Anyone But You

Chapter 8 - Nate

Mark, Tyler and I were practicing football drills in our yard. And I was doing horribly.

Mark and I stayed as far away from each other as possible. He tried to get me a good pass while Mark blocked me.

I couldn't catch even the easiest passes. 

But in by defence, I was slightly distracted. Every few seconds, I would think I kissed Erin and my head would automatically turn towards her house, which seemed empty. She had been successfully avoiding me for three days now and I thought I was going to explode from the lack of contact. She had denied all rides to school with Tyler and slipped silently in and out of the classes that we shared together, staying as far away from me as possible. There was no way I could talk to her. 

Right now, I'm lucky the ball hasn't taken my eye out yet. 

Ouch. I thought too soon. Mark threw a pass directly at my head and I went sprawling. 

Instead of getting up like a good sport, I lay on my back in the cool grass, breathing hard, blinking spots out of my eyes.

Mark and Tyler walked over, staring down on me with matching expressions of disbelief and confusion. I hadn't missed a pass like that since... well, never. They must definitely think I had lost my mind.

Tyler said, "Dude, what's wrong with you? You're acting all wonky. I've never seen you like this before."

I rubbed the palms into my eyes until I saw spots again. What was I supposed to say?

I felt someone plop down on the grass beside me and Mark said, "Maybe we should take a break anyway."

Tyler sat down on the other side of me. They were both waiting to hear what I had to say, but there was no way to get the words out, anyway. 

Mark kicked me in the leg. Hard.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Just spit it out already. We're not stupid. Something's wrong and you're not telling us."

I opened my mouth to talk but then closed it again. How embarrasing would it be to admit that I kissed Erin and she ran away from me? I would never live that down. Then again, I would feel better if I could tell someone.

I said the first thing that came to mind.

"I'm in love." Then I closed my eyes so I couldn't see their reactions.

I couldn't block out their voices though. Unless I wanted to put my hands over my ears and scream like a five-year-old. 

Mark laughed, "Yeah right. Since when?'

Then Tyler shushed him and said, "No. He's acting like an idiot. You know, all distracted and upset and sort of angry. That's just what it's like to be in love."

Now I opened my eyes. Tyler sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Uh-oh.

My brother stared at him, too, and said the words we were both thinking. "What the hell do you know about being in love?"

I'm pretty sure Tyler started to blush, but that can't be possible, because I've never seen him blush before. Then he said hastily, "So who's the lucky lady?" Which effectively turned the conversation back to me.

Mark was bewildered at all this talk of love, but seeing me struggle obviously amused him. "C'mon, we're not gonna tell anyone."

"Well, I can't tell you."

Tyler said, "What? Why not? We're you're friends. We won't make fun of you." He looked at Mark. "Well, at least I won't."

"Yeah, but you guys would kill me."