Blow Her Off

"Hi Zac," Samantha purred her greeting to him.

"Hey," he replied distractedly. Seeing his eyes follow my figure as I walked away, she reached out and touched his shoulder. The last thing she wanted was for him to be thinking about me instead of her. Watching me out of the corner of her eye, she reminded herself to have another heart-to-heart talk with me.

Some people just don't understand plain English.. maybe I'll have to give her a little motivation to stay away from Zac.

"You want a ride home?" Please say yes.. She prayed, making sure to pull her mouth into a pouty smile.

"Sure." He sighed, feeling a little rejected. At least now he wouldn't have to walk home by himself.

"Great!" She casually slipped her arm around his as they walked out to the back parking lot together. Glancing up at his face, she saw Zac looked about a million miles away. Just as she was about to try again at a conversation with him, her spirits perked up at the sight of a group of her friends walking out together. She raised her hand and waved to the bunch, who immediately started whispering and pointing at her and Zac. Samantha grinned.

If I know my friends, the gossip all over the school tomorrow will be that he's mine. The thought was more than reassuring.

"Here we are," she announced cheerfully when they'd reached her car. As she pushed the remote to unlock the doors, she was surprised when he just stepped in and sat down in the passenger's side, leaving her standing by herself.

How incredibly rude.. she thought, fuming a little as she walked around to her side and let herself in. She wasn't used to boys not holding doors open for her.

Zac will learn though, she reminded herself, smiling over at him next to her. Maybe I'll have to be the one to teach him some manners.

"So how about that rain check on something to eat?" She asked him casually, reaching over to slip on her sunglasses. She made sure to brush against his shoulder to get his attention: he seemed to be staring at nothing and everything again.

"We had a rain check?" Zac finally snapped out of his trance and looked at her with confusion on his face.

"Of course we did." She quickly replied, giggling a little. "Last time I gave you a ride you were busy, so you said you'd take me out next time. This would be next time."

She giggles an awful lot. Zac stared at her for a moment, taking in the large blonde curls that framed her face, green eyes so deep he guessed they were contacts, and about six inches of makeup. Sure, she was beautiful, but there was something about her that made him a little wary of her 'intentions,' so to speak. He couldn't figure out what, there was just something there..

"Oh.." He finally replied, still examining her. "Sorry, I guess I don't remember that. I'm not exactly hungry right now."

"That's ok. We can go out another time." She reached over and patted his leg reassuringly as she pulled the car out of her spot. That was another thing that bothered him: Samantha was always touching him. Sure, just a little here and a little there, but just enough so he always knew when he was in her presence. Typical male oblivion, that was her exact intention.

"Hey," she spoke up lightly, breaking the silence.

"I'm having a party next weekend. Please tell me you're coming." Well, that's the half-truth, she thought with a wry smile. Truth was, she was going to have a party, the thought hadn't occurred to her until now. Samantha's parties were infamously popular, particularly frequent when there was a guy she had her eye on and wanted to impress. Now was no exception.

"If I'm not busy, sure."

" 'If you're not busy'?" She pouted a little, turning towards him. "I'm going to go through all the trouble of throwing a party; you aren't going to make it?"

"Umm.." Zac stared back at her for a second, wondering what on earth she was implying. "I'll try.. Is that better?"

"Much," Samantha giggled and settled back against her seat again. A million thoughts started pouring through her mind, of party preparations. She would knock his socks off, for sure.

Finally, he'll be so impressed that he'd be a complete idiot not to ask me out then.

"Can you just drop me off here?" Zac asked, pointing to the sidewalk that ran next to the road.

"But we're only two blocks from school, silly." Samantha let out yet another round of giggles.

"I know." He sighed heavily and forced a small smile at her. "Sorry, I need to think for awhile."

"Zac," Samantha pulled her Camero up the curb and set it in park. She turned toward him, an earnest look on her face.

"Is there anything bothering you? I mean, I know I'm not your best friend, but if there's anything I can do to help, let me know." She said, emphasizing the words 'best friend' because she figured that was the main problem. Zac eyed her for a moment, before deciding to admit:

"Just feeling like I got dumped by my best friend. It's like Linds is avoiding me and I don't know why. She won't talk to me."

"Doesn't sound like a very good best friend to me." Samantha said sympathetically, leaning forward and resting her hand on Zac's.

"She's not normally like this, just for the last few weeks or so. I can't figure it out." He ran his fingers through his hair, his brow furrowed deep in thought. After a few seconds, he let out a frustrated sigh, giving up on thinking about it for now.

"It sounds to me like she's the one who has the problem, not you." Sam pointed out coolly. "I mean, if she doesn't want to tell you, there's nothing you can do about it."

"I don't want to force it out of her.." He mumbled in agreement. "But it just feels like there's something majorly wrong with her."

That's an understatement, Samantha fought the urge to say. Instead, she replied with:

"I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry."

"I dunno.." he spoke in a mumble again. Glancing over at Samantha, he seemed to remember who he was talking to about this.

"Thanks for listening anyway."

"I'm sure everything will work itself out eventually. For now, I'd just give Lindsey her space. Let her work out her problems by herself."

"I'm sure she'll come around." He nodded slowly in agreement.

"And your welcome for listening." She smiled widely. "You just owe me more in taking me out."

"All right." He held up his hands defensively, laughing a little. "I know when I'm beat. I'll take you out some time."

"Great!" She replied enthusiastically. Pulling a piece of paper out of her backpack, she scribbled her number on it and passed it to him. She left her fingers lingering on his thigh long after he'd taken her number from him though, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Call me," she said, leaning toward him even more. Zac finally noticed that she was practically sitting in his lap and decided now was the best time to leave before things went further than he was comfortable with. He smiled politely and stepped out of the car.

"Later. Thanks for the ride."

"Not a problem." She called after him.

"Not a problem indeed.." Pulling her car back into traffic, she couldn't believe her luck with this situation: it was falling right into her hands. She'd never expected Zac to open up to her, but she certainly didn't mind picking up the pieces, especially if it meant winning his favor. As she replayed their conversation in her mind, her confidence levels soared as she counted how many points she must've scored, being open, sincere, and sweet towards his situation.

"The one I created!" She laughed outloud to herself. This is so much easier than I thought it would be.

"I can't take much more of this." I puffed in complaint to Meredith, before gulping down nearly half my bottle of water in one swallowing. The product of Kool-aid drinking contests with Zac when we were younger, I could out chug any guy I knew. Now granted, that consisted of most Zac and his brothers, but nevertheless I was darn good at it.

"He is working us harder than usual." She admitted to me, her own cheeks a little pink. Me, on the other hand, could only guess that my whole face was flaming red in color; it certainly felt that warm. Practice had lasted two and a half hours so far today, the longest since I'd joined the team, but Coach didn't give us any signs of letting us go any time soon. Even though the rookie of the group, I noticed several other puffs of breathe condensing in the air as we tried to get our breathing back to normal. We'd all sat down in the goalie box at the first seconds of the break, forming small clusters of groups, but Meredith and I stayed separated from the rest of the girls.

It's funny- I have a 'the girls' group now. It felt incredibly wonderful to belong to a team. And I was the starting goalie, quite an important role to play. They needed me, depended on me.. and surprisingly enough, there were some really nice girls on the team. A few of them even smiled and waved at me in the halls at school. The only competition between us was within ourselves: to do the best to our abilities. Sure, squabbles about small matters came out, but we worked like a well-oiled machine, one that could never be broken, in all honesty and that other B.S.

"Must be for weigh ins." Meredith said knowingly, setting her empty water bottle on the wall.

"Weigh ins?" I echoed, my mouth dropping open. It had never occurred to me that we had to have our weight go on the record. But she didn't have a chance to explain further, for-

"Williams!" Someone snapped at me. I whirled around and found Anne, our captain mere inches from me.

"Ahh," I jumped a little in surprise. "Yeah?"

"What the hell is wrong with you!? You're slower than ever today." She peered down at me critically, her green eyes blazing.

"I-I don't know." I replied timidly, nearly dropping my water bottle.

So much for that well-oiled machine, what'd I do? I thought frantically.

"I was looking over your drill times, and they suck!" She pointed to the times sheet Coach posted on the glass near us.

"I-i-i.. i'm sorry." I whispered, my eyes with with fear as she leaned forward and stared through me.

"Sorry isn't good enough on my team!" She bellowed.

"Hey, lighten up Anne." Meredith crossed her arms over her chest and stepped in to defend me.

"You stay outta this." Anne sneered back at her. "I'm talking to Lindsey here."

"I'll try harder." I assured her in a meek voice. Although I didn't have a clue how I could, I'd do anything to avoid another encounter like this one.

"See that you do." Thirteen silent faces watched as she threw her hands up in the air and stormed off the ice. Twelve of them turned their attention back to me, solemn glances, until-

"It's official, now you're really one of us." Meredith laughed loudly. I looked at her in surprise, then around at the other girls as they dissolved into a group of knowing giggles, then turned back to the groups they were in before Anne's explosion.

"I don't understand." I frowned at Meredith.

"She does that to everyone at least once. We joke that it's our initiation ceremony, getting yelled at by Anne. She's a great hockey player, but so dang cranky.. That's why I was hesitant when she made captain last year."

"Oh, ok." Now it's just a tad bit clearer to me. I cracked a smile.

"Just blow her off, the rest of us do." Meredith dropped her voice and added, "She's pregnant."

"Pregnant!?" I squeaked loudly.

"Shh!! She doesn't want many people to know." She explained, giving me a look not to broadcast the information.

"Oh.. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." I assured her.

Who would I tell it to anyway? More importantly, why on earth is she playing hockey if she's pregnant? I decided not to question that, for fear of her reaction if I did ask.

"Good. But seriously, I hafta agree with her. I know you just started and all, but your times do kinda suck." Meredith slid her helmet down over her face and jumped back onto the ice.

"Oh.." I said again, my face falling as I stood up. "How can I improve them then?"

"I don't know." She called over her shoulder. "Mine didn't go down until soccer season started. Maybe you should take up another sport."

"Yeah, like that'd ever happen." My body couldn't take another sport, it felt drained enough as is. Actually, today for some reason I did feel extremely slow in today's drills. I couldn't place my finger on it, but there was some spark missing from me. Right now the only thing I wanted was to go home and flop into my bed. Or perhaps a shower first, then take the world's longest nap. I sighed as Coach blew his whistle, our signal to get our butts back in gear.

"Oh man.." I sighed loudly, looking at the dark parking lot of the rec. center. It was nearly deserted by the time I'd gotten changed and put my gear away. One of the joys of being a goalie- you get twice as much crap to carry and wear than everyone else. Right now my equipment bag haphazardly lay slung across my left shoulder, nearly dragging down that side of my body. My calves burned with each step I took, but I wasn't going to get home by just staring at the parking lot.

"That's ok." I reassured myself, thinking it would make getting a car so much more wonderful on my birthday. My mind was a fuzzy blur as I kept my head down, watching my feet carry me step after aching step. It was almost as if I'd stop moving my sore feet, I'd fall over and regret laughing at those infomercials where similar instances had happened to elderly ladies.

***

"Oh, thank God I'm home."

I collapsed on the first piece of furniture I came in contact with at home: the living room couch. As I closed my eyes and felt the wondrous feeling of sleep relaxing my body, I forgot completely about the math assignment I had reserved for the evening. All thoughts of school left my mind as I smiled against the soft cushions and nestled myself into a nap.

***

"Ohhh.." I groaned as I lifted my head. At first, I wasn't sure where I was, but after a few seconds it clicked in my head that I was still on the couch. Glancing at my watch, I groaned again at the time: 3:47 a.m.

"Mom and Dad'll love me for waking them up, but I can't go to school tomorrow smelling like a landfill." With some difficulty, I managed to pull my body of the couch and took one painful step after another until I was in the upstairs bathroom. I moved slowly and stiffly, feeling about eighty years old and full of arthritis, especially in my knees. It was not the nicest of feelings, not to mention the sheer lack of mental awareness because I felt so damn exhausted, stumbling around in the dark upstairs.

Not even a warm shower helped, much to my dismay. My shoulders slumping, I lowered myself to take some of the pressure off my knees.

Ouch, I thought as sharp pains shot through my lower legs. So much for that idea.

"Sleep.. now.." A few minutes later, I smiled and threw myself stomach-down on my bed. In my earnestness to get more sleep, I forgot about the math assignment again, mildly dismissing it's importance.

"I'll do it tomorrow at lunch." I mumbled to myself, succumbing to the drowsiness again. In my anxiousness to return to sleep, I'd also forgotten to set the alarm clock. But I'd never felt so dead in my life..

How on earth will I get through the regular season if I couldn't make it through one practice? That was the last concern running through my head as I faded out again.