Only If She Stayed

21. How it Started

"I THINK I'M going to faint," I said, more so to myself than to anyone directly. "Or throw up. Probably both, now that I think about it."

"Relax, Rose. Edgar's not going to say anything to you," Ashton uttered, but his voice sounded distant, disconnected and nowhere near where I stood on the field. Frozen in my own fear like a photo, captured in time.

"You don't know Edgar like I do." I set down the clipboard and pen. "He's not going to let this drop."

It was too late to act as though I hadn't seen Edgar and the rest of the team waltz in on our try-outs. We made eye contact. Ending this try-out because of this new audience seemed pathetic. I could do this. Him being here didn't mean I had to speak to him.

I got up from the bleachers and went to the girls, hoping that if I kept myself busy, that would mean he would never get the chance to speak to me alone. That was all he wanted and I wasn't going to give Edgar the satisfaction of privately speaking with me.

Fishing out the sunglasses from my bag, I slid them on and raced back on to the field. Splitting the girls trying-out into two groups, I asked them to do it on their own to see who was excelling and who was slacking off.

. . .

THE TWO GROUPS I had created had their own member that shined. In group B, Corinna was the best. Group A had their own dancer that stood out. I told the two groups to dance again, doing the routine at the same time together so I could see if Corinna was the best out of all of them.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Andrea Fox's purple hair flowing in the wind as she talked to Ashton near the fence around the back portion of the field. She made every excuse to touch his face and his arm, laughing louder than I'd ever heard her laugh.

To my dismay, she liked him. Andrea liked a lot of boys, but she didn't always stick with them. It was her choice. I didn't hate her for how she lived her life. It wasn't my place to judge her for her life choices. I knew I didn't have the best track record when it came to dating good guys.

I just hoped she was careful with Ashton. From what I knew about him, he didn't fit the usual crowd of boys she dated.

In the middle of the two groups performance, a shadow cast the space next to me. "What's the Australian doing here?"

"Why do you care?" I didn't have to turn to see who it was to know it was Edgar. "He's not bothering anyone."

"I don't like him."

I chuckled. "I really don't care."

A moment past as Edgar collected his thoughts. "You haven't answered any of my calls or texts."

"I've been occupied for most of the week, Ed," I told him. "I'm also busy right now. Can't this wait?"

"Every time I've tried to talk to you, you always find a way to sneak out at the last minute. You don't want to talk to me," he concluded, accusingly. "If that's the case, then just say you don't want to speak to me."

Craning my neck to face him, I lowered my shades down the bridge of my nose so that my eyes were piercing his while I spoke. "Alright. Edgar, I don't want to speak to you. I kept my part of the promise that night. You said you didn't want to talk to me, but here you are - contradicting your own words."

"I didn't mean that. I don't want to give up on this, Rose. How could you even want to throw the towel in after everything?" his voice wobbled, and honestly, I almost fell for it.