Page 25 of Who's Playing You
12
NICK SOBA
Iwas having a really fucking hard time containing myself.
My adrenaline was through the roof.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for years! To be in Scottie’s presence. To talk to her. Totouchher. To monopolize all of her attention. To breathe the very same air.
Her workshop retreat thing had forced my hand with our meet cute, but honestly, it worked out perfectly. My worry then, and something I’d been stressing about for a while, would be whether she’d recognize me. Either as a football superstar, or as Nat’s little brother.
But it’d been a few years since Nat last brought her home with her, I was still in high school and a teenager then. And admittedly, I’d changed quite a bit in the last few years. I’d grown a few more inches. Put on over sixty pounds of muscle. Bulked up. Matured.
I was now themanthat Scottie didn’t even know she needed.
I somewhat relaxed when I realized she had no idea who I was, but I still couldn’t help myself and I touched her.
Twice.
I recognized my faux pas at first and apologized, but when I touched her arm and stroked her arm with my finger, she didn’tflinch. She didn’t tell me to stop. She didn’t feel uncomfortable. I wondered if she felt how natural it all was too. Because it was. It was totally natural.
We were meant to be, so of course this connection between us would be so strong.
Once I realized she had no idea who I was and asked her if we could start over, her response both took me by surprise, and not at the same time. Because I knew Scottie was the most beautiful, genuine and kind person. So of course that’s how she approaches every person she meets.
I also preened at her willingness to share one of her favorite spots with me. So once we established that I was in fact up for the added hike, she seemed relieved, while I was just jonesing. I was so fucking excited.
“So I had intended for the group to work with some charcoal sketches to start and then maybe move onto acrylic paints. But since it’s just us… Well, what would you like to get out of this experience? What medium most interests you? I ask because we now have the freedom to totally custom-design this around you and your experience during these sessions,” she questioned me while she motioned to the trunk of her car that seemed to hold the contents of an entire art supply store.
“Honestly?” she nodded. “I’ve never done this before.” I couldn’t help but chuckle in a little bit of a sheepish way. “Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly the artsy type in school.”
“Oh no?” She was teasing me. I fucking loved it.
“Nah. Let’s just say otheractivitiesand extracurriculars took up all of my time.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” she replied as she gave me a somewhat forced look right before she turned to the trunk of her car.
I didn’t like that.
I didn’t like her look and I didn’t like that she was assuming something.
“Don’t be so sure, Scottie. Things aren’t always how we assume or judge them to be,” as I said this she whipped her head back to mine, her cheeks slightly colored with embarrassment.
“Oh, I didn’t mean…”
I put my hand up to stop her, “No, it’s fine. I’m just saying, don’t assume something that may be - granted - a typical assumption, and I’m sure they’re most often true. But things aren’t always the obvious nor what one would think. At least not when it comes to me.” I made sure to hold her gaze to show her how serious I was.
Because I believed that she was assuming that I was referring to hooking up with girls as being the extracurricular activities I had mentioned. This wasn’t something new for me either. I’ve had to deal with that all my life, and that was definitelynotsomething that I wanted Scottie of all people assuming about me. In fact, I could give two shits about what anyone else thought, but when it came to Scottie, I didn’t want her thinking anything that wasn’t true.
I knew we had technically just met (or so she thought), but it was important to lay our foundation down correctly so that when she was catching up to me, she’d be going down the right path because she had one hell of a marathon to run before she even began catching up to where I was in regards to our relationship.
She eyed me curiously. I’m aware that I was probably coming off a little strong, perhaps even like some weirdo, but it was okay. She could handle it. After all, we were soulmates.
“Well, I’m-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any-anything by it,” she began stammering. “It’s none of my business anyway.”
Oh, I didn’t like that one bit. It most certainly was her business.
Andonlyher business.
