Friendly Dating 2 - Ethan

Chapter 14 - Breaking the Dating Ice

It is not even 8am yet, and the freshness of morning has already come and gone, taking the last of the dew drops that were still stubbornly clinging to blades of grass with it. There's a cool breeze, but after doing warm-up exercises, it is doing nothing to make any of us feel less over-heated.

Being able to play rugby in intense heat and humidity conditions is what gives our school's players an edge. Silverview, the nearest city where St Albany Boys High is located, is much cooler than our small coastal town, Egret's Rest since it receives more shade and shelter from the embrace of the mountains. People who live in Egret's Rest are all tempered and toughened by the weather and therefore have more stamina than most people from other regions.

Sometimes, I just want to give up on all this fun tempering and toughening up garbage and just go live in a cool, shady town somewhere. Who needs this much stamina anyway?

Dressed in our red, white and black striped rugby shirts, our team is hanging out in the shadow at the first step of the bleachers at the main rugby field, strategizing about the match and making ridiculous game plans. Actually, we're mostly just shooting the breeze and talking crap while making it sound important. Trust Burlap to be sitting in the middle of this pre-game hype, reading friggin' Great Expectations by Charles Dickens! He is completely ignoring the girls trying to grab his attention.

Well, maybe he isn't ignoring them on purpose. He can be pretty oblivious when he gets his nose stuck in a good book. He is also not as eager as the rest of the guys to have his ego stroked by our team's female supporters. Burlap is not quite over his last break-up, and sometimes I fear that he never will be. It's been over a year now. There are some really great girls here, I wish he would look up and see them. I want him to be happy too.

Well, having him reading his book is a lot better than having him throwing me teasing glances and making cryptic, quirky observations about falling off of boulders instead of sitting in a tree K I S S I N G, causing my ears to turn red. He is happy for me; I know he is, but he also loves messing with me, and he just cannot get over how spectacularly I mucked up asking Kira to be my girlfriend. Hey! It worked! Kinda... I guess he's taking revenge for 12 years of me messing with him. I'll let him have his fun...

I become aware of Wendy Dawson, a girl entrenched in our group, leaning up against me. Normally, I don't have an issue with that. Wendy likes to touch people and sit on them, but she's not really all that interested in much more from them except perhaps a kiss now and then. She has, on many occasions, made it clear that she wants me to be her boyfriend, but I know that she, just like Amber, only wants someone until she can have him, and then she's no longer interested. She does tend to be pretty possessive when it comes to all of us, though, as if we're members of her personal harem.

Just to be clear, we're not.

I don't take her seriously anymore, and she's mostly harmless, but I've made a promise to Kicks about this kind of thing, and I'm going to stick to that promise; besides, I want my friends to respect what Kira and I have... once they know that we have something... I gently extract myself from Wendy, creating some distance between us. It comes as no surprise to me when she simply transfers her affection to Leroy, who is standing on her other side.

"Your girlfriend's here," Burlap mutters. He glanced up in the process of turning the page and is grinning way too happily. I turn to see what he is seeing because his ears and neck are flashing red, and he is chuckling softly, and I don't think he is trying to tease me right now.

Delia, Simon and Kira are walking towards us, and I have to blink several times to be sure I'm really seeing what I think I'm seeing. My sister and Kicks are dressed like some of the other dedicated Corbin High female supporters in cute pleated black skirts, short enough to make me forget why we're gathered here at the bleachers in the morning heat.