Captains

Chapter 16

Sunday morning, I wake up with a raging headache. I look around confused for just a second, then the event of last night hits me like a brick wall. Tears well up in my eyes, and I fall back on to the futon in Brooklyn's room.

"Sterling? Are you awake?" I hear Brooklyn say softly.

"Yes." I say, putting the covers off me, and smoothing out the pajamas that I always leave at Brooklyn's. 

"I hate to do this, but you need to clean up. You look like hell."

I laugh, but comply. Half an hour later, I'm fresh out of the shower in Nike shorts, and a tank top.

"Brooklyn, can you take me home? I need to get some things done."

"Are you sure? We can just stay here and watch Gossip Girl and eat ice cream all day. I even got Trystan to get your favorite flavor." She says, waving the cake batter ice cream carton in front of her face.

"As enticing as that sounds, I really need to get things done." I lie to her, again.

"Fine. But Cali can take you. She's headed home too."

10 minutes later, were driving in Cali's VW bug.

She turns down the Big Sean song, but I jump to turn it back up. "You do not simply turn down a Big Sean song."

"But you know I hate music other than country. You love Luke Bryan, right? Why don't we listen to him?"

I look at her. "You put on Luke Bryan, and I swear to God I will jump out of this car going 60 miles an hour."

She takes her hand off the radio, but not after turning down the station that was just playing Big Sean. "Listen. I know how much last night sucked. But I also know that Brooklyn would try to baby you, and make you wallow in self-pity, which not what you want or need. So I'm guessing you're either going to the school gym, or the beach."

I sigh. "Beach."

She nods. "That's what I thought. Just please don't do anything rash, like you did with Blake that one time." She laughs a little.

I feign seriousness. "He totally deserved that! That's what happens when you mess with one of my best friends!"

"I don't think anyone deserves everything that you did to him at once. Let's reminisce on everything shall we? After we found out he was cheating on me the summer before sophomore year, you decided we should have a party. You stole his credit card and ordered 17 olive and spinach pizzas with stuffed crust with ham inside it, which he was allergic to. Then you stole all the good alcohol-"

"You have to admit that was a good thing. We had a great summer!"

"True. Anyway. You took your mom's old iPod, with the old gospel music, and replaced that in the iPod deck. After everyone saw it was a bad party and left, we hid in the bushes across the street and called the cops, so he got busted with alcohol for a party by himself, so he got made fun of- still does actually, then we rolled his house, and fruit-looped it, and put dish soap everywhere, then put forks all over the lawn, and broke the tops off the top of the forks. and that night, you put his number on craigslist, claiming to be a 'lonely guy looking for a cougar or prostitute of either gender."

We're both crying laughing by now. "Come on. That was one of the best nights of our lives!"

She shakes her head, pulling into my driveway. "He changed his number, and tried to move schools across the state!"

"That asshole should have. He still refuses to give his number out." I say laughing, grabbing my stuff.

She's still laughing. "Just don't do anything like that. Please."

I roll my eyes. "I won't."

And I go inside my own home.

******************

An hour later, after a long conversation with my parents about telling them where I was and an unexpected Skype call from my brothers, I headed to my favorite beach. For the longest time, I just sat on the sand, trying not to think about anything.

"You ready?" Charlotte, the middle for my team, and one of the only girls who I can stand to be around other than volleyball, says.

I look up at smile. "Definitely."

We go back up toward the parking lot to the beach volleyball court, and we play, and play, and play. I make her spike ball after ball toward me, and then serve for a long time, and finally about four hours later and really close to sunset, we call it a day and head to dinner.

We pull up to one of the local cafe's, that almost no tourists know about, and sit down.

Once we're done eating, she looks at me. "You wanna tell me why dragged me out to the beach the day after homecoming for a four hour practice on the beach?"

"It's a long story, and I'm sorry about the four hour practice."

She laughs. "It's all good. And we've got plenty of time." So I tell her everything, except for the fact that I'm in love with him.

"Are you sure?" she asks.

"About what?"

"That he left with Kayla."

"Yes." I say without hesitation.

She looks a little concerned. "Are you gonna do to him what you did to Blake before sophomore year?"

I laugh and throw my hands up, acting aggravated. "Why does everyone continue to bring that up? That douche deserved it!"

She stands up. "Oh-kay! I think we deserve ice cream!"

When we meet at the ice cream shop, I get my favorite ice cream flavor in the largest size they have.

Charlotte's eyes bulge. "Got enough ice cream?"

I look at her. "Not even close."

As we're finishing up, the door slams open and hits the wall. I look up, and immediately regret it. Rider has just run in, and is looking everywhere, but quickly spots me.

He runs over to my table and bends down in front of me. "Sterling. Talk to me. Please."

I look at Charlotte. "Are you done with that?" I ask, gesturing to her ice cream. All that's left is the ice cream that has melted. She hands it to me, fighting back a smile.

I look back down at Rider, and I make a decision. Let him talk and explain to me why he has chosen Kayla, or dump this ice cream on him, and let the rumors fly.

In the next second, Rider is covered in melted ice cream. I stand up. "Next time you try to talk to me, it will be much worse."

Me and Charlotte run outside. I look over at her. "Let's have a party, since we have next week off of school for fall break." I smile.

Charlotte smiles ruefully back. "Tonight?"

"Nah. We'll wait until tomorrow."

The door opens and we run to our cars. As I turn my car on, I gesture for her to text me later, and she nods then takes off.

Rider runs up to my car as I put it into drive, and knocks on the window. "Sterling! Please talk to me! What did I do? Please. Don't ignore me." He closes his eyes and rest his forehead on my window.

I knock on my window, grabbing his attention. He looks up, his eyes filled with hope. But I give him a scowl. "Move."

He quickly backs up, and I squeal my tires as I take off for home.