Week 1
Sitting in the bleachers, resting my chin in my palm, I stared longingly down at the field. It wasn’t uncommon for me to come up here on September afternoons. I told my friends that I like to come here to think. To clear my head. To get outside to enjoy the last days of the late summer sun before the fall clouds rolled in.
Those were lies.
I came here to admire the toned, athletic figure of the hottest girl in school as she loped gracefully down the field during soccer practice, her ponytail trailing like the flag on the stern of a boat. I came here to get a good look at a woman I would never, ever have. I came here to twist the dagger of impossible desire ever deeper into my yearning chest.
I came here to see Aria.
As my eyes traced the heart-wrenchingly perfect lines of her athletic but curvaceous body, I sighed longingly. But under the soft sound, I heard the scuff of sneakers on cement. Someone else was coming up here to join me.
Reluctantly, I tore my gaze from teenage perfection to the newcomer as she climbed the concrete steps to take a seat on the aluminum bench beside me.
“Cora, what are you doing up here?”
My longtime friend shrugged her narrow shoulders, staring at the expansive field below. “Nothing.”
“Well, this is my thinking time, remember? My alone time. Why don’t you do nothing somewhere else?”
“Well, if that were true, I probably would.” Cora turned to me, her sandy blonde hair rustling in the breeze. “But since you’re lying to me, I think I’ll stay.”
“Lying?”
“Yep,” she nodded, a mischievous glint in her eye. “See, I used to believe all your ‘I like to meditate in the bleachers after school’ shit. Then, I noticed that you only do it on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.”
She reached into my backpack and extracted a piece of candy, unwrapping it with her slender fingers before popping it into her mouth. She slipped the hard candy to the side of her mouth to continue her thought, her speech slightly slurred. “Which happens to be exactly the days the girls’ soccer team practices.”
I felt a blush blossoming in the center of my cheeks. “Coincidence. Mondays are just Mondays. I just want to get home afterward. And Friday are, well…”
“Fridays?” She smiled knowingly, her skinny frame leaning toward me. “You are such a bad liar.”
“...a day to get the hell off school property and get started on the weekend!” I corrected, already knowing that my cheeks were now a breathtakingly bright shade of crimson.
“A tiny bit better on the spectrum of lying ability, but not really moving the needle far enough to matter.” Cora crossed her tiny arms beneath her nearly nonexistent chest. “Admit it. You’re here to check out Aria.”
My eyes couldn’t continue to meet Cora’s gaze, but they dare not return where they wanted to go.
“From like a million miles away.”
“Core!” I objected, trying for a threatening tone. It sounded more like begging.
“Because that’s as close as you think you’ll ever get to a girl that looks like that.”
I rolled my eyes. It might have conveyed the disdain I was going for, except that I was pretty sure my lips were quivering. Fuck.
Cora didn’t seem to notice the difficulties her words were giving me. Thank God.
“But that’s where you’re wrong.”
Now, that got my attention.
She sat down next to me, nudging me with her shoulder. “Because I’ve got something that will change everything for both of us.”
I turned to look at her, my embarrassment giving way to curiosity. “What do you mean by that?”
As she rose to her feet, reaching for my hand, her smile was positively wicked. “Come on, Peeping Tony, and I’ll show you.”
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