Page 74 of Finding Fate

19

Confrontations

“Alright, get going! Focus! Move, move, move!” Coach Lyson yelled to the guys who were running sprints.

“Great plan, coach,”Tucker thought as he pushed his legs to move even faster against the paved track, “but it’s hard to focus when I know why everyone’s staring at me today!”

He’d been concerned when Izzy said she’d been called to the counselor’s office, and his fears were confirmed by the end of second period when the big topic of the Homecoming cancellation was already overrun with the running rumor about him and Izzy.

Tucker didn’t know why he was letting everyone’s stares get to him so much. He’d known that everything was eventually going to come out into the open, and really, he and Izzy were lucky it had taken as long as it had, but it was driving him crazy that everyone was so ready to buy it when Izzy still looked normal.

He wondered how she was holding up right then. Her dance class would have just gotten over, and he knew that whatever teammates of hers hadn’t heard the news that morning were sure to know now. If the staring he was getting was bad, Tucker hated to imagine all of the looks Izzy must be getting.

“Get it together, Patterson!” he heard the coach yell. “Hustle!”

“Damn it! This sucks! I can’t concentrate,”he thought as he willed himself to focus enough, attempting to ignore the inquiring looks coming from his friends up ahead.

Tucker felt as though he could feel every pair of eyes boring into his back while he showered at the end of class, but he knew that was all in his head. The guys still understood the concept of creepy, no matter how curious they were.

He shuddered. He still couldn’t shake the feeling, so he finished washing as quickly as humanly possible and hurried out of the showers. When he stepped back into the locker room, he was surprised to see David Vasquez already heading outside. Weird. Tucker had thought for sure he was the first one out of the showers.

He blew it off, heading over to the row where he’d find his things. What did he care if someone wanted to get out of here early? He should have thought of it himself. “If I hurry, I can still make it out before the others finish,” he told himself just as a locker door shook open from somewhere across the room.

He glanced around the corner to see who else had neglected the use of the showers that day and saw someone ducked inside a locker.

He wondered who it was when Jet called out from behind him.

“You okay, dude?”

Wesley’s head jerked up, catching Tucker watching. He shot him a dark look, and slammed the locker door shut to dart outside.

“Yeah, I hate you, too,” he thought.

“What was that about?” Jet asked then. “You know Izzy would be pissed if she found out you were trying to pick a fight with Wesley.”

“Nah, man, I know. I didn’t even know he was out here.”

“Okay… ‘cause it really looked like you were in a hurry to get out here for something.”

“No, I just had to get out of the showers.”

Jet gave him a funny look.

“Don’t ask, man.” He didn’t feel like going into the weird rationalizations of his mind right now.

His friend shrugged and headed over to his locker to change. “Alright.”

Tucker had just finished pulling his clothes on when some of the guys started to trickle in. He grabbed his sneakers and sat down on a nearby bench, hoping that he could get them on fast enough to avoid a lengthy interrogation.

“So, is it true, man?” Kyle asked not a moment after he had sat down.

“So much for getting out of here before it started,”Tucker thought as he bent over to pull on his right shoe. “Is what true?”

“You know what I’m talking about. It’s going around the whole school that Izzy’s pregnant,” Kyle retorted.

“Ugh, I guess there’s no point in denying it. It’s gotten out somehow, and Izzy’s clothes aren’t going to hide it much longer anyway,” he thought, deciding to accept the situation and just deal with it.

He let his foot drop back to the floor, his shoelaces still untied, and looked up at the small group of guys that were waiting anxiously for his response. He sighed. “Yeah, it’s true.”

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