Page 15 of Sure, Pal

I laughed. “You got more, though. It wasn’t fair!”

“Dude, life’s not fair!”

I grinned at her and nudged her with my elbow. “Whatever you say, pal.”

Sienna smiled at me. “Why do you call me that — pal?”

I paused for a minute. “I don’t really know.” I started calling her that in eighth-grade Algebra. It was my sad little way of flirting with her without any game. In retrospect, I realized that I should have started calling her “beautiful” or “cutie,” but I was an idiot.

I glanced over at Sienna. She watched me with narrowed eyes. I laughed and said, “Because you are my pal. We were friends even before Ava, and I’d like to think we’ll be friends after Ava, too.”

Sienna burst out laughing. “After Ava? Oh, dude. There is no ‘after Ava.’ That girl has your wedding planned already.” Sienna’s smile looked sad. She shifted a little bit and then asked, “Why did you say, ‘after Ava?’ Are you guys okay?”

No, we weren’t. I wanted to break up with Ava. I’d thought about it a lot over the last several months, but I kept losing my nerve. Ava was one of the hottest girls in our school. I honestly didn’t know a guy that didn’t want to fuck her. I just didn’t want to anymore. It wasn’t really fair to Ava. Or me. Or Sienna.

I gazed over at Sienna and almost said everything that was on my mind, but she held up her hand and said, “You know what? Never mind. I’m obligated by best friend code to tell Ava everything you say to me tonight. If it’s bad, just…” Sienna bit her lip and looked up at the sky again. Clouds were rolling in. “Just do it quick, like a band-aid. If you give her any reason to hang on, she will, and it will hurt her more.” Sienna met my gaze again, her beautiful gold-green eyes burning. “I don’t want to see Ava hurt.”

I nodded and stared up at the sky as the rain started to fall. I loved rain, but I slid off the car and got ready to go. Girls didn’t like getting their hair wet. When I looked over at Sienna, she had her face turned up toward the sky, with her eyes closed and a soft smile. I grinned at her. “Do you like rain, Sienna?”

She smiled. “Hell yes.”

I laughed and sat next to her again. “Me too. I think playing soccer in the rain is my all-time favorite thing to do.”

“It’s just like, cleansing, isn’t it? Rain makes me feel like all the terrible things in the world are being washed away.”

I laughed out loud. “That is way more poetic than what I was thinking. I just like to watch and feel the rain.”

Sienna smiled at me as the rain picked up. Her eyes were full of excitement — alive.

Fuck. This girl made me feel things. But she shouldn’t. Even if I broke up with Ava, Sienna couldn’t be mine.

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