Finding a spot in the parking lot was never easy, but Josh always managed to find one near the school. His friends hailed him as we stepped out of the car and I bumped into a few of the girls from my track team as I walked through the doors, but I was glancing around for Marty.
I reached our lockers shoving in my gym bag, backpack, and lunch box, before taking out my texts that I needed for class, a new notebook, and my pencil case. My eyes scanned the halls, but Marty was nowhere to be seen. I hoped he would show up soon because I needed to see that he was okay.
Chase walked by with a group of friends and shook his head at me when I tried to approach him. My eyes narrowed and he shrugged, before walking on which hurt me. I turned to find Marty staring after him. His eyes were full of tears and his mouth was turned down. Instantly, I walked over and wrapped my arms around him. I watched as my best friend bit his lip and watched Chase kiss another boy, before turning into class. It was the same class I was in, which was not going to be fun since Chase didn’t seem to want to speak to me.
Marty walked me to the class door but didn’t say a word to me. He gave me a one-armed hug and left to go to his art class, as I walked through the door to AP English. Chase didn’t look in my direction as I walked by him to find a seat, nor did he speak to me as he passed out the class register. I wanted to speak to him and opened my mouth as he handed out the texts, but he said nothing and didn’t even look at me as he slammed the books down onto the desk.
The class door opened, and Mr. Frieshman walked in, with a stranger at his back. The boy glanced around and when his eyes met mine, mine widened in shock to see the same strange boy from Boise standing there.
“Blake,” Mr. Frieshman stated, “Go and sit beside Ms. Daniels.” He pointed across the room to the seat beside mine.
He turned to the desk and logged into the computer, switching on the projector as the boy with the icy eyes sat beside me. He didn’t speak but completed his questions on Of Mice and Men without comment, passing his answers to the person in front, rather than to me. His hair was dark, tousled and gelled in curls, which fell to his forehead. His eyes crinkled slightly when he smiled his perfect teeth showed. He didn’t smile at me though and I couldn’t help checking out his profile as he talked with our classmates. His nose was misshapen, his chin was pointed and had some stubble on it.
Class was long and he didn’t speak to me once, discussing his paper with those in front of him. When it finally ended, he left quickly, leaving me dumfounded and wondering why he hadn’t spoken to me at all, or what I could possibly have done to offend him. I didn’t dwell too much on it though, instead, I went about the rest of my day, without seeing too much of the mysterious boy from Boise. Marty barely spoke and when I asked how he’d gotten to school; he just rolled his eyes.
“My dad brought me. I’m not allowed to drive my car or do anything without my dad’s direct approval. He’s banned me…”
His eyes filled with tears again and he shook his head, swallowing roughly, I wanted to soothe his pain, but he stepped away from me and walked into the locker room for practice. I glanced down at my watch and saw I was running late for my own practice, so I shot off and changed quickly. Coach Benson was speaking as I entered the gym, but she ignored me until I was halfway across the gym.
“Well, Miss Daniels has decided to join us. How nice. Practice started five minutes ago, so how about you stay back five minutes and run some drills?”
I nodded, I knew that she would make my life hell if I didn’t comply and made my way to sit beside Joanie and Katherine. Both girls were whispering about the new guy, but neither of them knew his name.
“He’s so cute…”
“I heard he turned down Martha Jones…”
“He did not… really?”
“Yeah, she cornered him after homeroom and was all up in his face, but he brushed her off, apparently.”
I sat facing Coach and moved when the team moved. I was in team A, set one, so we were first up and played hard against the other team. We played twenty-minute runs, then switched out.
While we were out, Harley and Klaire were speaking about Marty and his dad.
Klaire’s Grandma had bumped into Mrs. Ellison at the market. She’d told Mrs. Grantham that Mr. Roberts had married Lucille in a rush, but that they’d been sweethearts in high school. She’d also told her that Lucille’s first husband was dying of cancer, though they’d been separated and subsequently divorced while he was going through his treatment. Which she did not approve of and neither, according to Marty’s grandmother, did Lucille’s son. He was enraged and wasn’t speaking to his mother, her new husband, or his new step siblings. It was Marty, she’d said, she felt sorry for. His whole life had been changed and nobody had bothered to consult him.
The bell went and we switched back in, but I found it hard to concentrate and my run time was awful. I’d been caught out at least a dozen times and had almost tripped over my own feet as we ran hurdles. Coach was beside herself by the end of practice and threatened to bench me if I didn’t get my head out my ass by next practice, which was only two days away. As everyone filed out, I stayed behind to run my drills and Coach ran them with me.
“What’s going on, kid?” She asked after our first set and I shrugged, almost not wanting to tell her. When I opened my mouth to say nothing, I ended up telling her the whole story and she gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
“Marty, will be out of his dad’s house soon enough and can live as he chooses then, but until then, hard as it is, he needs to abide by his father’s rules.”
Coach usually comforted me, but I was worried about something else.
“But what if his dad refuses to pay for Harvard? Marty has wanted to go there as far back as I can remember. He has an early admission place, but his dad might not want to pay anymore because he’s unhappy with Marty?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to run to Marty to check and see if he was worried about that.
“Don’t worry about that. He’ll figure something out. I’m sure he’ll get to go to Harvard.”
She ran another drill with me and then left me to it, telling me I had three more to run and then I was done. My eyes swam with concern, but I completed my drills and then headed for the shower room, finding it blissfully empty. I grabbed a quick shower, leaving my hair tied up and headed to the football field to wait on Josh.
Chase was on the field and usually I cheered him on, but he hadn’t spoken to me all day long and I didn’t know what was going on with us, so instead, I ignored him and concentrated on my brother. He was passing well and arranging plays, supporting the new kids, and running them through the different plays. After a while of watching them, a tingle ran up my spine and I turned to see Blake standing on the field staring at me.
As soon as I turned around though, he jogged away and continued his practice at the opposite end of the field, without looking back. My eyes stayed on him for a moment and I watched as he threw the ball with precision at one of the other players, before I turned back to watch the other end of the practice field.
The rain which had been on and off all day, started again and I took off for the library, knowing that Josh would text me when practice was finished. He was the quarterback, so he usually stayed later than anyone else to talk strategy with Coach Chris, which meant he’d be at least another hour, even though practice was due to end in the next few minutes.
I sat in the library reading Jane Eyre as part of my reading list for class and writing notes as I went, to help with the eventual test or assignment we’d be given. For a while I got absorbed in my task and I didn’t look up as the table shifted across from me. The library was busy with some people like me who wanted to get a start on things, but not so busy that the person had to sit across from me.
As I sat there with my earbuds in, drowning out the world and taking in the words of Jane Austin, there was another prickle of unease that settled around me. Sure enough, when I tur
ned around, there was Blake sitting staring at me. He shook his head and dropped his eyes to his notebook. I turned away, but every now and then there would be another slight prickle of unease until he finally got up and left. Minutes after he left, my cell chimed and I gathered my books, shoving them roughly into my bag and racing to Josh’s car.
Chapter Four
Not Interested, Honest!
Blake
It was my first day at my new school and I hated almost every moment of it. Marty was acting like a wounded little bitch and wouldn’t stop whining about how his boyfriend had moved on. Stupid little fag almost got me in trouble with one of the teachers as I barged by him, but he shrugged it off and I got away with it. Then I saw her again. I’d noticed her when we’d gone shopping for school supplies, but even though she’d broken me from my funk that day, it wasn’t enough to stop the shitstorm inside me. My life sucked right now. I wasn’t allowed to see my dad, even though he was dying, and my mom had moved me across the country in my senior year of school.
I’d sat across from her in the library and watched her as she made notes on the book she was reading, sucking on the end of her pen as she concentrated. Her long blonde hair was now tied back, although her curls still hung down caressing her neck.
My body began to respond to her, but I tried to shake it off. Every time she caught my eye, I would shake my head and look away, but my eyes would always drift back to her. Her face showed nothing but disdain for me which put me off speaking to her.
I’d seen her earlier that day with my dumbass stepbrother, and I wanted to tell her that he was wrong about me. When her eyes narrowed at me earlier that day as I approached her desk in class, I knew she’d already made her decision about me because of that little whiny bitch. So, I ignored her for the whole lesson and spoke to the people in front of us during class.
She looked bewildered and hurt at my refusal to speak to her, but I couldn’t be interested in her. She was out of bounds, off limits and damn, if that didn’t make me want her more. I’d been asked out by three girls, all of them pretty and popular, if the cheerleading uniforms were anything to go by, but I’d said no. I wasn’t interested in them. Only one girl had caught my attention and was holding it captive, but she didn’t want to know me which would’ve sucked if I let it.
When I’d seen her at practice, I almost lost my focus, but then I imagined Marty and Don’s faces. I threw the ball ferociously across the field and Coach came over to speak to me about starting. Josh, Caralynn’s brother, had come over too and was speaking to me at the end of practice, he seemed impressed by my arm, but I didn’t care. I didn’t particularly enjoy playing ball. I was good at it because I’d been playing for years and had been team captain in my last team, but I just wanted to get away. I didn’t want to speak to anyone or make any friends, yet people were still flocking around me and chatting to me. I’d made my excuses and escaped to the library. Then I saw her sitting there and I had to go and sit across from her. She didn’t look up as I sat down and pulled out my workbooks and that intrigued me. When she left, I watched her ass sway and swallowed the hunger and desperate desire to go after her.
On the way home, I thought about everything that had happened since I’d moved. I sent a message to my bandmates, but Kerr wasn’t speaking to me and Doug was still furious, only Ryder, our bassist, was okay with me. My bandmates were angry that I’d left them, but I didn’t have a choice. Just thinking back to how I’d felt when my mom told me that her and my dad were getting divorced and that she was marrying another man, was enough to make my blood boil and my skin tingle with rage.
Ollie, my big sister, was staying with Dad full time and she was updating me on how he was. She’d promised to get me back to visit when it was nearer Dad’s time, but it wasn’t fair. I wanted to be there for him. I wanted my damn family back.
Kellie wasn’t speaking to my mom at all and Ollie was furious with her, but my dad was trying to convince them to let it go. He’d tried it with me, but I just shook my head.
“You need to forgive her, son.”
My dad’s hoarse voice croaked over the line to me a few days before and it killed me that I couldn’t be there to support him through his battle with cancer.
“I’m trying, dad.” I lied.
He knew me too well and knew I’d never have given up so easily. I was stubborn like him and when I was angry with someone, I tended to hold a grudge.
“No, you’re not, but promise me, you’ll try, for me.”
My mom was acting holier than thou and it was pissing me off.
“I uh… I will, but dad, can’t I just come home?”
He sighed and I knew our conversation was over.
“I wish you could son, but you need to stay there. I need you to stay and remember me as I was.”
His breathless words tore at my chest and I knew I’d do whatever he asked of me because I loved him. More than I loved my gold-digging mother, and more than I loved my music.
My dad had always been there for me and as a fireman, he was my hero. He came to all my practices, cheered me on when I played sports and bought me my first guitar. It was him who taught me how to play, who listened to me as I wrote songs and critiqued them for me.
“Okay, dad. I’ll stay here.” My words came out broken because I wasn’t sure how many more conversations, we’d be able to have.
He was getting sicker by the day and was tiring more quickly.
“Love you kid.” He whispered in a low, hoarse voice and I swallowed against the rising pain in my chest.
“Love you too, dad.” My words were met with a hacking cough and Ollie came on the line.
“Sorry, Blake. I need to go. Love you.”
The dial tone sounded in my ear before I could respond, I sat down with my head in my hands. My fingers itched to pick up my guitar, but my mom had said she didn’t want to hear me playing anymore. She hated my music and the fact that I was in a band. She despised my dad for encouraging me and enabling me to follow my love of music, instead of her love of learning. Mom was a teacher and was always pushing me to be more academic, but I hated it. I hated it all.
Ollie was smart, Kellie was super smart, but I was just me. I did okay in school. I was in AP classes for Algebra, Science and English, but I wasn’t like the others in my class, who took academia too seriously. I didn’t want to go to college or get a degree. All I wanted was to play music and tour with my band. I shook off the thoughts about school and about her. The neighbor girl, I thought harshly. She was cute, but I didn’t want to get to know her, I didn’t want to be her friend, at least that was what I needed to convince myself of.
I was only staying here until the end of the school year and then I was going to stay with my grandparents back home. I didn’t care about college, though I was applying, but mostly because my mom was making me. My cell rang again, and I saw Ryder’s name when I lifted my cell from the bed, which made me smile a little.
“Hey man,” I answered in a low voice.
“Hey, can you come back yet?” he asked, and I laughed, because every conversation for the last few weeks had been the same.
“No, but I have an idea.”
I was eager to share my idea with him because I knew they were struggling to replace me in the band. Turned out that the lead singer and songwriter was not so easy to replace after all.
“What is it because we had auditions again yesterday. Did Kerr fill you in?” His voice was tired sounding and I hoped that the band would take my suggestion seriously.
“Yeah, he did. I know how you all feel because I feel the same…” I began, and he cut me off.
“No-one fits. No-one meets our sound and we miss your mad skills.”
“Yeah. I get it. What about if I stay in the band?”
I was desperate. I missed my band mates, but I’d been thinking, and we could practice over the phone until I could be there in person in six months. We could focus on writing and learning our parts and then play some
gigs when I was back in Georgia later in the year.
“How? How could you possibly stay in the band? You’re in a different state?”
“I know I am, but we can practice together through our cells and I can continue writing and send you the songs, once I’ve written and composed the music. Then we can see what you think?”
“I’m not sure man…” his uncertain tone made my heart sink, “What if you can’t do it, get distracted or some shit?”
My heart sounded loudly in my ears as I replied quickly.
“No, you know me, man. That won’t happen.”
“Is your mom still making you play football?”
My stomach rolled as I considered my answer - because she was. She told me that I had to try out for the team and if I got on the team, stayed on it, then she’d get me another car.
“Yeah…” I began in a low voice and Ryder sighed, then cut me off.
“It’s playoff season and with your AP classes, and training, because let’s face it you will get in and you will start cause you are shit hot at it - then you’ll have no time for writing, never mind making practices.”
I slumped down, crushed all over again because he was right, and it killed the little bit of hope I still had in me.
“Okay. “I muttered, the pain in my voice evident.
Ryder paused for a beat and then murmured in a low voice.
“Look, Blake, I know this is hard for you. It’s shit actually and it’s shit for us too. We were signed up for parties and well, you know, but I want this band to make it. You’re in a different state, different time zone and it’s not fair on us to have to hold back for you. We’ve shelved all your songs, but we need to find a temporary replacement for you. It’s only a few months dude, and then when you come back, we can pick things up and get the band going properly again.”
Nothing but The Sheets Page 3