Page 53 of I Would Stay Forever
I sighed and deepened my stretch as I mumbled, “Dunno.”
She was visibly curious, but I tried to keep my expression neutral so she wouldn’t think I was holding out on her. Zoey loved gossip, and if she got it in her head that there was a story I was hiding from her, she would try to pry it out of me. I could only imagine the theories running through her head right now—the most likely of which being Imogen having a secret boyfriend, I was sure. It was just as well, though. She had no reason to suspect it had anything to do with my dad.
Coach Cassidy blew her whistle, calling for us to get ready. We all stood and went to line up by the black lines that ran along the border of the gym. I tightened my ponytail as Coach Cassidyran us through the exercises we would be doing for warm-ups, starting off with high knees to the net and back.
“Why is it always high knees?” Zoey muttered beside me as we started. “Why not low knees? That seems much more fun.”
“Don’t talk,” Molly said. I jolted in surprise, not having heard her come up beside us. I guess Paige hadn’t either because she tripped over her own feet and shrieked, catching herself just before she wiped out into Zoey.
“Graceful,” Zoey said.
“Shut up.”
“Both of you shut up,” Molly hissed. “Coach is in a terrible mood today. You’ll make her add burpees.”
She wasn’t kidding about her being in a bad mood. By the time warm-ups finished, my legs were already sore and we hadn’t even touched a ball yet. When we started actually playing, it was obvious that everyone on the team had picked up on the mood and didn’t want to be the slacker. The practice was brutal, but I pushed through and tried not to think about anything— not Dean, not the university pamphlets still folded in my backpack, and definitely not my family.
Play after play, we fell into rhythm. Sweaty, breathless rhythm. We called for passes. We shouted names. We cursed when we missed and high-fived when we didn’t. By the time Coach called for a water break, I’d snapped four hair elastics, Molly had accidentally hit Paige straight in the face with a ball, and Zoey swore her right ankle would never be the same. The three freshmen girls looked terrified, like they thought this was what practice would be like from now on, but Molly promised them this would probably be a one-off—although I noticed her looking around carefully like she didn’t want to risk Coach Cassidy overhearing and deciding to push us even harder.
I was practically stumbling as I made my way over to the first of the bleachers where my water bottle was resting beside my bag. I was mid-gulp when I realized the bleachers weren’t empty.
Dean’s hair was wet and he was sporting aParkhurst Prep Footballjumper with the sleeves rolled up. His football practice must have let out earlier than ours did, but that didn’t explain what he was doing here. I hadn’t noticed him walk in, although I supposed people were going in and out enough during practice that I wouldn’t have paid any attention to the gym door opening.
As my gaze landed on him, I expected him to sense me and look up, but he didn’t. He had his textbook and a paper open on one knee like he was doing homework, though I noticed that even though his eyes were trained down, he was just tapping his pencil against the page and not writing any notes.
“What the heck?” I muttered.
Zoey spun around and followed my gaze, grinning against her water bottle as she spotted Dean. Of course she would think this was a good thing. She’d called to grill me for details on Saturday after I’d sat with Dean at the party on Friday night, refusing to accept that we’d just chatted for a little bit and nothing else happened.
“Didn’t know we had an audience,” she said.
“I didn’t invite him,” I was quick to tell her. I didn’t want her to take this as confirmation that Dean and I were secretly dating. She was already sure of it, and all she needed now was for one of us to tell her it was true. If only she knew what else we had done this week. I hadn’t told her about Dean running after me yesterday, about the way he made me promise to stay, about that pinky promise and the way I kissed our hands. As if he was really my boyfriend. As if that was a normal thing to do with your brother’s best friend. If Zoey knew, she’d probably say that we’re basically married by now.
“Looks like you don’t have to anymore.” She winked at me and spun on her heel, walking over to Molly and Paige a couple feet away. Dean finally looked up, right on cue, and met my eyes across the gym with that obnoxious smirk. He gave the world’s smallest wave as if he didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. I glanced around quickly, wondering if anybody else had noticed he was here. With Coach Cassidy being in a bad mood, I wasn’t sure that she’d be too open to us having visitors. But it was as if Dean was invisible to everyone but me—and Zoey—because nobody else was even glancing his way.
“Oh my god,” Zoey whispered. She’d sidled back up to me, with Paige and Molly as reinforcements. “He’s watching you. Like, just you.”
“He’s not.”
“He is.”
“Stop looking.”
“You stop looking.”
I swatted her with my towel, but my ears burned anyway. Coach called us back in a moment later, and I focused hard on ignoring the person-shaped distraction in the bleachers. For the next few plays, it was easy. We were running quicks through the middle, and my timing was off—my approaches too fast or too slow. Molly whispered, “Focus,” after I almost collided with her mid-jump. In the end, I didn’t improve much but I also didn’t grievously injure anybody, which was enough of a win for me.
Practice disbanded in a wave of groaning, shuffling, and slurping from water bottles. I collapsed onto the first row of bleachers and chugged water. Normally, I would have moved into the locker room right away, but I had a feeling a certain boy would be coming down to talk to me momentarily and I didn’t want him to think I was ignoring him completely. When he didn’t appear right away, I realized that I didn’t actually know that he was here for me. Was it egotistical of me to assume thatwas why? Maybe he just had an interest in women’s volleyball or he needed to talk to Coach or?—
Dean’s textbook landed on the gym bag by my feet and a moment later, he was crouched down in front of me.
“Don’t have the energy to get changed?” he asked.
“Figured I should see why you came by to annoy me first.” I raised my eyebrows. “So what did you think?”
“I think the lot of you could take on an entire country in war and win.”
I snorted. “Well, I’m sure the other girls will be thrilled to hear such a high compliment from a football player. Did your practice get out early?”
