Page 80 of Sporty Girls Don't Fall For Loners

“No one here would have volunteered to be my buddy,” I say in a low voice, slowly bringing my gaze back to her.

She places her hand on mine, and we both stare down at it. “They have no idea what they’re missing,” she murmurs. “They have no idea what a great guy you are.”

I search her eyes, wanting to believe her, but unable to. “I’m not a great guy.”

“Yes, you are. You’re nice and sweet. And a lot of fun.”

“Me? Fun?”

“Yes.”

I scoff. “Sure.”

She places her hand on my chin, forcing my eyes to meet hers. “Yes, Kade Sanders. You are fun, and today would have sucked if I chose another buddy.”

I have a feeling that if we had been in the same group as her friends, Zoey would have tripled with me and Mia.

“What?” she asks as she looks into my face.

“You’re kind of hurting my chin,” I tell her.

“Oh, sorry!” She drops her hand. “I didn’t realize I was hurting you.”

I grin as I bend close to her. “All good. As we established before, you’re really tough. I bet you can take me with your eyes closed.”

She lifts a brow. “You mean, like a fight?”

I nod.

She playfully rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right. Did you see your muscles?”

Lifting my arm, I flex. “Eh, not very impressive.”

She squeezes my bicep and I’m immediately engulfed in warmth. “Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

I chuckle, she laughs, and then we’re both smiling at each other like we’ve been friends for years. Odd, it kind of feels like that. I never in a million years thought I’d have a good time with someone my age. The kids at the group home I was in treated me like garbage. For years I thought I was useless. The kids at this school see me as a criminal. Yet that doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except for what this girl thinks of me.

It really sucks that I’ll be leaving the house soon. But so will she after her parents return from their trip. I like living with her.

My eyes widen as soon as I think those thoughts. What in the world?

“You okay? You look like you saw a ghost or something,” she says.

“No, I…it was nothing.”

Her eyes overflow with sympathy as she probably assumes I’m thinking about my past or my parents. She doesn’t know what happened to them, but it’s obvious they’re not around. I’m glad she hasn’t pushed me to talk about it, but at the same time, I want to tell her. One day.

Truth is, I haven’t thought about Mom or Dad or the pain I’ve been through for a while. Zoey makes me feel good about myself, about life. Is this the start of me letting go of the past and letting myself live?

Zoey looks out the window and I watch her for a few seconds, wishing we could talk more. But I guess she wants some time to herself now.

I pull my phone and earbuds from my pocket and listen to music, trying to drown out the sounds of the noisy kids. Some guys from the football team are having some sort of snack competition, caking the bus floor with their crumbs. The driver or Mr. Ortiz doesn’t stop them, probably figuring there’s no point.

Zoey turns her head. “What are you listening to?”

I pull one of the earbuds from my ears and hand it to her. She plugs hers in and together we listen to the music. I don’t have a specific genre of music that I like. I’m very random. Zoey bobs her head to the beat of the songs I’ve chosen and seems really into it.

We don’t say much as we listen, each of us once again absorbed in our thoughts. I still can’t stop replaying the day over and over in my head. I wonder how things will be between us now. Will we be friendlier?

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