Page 12 of Hitting the Goal Line
He shrugs. “You’ve had a lot going on with soccer and this party. I didn’t want to add more to it. I was going to tell you eventually. Oh, which reminds me. I have to give your Christmas gift early or do you just want me to wait for your party?”
I look over at him with confusion. “Why would you have to give it to me early?”
“Because we’re coming to California for Christmas,” he says like it’s not a big deal that we aren’t going to be spending Christmas together for the first time since we were five.
“You are?” This is news to me. Again.
“Yeah, Hunter has a bowl game a few days after, so him and mom thought it would be best for us to spend Christmas here. Stay for the game and then fly back with plenty of time for your party.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t do that,” Blake says, wrapping his arm around my neck and rubbing his fist against the top of my head, messing up my hair.
“Don’t do what?” I ask, after I escape his hold.
“Don’t make a face. It’s one Christmas, Soph. We’ve spent every other holiday together, we can spend one apart.” He’sright, but it will still be weird to not have him over at our house for Christmas Eve and not go to his house on Christmas Day. But like he said. It’s just one holiday, I can handle one holiday.
“Whatever. Just know that I’m jealous that you are going to have a sunny Christmas and I will probably get snowed in.”
“I’ll take you with me next time,” he offers, throwing me a wink.
“You better,” I say with a laugh and turn back to the dresses. “What do you think about this one?” I ask holding up a lavender dress.
He makes a face.
“No shades of purple, but I do like that dark green color over there.” He points behind me and when I turn around, I see a rack full of dark green and I automatically fall in love with the color.
“I like that,” I say, turning back and throwing him a smile. He gives me a smile, one that gets bigger when I wave a hand out to the rack. “Take your pick.”
Without hesitation, he goes over there and starts shifting through the dresses.
“Remind me again why aren’t we looking for your quince dress in Montana? Why the hell did we have to come to California?”
I shrug. “There isn’t a whole lot of availability when it comes to these types of dresses in Montana, especially with the time crunch. Mom said we might find something here and I think she’s right.”
A few months ago, my abuela came to visit us and a asked my parents why I wasn’t getting a quinceañera. She went into this big thing about how I was her only granddaughter, and how I should really have one.
My dad shook his head the whole time, telling his own mom no, but since me and mom never have gone to a true quince, we overruled dad and agreed with abuela that I should get a one.The man grumbled and grumbled and eventually gave in. But he only agreed sometime in November and told us we had until the end of the year to plan and throw the party because he didn’t want us to go crazy with it.
Little did he know that planning a party like this is going to get crazy. Especially when it comes to the dress. The good thing is that we are keeping it small in terms of guest and my court, with Blake being the one and only escort, so he’s good in that regard.
“Why do you need a quince anyway? Your birthday was months ago and you’re closer to sixteen than you are to fifteen.”
I give him a shrug. “I thought it was a good idea. Ever girl wants to be the center of attention for a day, you know?”
“Like you aren’t already,” he snorts.
“I’m not,” I argue, because it’s true, I’m not. Who gives me attention besides my parents, Blake, and the small group of friends that I have?
There’s a reason I hate dating and it has nothing to do with the type of guys that are out there. It’s because none of the guys I’m interested in are interested in me.
“Soph, the guys at our school would kill for a chance to take you out,” he says, rolling his eyes at me.
“No, they wouldn’t.” He’s pulling shit out of his ass.
“Yeah, they would.”
“Then why don’t they ask me out?” Because if they would kill for a chance to be with me, I would be witness to it, not hearing it from Blake.
