by Nicole Nwosu
Sam gestured at Phillip. The kid had brown hair and brown eyes that resembled the boy I was texting. I couldn’t believe I never noticed before.
“You’re Phillip’s cousin too. He’s Cedric’s brother,” I said.
“Look who’s finally using their eyes,” Sam mocked. Jerk.
Phillip looked at Sam and me in confusion. “You two know each other?”
“We’re friends,” Sam said.
“We go to school together,” I corrected.
But Phillip didn’t care for our conversation anymore, his eyes darting over to the water fountain next to the change rooms. “I’ll be back,” he yelled, running over to fill up his water bottle.
“Small world,” Sam said.
“I guess so. Second time I’ve seen you here.”
“I’m here usually the hours others aren’t.”
“I would have noticed if you were here.” The rec center was huge—with a gym, indoor soccer field, basketball courts, and different rooms for various activities—but generally you could see everyone coming and going in the lobby or would run into them in the change rooms.
“You would have?” A smirk crept onto his face in a suggestive manner.
“Not in that way,” I said as Phillip came back.
Sam patted his cousin on the shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Phillip was making his way to the door when Sam reached toward me. I stilled, his hand holding the top of my whistle as he adjusted the string. My face was heating up. “Hazel, we’ve got to stop bumping into each other like this.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
Phillip yelled his name from the exit of the indoor field.
“I’ll see you at school,” he said. He didn’t answer my question.
The following Monday I found Jasmine near her locker talking to a girl. “Mace, this is Stevie. She was on the volleyball team with me.”
“You’re on the soccer team, right?” Stevie asked me.
“Yeah,” I said. Beatrice stared at us from down the hall, a distasteful look on her face.
Oh God.
“I haven’t seen you around,” I said to Stevie, trying to ignore Beatrice.
“I moved here in September.” As she was explaining to me where she had lived prior to moving to the city, Jasmine tensed up. “I have to head to class,” Stevie said as she waved good-bye.
Jasmine leaned in to me, scowling back at Beatrice. “She’s pissing me off and she’s not even saying anything.”
“She’s honestly not even worth it—”
My sentence was left unheard as Jasmine moved down the hallway toward Beatrice and her group of friends.
I followed, ready to back her up in whatever she was going to say. Jasmine stood in front of Beatrice, the two of them nearly the same height, each unwilling to back down. “What do you want?” Jasmine’s voice was strong as she glowered at Beatrice.
Beatrice rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I have no reason to waste my time on you.”
“Are you sure?” Jasmine’s voice was steady. “Because you obviously don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Shut up.”
“No.” People were listening to the interaction, sensing the obvious tension. This tension didn’t involve me. “You look like a complete idiot staring at people like that. I’m doing you a favor.”
“Seems to me a favor was done when Sean dumped you.”
That wasn’t public knowledge—Beatrice put that out there knowing the people listening didn’t know, wanting to embarrass Jasmine.
I stepped up to Beatrice, getting in her face, and using my height to my advantage. “Stop talking.”
Beatrice wasn’t done. “And he moved on so fast. I heard he went out with a girl on Saturday.”
Jasmine pulled me back. “I don’t care who he’s with. He can go back to dating you of all people if he wants to.”
“What is that supposed to mean, Oreo?”
I froze. While I didn’t understand what Beatrice meant, I knew there was a negative weight behind that word. Jasmine lunged at Beatrice, her arm bent to hit the other girl in the face with her fist. I pulled Jasmine back as loud profanities came out of her mouth. Choruses of encouragement for a fight broke out around us. Andrew appeared next to me, and he also held Jasmine tight.
“What is going on here?” An authoritative voice boomed through the crowd, and my physics teacher, Ms. Dawson, walked up to us, eyes on Beatrice, whose friends surrounded her.
Beatrice pointed at Jasmine, whom Andrew was still holding on to. “This psycho attacked me in the middle of the hallway.”
“Bullshit.” Jasmine broke free from Andrew’s grip. “She was being a racist.”
“I was not,” Beatrice spat. Ms. Dawson told Beatrice to head to the principal’s office and gestured for Jasmine to come along.
“You okay?” I asked Jasmine.
“I’m fine.” As she walked down the hall, she muttered, “I have to be, don’t I?”
“Get up and go, Mace,” Drake reassured me later that day. We were at the rec center and people were filling in the stands as the soccer game was about to start. Jasmine wasn’t here—she was currently serving detention for the altercation with Beatrice that morning, which seemed so unfair. Even though Beatrice was serving detention, too, something should have been done for what she had said to Jasmine.
I fist bumped Drake as the ref called for captains. I went over to the center of the field as the captain from Crenshaw Hills approached the middle too.
Michael.
“Anderson!” he smirked. “You’re captain this year? Team decided to go with the girl as a joke?”
“Shut up.”
Michael scowled. “Watch out.”
It took everything in me to focus on the game and not on the words and potential threats from the sexist pig I’d encountered over the years. After deciding who got the first ball with the coin toss, I shook Michael’s hand and walked off the field.
Justin was up in the bleachers with my camera in his hand. At the bottom of the bleachers near the bench, sat Sam. He gave me a two-fingered wave as Coach approached me. Once I told Coach that we had the first ball and he blew his whistle to tell my teammates to stop drills and head over to where I stood by the side, Sam said from where he sat, “Caleb says good luck. He had to do some errands so he sent me.”
“He sent you? You sure you didn’t send yourself?”
“Why did it look like the Crenshaw captain was giving you a hard time?”
Michael was frowning at Sam. “Why’s he looking at you like you dumped his sister?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” Sam said. “I had a thing with a girl I thought was his ex-girlfriend, then stopped it when I found out the other guy was still involved.”
“Trouble seems to follow you.”
“Good luck out there, Hazel.” He leaned back and I joined my teammates in the starting huddle.
My legs burned as I sprinted for the ball near the end of the game. Michael was right behind me as I ran, getting the ball from the other defender. The score was 2–2, with seven minutes left on the clock. I could feel Sam’s eyes on me, like they had been the entire game, and I had a feeling that he was anticipating my every move, and every move the other team made.
Michael’s foot connected with my ankle. With a whomp, I hit the ground and pain flared. As I turned on my back, Michael was shoved to the side.
“Hazel, can you get up?” I reached for the large hand in front of me and pulled myself up, shaking off the subsiding pain in my foot.
I steadied myself. “I’m fine, go back to the bleachers.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m good, Sam,” I assured him. “Go before you get in trouble.”
Sam nodded and headed back to the bleachers as Andrew came
up to my side. The ref and Michael were in a heated argument, and soon a red card was pulled out. He sent me a dirty look, and walked over to his team as the ref blew the whistle. “Penalty at the box.”
Shrugging off all my nervous energy, I waited as the ball was set up. When the whistle blew, I ran, my foot connecting with the ball. The goalie reached for the corner of the post as the ball passed the line and hit the back of the net in a fluid motion. Relief filled my chest as I exhaled. After high-fiving my teammates, we set up again and as if on impulse, my eyes went to Sam, who mouthed Nice goal. His praise added to my excitement before my focus went back on the game for the remainder of the half.
Michael stood at a distance. Despite him writing me off as “just a girl,” I would challenge him for the rest of this game, and every other game I would play against him.
4
This Is Not a Rom-Com
On Friday night, I sat on the couch in David’s living room. David and I had physics together, and he was known for throwing parties I was suddenly thankful for as I sat with Cedric, loud music playing around us.
Cedric had picked me up from my house, and luckily Dad had been out with Justin, which meant he didn’t have a chance to talk to Cedric and potentially embarrass me.
The house was hot, possibly from having so many teenagers—and their hormones—crammed into one place. Cedric and I had been talking on the couch for hours, barely moving from our spots. As for my friends, I didn’t know where they were, but they were here.
I ran my fingers through my long brown hair, which wasn’t encased in a ponytail for once, as Cedric went to get another drink. The chatter around me grew as people took videos of each other. That reminded me of my camera, which both Andrew and Jasmine insisted I leave at home because apparently once I had it in my hands, I “wasn’t able to focus on the vibe of a good party.” Jasmine’s words, not mine.
“Hey.” Austin sloppily put his hands on my shoulders. His hat fell off his head, exposing his dark hair.
He was definitely drunk. “You look happy.”
“I am happy,” he gushed. “How are you? How’s Cedric?”
“How are you?”
Caleb appeared by his side, slinging an arm around Austin to hold him up. “He’s good.”
“I’m a little fucked,” Austin whispered as if it was a secret.
“You don’t say.”
“I kissed someone,” he slurred. Caleb’s eyes flickered between Austin and me.
“You did? Good for you.”
“Miss me?” Sam’s voice came from behind me and I twisted around to see him.
His eyes were alert. He wasn’t drunk. “Hi, Sam.” I turned back to Austin. “Where are the boys?”
“Downstairs—these guys are so cool,” Austin said. “Why haven’t we hung out before? And Caleb?” Austin jabbed a finger in Caleb’s chest. “He’s so charming. Like, he walks into a room and people like him because he’s so charming. He’s so—”
“Charming, like Prince Charming,” I added. “I get it.”
“Where’s your camera?” Sam said. “Rarely ever see you without it.”
“I left it at home.”
Austin almost fell on Caleb. “All right.” Caleb raised him up. “We’ll see you after, Macy.”
I bid them good-bye, hyperaware of Sam moving from behind me to follow them. A few moments later, Cedric returned and handed me another drink as he sat down. “I heard about the game. Good job.”
Cedric didn’t know much about soccer and it showed. “Thanks.”
“You must love football.”
“Yeah, I’m a volunteer coach on a house league team, and realized the other day your little brother is on it.”
“Phillip?”
“Yeah. Sam picked him up. I didn’t even make the connection that you and Phillip were brothers.”
“Yeah, my family doesn’t really come up in conversation,” he said. Sam had said that he and his cousin didn’t have a good relationship—now, the look on Cedric’s face confirmed it. “Aren’t you close with Justin?” he asked me.
“Yeah, we’re close.”
Close enough that even though Cedric had asked me to this party, I’d offered Justin the chance to tag along. He declined, choosing to try to get our dad to buy him new basketball shoes at the mall.
“Did you celebrate your win?”
I shook my head and Cedric’s brown eyes lit up. “Good, then let’s go out to dinner.”
My movements stilled. “To celebrate a game?”
“Macy.” There was no way he was—“I’m asking you out.”
No way. My brain struggled to form words. “Oh.”
“‘Oh?’”
“Not like that,” I was quick to correct, trying to find the proper words. Even this, us at this party together, wasn’t enough to be considered a date considering all of my friends were nearby. This would mean the two of us alone. On a date. “I meant, ‘oh’ as in a surprised ‘oh.’”
“Oh,” he jested. “I’m kind of hoping you’ll say yes, considering . . . I know you like me.”
“What?”
“Austin kind of—”
“Austin?!” I’m never saying anything like this to the boys ever again.
“I kind of got the hint when he was constantly bringing you up, so I thought I’d ask. And now I’m waiting for an answer.”
“Uh-hum.” I stopped my incoherent response, trying to regain my composure. I must be in an alternate universe, because this never happens to me. “Sure.”
“Yeah?”
Hands suddenly landed on my shoulders, but recognizing the nail polish, I relaxed my tense shoulders. However, shock and slight confusion lingered from Cedric’s question. He asked me out. Me.
“I need help in the bathroom.” Jasmine dragged me up from my seat, giving Cedric a look of an apology as she pulled me out of the room. She stopped in the middle of a corridor. “How’s it going?” She was rocking back and forth on her heels and I had to admit her mood was contagious, making me chuckle. “I mean . . . between you guys?”
“He asked me out to dinner.”
“Shut up.”
“It’s not a big—”
“It’s a huge deal,” she shouted over the loud music. “He asked you on a date, Macy! Please tell me you said yes. You probably did. We’re going to figure out what you’re going to wear. I have to tell Andrew. Where are the boys?”
“Downstairs, but—” Jasmine pulled me in the direction of the basement. A lot of the guys from the soccer team waved at me and patted me on the back as I moved through, shouting my name as Jasmine ran to Andrew to tell him what I had told her. His eyes went wide as he whipped his head toward me. I never talked about romantic interests. None of the boys talked much about who they were with, either, and, when they did, it was a bunch of jokes, rarely ever deep conversations.
The basement was crowded and was warmer than the rest of the house, filled with half the kids from school. Jon Ming and Brandon were playing a game of pool while loud chatter erupted from where Jacob was talking to a few people in a corner. The scent of alcohol—from the blue cups people held—was strong in the air, and although music was playing loudly through the house, the conversation between everyone here didn’t cease, reminding me of the easygoing conversation I had been having with Cedric.
Jasmine and Andrew headed upstairs, dodging people on the steps, as Sam slid up next to me. “What are they talking about?”
“Nothing.” I breathed out and he took a sip of his bottled water.
Sam’s eyes shifted to a girl who was staring at him and she looked away quickly. Sam’s lips quirked up in a smirk. Moving past him, I went upstairs to the kitchen where a never-ending number of people entered and left through the doorway. I wandered over to the hallway that connected to the living room, where two people were
chatting at the other end.
“I’m surprised you’re here,” Sam said and I jumped, startled that I hadn’t noticed him follow me.
“I’ve been to parties,” I insisted.
“One party. Just before winter break in December, and you were where the guys were playing video games and stuff. That’s the only time I’ve seen you.”
“Is this another attempt to call me a tomboy?” I said.
“It’s not a bad thing.” He glanced at the clothes Jasmine had put me in, from the top all the way down to the skinny jeans. “You look good. But this outfit isn’t you.”
“Sam.” I flushed. “You don’t even know me. How would you know?”
Turning on my heel, I moved to make my way down the hallway and Sam caught my arm.
“Wait, can I start over?”
“All you’ve done since the first day we met was tease me. You probably think it’s funny to get me riled up.”
“Have you ever thought that maybe I was interested in getting to know you as a person?”
“No,” I admitted. “The only way for you to get to know a person is with flirty banter, a ride on your so-called motorcycle, and it’s usually just to find a way into their pants. Your reputation precedes you.”
“I like sex, sue me.” He shrugged. “No, I’m not trying to do that with you, but if you want to I—”
“I’m not like that.”
“There’s just something about the way you trip over soccer balls that—I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”
He had a nice smile and I knew I wasn’t the only one who noticed—a lot of female eyes went to him as he continued laughing with his hand on my arm.
“You can’t let that go, can you?”
“I’m an asshole. You know that,” he joked.
“Is that all you want to be known for?”
“I don’t really care what people here think about me,” Sam confessed. “People can think I’m an asshole, that I’m a jerk—have you heard what people have said about me since I came to Wellington?”
“No.” I leaned against the wall. “What have people said?”
Sam scoffed. “Someone once told Caleb that they thought I was involved in an armed robbery. The recent rumor I’ve heard is that I was a drug lord. It’s ridiculous what people make up when they think the new guy needs to be more interesting than just being the new guy.”