Romance: Young Adult Romance: The Perfect Game (A Highschool Football Romance) (Bad Boy Nerd New Adult Romance) (80 page)

Chapter Two

The convoy of cars, trucks and SUVs made it to the beach safely, nearly two hours after they set out. Faith rode with Stacy, who had offered to give rides to two other girls. One of them smoked cigarettes the entire way there, which Stacy was
unhappy about
. She grumbled that her father was going to be angry when he got his car back and it stank of cigarettes.
She
told the girl she would have to ride in a different car on the way back, which made for a very uncomfortable ride for the last hour.

But Faith forgot about it when she got her bag out of Stacy’s
trunk,
and they went
in
the hotel to check in.

“First thing we’re gonna do,” Stacy said. “Is go out on the beach. So let’s get our room and change into our bikinis right now!”

Faith didn’t have a bikini. She had a
very small
one piece with no back to it, though. Her mother had bought it for her, much to Faith’s surprise. It was
small,
but the design on the front was a beautiful sunrise, with the colors of the sky splashing across it in majestic fashion. She was impressed. She was also anxious to put it on and see what Ethan thought of it.

If she could get his attention.

She delighted in the feel of the sand between her toes. She scrunched it up and giggled. “I love this so much, Stace.” She said. “We gotta move here. We gotta find a college at the beach so we can enjoy this all the time.”

“You know, they say that when you live at the beach,
you
forget how beautiful it is because you’re, like, working all the time and never get to enjoy it. But if I lived here, I’d make sure to find the time to enjoy it.”

“Yeah, me too. I mean, how can you forget this beauty? I’d probably
forget
I had to go to work!”

They laughed.

They found a spot on the beach near some of their friends and spread their blankets out over the sand. Faith sat down on hers and set the small bag she’d brought with her down in the sand next to her. She took out a pair of sunglasses, her suntan lotion and a bottle of water.

“I am so ready for this.
School
has been rough lately.” Stacy did the same next to her, propping her sunglasses up on her head.

“How is that?” Faith laughed. Stacy gave her a wide-eyed look.

“You do know I’ve been helping out those kids in the remedial classes, don’t you? That’s taken a lot of time from my usual studies. I’ve got two assignments due when I get back.”

“Have you done them yet?” Faith asked.

Stacy shook her head. “No, I wanted to come on this trip too much and didn’t get them finished. I’m gonna have to take Monday to do them.”

“We go back to school Monday, silly.” Faith said.

“I
know,
but they aren’t due till Wednesday.”

Faith chuckled. “You’re pushing it to the last minute. Way to procrastinate.”

“I know it. It’s terrible. I’m terrible. I think I’ll have to go
for a swim
to punish myself. Come on!” She jumped up and held out one hand. Faith shook her head.

“You go ahead. I think I’m gonna soak up some sun and get
really hot
first so the water will freeze me through and through when I finally get in.”

Stacy laughed. “Suit yourself! See ya!”

Faith watched her friend bound toward the water, skipping into it and falling
backwards
when she was about waist high. A small wave toppled over her
head,
and she came up with a delighted yell. Faith smiled, smoothing out lotion on her arms and legs.

The sun was bright in the sky, almost directly over her head. She slipped on her sunglasses and laid back on the towel, already feeling her skin begin to warm up.

She may have fallen asleep. She wasn’t sure. The next thing she knew, someone was dripping cold water on her. She shrieked and sat up, shading her eyes to see who was torturing her. To her surprise, it was Ethan, leaning over and shaking his head so that he was splattering cold water from his hair all around him.

“You’re awake!” He laughed loudly. “We didn’t come here to sleep, girl! Get up and get moving! Come on! Have some fun! Besides, we need a fourth!” He reached out and took her hand, lifting her up to her feet whether she liked it or not. Her heart thumped hard in her
chest,
and she tried not to feel like she had just
been crowned
queen of the homecoming dance.

“Okay, okay!” She laughed, nervously. “You don’t have to tell me twice!”

She followed him down into the water, where several other school friends were splashing around, including Stacy and Darryl. Stacy gave her an open mouth grin and splashed over to her. Before she knew it, she was falling
backwards
in
the water from Stacy attacking her. Stacy came up first, throwing her wet, long blond hair back over her head. Faith grabbed her
shoulders
and they wrestled in the water for a few moments.

“Hey, come on!” Ethan gestured to them. “Time for chicken, come on, we’re gonna knock you into next week!”

Faith went towards
him,
but he turned away from her and grabbed one of the other girls, hoisting her up onto his shoulders. She stopped and looked around at the others, hoping no one had noticed her anticipation. She was embarrassed to see that Darryl had and was watching her for her reaction. When she grinned at him, cheeks red, he lifted one hand to her.

“Come on, come on!” He said. “You’re not going to let him get away with that, are you?”

She splashed over to
him,
and he grabbed her, kneeling down so she could
climb up
on his shoulders. He was taller than Ethan and lankier. She had no trouble pulling the other girl off of Ethan’s shoulders. Darryl’s hands around her legs held her in a firm grip. She wondered if she would have bruises.
She was having so much fun; she didn’t care.

Things quieted down that evening. After a dinner of pizza, chicken
wings,
and Coca-Cola, Faith and Stacy decided to spend some time in one of the hot tubs provided by the hotel. It was an enclosed hot tub surrounded by glass. There were two in one glass enclosure and two in another. One glass building was packed with students from their high school, other schools and college students.
The other was less full.
In fact, one of the hot tubs only had three people in it. That was the one Faith and Stacy went to first.

The warm water comforted Faith, relieving any residual stress she may have felt. She sat in front of one of the jets and let it beat against her back for a few minutes before moving away from it. The stream of water made it seem hotter than it
actually
was and it didn’t take long for it to feel like it was burning her.

She rested her head
backwards
and enjoyed the heat. She and Stacy didn’t talk. The other three young people in the hot tub weren’t talking either. It was comfortable and quiet.

After a short while, she sensed someone what looking at her and opened her eyes. Darryl had come in the glass
building,
but he wasn’t looking at her. He was stepping down into the hot tub slowly. When she opened her eyes, he glanced at her and smiled.

“Hey.” He
said softly
, passing in front of her to sit on the other side of Stacy.

She nodded at him.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” He kept his voice very
low
, as if they were in a library.

She smiled. “Yeah.” She closed her eyes again and laid her head back, sinking just a bit lower into the water, so that it came up and brushed against her chin.

Taking that as a sign, Darryl fell quiet and kept his eyes on the bubbling water.

When Faith opened her eyes again, the only people left in the hot tub were her, Stacy and Darryl. Even the crowd in the other glass building had dissipated. Stacy was moving through the water, walking from one side to the other and back again. She smiled at Faith.

“I’m swimming in the hot tub.” She murmured, running her hands over the foaming bubbles that rode along the surface of the water. “I’m ready to get out, though.
Starving to death.
You wanna
go get
something to eat?”

Faith nodded. “Yeah but not yet. I’m gonna sit in here for a little longer.”

“It’s like a sauna in here. You don’t need to lose any
weight
or you’re
gonna
blow away in the wind. I
’m gonna go dry
off. I’ll get something delivered to the room. You want a sub?”

“That sounds great!” Faith replied. “Give me another fifteen or so and I’ll be up there.”

Stacy nodded, moving to the steps and lifting herself out of the tub. “Okay, girl. See you in a few.”

Faith watched her friend as she wrapped her towel around her wet body and slipped her feet into her beach slippers. Then she turned her eyes to Darryl, who had stretched his long body out over the seat and was laid back in the corner, his arms spread out to the sides. He opened his eyes wide when he saw her looking at him.

“Uh oh.” He said menacingly. “It’s just you and me now.”

Faith chuckled. “Should I be worried?”

Darryl laughed and shrugged. “I guess you could be if you wanted to be. But you shouldn’t be. I won’t hurt you.”

“Glad to hear it. I know where you live.”

He laughed again. “
Oh,
you do? I think I’m the one who should be worried now.”

Faith laughed
with
him.

“So you’re having a good time so far?” Darryl asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, it’s been incredibly relaxing.”

“I think so, too. I’ve been waiting all year for this.”

“All school year or all year-year?”

“All year-year. At the beginning of school, I was thinking more about how to keep my grades up so I can stay in football and get my scholarship and go to college.”

“Do you know where you’re going yet?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. If I get the scholarship from football, I’ll probably apply
at
the ones I want to attend. If I get the free
scholarship
, I’ll be going to
community
with the others.”

“That’s what Stacy and I are going to do.” Faith moved to the other side of the hot tub so that she was closer to where he was sitting. She noticed when he looked down over her body and then back up at her eyes.

“You’re gonna wait to see if you get a football scholarship?”

She laughed. “No, I mean the free scholarship for two years. Then we’ll apply where we want to go.”

“Good thing. I don’t think the football thing would work out for you.”

They both laughed at that.

“What do you plan to do, do you know?” He asked.

“I’m going to be a teacher. Probably the younger grades, you know, kindergarten through maybe fourth or fifth. One of those grades.”

“Don’t want to teach the high schoolers, huh?”

Faith snorted. “No.”

He nodded. “I understand. I wouldn’t want to either. Not much money in that, though.”

“Money isn’t why I’d be doing it.”

He smiled at her. “Well, I think it’s a great profession. I hope you end up right where you want to be.”

“Thanks, Darryl. I hope you do, too.”

He shook his head. “I won’t if I don’t do something about my grades.”

“Having trouble?”

He frowned. “I hate to admit it but, yeah. My English class is killing me. I mean, it’s not Mr. Francis that’s causing the problem, you know? I just…” He shook his head. “Reading and writing just isn’t my thing. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

“I could help you, you know. I am a tutor for that class.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’d do that for me?”

“Well, I usually charge.” She said. “But we could make another arrangement.”

He laughed. “That sounds suspicious and not like something you’d say. What did you have in mind?”

She grinned at him.

Chapter Three

Stacy
threw open
the door as Faith was walking down the hallway to their room. She came out and gestured wildly at her friend. “Faith! That’s the longest fifteen minutes I’ve ever experienced in my life! I thought your sub was
gonna
get moldy! Where have you been?”

Faith narrowed her eyes, stepping into the
cool
room and immediately getting chills all over her wet body. “You know full well you were watching me on the deck. I could see you!”

Stacy laughed. “Darn those glass buildings. Good for the
spier
unless the person you’re watching can see you back! What were you and Darryl
talking about
? Looked intense.”

“I’m gonna help him with his English studies. He’s
struggling,
and I said I would help
him,
so he doesn’t lose his football scholarship.”

“If he gets one.”

“He’ll get one.” Faith said, confidently. “He’s good at it. He’ll get it.”

“So you made friends with Darryl, huh? What about Ethan? Thought you had your eyes on him.”

Faith nodded. “I made a deal with Darryl. He’s
gonna
talk to Ethan about me. See what he thinks about me. He’s
gonna
tell Ethan I’m tutoring him. I’m hoping Ethan might be just a bit jealous.”

Stacy scrunched her face up. “How’s that gonna make him jealous? He doesn’t even know you very well.
Y'all
aren’t going out and haven’t in the past. I don’t know why he’d get jealous.”

Faith shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s worth a try.”

Stacy shook her head. “I don’t think trying to make someone jealous is the way to a guy’s heart, girl. But you do what you want. In the meantime, eat that sub before I eat it myself.”

Faith unwrapped the parchment paper that surrounded her sandwich.
The bottom was slightly soggy because it had sat for so long but she felt like it was worth it.
“I see you ate my pickle slice.”

Stacy shrugged, throwing herself on the bed and grabbing the remote for the TV. “You shouldn’t have taken so long. It was screaming out for me. I had to eat it.”

Faith chuckled. “Okay, okay. There something worth watching on TV this evening?”

“Oh we aren’t staying in here, are you serious? We have a party in one of the rooms to go to in two hours.”

Faith shook her head. “You know I don’t do parties, Stace. My parents would kill me if they knew I…”

“One, your parents aren’t here, thank God. And two, just because other people are
doin’
stuff doesn’t mean you have to. You know what the old folks always say, just because so and so jumps off a bridge, does that mean you have to too, right?”

“I guess.” Faith was apprehensive. She’d seen the coolers. She knew it wasn’t Coke and Pepsi in them. “I don’t want to get in any trouble. Not with the guys and not with my parents.”

“I’ll watch out for you. Latch on to Darryl. I bet he’d keep you safe.”

Faith raised her eyebrows. “What are you
talking about
? He wants to get through school and get his grades up and play football. Nothing more than that.”

Stacy shook her head. “Sometimes I think girls can be as clueless as guys are about when somebody is attracted to them.”

“I don’t think Darryl is attracted to me.”

“Oh
yeah,
he is. I tried to flirt with him like five times all
day,
and he kept looking in your direction. And when we were all playing chicken? Good Lord, how can you not notice?”

Faith shook her head. “I don’t think you’re right. But I’ll go tonight. And I’m gonna hang
around
you like glue.”

“That’s
not
the
phra
-a-
ase
.” Stacy
sing-songed
as she scooted off the bed and skipped
into the bathroom
to take a shower.

“
No,
but it did kind of rhyme!” Faith called out and was pleased when she heard her friend’s responding laughter.

The party was
being held
in a room that was four doors down from Faith and Stacy’s.
They could hear loud thumping music as they got closer and the door suddenly came open.
Three students from their school spilled out into the hallway, shushing each other while laughing.

The girls grinned at them and moved around into the room. It
was packed
with people. Faith immediately felt uncomfortable and gave Stacy a look. Stacy leaned over and yelled in her ear, “Look! Out there on the balcony! There’s your chance!
Go find
out if he’s interested!”

Faith squinted and moved her head around to see who was on the balcony. Both Darryl and Ethan were out there, along with three girls. She nodded at Stacy and began to push her way through the crowd.

When she stepped out on the balcony, the group turned to look at her. Two of the girls and Darryl smiled. Ethan and the other girl just lifted their heads in
acknowledgment
. When Darryl broke from them and approached her, she suspected Stacy had been right.

She
didn’t know what to think about that. How could
she
tutor a football player who had a crush on her? Especially when she had a crush on a different football player?

She gave Ethan a long gaze before moving her eyes to Darryl, who held out his hand to one of the cushioned chairs next to the glass balcony doors. “Sit with me?”

She grinned. “Sure.” She was anxious to hear if he had already talked to Ethan about her. Ethan had given no indication that he thought any more about her than he had before. But she still wanted to know.

He leaned in close to her and
she
noticed for the first time that he was very good-looking. She wondered if Stacy had gotten into her brain a bit. “I’m kind of surprised to see you here.”

“Oh? Why?”

He shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I was
kind of
surprised a girl like you would even come on a trip like this. Was it just because of
ol
’ Ethan over
there, really
?”

She rolled her eyes and leaned
in to
him. “Shh. What’s wrong with you? I don’t want him hearing!”

“Well, you’ll never get him like that, will you?” He laughed loudly. “You gotta let him know eventually.”

“Well, did you say anything to him? Did you tell him I’m going to be helping you with your school work?”

He nodded. “Yeah but he didn’t have much of a reaction, sorry.” Darryl didn’t want to tell her that he’d had to remind
Ethan,
who she was. There were a lot of girls on this
trip,
and most of them were interested in Ethan. That’s the way it had always
been,
and Darryl had come to accept it long ago. He wasn’t sure why girls always wanted to go out with Ethan.
He
was his
friend,
but
he
wasn’t the best of characters. He’d had four girlfriends so far this school year and although each one was a beauty, he’d broken their hearts and moved on without hesitation.

Darryl
really
didn’t want to see that happen to Faith. She was
a nice
girl,
pretty
and smart. He thought she should be with someone more worthy of her.

“That’s kind of what I expected.” Faith said to his relief. “I was talking to Stacy about him. She didn’t have much good to say either.”

“Oh, I’m not trying to say anything bad, I just…”

They were interrupted when Ethan came over with one of the girls and plopped down on a nearby chair. “What you guys over here whispering about?” He asked loudly. The girl dropped herself onto his
lap,
and he wrapped one arm around her small waist. She giggled and gave him an adoring look. It made Faith feel sick to her
stomach,
and she quickly realized she saw a small piece of fabric on the cushioned chair that needed to
be inspected
immediately. Darryl saw her reaction and struggled not to laugh. He fist-bumped
Ethan,
and they wiggled their fingers in the air to simulate the explosion.

“Religion and
stuff,
” Darryl said, laughing.

“What?? No way.”

“Nah, just
kiddin’
. We’re discussing the relevance of thermo-nuclear reaction on the current status of the ecosystem.”

Faith looked up at Darryl and then at Ethan and the girl. Darryl winked at her and lifted his cup to his lips, grinning widely. He moved his eyes quickly in the direction of the two on the other
chair,
and Faith understood. He was trying not to laugh at the confused look on the girl’s face. Faith lowered her head again and
giggled
her face flushing.

Ethan shook his head. He pushed the girl off his lap and slapped her rear as he got up. “Let’s leave these two eggheads to their conversation, Carly. I need a new drink!”

Faith watched as they went into the room and then turned her eyes to Darryl. “What was that all about?” she asked with a smile.

He shrugged. “Just trying to prove a point, girl. You can’t make someone jealous if they didn’t want you to
begin with
. No offense.”

Faith felt her heart sink a little bit. She knew he was right. But she’d had her sights on Ethan for months
now,
and it seemed like such a long time to be pining after someone who had no interest in her. She’d changed the way she looked and contemplated getting contacts just to attract him. She’d also thought about dying her hair because she heard he liked brunettes. Her mother had threatened to cut off her allowance if she dyed it, so she hadn’t followed through. But she’d thought about it.

“Normally I’m pretty smart.” She said in a sorrowful voice. “I feel pretty stupid right now.”

Darryl gave her a sympathetic look. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, Faith. You shouldn’t feel bad at a party on spring break. He’s not the only fish in the sea, you know. And
there’s some guys that are
way better than him.”

“Like you?”

He grinned. “I’m not gonna say no to that. But you know, I’m not egotistical, either. I just know that Ethan is a player. And I think you deserve better than that.”

She smiled at him. “Thanks for being so blunt with me, Darryl.”

He sighed. “Trying to be honest without being rude.”

“I don’t think
you’re being
rude.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“You’re pretty wise for a teenager.”

Darryl laughed. “I’ve
been told
I’m 17 going on 35. Not sure if that’s
really
a
compliment,
though.”

“Well, you’ve made me feel better even though you’ve been pretty blunt with me.”

“I’m glad you feel better, Faith. You wanna dance?”

She shook her head. “I don’t dance.”

“Well, I’ll be glad to sit out here with you and look at the stars then.”

“That sounds great.”

She smiled at him.