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I kept staring at her, and she turned back to look at me again, this time pretending to scan the field. I laughed. She was too shy to flirt, apparently.
I could fix that.
“Hawk,” someone called from behind me before I could make my way to Deana in the stands. I turned to look and saw Billy coming toward me again.
“Yeah?” I asked.
Hawk had been my nickname since high school started. I could have taken it poorly but chose not to. Ostensibly, it was a reference to me being taller than everyone else when we were fifteen. At six foot four, I was still among the taller people in our school but no longer the tallest. Still, the name stuck, and its vague reference to my heritage wasn’t nearly as bad as the school the next town over. Or their wildly offensive team sport nickname, the Scalpers. Part of me wanted to blame it on being in the south, but I knew better. This kind of thing was everywhere.
“I wanted to know if you were going to the party this Saturday? Zach’s parents are out of town for the whole weekend, and Hannah says she can raid her dad’s bar,” he said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll get back to you, though.”
“It would be cool for you to come, man,” he said. “At least to one.”
I nodded.
“Maybe.”
With that, Billy took off, heading back to the pack of other kids that made up the track team. I shrugged. Maybe I would go to a party. Probably not, though. It wasn’t really my scene. I much preferred to be alone or at home. Or in the company of a pretty girl.
When I turned back to the stands, Deana was gone. I cursed under my breath and scanned the stands, wondering if she was still around. I was surprised to see her having moved all the way down to the railing in front of the stands, separating spectator from competition. Her big brown eyes were looking at me, and she brushed a wisp of her thick, black hair behind her ear. She kept it short in the back, but longer on top, like she was going to audition for a girl-punk band.
It was hot.
“Deana, right?” I asked.
“Dee. Everybody calls me Dee.”
“Dee,” I repeated. “Big track and field fan?”
“Yup,” she said, not taking her eyes from mine. The streak of red on her cheeks was adorable, though.
“Really? I didn’t think anyone in Ashford gave a crap about it other than the people on the team. It’s nice to look out and see a pretty girl in the stands.”
The streak of red was now burning hot and flushing down her neck. I grinned, and she looked away, the smile stretched so far across her face that her teeth shined in the sunlight. When she looked back at me, I felt like I could lose myself in those chocolate-brown eyes forever.
“Are you going this weekend?” she asked.
“What?”
“The party,” she said. “The one Ricky was talking about. Are you going?”
“Oh. Maybe. Probably not. The party stuff… it’s not really my kind of thing.”
“Me either.”
There was a pause. I felt like I was smiling too much. She was so damn cute, and I was getting the signals that she was into me too. But she was also younger than me. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head and was out of my mouth before I could stop it.
“We’re only a couple weeks from Homecoming,” I said. “Who’s bringing you?”
“No one yet,” she said.
My blood started pumping so hard in my chest that I felt like it might explode through the front of my shirt. I wiped sweat from my brow and huffed a laugh.
“No way. You? No one has asked you yet?” I asked.
“Not yet,” she said, the lilt at the end of her voice almost like a question.
I licked my lips. The shiny gloss on hers made them look so tempting. I wanted to taste her kiss. I wanted to do a lot more than that.
“Dee?” a voice asked from beside her, and she turned.
It was a guy, a little smaller than me but athletic looking. He had short, spiky blonde hair and a letterman’s jacket. I sort of recognized him as one of the guys from the football team but couldn’t place him. None of those guys were terribly friendly with me aside from the ones on the track team and one guy named Carlos. He was cool. This guy, on the other hand, had “dumb jock” written all over him.
“Hey, Greg,” she said.
Ahh, Greg. That was right. I remembered him now. I saw him with Dee every once in a while when I passed her in the hall.
“Well, I have to go,” I said. “Got another race in about twenty. See you around.”
“Oh, okay,” she said, turning back to me. Her eyes seemed sad, and the smile that had been so bright on her lips faltered.
