Page 26 of Inside the Penalty Box

“I know.” I sighed, letting out a yawn.

“Everything alright? You look a little more tired than usual.”

I shrugged. “Everything is fine. I guess it’s just been a long week.”

I thought back to dinner the other night, when I’d first re-encountered Dylan. I didn’t even need to try hard, and I could still feel the same tension in my body when I’d met Dylan that night at Mom and Joe’s. I was sure everyone in the room had noticed it, even though I’d silently prayed for days that they hadn’t.

“Anything bothering you?” Walker questioned, looking at me with concern.

I shook my head and took another bite of the cinnamon delight, hoping I wasn’t giving anything away. Most of my life, Walker had read me like a book, so I didn’t know why I wasn’t just telling him the truth. “No, everything is great. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. You seemed funny the other night at Joe’s. Especially when Dylan arrived.”

I could feel a surge of heat run through my body. He had noticed, and now I wanted to die.

“What do you mean?” I questioned, trying hard to act like everything was completely normal.

“You seemed, I don’t know, weird. Almost like you knew him.”

I leaned back in the booth and sighed. There was no use keeping it from him. That statement right there told me he had already figured it out. Besides, we never kept secrets from one another.

“Okay, fine. Don’t freak out.”

“Why would I freak out? So you knew the guy, probably from Lorelai, no doubt. I mean, you two normally hang out at her brother’s house, so it wouldn’t surprise me you’d met him there.”

“No, I didn’t meet him through Phil. I met Dylan when we were in Mexico. We didn’t exchange names or anything. We just spent the night together on what I’d call an idiotic and irresponsible night on my behalf.”

“You’re shitting me?” Walked asked, looking up at me, his coffee halfway to his mouth.

I shook my head. “No, I went on a mission to be more like Mom. I wanted one night to get over Greg. It was dumb and stupid and something that never ever should have happened. Anyway, you can imagine my surprise when I saw him again.”

“You mean to tell me you didn’t recognize him?”

“Why would I? I don’t watch hockey.”

“No, but Lorelai does. Did she not recognize him?”

I shrugged. “She said he looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. Then she got a bad sunburn and basically was of no use to anyone for the rest of the trip. Anyway, you can imagine my shock when I saw him.”

Walker chuckled. “You might be right. Perhaps you really have the worst luck of anyone you or I know. Look, I got to be going or I’ll be late. Try not to stress over it. It’s in the past.”

Walker got up and dumped his cup in the garbage, waved, then laughed again and made his way out the door of the coffee shop, leaving me sitting there alone. He did not know how badly I wished he were right and that the events of that night were truly in the past.

* * *

I lay on my bed, staring at my textbook. I’d come home, ate half my dinner, then came into my room. I needed to study, but I couldn’t stop thinking of Dylan. In fact, I’d barely stopped thinking of him since he followed me into the bedroom on Saturday night.

“You’d better snap out of this mood you are in and get ready to have a good time tonight,” Lorelai said, coming into my room and dropping her books on my desk. She sat down on my favourite reading chair and spun around to look at me. “Sophie and Mila will be here in a couple of hours.”

I dropped my pencil and rested my head on my arm. “What if I don’t want to go out tonight?”

“It’s Friday, why wouldn’t you want to go out tonight?” Lorelai asked, giving me a funny look.

I let out a sigh and tried to come up with any reason that made sense, but I couldn’t think of anything. The only thing I could come up with was because I wanted to stay home and drool over someone I was trying not to want.

“See, you really want to go out tonight,” she said, getting up and making her way over to my closet. She opened the door and began skimming through my clothes, trying to find something to wear.

“No, I really don’t.” I pouted.

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