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Kimberly
Two months later
“Dennis, are you coming?”
“Yeah, Dennis, are you going?”
I said it in a singsong voice, hoping that he would take it how I meant it. The girl that was calling his name, Chelsea, was popular, just like Dennis. She was also perfect, blonde, petite, and she was the school’s mean girl. She had her hooks in Dennis, or she thought she did, and hated me because she’d caught us hanging out.
While Dennis was captain of the football team and the man that every girl there wanted to be with, we were very different. I played soccer, was damn good at it, but it hadn’t translated in the same way for friends. I think it had to do with Chelsea, who saw me as a contender for his affection. I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t even like that. We were just friends. He’d saved me, threw me a line when I first started at this school, and it was something that I couldn’t forget.
He was also devastatingly handsome and a great guy, though he hid his more endearing qualities from most. He didn’t want people to think that he was soft. I didn’t. I knew that he was compassionate and that just made me want him more. What could be wrong with being more human?
“Yeah, I’m coming.”
He got up off of the edge of the fountain where we had been sitting and he sent me a lop-sided look. He mouthed the word ‘sorry’ and I waved him off. I was used to this. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew that it had to be this way. He had a reputation to keep up, and Chelsea was the one to help him with that. Since Chelsea had made sure that I was scorned from most of the others, it left me in this strange position where I was kind of an outsider. I didn’t mind, not really, except when it came to spending time with Dennis.
In school, we couldn’t really be friends, or not in the way that I would like to be. We had different friends, different circles, and even in the class that we had together, we didn’t say much to each other. That was the way it needed to be, and it kept me out of Chelsea’s sights. She liked to make my life miserable and though I’d left high school, college didn’t seem much different.
All that changed when Dennis and I would meet up to go out. We had a lot in common, besides sports and personal training. Dennis was working with some of the best trainers in football in his free time, and he was helping me get better as well. That was one of the excuses that we used to be around each other, but for me, I just liked being around him. He was funny, kind, and so damn nice to look at. I couldn’t look at Dennis and not think about all kinds of naughty things that I would like to do with him.
Chelsea gave me another dirty look, and I heard her asking him why he was talking to me. I didn’t hear the answer and honestly, it was probably for the best. Dennis had been offended at first, when I didn’t want us to be seen with each other in school like that, but it was because of the girl he was walking away with. Chelsea was a nightmare, and I didn’t want to deal with her. I knew what Dennis saw in her, it was clear by the way she dressed. Chelsea didn’t like to leave anything to the imagination.
I finished my sandwich that no longer had any flavor left in it. It was dry, and I spit it into a napkin and threw my lunch bag away while I was walking back to practice. Lunch was never as tasty when I didn’t have Dennis by my side. He lit everything up that he touched and now I was feeling the shadow of darkness again, like the sun had set.
* * *
Practice wasenough to keep me breathing hard and my mind was focused on other things. I was thankful for that, since I shouldn’t be thinking about Dennis in that way. I knew that he liked me, as I liked him, but it was complicated. Not only was he going to be leaving for Texas, a thousand miles away to play in the NFL, but I was going to Maine, where my marine biology degree would come in handy. Our lives were so far from going in the same direction and I knew that Dennis would be the kind of guy to break my heart forever. I couldn’t fall for him, even harder than I had, and walk away. I wouldn’t be able to.
“Kimberly?”
I smiled and looked over at Maria. She was running up to me. Practice was about over, and she was red and sweaty like I was.
“Are you going out for lunch after showers?”
I shook my head that I wasn’t. “No, I already had lunch by the fountains.”
“With Dennis.”
She said it so matter of factly that I wondered if she knew how I felt. I thought I hid it well, but maybe not well enough.
“He stopped by to say hi, just to be nice.”
“Dennis is a lot of things, but he isn’t nice. That’s like saying Chelsea is nice.”
I sighed, relieved. She was just fishing and that meant that I didn’t have to admit to anything. We were walking into the locker room when I realized that I hadn’t told her the good news.
“You know what I heard?”
“What?”
“Anna Lynn is going to be leaving mid-term, which means that there is an opening for first string. I heard that you’re in.”
Her face lit up and her dark eyes may have been welling up. She was that excited, loving the game as much as me, but not getting the chance to show her true colors. I knew that she was going to be great, and I hoped that she would finally be able to show off what she was capable of. I was happy for her and when she hugged me, I squeezed back.
She rubbed her eyes and laughed. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get to play. I mean, I’m thankful that they brought me here on scholarship, but damn, let me play!”
“You’re going to do great.”
