Oh Boy! (BL)

11 - Blitz! (1/3)

October 2010

"...I mean, it was just a little peck. No reason to make a fuss about it," I mumbled. "We could...you know...let's just pretend it never happened, buddy. I...ouch!"

The girls walking next to me in the hallway snickered when I bumped into a silver trash can while quietly reciting the lines I had prepared throughout the week. I had folded and unfolded the note in my hands so many times that the paper threatened to fall apart just by looking at it. Sighing, I put it back inside my pocket. Didn't need it anyway; by now, I knew the lines that could've come straight out of a trashy teenage drama by heart.

Though I doubted that I would ever get the chance to use them.

Ever since I had left Clay's car last Saturday, he hadn't spoken to me. Not once in the six days that followed. If we happened to meet in the hallway, he pretended not to see me or changed his path. During practice, he would nod in my direction if I was lucky, and afterward, he usually left before I had finished assisting coach Simpson. The few times I tried talking to him, he cut me off with short and impersonal answers before taking the next chance to get away from me. I had become so used to his presence that being without him suddenly made me feel...lonely.

Oh, I wasn't alone! On the contrary, Kenner and Evans spent more time by my side than ever before. They pretended as if everything was okay, but I guessed that was all part of their plan not to make me notice that they had also taken over the role of my personal drivers. Not that I needed an explanation to get what this meant: he had passed me on to his teammates.

And on top of that, a new note from Holland was waiting for me inside my locker. Unfolding it with a pounding heart, I made a face. "MAKE. HIM. TALK. TO. ME!" Yeah, as if I needed her to remind me that there was less than one week left to fulfill task #3. I knew that! But given the current situation, I would probably need that time to make him talk to me again.

So, by Friday afternoon, I decided that I had to take action if I ever wanted to fix this. After yet another practice in which Clay ignored my presence, I rushed after him when he left the locker room. Showered and changed back into his streetwear, he headed straight to the parking lot while I was still packing up poles and balls. "Clay! Clay, wait!"

He didn't wait. Clay either didn't hear me...or didn't want to hear me because, instead of slowing down his pace, he took a turn left where a group of other students waited for him next to his car. Slowly I ground to a halt and watched how the group of two boys and two girls departed together. Clay knew I'd never approach him when so many strangers were around, so I watched them leave like a puppy that had been abandoned in a cardboard box by the street.

"Don't take it personally," Kenner patted my back with his large hand. I hadn't even noticed that he followed me from the sports ground. "Cap's been moody this whole week, but he won't tell us what happened."

I winced.

When Kenner carefully directed me towards the parking lot, I didn't resist. "Just give him some time."

Time...the one thing I did not have. I blinked. "Wait. My backpack! I need..."

"Woohooo! Finally, there you are!"

I drew in my brows when a silhouette with curly blonde hair waved at us from the other end of the parking lot. Evans was leaning against his ancient Toyota and, if my eyes weren't mistaken, a familiar black backpack dangled from his shoulder. When we got closer, Evans used the index finger of his right hand to tap rapidly on his left wrist. "Come on, I gotta be at the diner in thirty minutes."

"Then, what're you still doing here?", murmured Kenner.

Evans grinned. "I'm Kenji-boy's taxi!"

"I'm on schedule for giving him a ride..." Kenner glanced at me when I lifted my brows. So, they had a schedule... My chest felt tight.

"I bet your driving skills give him heart attacks!" Evans snorted.

"And I'm sure yours make him fall asleep!"

While the two of them were fighting over who "got to take me home", I was thinking about Clay. How could I fix this? Could I fix it at all? Then maybe...I couldn't. And maybe I should cut this whole act before I managed to do even more damage.

Evans and Kenner kept arguing...as if I was some kind of job they were forced to do.

Maybe I was. Maybe that's all I'd ever been to them.

My shoulders fell. "I'll walk, guys."

Both soccer players turned around. "What?"

"You don't have to drive me." I tried a weak smile. "I mean, Drake and Hayden haven't shown their faces in forever...and I could use the fresh air anyway."

Evans and Kenner exchanged glances. "No way. They're just waiting for you to get careless! Don't be stupid, Kenji-boy!"

"Fine," I mumbled and ended their fight by opening the passenger door to Evans's car.

During the short drive to North-Western Medical, Evans tried to be his usual self, but his voice was pressed, and his cheerful chatting seemed forced. I assumed that Evans was just as concerned about Clay's behavior as Kenner; he was just a bit better at hiding it.

"Soooo," he said when parking his old car in front of the main entrance. "Shane-y told me that Mr. D gave you Apple-Pie's mail address."

I frowned. "Apple-Pie?"

He rolled his eyes. "Cooper MacIntosh. Of course, I call him apple-pie!"

Naturally...

"Yeah," I confirmed even though I had completely forgotten about that. The note was probably gathering dust somewhere in my dirty laundry. "But I won't do it."

"Why not? Sounds like you might like it."

I shrugged. I couldn't do it. Not if what Kenner said about Clay and Cooper being arch-nemeses was true. I wouldn't risk hurting Clay more than I already did.

Hurting him? I blinked. I had made him mad! I didn't hurt him, did I?

Still caught in my own thoughts, I got out of Evans's car, fetched a coffee-to-go from the small bakery on the ground floor of the hospital, and almost didn't notice when the elevator stopped at mom's ward.

"Aw, sweetie, you're awesome, you know that?" Lisa's cheerful voice made me return to the now when she pulled me out of the elevator and took the coffee from my hand with an exhausted sigh. Below her eyes, there were dark circles that made her look just like Mom whenever she returned from a night shift. "But you're nuts, coming here every day."

My reply was a simple smile before I opened the door to mom's room.

Today, I kept quiet most of the time. Clara was at a routine checkup and there wasn't much more for me to tell my mom. I was here every day, after all, and she already knew all about the last week. She knew about me meeting C. C. Starling and that I'd accidentally met one of my guildmates.

I didn't tell her about the kiss, though.

I had promised that I wouldn't talk to anybody about it.

Not even to her.

Back at home, Dax had just started his evening "business", which was never a good time to be around, but when I rushed past him, he merely graced me with some heavy curses in an eastern European language.

Inside the apartment, I used the remaining twenty minutes before our guild night would start to take my dirty clothes to the shared laundry room at the end of the hallway. The machines were born in the eighties and were covered in dust and graffiti. But as long as they worked fine, I didn't care what they looked like. I had just put my black jeans inside when I remembered my conversation with Evans.

"Apple-pie," I snorted while searching the pockets until my fingers finally touched the edges of Mr. D's note.

Though I was fairly certain that I wouldn't get in touch with Cooper, I unfolded the crumpled piece of paper to make sure my teacher hadn't left a message for me inside. Yep, just as I thought.

Please give it a try, Kenji. I'm sure you'll like working with the Blitz!-team.

Cooper's e-mail address is...

...I fell to my butt.

"What?!"