Page 49 of Our Bender

What the heck did that mean? I was the first girl he liked inyears?

He leveled me with hurt brown eyes. “Can’t you at least give me a shot?”

I honestly felt myself wavering as I studied his handsome face. But then the door swung open to reveal my dad.

15. Tyler

Coach strode into the room with authority and extended his beefy hand to give mine a bone rattling shake. “Thank you, kid. I’ll take it from here,” he said gruffly.

I looked back at Josie in the bed. She just gave me a tight-lipped smile, but her eyes were full of something else…pity.

Fuck.

With my head dropped down, I left the room, feeling the same shakiness that I did when I left the second grade classroom. Because I knew I fucked up. Big time. I practically begged her to go on a date with me. How fucking pathetic? Totally not secure masculine energy. Casey would probably laugh his ass off… because he was right. I really was majorly thrown off my game by her.

But really? I wasn’t her type? What the hell? Only two girls had ever said that to me and they were the only two I’ve ever wanted, and the only two who ever looked at me like they wanted me back.

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On Tuesday night, I still hadn’t seen or heard anything back from Josie. I kept playing with different excuses to knock on her door every day, but I couldn’t come up with any that didn’t sound completely lame. I figured I’d throw some ideas around with Duke and Casey at his team’s U16 practice tonight.

I threw on a hoodie and smoothed a hat over my messy hair. I showered earlier, then laid on the couch playing video games like a bum the rest of the day. I was actually kind of pumped to get to Casey’s practice so I could stretch my legs out.

I hoisted my hockey bag over my shoulder and headed to the stairwell, but last minute, I decided to check the elevator. I hit the down button and heard a hum, so I figured it was finally working again, it was just taking for fucking ever.

When it finally dinged open, I walked to the corner so I could rest my bag on the railings lining the sides.

The elevator quickly passed the third floor but then came to a grinding halt at the second, and I groaned in annoyance at the slow up.

But when the doors finally opened, my irritation disappeared, and I sat there struggling to tamper down a grin…

Because there she was, head down, super engrossed in something on her phone, completely unaware that I was standing right here in front of her. She walked into the elevator without even looking up, and I tucked away a mental note that I needed to warn her about not doing that, it wasn’t safe.

“Miss Josie,” I said with a small grin.

She jumped and almost dropped her phone. For a split second I felt bad about startling her, but I was afraid if she’d seen me first, she would’ve chosen to take the stairs.

“Oh,” she held a hand to her chest, “uh, hi, sorry, I wasn’t even paying attention. Work email.” She was even cuter when she was all flustered.

“Over Christmas break? Ya gotta turn that off.”And pay more attention to your surroundings, I internally added.

“Yeah, well, of course Admin emails out a bunch of changes over break so no one can even push back or argue with them.” She rolled her eyes and stuffed her phone in her back pocket.

And that’s when I noticed she wasn’t dressed in her teacher clothes or comfy ones either. I’d never seen her dressed likethisbefore. She was dressed hot…reallyhot. Ripped, tight jeans hugged her curves, showing off her ass, black boots went up to her knees, and her puffy-sleeved, cream-colored crop top showed off a sliver of skin above her jeans. Her hair was down and straightened, and she’d pushed the front forward so it covered the corner where she needed the stitches. She was also wearing a lot more makeup than usual and her eyes looked all shimmery, but to my disappointment, she’d covered those faded freckles under eyes.

I cleared my throat. “So where ya headed?”

“Oh, just getting the mail right now,” she said tightly.

There was no way she dressed that way just to get the mail. She reached to hit the lobby floor button, which somehow wasn’t lit up even though I’d pushed it right when I walked in.

“You look nice,” I said as casually as I could.Smelled nice too, I mentally added, and I really hoped she wouldn’t judge my hockey bag stink. I was practically immune to it at this point so I had no gauge on its current state.

“Thank you,” she said shyly. “And I don’t think I’ve properly thanked you for helping me on Saturday. I know that was probably hard for you,” she laughed lightly, “but it was really nice of you to stay with me.”

“Wasn’t hard.” But thinking back to Saturday had my face burning up. The past few days, I’d successfully blocked out the fact that I barfed in her sink and pretty much verbally threw up at her in the hospital. I shifted my weight, mentally snapping at myself to get it under control, but I’m not sure that ever works. “And I’m sorry about the whole sink thing. I think that makes us even.”

Her lips twisted with amusement. “No problem.”

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