Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Part 3 Chapter 6b

Ophelia was sitting under the awning of Scott's patio, on an outdoor couch. Scott sat next to her, but was talking to someone else. Another boy Ophelia didn't recognize. He sat on a lawn chair across from them. Scott and the boy were eating. Scott was on his...seventh slice of pizza? And that was just since they had sat down. She was sure he had more earlier.

Ophelia had eaten two slices. And she decided that was enough. She was scared to get more. Some boys were so mean, and Ophelia was scared they would point it out to embarrass her.

"And what about Andrews?" the boy said. Him and Scott were talking about football players from a professional team.

"He's hella fast. But he's skinny. I don't know why they signed him," Scott said. "I've seen him get tackled. No one even breaks a sweat."

Ophelia listened, interested, but not at all caught up on the topic.

"Scott, you're skinny," the boy laughed. "And they let you play."

Scott snorted. "But that's why I'm better at baseball, isn't it?"

Ophelia thought he was good at both sports. She didn't think he was that skinny either. He seemed fit. Although, next to Zach he was pretty small.

"I think you're good at football," Ophelia pointed out. She felt awkward speaking, because she hadn't really been part of the conversation. But the other boy didn't seem to mind, and neither did Scott.

Scott smiled at her, seeming happy to hear her finally speak up. "Yeah?"

The boy laughed, "She's going to Hillcrest, Scott. She doesn't know what a good player is anymore."

Scott chuckled.

Ophelia asked, "Is the Hillcrest team really that bad?"

"You'll see," Scott told her. "They were last year."

She shook her head, chuckling. Liberty hated Hillcrest.

Ophelia got a text message, and looked at her phone.

ZACH 🥰: are you still at Scott's house?

Ophelia checked the time and realized she had been there for almost an hour. She felt bad. She had told him she was just going to stop by.

She texted back 'I am. I will probably leave soon.'

She waited.

ZACH 🥰: okay. come to my house after.

She noticed the tension through the text message alone. Ophelia looked over at Scott, who had grabbed another piece of pizza.

Truthfully, he wasn't still hungry. But Ophelia had taken a seat at the patio, and he wanted an excuse to stay under there with her.

"Hey, I might get going," she told him.

His face fell. "Oh. Are you sure?"

"Yeah, but I had a lot of fun," she assured him.

Scott didn't want her to go. Because he didn't know the next time he would see her. And he wasn't ready to say goodbye. He thought he was, but maybe that was just because he hadn't spent this much time with her in a while. He forgot how much he liked her company, and he knew when she left he might never have it again.

Scott stood up quickly when she did. "Let me walk you out."

She nodded, not seeing the harm in it. "Okay."