the return

Chapter 6

The game is neck to neck. The score is ten to ten after we decided to shorten the rounds of the game. Next point wins this game and my team is feeling very confident. Three out of the six players on Kai's team look sunburnt, and absolutely ready to quit. I smirk as I remember our ice cream deal. It's my teams turn to serve. A blonde girl steps up to the line, takes a deep breath, and serves the ball with a hard hit. She's definitely one of the better players on our team. The libero dives for the ball, the right side hitter sets the ball for the middle blocked to spike. Kai was the middle blocker. His spike would've been powerful if it wasn't for our first row blocking him. The volleyball falls on their side of the court. My team is cheering and yelling with happiness. "We made it!?" I ask astonished. The other team make lame jeers, but makes us laugh even more proud.

"Looks like you owe me ice cream," I say jokingly to Kai. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But to be fair, I was going to pay for it already." "Whatever you say, buddy."Kai eventually runs off to find his friends.

I join, reluctantly, the group of gossiping girls. I know and love these girls, they were extremely kind to me the first few weeks of college. I've become real close with them, but sometimes I don't want to hear the gossip. They'll just start talking about the hookup sessions in their own experiences or others at abandoned bathrooms, classrooms, and the dorms. One time while I was hanging out with the group they were talking about a girl named Jessie. Jessie was a very pretty girl, and because of that, had many affairs. She had several with the boys at our college, guys from other schools, even a professor or two. It was a very messy situation, so that's why I try to avoid their stories for the most part.

"Hey girls," I announce as they're all huddled up whispering. "Oh my gosh, Aurea! Did you hear about what happened to Jessie?!" A girl with pink highlights asked. "What? Did she become a nun?" The girls laugh at my question. "Nooo, silly. She left to go back home." Another girl announced. I do a little gasp, why would she leave for home? "Yeah, her parents asked told her to come home. They even cut her allowance off. She was pretty pissed about that." The girls who were huddled around together all had sympathetic faces. We all loved Jessie, and tried to not judge her party lifestyle, but it's not like we can say we weren't expecting it. To change the topic, the girl with pink highlights offered me some fruit. It's pretty common for us college girls to offer fruit up in uncomfortable conversations. It's quite a useful tactic because a girl starts taking about how she thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her.

"I've been suspecting it for a while. He's become very close with this one guy from the engineering department," All the girls looked confused when she says guy. "Do you mean girl?" Someone asks. The girl shakes her head, "no, I mean boy. If he's unhappy I don't know why he wouldn't just say something! It's so frustrating and hurting, but it's not like I exactly know if he is cheating." As I'm listening to her story I look at the ocean and see a tall figure come toward me. It's Kai. I smile dumbly as I watch him walk toward me. The group of girls notice and start giggling. "I think someone is in loooove." A girl snickers. I'm too love struck to care. Love struck? I knew I liked him and had a small crush, but could I actually be in love? Could I actually consider dating him? Would I tell Kendra about him? Kendra.. crap. I still have to respond to her DM. I suddenly frown.

Kai seemed to notice my distraught expression. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asks considerately. "Nothing," I reply lying and putting on a big smile and fake smile. "Well then, up for a swim?" "That'd be perfect," I say putting on a real smile this time. "Race you to the water!" He shouts getting a head start. "No fair!" I yell at him as he's already running into the water. I give a bittersweet smile.