* * *
Coach reams me during practice.My teammates are annoyed with me. I keep screwing everything up. It’s a gorgeous autumn day and the field is perfect. No wet grass, no humidity. Nothing is standing in our way today except for me and my own thoughts which are consuming every part of my being. To put it bluntly, I suck at football.
We’re playing the Bearkats, an average football team from a few towns over. It shouldn’t be hard to beat them, but no one wants to lose a football game for their own homecoming. We have to win. And right now I can’t catch a football to save my life.
“Get your head in the game!” Coach yells at me from across the field.
I nod. “Yes, sir!”
I try, I really do. But this entire football practice is a waste. Every day that I go without knowing why Zara hates me is breaking me apart. I can’t hold it together anymore. Add in Andrea’s obsessive following me around school, and I think I’m going crazy.
I need to see Zara. I need to talk to her.
I can’t even hope to see her at the homecoming dance tomorrow because Andrea has already rigged the election in her favor. My teeth grind together. I am playing a game Saturday night in front of half a dozen college football scouts who are all eager to see me play. I can’t cop out of the halftime homecoming celebration. They’ll see me as some kind of flake, or weirdo, and it’ll crush my chances of getting a scholarship to play ball.
Sure, I can ignore Andrea at school, but I can’t exactly ignore her tomorrow night at the dance, when we’re up on stage getting crowned. And I can’t ignore her during the halftime show in front of all the scouts. This is why she’s refused to let me go. She knows I’m stuck. I guess she thinks I’ll eventually cave and be her boyfriend again.
That will never happen. If I have to spend my entire senior year pretending Andrea doesn’t exist, then that’s what I’ll do.
After today’s practice which is basically three hours of torture, it’s finally over. Coach glares at me as we all head back to the locker room. I know I let him down today. I let myself down, too.
As I’m heading inside, I notice a tall, lanky guy standing around the bleachers. It kind of looks like he’s watching me, but I could be a bit paranoid. I’ve spent the last week dodging Andrea, so it feels like I’m constantly being stared at. I ignore it and go take a shower.
My teammates had slowly become my friends lately, but now they all talk crap about my terrible football playing. I lie and pretend to have a migraine so they’ll get off my back. I’ve never had a migraine in my life, but my dad gets them so I act like he does when he’s suffering through a particularly awful one.
I’m the first one out of the locker room. I need to get home, regroup, and get my act together for my team. We cannot lose our own homecoming game just because I’m crushed over a girl.
“Excuse me?”
I ignore the quiet voice at first, thinking it’s not for me. But then I hear it again, and I look over. That same lanky guy from outside is now standing next to me. He has thick black-frame glasses and is wearing a NASA T-shirt. I’m not sure if he’s trying to look nerdy because he thinks it’s a cool look, or because he actually is a nerd.
“Me?” I say, pointing to myself.
He nods and falls into pace with me as I step outside toward the parking lot. “You’re Zane, right?”
“Yep.”
“I’m Brent. I’m in StuCo. I was wondering if you could help me with something pretty serious.”
I stop walking and glance around, making sure we’re alone. “Does this have to do with Andrea?”
He nods. “She’s… um…” His lips slide to the side of his mouth. “I mean, I don’t want to disparage your girlfriend…”
“She is not my girlfriend.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “Really? Did you just break up?”
“We broke up a year ago.”
Now he looks even more confused. “I don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand?”
He takes out his cell phone and goes to Instagram. A few seconds later he turns the screen to face me. I’m not quite sure what I’m seeing at first. I know it’s a picture of Andrea and me, but it was taken way back when we were dating. Only… she posted it just a few days ago and the caption makes it look like we’re datingright now.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
I grip the phone so hard I’m afraid I’ll break it. It’s not my phone, so I quickly give it back to Brent while my anger and disbelief grow to epic levels. I can’t believe she did that. No wonder Zara is pissed. She thinks I’m cheating on her with an ex.
