Page 12 of My High School Rebel Boyfriend
And though I didn’t love basketball as much as he did or as much as Titan did, I was smart enough to know it was my ticket out of this town, out of my life. And because Coach Cairns had faith in me, I put in the hard work.
I didn’t know the positions in volleyball, but Coach Barber had Titan and me in the front row at the net. She gave us a thirty second demo on the different ways to hit the ball, passing, setting and spiking and expected us to be competent.
Maddie stepped up for the first serve, I stuck my hands out the way Coach had just showed us and the ball lurched off my forearms above me, completely directionless, Titan let out a yell and smashed the ball over the net with the palm of his hand.
The girls looked disgruntled. Our team high fived. Miss Barber took the girls into an intense huddle, then said Maddie would try it again. Maddie sent the ball down the side, out of Titan’s and my reach. A junior was unable to retrieve it. Maddie and her team high fived, sending glares across to Titan and me. Their competitiveness surprised us. Wow, we’d been forced to help out yet they were treating us like fierce rivals, like they wanted to annihilate us.
After the next point our team rotated. When I started to go anti-clockwise, the girls laughed.
“That way!” the juniors pointed. It put me directly opposite Harper. Like, I’m telling you we were a few feet away from each other. Mystomach fluttered. She turned to her side and crouched a little, poking her butt out, hands on her thighs. The volleyball shorts were tight and short, showing off her long, smooth legs and the knee pads, well, wow...
She took two quick steps to the side, leaned and leapt up on one leg, arm raised over her head. Poetry in motion, I was thinking, and then too late...I saw it coming straight at me! I turned and ducked.
There was a lot of laughter at my expense, Titan the main culprit, my team telling me that I should put my hands out, not hide. A glance across the net saw Harper pumping her clenched fist. It made me weak in the knees.
I slowly grasped the concept of the game over the next twenty minutes, enjoying it more than I thought I would and getting a good workout at the same time. Coach Barber thanked us for our participation and said it was a good learning experience for the girls. The team lined up behind Maddie and walked past us, shaking our hands, all in good spirits because they’d won. But Harper had gone to the sideline and was scoffing down a banana. Disappointing...I’d wanted to feel her hand in mine.
Some of the girls stayed to help put the equipment away. Harper was still over on the side, now guzzling down a Gatorade, and Titan was leaning against the wall, talking to one of the twins. He grinned, baring every tooth in his mouth as I slowly shook my head at him. Opposite to me, Titan was forever trying to get himself a date. I collected up the balls and put them into the bag.
“Thanks Mitch,” Miss Barber said, as I dragged them to the cupboard. “Do you think you could give me a hand with the posts?”
“Sure,” I said. I was in no hurry to go home. She’d unhooked the net and was rolling it up. I unbolted the post from the floor and tilted it horizontally to carry to the room. The two meter pole immediately felt lighter in my hands as I realized someone had taken the other end.Harper!
My heart hitched. What was the girl going to do to me now? Drop the thing on my toes? I had to keep my wits about me. I had no idea where the post belonged in the equipment room, so I hesitated at the door.
“It goes to the right, in the corner,” she said. I shuffled in, taking it from her, standing it up. She stood next to me as I unfixed the second post from the floor. The first one had been easy to bring down, but for some reason my hands were shaking and it took me several attempts. I wiped my sweaty hands against my shorts.
“Is it stuck?” she asked, squatting down beside me. Her hair had been in a ponytail for training, but now it was floating around her shoulders. “I’m sorry I hit you before.”
“Uh...” I twisted the bolt, finally releasing it. Did she have to be so close? Did her blue eyes have to be staring at me? Did she have to have such perfect creamy skin?
“I didn’t intentionally try to hit you.” Her hands steadied the post. “I hope I didn’t hurt your eye.”
The mention of my eye reminded me that I looked like a thug who’d been in a fight. And that reminded me that I didn’t get involved with girls, and certainly not with a girl who was a snitch. I stood up quickly.
“I got this,” I said, all superhero like, taking control, whisking the post away. I didn’t look back to see where she was, I didn’t look for her as I grabbed my bag, I didn’t wait around for Titan who was now carrying a red backpack that wasn’t his.
The only good thing to come from my mother’s illness, and you’ll probably think poorly of me for saying it, is that I got to drive her car. Mom very rarely drove, her confidence way down. I had never minded being her chauffeur, but these days she was afraid to go into the mall on her own. And that was kind of embarrassing, escorting my mother with her cane, or worse if she used her walking frame, going as slow as an old grandma. Yeah, judge me for that, too.
As I came in the back door I could see Mom sitting at the kitchen table. That meant it was a good day for her. When she was feeling well she would babysit kids in the neighborhood, feeding them and helping them with their homework until their parents came home from work. Today it was Jessie from across the street.
“Hi honey, you’re late,” she said.
“I had training.”
“Your daddy wants you, he’s in the garage.” Crazy how she called himDaddyaround me. I swear I never called him by that name. Never. “How’s your eye? Did you rub some cream on it?”
“It’s fine,” I said.
I put the keys in the empty fruit bowl and heard her telling Jessie that I’d bumped my head on the cupboard door. I set my backpack in the corner of the room, an amount of trepidation building up. If Mama thought I was late, then so would Wade. Being late had been a punishable offence in the past. Though with Mom and Jessie in the kitchen, it would be unlikely he’d try anything. Or that’s what I told myself.
Opening the door to the garage, the sound of heavy metal thumped from the speakers, and I could see him sitting on the end of the bench in camouflage shorts and a loose tank top. The garage was set up as a home gym; the cars had never been inside it. This was the only connection Wade and I had. He was an avid gym junkie, I’m talking daily workouts, sometimes twice a day, two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle. With his buzz cut and neatly trimmed goatee he had a look like a commando.
No wonder I was scared of him.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey, you’re late,” he said. “Come spot me.” I could see the bar was loaded up.
