
“She’s one of the most competitive people I know, but she’s not usually like that.” Rowan glances across the party. I follow his gaze to Amanda. She’s standing with some other guy, looking chummy. I glance back at Rowan in time to see his jaw harden and his brows furrow.
We finish washers, then another group is waiting. Rowan and I stay standing together a few feet away, watching the next game. He glances toward Amanda again. It’s so obvious he has it bad for her.
“What’s the deal with you two?” I ask.
“Who?” He looks away from her and takes a drink from his cup.
“Don’t play dumb. Amanda. You’ve been staring at her nonstop.”
“I have not,” he says and frowns.
“You have.”
He grunts.
“So?” I prompt him again.
“We hung out last year.”
“Hung out as in dated?”
“It wasn’t that serious.”
“But you wanted it to be?”
He opens his mouth but then closes it like maybe he’s second-guessing his words. When he finally speaks, he says, “I don’t know.”
I almost feel sorry for him, but it’s hard to see him with Amanda after how awful she’s treated me. What am I saying? They deserve each other. Or that’s what I thought. The more time I spend with him, the less I believe that.
“What about you? Does your boyfriend know you’re here tonight?” Rowan asks.
Now it’s my turn to look away.
Stupid Kevin. “We broke up.”
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
I shrug it off. I’m more upset that he immediately started hanging out with Lizzy than I am that he ended things. We’d grown apart. I felt it. He, obviously, felt it. I guess I liked the idea of having him while I transitioned to life at another school.
“How long were you two together?” Rowan asks.
I start to answer, then pause. “Do you really care, or are you just standing here talking to me in some heroic attempt at saving me from public humiliation?”
“Come on. You’re not that sad of a case, Lindsey.” He bumps his shoulder against mine.
“Debatable,” I murmur, then add, “six months.”
“That’s a long time.”
“Is it?”
Rowan laughs. “It is to me.”
“I take it you’re not much of a relationship guy?”
“I get the concept, and I’ve seen my friends all fall into things, and they seem happy enough…”
“But?”
“We’re in high school.” He aims a sheepish, mischief-filled smile my way. “We should be having fun and not taking things too seriously.”
I huff a laugh. “That is exactly the kind of thing I would expect someone like you to say.”
“What does that mean?”
I debate ignoring the question, but I’m fired up and on edge enough to blow off my better instinct. I face him and study his handsome features and the ease with which he holds himself.
“It means that guys like you from rich families with lots of friends and zero cares couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like for anyone who needs to be serious and can’t blow everything off for fun.”
Rowan Blakenship is a guy who has never known struggle.
Maybe I’m not an expert, and certainly people have it worse than I do, but I have watched my dad battle with his health and cling to the good days while gritting his teeth through the bad.
And I’ve seen my parents fight to keep up with bills and life.
You can’t see things like that and still view the world the same way.
I know Silas saw it too. He was eager to graduate and go off to college, the same way I am.
My brother was fortunate to get a full-ride scholarship.
I saw the relief that brought my parents.
I want that too. For them and for me. Having fun, being carefree, and not stressing about the future is a privilege.
“I never said I have zero cares,” he says. His brows tug together slightly in the center. “And I can’t help that my family is rich. Trust me, it isn’t all roses like you think.”
I wonder if he means that or is just arguing to feel better about his stance on high school relationships. It isn’t like I think money solves everything, but it certainly helps.
“I’m sorry,” I say because regardless of his situation, my feelings are just that—my own. I don’t make a habit of chastising people for their opinions and choices. “I’m not usually such a buzzkill at parties.”
He cracks a smile with one side pulling higher. “Breakup blues?”
“No.” I find myself smiling back at him. “More like Frost Lake blues.”
“We’re not so bad.”
“You’ve all been friends forever and now I’m coming in with one year left. It isn’t how I pictured it.”
“I’m sorry about the district line bullshit. That has to suck.”
I glance at him with surprise.
“Vaughn told me,” he says, then his eyes crinkle with amusement. “I was a little disappointed to learn you didn’t get expelled for vaping.”
I huff a laugh.
“Disco just transferred here last year and look at him.” Rowan waves a hand over to where the friends he introduced me to earlier are hanging out.
“Did he really have glitter all over his face during practice?”
“Alllll over.”
“How does that happen?”
The wind picks up and I cross my arms at my waist to savor a little heat.
Rowan steps into the path of the wind, blocking me from the brunt of it. “Something to do with Claire, glitter tubes, and Lacey’s locker. Lacey is head cheerleader, and the girl loves a glittery sign. You’ll see. They deck out the school for games.”
Oh my gosh, I’m going to be there, inside the school, walking the halls. It hits me full force. There’s no more denying the inevitable.
“I can’t believe I’m going to be a Frost Lake student next week,” I say as much to myself as to him.
“You’ll be fine, Lindsey. I promise.”
* * *
“Lindsey!” Amanda calls at the end of practice on Wednesday. Today was better. Not good, but almost tolerable. A few of the girls on the team actually talked to me (and passed to me).
I pause with my bag over my shoulder as Amanda walks toward me. I look behind me to see if there’s someone else with that name near me.
When I find no one, I look back to her. “Yeah?”
She stops and studies me for a beat before she says, “Rowan told me about the school border thing. And Coach confirmed it this morning.”
“Okay.”
More silence.