Page 8 of Love and Other Goals

But then Aaron texted me to ask if I’d be there. Since we still haven’t had a chance to connect, I decided to re-prioritize my schedule after this afternoon.

So here I am, ready to bake in the sun and dodge freshman boys in the name of love. Well, maybe not love. Just like. Strong like. Long-standing like.

I notice Aaron giving instructions to a group at one of the relay races, but I stop myself from walking directly to him. I stop to chat with a crowd of freshman, encouraged when I see Liz with the other two girls from my overly-honest rush week conversation. They wound up in different sororities, but I can tell their friendship is going to last a long time as they share about their experiences.

I excuse myself to grab a sports drink from the coolers and stand up to find Aaron smiling at me. “Hey, I was almost worried you weren’t coming,” he says, grabbing a water bottle.

Buying myself a second to respond as my heart skips a beat, I take a drink. “Yeah, I was thinking about just taking the weekend to get some work done, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Better late than never!” I glance down and see he’s wearing a whistle around his neck. “Oh, I forgot that you were one of the leaders in charge this year. Looks like it’s a success so far from the size of the crowd!”

Aaron grins, and I can picture the crinkles at the sides of his blue eyes behind his sunglasses. “So far, so good!” he says. “We added a couple of new games this year, and I think they’ve gone over well.”

“So, tell me more about your summer!” I pivot.

“It was the best Summer Project ever. We had such a great time,” Aaron says with enthusiasm. “Minus the fact that you weren’t there, of course. So many funny stories you missed out on. But I’m sure you had a good time at home with your family too. And you still need to tell me about what you did in D.C.,” Aaron says while glancing at the time on his phone. “Hey, I need to go kick off this next race, but I really want to talk more sometime soon.”

He grins at me as he backward walks away before turning to the race. Maybe “sometime soon” will finally come—maybe this will be the time he’ll finally ask me out for real instead of waltzing around the periphery of our “are we more than friends?” relationship.

Two hours in the blazing sun and zero conversations with Aaron later, I’m beyond done with this event. I start thinking of everything else I could be accomplishing (also, air conditioning). Deciding to call it a day, I try to sneak to the parking lot without drawing attention to the fact that I’m leaving before the event is over. I’m halfway to my car when I hear Aaron yelling my name.

He jogs up. “Leaving already? Aren’t you going to stay for Duck Duck Loose?”

The culminating event at Lake Games before the cookout is a race in which a guy and a girl pair up in a two-person kayak to collect giant rubber ducks floating around the lake. The guys paddle while the girls reach out to grab the ducks, of course with the occasional capsize. It sounds totally weird, I know.

Really, it’s an excuse for guys and girls to flirt in a social group that kinda sorta mildly discourages flirting.

“Oh, I was going to head back and work on my law school application,” I say as nonchalantly as possible, not wanting to seem overeager. Of course, I’d like the chance to flirt with Aaron in a tandem kayak. Would he “accidentally” tip us over so he could casually rescue me from drowning? A girl can dream.

He’s looking at me expectantly. “I guess I could maybe stay a little longer.”

“Awesome. There are a couple of freshman guys who want to participate but don’t have partners. I can pair you up with one of them,” Aaron says.

My heart turns into a brick. My brain is working overtime to squelch the burning sensation behind my eyeballs, and I extra regret forgetting my sunglasses. I’m sternly telling my face not to project what I’m feeling to Aaron, but now his brow is furrowing. Curse you, face that never learned to play poker!

I pretend to look at the time on my watch.

“You know, I should head out and try to get a little bit done,” I manage to squeak out. “You should probably go get the race started because I’m going to just go, um, yeah, just leaving.”

Apparently, my words also need to learn to play poker.

I turn away and awkwardly speed walk toward my car. I yank the driver’s door open, ready to slam myself inside and possibly unleash a scream.

“Lana?”

I’m startled to see Mateo Alvarez, the shining star athlete of Townsend, standing by the front of my car. Where did he come from? Does he have ninja skills in addition to soccer skills, or was blood rushing so loudly in my ears that I just didn’t hear him approach?

“You’re not staying for the partner race? I can see people getting into kayaks,” Mateo says.

“No, yeah no, I was just leaving. Aaron just asked me if I was staying and I thought he was asking me to do the race with him but he just wanted to pair me up with some freshman guy and really the last thing I want today is to do a relay with some awkward freshman and pretend to have fun so I decided I’m not staying.” My eyes go a little wide as I realize how nutty that just sounded. I word-vomited ugly chunks onto one of the smoothest guys involved with Arrow. I just can’t stop winning today.

I move to get in my car. Mateo’s hand grabs the door before I can close it. He leans down to look at me and says, “Wait—will you be my partner?”

I stare blankly for a moment before a very articulate “Huh?” escapes.

“Stay and do the race with me. As my partner.” Mateo gives me a one-sided smile. “Please?”

My mind is trying to figure out how to turn down this pity offer in a dignified way. It’s not like Mateo and I aren’t friends—we’ve been attending all the same Arrow weekly meetings and student leader trainings since we were sophomores. But I wouldn’t expect him to choose me as his partner for the race. I’m sure there are plenty of girls ready and waiting for the chance. As my brain continues scrambling for a response, I feel heat creeping up my neck to my cheeks. I hope Mateo just thinks it’s from the sun. “Yeah, okay,” suddenly slips out of my mouth. I mentally face-palm myself.

I get out of the car and follow Mateo back to the Lake Games, where the other pairs are lining up for the race. I keep my head down to avoid looking at Aaron, not trusting my dumb face to behave itself. He’s already in a kayak and not paying attention anyway.

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