Breathe

by Tania Trozzo

  Gabe laughed, “Sure, thanks Bobby.”

  Gabe talked a bit with Henry, a senior, an awesome goalie and his co-captain. It was thanks to him that barely anyone made it through to the goal tonight. He glanced at Alex and the girls, Bobby had arrived and slapped Alex on the back. He then hugged Sonia and just as he was going to hug Clara she moved behind Alex and pulled Sonia back to ask her something in her ear. Bobby frowned but then Alex said something to him to make him laugh. He knew that Alex had noticed, because Alex moved to take Clara’s spot and stood slightly in front of her. She then said hello to Bobby, but Gabe could tell she wanted to avoid the hug. Huh. Ok. Was it Bobby? Or something else? Alex looked at Gabe quizzically. Bobby proceeded to grab them drinks, Gabe chatted a few more minutes with Henry and a few others until Alex and the girls proceeded to go towards him.

  “Outside?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah, let’s go, it’s a bit crowded in here.”

  As soon as they sat down Clara’s phone rang. She looked down and answered. When the other person started talking, she looked at Sonia, told her she would be right back and stepped away. After a few minutes she came back, and he heard her say, “Yes. You guys don’t have to worry. I’m not going to say that, and you know it. I’ll text you when I get home, tell Vince if he wants I can wake him up while he’s sleeping.” She hung up and sat down next to Sonia.

  “Everything ok?” Sonia asked.

  “Yep, just my cousins checking in on me,” Clara said as she rolled her eyes.

  “Wow, there’s almost like Alex and Gabe, aren’t they?”

  “Nah, I think they are worse,” Clara responded. Sonia burst out laughing.

  A group had formed around all of them. Rosie had arrived and went up to Clara and gave her a hug. They started talking. Behind Rosie were a few other girls, a few looked at Clara and Sonia almost admiringly, others not so much. But he had a feeling Clara and Sonia together would know how to take care of themselves. After a few minutes Connor showed up with a drink and his cell phone in his hand. He said hello to everyone and he looked around until he zoomed in on Clara. He seemed undecided about something, and it concerned Clara.

  Gabe couldn’t help himself. “What’s going on Connor? Something wrong?” He asked it with a bit more bite than he meant to.

  Connor looked at him and chuckled. “Sal Capalbo just wanted me to make sure Clara was ok. Undecided if I should tell her or not.”

  “Oh. Just tell her. She should know that we will watch out for her,” Gabe responded.

  “We, huh?” Connor laughed again as he went up to the girls, flirting his way around, offering hugs and kisses like he always did. Gabe shook his head but observed intensely when he got to Clara. Connor kind of went in for a hug but then leaned in and whispered something in her ear. At first she stiffened but then she stood up and made her way right behind Connor to where Gabe was standing. She looked at Gabe expectantly.

  “Connor said you wanted to speak to me?” Dipshit.

  “Is that what Connor said?” Connor started laughing and Alex started chuckling along with him. Glad this is amusing to them.

  “Nah, Clara, I’m just messing with Gabe. I actually wanted to talk to you. Your cousin texted me to make sure you were ok and keep an eye out for you. I told him that we would do it anyway, but I wanted to let you know,” Connor concluded running his hand to the nape of his neck. He felt a bit awkward.

  Clara rolled her eyes. “Of course, he did. Seriously,” She muttered. “I am going to fucking kill them. Sorry about that, but when they get together they feed into each other and well…”

  “No need to explain. I can respect it. It’s actually cool that he wants us to,” Connor replied.

  “Yeah, well you don’t have to worry about me. Please don’t think that now you have to babysit me, or you can’t enjoy yourselves or…”

  Gabe interrupted her. “Clara, just so you know, Connor, Alex or myself, we wouldn’t be looking out for you because your cousins asked us to. We don’t take orders from anyone. We’re doing it because we want to. You’re hanging out with Sonia, we had dinner all together and we are hanging out now. We’ll watch out for you because that’s what we do.”

  Clara just stared at him for a moment, and for a split second he saw her tough façade disappear. She cleared her throat. “Ok, well, I don’t know what to say to that. Thanks, I guess.”

  In that moment Sonia appeared, “Is everything ok?”

  “Yeah, just my overly protective cousins.”

  “I’m used to it, remember? I’m going to get a drink. Alex, Connor why don’t you come with me?” They walked away leaving Clara and Gabe alone.

  “What were you going to say before? When you were talking about them feeding into each other. You were going to say something else, but you stopped.” Gabe wanted to know.

  Clara looked at him and hesitated. But then surprised him by answering honestly, “oh, well, I usually don’t go out that often, at least to parties and with a bunch of friends.” And then she started blushing, “not that we’re all friends but I mean Sonia and I are at least. You and Alex, well, you’re you and everyone I’m sure wants to be considered your friend and just because we hung out tonight doesn’t mean that I want you to think that or that I presume we are.” She took a deep breath and commented, “I’m really selling myself here, aren’t I?”

  Gabe laughed. Damn, she was cute. “Clara?”

  “Yeah?” Clara answered hesitantly.

  Gabe smiled, “I’m pretty sure we’re friends. Unless you don’t want all of us to be?”

  “No, I mean yes, of course I want us to be I just don’t want you to feel obligated to be a friend just because I am friends with Sonia,” she said.

  Gabe grinned and replied, “Well, since we are friends, then I should be honest and let you know that we do not feel obligated. Actually, most of Sonia’s friends aren’t our friends. And to be totally honest, I don’t think she considers many people her friend. But for some reason, I don’t think you do either.”

  She nodded.

  “So, is that why you don’t go out often or is there some other reason?” Maybe she had a boyfriend. Or strict rules. It had to be more than that for her cousins to be worried.

  “Let’s just say people at my old school were not very nice to me. Or actually most of the girls weren’t very nice to me so I didn’t really go out unless it was with my cousins.”

  Gabe tensed sensing there was more to the story but didn’t press it. “Got it. Girls are catty, right?”

  She smiled. “I guess you could say that.”

  Right in that moment a bunch of people surrounded Gabe patting him on the back for a job well done at the game. Right, the game. Totally forgot about it in the last 20 minutes. Gabe looked apologetically at Clara. Clara smiled, waved and stepped away to join Rosie again. Sonia joined them a minute later. Gabe laughed with his friends, drank a few beers but made sure to look for Clara every so often. He felt good tonight and he knew it wasn’t just the game, or getting to hang out with Clara, but it was also because every time he did look for her, it was as if she felt it, and not even a second later, she would look right at him too.

  15

  Clara

  A few weeks had gone by and Clara was immersed with school work, karate and soccer season. They now had at least one game a week sometimes more. Occasionally she went out on the weekends, but she hadn’t been to any recent parties. She had hung out with Sonia a few times with one of those times being with her cousins. Obviously, they welcomed her right in the family. Since then, both Sonia and Clara changed. They both seemed more confident and people sensed it. Sonia often sat with Clara at lunchtime when Clara was in the cafeteria. At her old school the cafeteria was not the nicest place to hang out and even though it was not the same case here she still avoided it out of habit. Since she was often busy after school, she worke
d on the school paper when she could during lunch.

  The girls’ soccer team had a few games and Coach had even given her quite a bit of play time. The next game was a home game, so the stands were packed. She was excited that they allowed her to play as much as she did. She didn’t disappoint, stealing the ball more than once and scoring a goal. Vincent, Julia, Sal and Sal’s younger brother came to the game. Sonia and Alex were there too. The boys soccer team had their own game that night in which they also won. She had to admit that she was a little disappointed that Gabe couldn’t be there as well. Well, she could admit it only to herself.

  The rough draft to the English essay was due soon. Clara was already done and decided that she may as well hand it in instead of just continuing to rethink it. Vincent was right, she did want to write about what happened to her and it was extraordinarily freeing to do so. She wasn’t ready to share it with just anyone but she was confident in sharing it with Mr. Brooks. She trusted that he could not only keep it confidential but that he could assist her in developing her writing skills. In fact, they had found out that Mr. Brooks has written a few books of his own under a pen name, which no one seemed to know, but they figured he was successful since he was always dressed to the nines and drove in with a Porsche every day. A few people at the newspaper questioned why he would continue teaching but It wasn’t just about writing, he enjoyed interacting with the students, and motivating them. He wanted to make a difference. That is why so many people respected him and looked up to him.

  She put the paper in a folder this morning and brought it with her to class. She sat down in her seat, right next to Gabe. As soon as she sat down, he smiled and handed her a note. She grinned. I guess you could say that was their thing. Almost every day during English they wrote notes to each other.

  Hey, we’re going to the mall after practice today, did Sonia tell you?

  Clara wrote back. Yeah, she told me. But can’t make it.

  He opened the note and was about to write something down but hesitated. He waited a few minutes, listening to Mr. Brooks lecture until he wrote something else down.

  Never met a girl that hated shopping.

  She shook her head. I don’t hate shopping. I have class tonight.

  Gabe looked over at her with a questioning look. Class? He mouthed. She hesitated but wrote down another note.

  Promise you won’t laugh.

  Never he wrote back.

  She hesitated again but then thought, what the hell. Karate.

  His eyes widened but then he smiled. Yeah? She nodded. I think it’s cool.

  They continued writing notes back and forth a few times, making sure to participate in class until he wrote you seem different today.

  Different how? Clara responded.

  Different. You’re more carefree.

  It was just a note but Clara was a bit taken back by his observation. Maybe I am. How would you notice that?

  He smiled. He wrote something down but didn’t hand the note over. Class was just about finished. Mr. Brooks had asked him a question and Gabe didn’t miss a beat and answered right away. Mr. Brooks arched his eyebrow. Great, he noticed them writing notes. The bell rang after a few minutes and everyone got up.

  Gabe handed Clara the note in her hand. “You coming? I have to rush to my locker.”

  “No, I have to hand something in to Mr. Brooks first.”

  “I’ll see you later then.” Gabe told her.

  Clara stepped up to Mr. Brooks desk. “What’s up Clara?”

  Clara noticed that Sarah was still getting her stuff together. She really didn’t want to do this with Sarah here but realized she really didn’t have a choice.

  “I just wanted to hand this in to you,” Clara said handing over the folder.

  He looked at her quizzically and took the folder. He opened it and his eyes widened. “Hold on a minute. Sarah, what about you?”

  Sarah joined them at the desk. “I just had a few questions about the paper Mr. Brooks.” Sarah smiled super sweetly.

  “Sure, just give me a minute with Clara and then I can assist you as well,” Mr. Brooks replied.

  “Sure, Mr. Brooks.” And again Sarah was smiling super sweetly at him but she stepped away a few feet.

  “Are you sure, Clara? You still have 4 days before it’s due.”

  “I’m sure. I just keep re-reading it and contemplating what I wrote so I figured I should just hand it in,” Clara admitted.

  “Yeah, sounds like your typical MO,” he smiled and added, “Ok, then if you’re sure.”

  Clara glanced at Sarah who looked busy on her cell phone. “I’m sure,” she hesitated.

  “If I grade it beforehand, we can set up a time to chat about it, ok?” Mr. Brooks reassured her.

  She let go of the breath she was holding, nodded and walked away. She glanced once behind her back and noticed Sarah approaching the desk.

  When Clara got to her next class she opened the note Gabe had given her. I notice a lot of things about you. She felt a slight flutter in her stomach and smiled. She couldn’t ignore how his words affected her. She realized he paid her attention but was convinced that once her newness wore off, he would change his mind. It seemed as though every time they locked eyes, he looked straight through to her and no one had been able to do that until now. It scared her but excited her too. She decided to go to the cafeteria for lunch and not the newspaper room. When she got there, Sonia was sitting with Alex and Gabe today. As soon as she saw Clara she waved and motioned her to come over.

  As she was walking to their table, a senior who contributed to the sports section of the newspaper stopped her to chat and asked if she could look over a piece he was writing. He asked for her number so they could set something up, but she told him they would meet a few minutes before their meeting tomorrow. If he felt rejected he definitely didn’t show it, taking it in stride. He stuck around a few more minutes to chat, cracked a joke, getting her to laugh and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He put his hand and squeezed her shoulder as he left.

  As soon as he left she literally took a few steps when, Lucas, a guy from her Science class approached her and asked, “Hey Clara, got a minute?”

  “Um, sure. I guess,” Clara responded.

  Lucas seemed relatively nice, maybe just a little cocky at times. He was on the soccer team and relatively popular, he was also cute with his dark blond hair and blue eyes. The girls spoke about him often. He always asked Clara a bunch of questions. As he spoke, Clara glanced up and noticed Sonia looking at her and then starting to chuckle. Glad to see Sonia found this amusing for some reason. All of a sudden, she felt as though everyone was looking at her and so she could feel her face flush. She looked up at Lucas and tilted her head to the side waiting to see what he would say. She bit her lip out of habit, Lucas smiled.

  “So first I was wondering if you knew what you were going to do with your Science project? Mr. Becker is kind of weird isn’t he?”

  Clara smiled, “Um yes, I guess you could say that. But no, not sure what I am doing yet.”

  “My sister said his tests are kind of tough too.” This was a weird conversation for some reason.

  Clara answered, “Yeah, he seems like the type to give difficult tests.” Clara inwardly groaned. Where was he going with this?

  “I was thinking of setting up a study group for his midterm. What do you think?” he asked.

  “Sure, I guess.” She had a feeling this conversation was going to take a turn.

  “And, I was also wondering…” Just as Lucas was going to say something else, Connor, arrived at her side, his arm around her shoulder.

  Her heart automatically sped up, like when most people touched her, but this was Connor and she was used to him. Breathe. “Lucas, my man. What is going on? Oh, was I interrupting something?”

  “Well, kind of,” Lucas bit out
.

  “Well, I have to steal Clara for something important and then maybe you can catch up with her later, huh?” Connor smirked.

  “Actually, I needed…” Lucas stepped forward, a bit annoyed that Connor had interrupted their discussion.

  “Cool, Clara come with me.” Totally ignoring Lucas’ attempt to continue speaking to Clara, Connor put both of his hands on her shoulders to steer her towards their table. He leaned in to her ear, “You are very popular today, C. You got all these guys in a fuss. I didn’t want to see an explosion take place.”

  Clara stopped walking, looked up at him and chuckled. “What are you talking about Connor?”

  Connor shook his head, “Seriously, you have no clue do you?” He was now standing in front of her, he put both hands back on her shoulders and winked at her and said, “Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Come on, let’s go.”

  They approached the table and Clara noticed that Connor suddenly tensed up. Gabe was staring right at him and the hands on Clara’s shoulders and then he shifted his gaze right on Clara. His jaw ticked and Clara noticed it instantly. Was he upset because of Connor? She didn’t think so because he totally came over to save her from Lucas. Plus Connor was in his inner circle. Not that she needed saving but she didn’t have a good feeling. But that was nothing compared to Gabe’s penetrating gaze on her right now. Now she felt observed. For some reason she didn’t feel comfortable sitting down but she did anyway right across from Sonia.

  Sonia smiled and glanced to the side. “It was taking you a long time to get to this table. Lunch is almost over, Clara.”

  “Yeah, maybe you should start having them make appointments,” said one of the guys at the table. Quite a few chuckled. Clara wasn’t sure if the guy was just making a stupid comment or meant to insult her but she was pretty sure of the latter. She looked over at Sonia who seemed to have a similar look on her face. Clara didn’t answer. Alex was opening his mouth to say something to the guy, but Gabe beat him to it.