Accidental Crush (2 page)

“Really?” My brother seems genuinely surprised. That’s the other thing about him, he’s so modest. He truly has no idea how great he is or how much people really like him. I can’t help noticing, however, that he brightens a little more when I mention Gretchen’s name. I have no idea what he sees in her.
 

“Yeah, and they all want to see you, but we can only come in one at a time. Everybody only gets five minutes; strict orders from Dr. Martin, so you know if he doesn’t kick them out, Mom will. She’s out there with the stopwatch feature on her iPhone running. I have no idea how she even knew that existed.”

Ryan laughs and then immediately cringes in pain.

“Sorry, I forgot.” My Mom peers into the room and taps her finger to her wrist. “Guess my time is up. Love you. See you tomorrow after school, jerk.”
 

“Love you, too, jerk bug.”

My brother has called me “bug” for as long as I can remember, it has sort of caught on at home, but thankfully, nowhere else. 

When I walk out of his room, Gretchen practically pushes me over to go in. I’m not sure why Todd and Brian let her go in next. Sometimes,
ladies first is a pain. As she runs in, I hear her say, “Oh Ryan, I was so worried about you,” in her typical, overly-dramatic fashion. I just threw up               a little.              

Chapter 2: School

The next day at school—yup, I have to go—everyone is talking about my brother.

“Did you hear about Ryan Taylor? He had surgery last night… poor Gretchen, she’s devastated.”

WHAT? Poor Gretchen? What about poor Ryan? He’s the one who actually had surgery. I can’t help rolling my eyes as I listen to this ridiculous hallway conversation. Ryan gets to miss school and lie in bed all day and I have to go to school to hear about how difficult it’s been for Gretchen? I hate this conversation, but I want to hear more; so I pass my locker and trail a little behind them without looking too obvious.

“I know, she was crying in homeroom this morning. I felt so bad for her. I think it was appendicitis or something, but she’s taking it pretty hard.”

Suddenly, I slam into something hard. I’ve been so busy trying to hear what they are saying that I haven’t even been paying attention to where I’m going. Man, that hurts. I look up and instantly feel my cheeks getting warm. I keep thinking
STOP
to myself, but that only makes it worse. My entire face is getting warmer and brighter. Of all people, I just slammed into Todd!

“
Uhhh… Hi, Todd,” I say as I look up at him, he is at least a foot taller than me. I try to will the red away from my face again, yet there is still no luck. 

“Hey, kiddo. Next time you can just say hi. Haven’t you ever heard of personal space?” his smile says he is kidding. Wow, he has a firm chest; I’ve never really realized that underneath his tall lean build is a very firm chest. My heart starts to pound and my stomach starts to flutter. Wait, he’s still talking and I have no idea what he said. Great, now I look like an even bigger idiot. “Um, what?”

He gives me the same
I think you might be slow or crazy
smile from the hospital.  “I said, I talked to Ryan today and he sounded better. Are you going to see him after school?”

“Yes. You?"

“Well, we have practice, but coach is going to let us out early so we can make it before visiting hours are over. I know a lot of the team wants to head down to see him.”

“Cool. Then, I’ll see you there.”  I have to get out of here before I turn an even brighter shade of red. It’s starting
to feel really awkward; it’s never been awkward with Todd before, what is going on? I quickly turn to walk away. I still need to go to my locker and I am going to be so late for class. I start to run and, as I get close, I can see Sid waiting for me.

“Where have you been?” Sidney is clearly irritated.
 

“Sorry.
 I kind of got sucked into listening to this conversation these girls were having and lost track of time.” I decide to leave out my sort of odd encounter with Todd. I’m still trying to figure out what I am feeling, so I’m certainly not going to share my feelings with his sister.

“You are late because you were eavesdropping?” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes in her classic Sid move. If she has a signature move, that is it; the simultaneous headshake and eye roll.

“Yes. You have no idea. I overheard these girls talking about Ryan, so it caught my attention, and then they started saying how bad they felt for Gretchen!” I do my best over-exaggerated imitation, “
Oh, poor Gretchen. She was crying in homeroom.
” 

“POOR GRETCHEN?” Now she is just as angry as me. As my best friend, she—of course—completely shares my dislike and disapproval of Gretchen.
  “Okay, I get why you were late, but if I get detention because we’re late to Spanish, you owe me big time.”

“We still have a few minutes. Give me a break. My brother did just have surgery,” I say with a smile.

Sid laughs. She totally gets me. There is never a need to explain what we mean; we know each other inside and out. “But maybe we should run, just in case.” I mentally groan because I know she isn’t joking.

I slam my locker shut and we start sprinting to class. We are still a full hallway away when the late bell rings, which means a guaranteed detention. I can’t even look in her direction. “Sorry, Sid."

She stops running and tries to catch her breath. “Well, now that we’re late, we should make the most of it!” Just as she says that, Brian is walking toward us without a care in the world. When you are the school quarterback it’s almost as if the rules for the rest of the school don’t apply to you and he knows it. 

“Hey, Ladies! You’re late.”

“What are you, the hall monitor?” Sid quickly retorts.

Sid and Brian have this love-hate relationship and it’s always been that way. She has grown up with him exactly like I have, but I think she sees past his “cool status” more than most. You see, Brian is a little bit of an ass when it comes to girls. I think—deep down—he's got a big heart
because he’s really good to his friends.  However, when it comes to girls, well, let’s just say he’s not very monogamous. The good part is that he’s at least honest about it; it isn’t like he claims to be good boyfriend material. In fact, he’s pretty upfront about not wanting a girlfriend, yet for some reason, girls still want to be with him. I would say it’s his quarterback status, but I think it’s more than that. Of course, being the quarterback of a winning team doesn’t hurt, but he also has this thing about him—this confidence—that people are drawn to.

“Nice one, Sid, but only one of us is going to get a detention today.” He smiles as he adjusts his letterman jacket. “Who’s laughing now?”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not just his confidence; Brian is a good-looking guy. He’s your typical jock, which is exactly what he wants to be. He has short, sandy blonde hair that he’s worn with a little bit of a gelled spike in the front for as long as I can remember. To top it off, he has really kind, brown eyes. If he wanted to, he could be great boyfriend material to any one of the girls he’s dated; he just has no interest.

“We’ll see,” Sid responds.

Unfortunately, Brian is right. Well, at least about us getting a detention. We are less than five minutes late, but Senora Gonzales is having none of the excuses. I even try pulling a page from Gretchen’s book and use Ryan’s surgery; it should be good for something! Once again, Gretchen is not helpful. I only have one class with Sid, and I’m sure—right now—she is wishing she didn’t have any with me since this is all my fault. Shane is in this class, too, and he gives us this look of great joy as soon as we walk in; he is never going to let this go. Shane is always the one getting in trouble so it gives him tremendous pleasure to have something to hold over Sid and me. Luckily, Spanish is our last class of the day. As we walk toward our lockers, Shane can’t stop laughing. 

“So I guess we know what you’ll both be doing tomorrow afternoon.”

“Well, at least we’ll be together. What will you be doing? I mean without us, you have no life.” I‘m already upset and completely not in the mood for Shane’s sarcasm.

“Now who wishes they had detention!” Sid jumps in.

“Actually, I have plans anyway." Shane is full of unusual confidence.

Once I knew Ryan was going to be fine last night, I texted Shane to tell him what happened. Normally he’s the first person I’d go to with something like that; I love Sid, but she tends to overreact. Shane has always been
incredibly strong, he can handle anything. Since Roger’s accident, though, he’s been dealing with enough; I didn’t want to burden him with anything else to worry about.

“What plans?” Sid and I ask at the same time.

“I can’t tell you.”

“
Ooooohhh, do these plans involve a girl?” I ask. It is probably a long shot because Shane has never really been interested in girls, other than Sid and me, which has always been strictly as friends.

“NO. But thanks for that, Ash!”

“Do you really think we’re going to give up that easily?” I quickly push back, but just as we are getting into it, Gretchen walks up; I didn’t even see her coming. Her timing is perfect, as usual.

“Hi, Ashley!” Gretchen smiles her typical, huge, cheerleader smile.

I’m pretty sure she knows I’m not a fan, but she is always so nice and bubbly; it’s hard not to be sort of nice back. “Hi, Gretchen.”

“Do you need a ride to the hospital? I'm going to head over there now and thought maybe we could go together.”
 

This sounds like the worst idea in the history of ideas. “Don’t you have cheerleading practice?”

“Yeah, well, I told Coach Jones that I couldn’t go today. There’s no way I can concentrate and I don’t want to miss a second of visiting hours.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Sid’s headshake and eye roll, and I try not to laugh. I have no idea what exactly you need to “concentrate” on for cheerleading practice, but whatever, I have to get out of this. I can’t think of an excuse… and then, out of nowhere, Todd appears; just like a knight in shining armor. Well, in this case, shining gold pants. WOW! Boys look so cute in their football gear.

“Hey, guys. Coach is cutting practice really short so the guys can make visiting hours, I can take you home if you want, Sid?”

Sid quickly glances over at me. She knows I’d pick anything in the world over riding to the hospital with Gretchen. “Actually, remember we were all going to ride to the hospital with you when you’re done with practice.” Sid widens her eyes as if she is continuing the conversation with her brother nonverbally.

He knits his eyebrows with confusion, but he catches on fast. “Okay, cool.” He looks at Sid for reassurance that he is going in the right direction. “Maybe you guys can check out practice while you wait?”

We all answer at the same time; I say “yes” while both
Sid and Shane say “no“. As soon as the words have left our mouths, their heads whip over and they glare at me.

Gretchen jumps in, “Okay, if you have a ride, then I’m going to go over now. I really want to make the most of visiting hours, especially if the team is heading over after practice. See you guys there.” She
pivots on her heel and adjusts her Louis Vuitton tote as she walks down the hall. 

As soon as she is out of ear shot, I
can’t help but grin, “Thank you, you saved me a long, awkward car ride. I totally owe you guys!”

“You’re right; and that’s twice now.” Sid gives me a mocking smile.

“Twice?” Todd asks with a laugh.

“Yeah, thanks to Ash, we got detention for being late to Spanish.”

“Oh, man, Mom and Dad are going to love that one.” He is oozing with sarcasm. “Speaking of late, I gotta go or Coach is gonna kill me. See you guys over there,” he says with a wink as he runs off.

For the first time ever, I notice how cute Todd’s butt looks in his tight, gold football pants. I know I should look away, but I can’t seem to find the will to do it.
 

“Um, hello, earth to Ashley,” Shane interrupts.
Damn him
. “Are you okay? You seem distracted.”

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine.” Luckily, he doesn’t notice I’m staring at Todd’s cute, round butt. It’s official, I definitely agree with the “God Todd” title. Sid is so lucky that she gets to live with him.

“You must really be taking this Ryan thing hard,” Shane says, justifying my behavior as he wraps his arm around me and squeezes my shoulder.

This is the third time in the last twenty-four hours that I have been caught off guard while staring at Todd. This has to stop! “Um, yeah, I think I am,” I say, thankful for the excuse. There’s got to be some sort of bad karma for pretending you are more upset than you really are after your one and only brother has emergency surgery. I’ve already been given detention so that’s something. Hopefully, whatever else is coming isn’t much worse.

Sid and Shane win so we don’t go over to the field to watch football practice. Instead, I have to go to The Quad and listen to Shane drone on and on about my detention. At least it’s making him happy. He’s had it pretty rough lately.

After Roger’s accident, his parents separated and now they’re going through a nasty divorce. Yet, for some reason, they thought it was a good idea to still live in the same house.

Shane is all alone and he’s caught in the middle of their drama. So if a small thing like Sid and I being sentenced to a horrible afternoon tomorrow makes him happy, I guess I can go with it. Out of the three of us, Shane is usually the one getting detention. He’s always been a good student, but I think this past year has hit him harder than he’ll ever admit and he’ll do anything to avoid going home.

All my life
I’ve been forced to watch Ryan play sports, while Todd and Brian are always there, I never really noticed or cared. It’s just my brother and his friends doing something I have zero interest in. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been forced to go? My parents feel like sports time is family time. I’d prefer to keep sports time separate from family time, very separate. However, today—more than anything—I want to go to football practice.

Yesterday, anything would have been better than going to the hot, sticky field to watch football practice, yet today, everything has changed. When I think about Todd—who has to be the only human on earth who could look cute in those gold spandex pants—my heart starts to pound harder and my stomach starts doing summersaults, however, I can’t say anything to Sid or Shane. Instead, I have to pretend that everything is the same as yesterday and I am perfectly happy killing time at The Quad, which is the
central, social gathering place for the élite juniors and seniors. It's a long, narrow, brick hallway with arch cutouts down the length of the entire hall. After school, it's totally open to anyone; during school, you need to be of a certain social status of which we are not members. My brother, Todd and Brian are definitely members. Even Gretchen has a permanent pass to The Quad. They are all popular juniors, but as freshman, it is pretty much forbidden. You can go, but it is like social suicide no matter who you are related to. It is the unspoken rule; freshman are not allowed and we are definitely freshman.