Rival Love

by Natalie Decker

  He’s never going to be mine. Not in that way. He’s with Danielle. Whatever I’m feeling for him needs to stop. He’s got a girlfriend. He’s a player. He’s arrogant. He’s inconsiderate. And he doesn’t feel anything for me. Whatever happened last night was nothing but a mistake. It’ll never happen again.

  The bell chimes, indicating another customer. I glance over and stare wide-eyed at the couple walking into the shop.

  Chapter 34

  Caleb

  Heading to Summit, I can’t stop thinking about Sky. The hurt I put in her eyes is killing me. She’s got no idea how badly I want to kiss her. And last night, I came so close, but I didn’t want to do that to her—string her along, tell her I’m leaving Danielle as soon as the season’s over with.

  Searching for a parking spot seems like a cosmic joke, because the only one available is right beside the car of the one girl who wants nothing more to do with me. I park and step out just in time to see Danielle. “Oh good, you’re here.” She grabs my hand and pulls me into the coffee shop.

  My gaze meets Skylar and I swear if she could kill you with looks, I’d be dead. She glares at me, and my heart breaks. I want to tell her it’s not what she thinks.

  Skylar’s watching us and not paying attention to the coffee she’s pouring. She jerks back and cries out, “Mother of Jesus!”

  The dude name Alex rushes over to her, taking her hands into his. I want to hop across the counter and pull him away from her. I don’t like him touching her.

  Danielle snorts beside me. “She works here?”

  “Yes.”

  She shakes her head. “I decided I don’t want coffee anymore. Let’s go, baby.”

  “I’ve got a lot of things to do. You should probably go on without me.”

  She smiles. “Fine. See you later, lover.” She kisses me and I know Skylar is looking at us again. When we break apart, Danielle leaves and I turn to Skylar, whose face is burning red.

  “Hey, it’s…”

  She cuts me off. “Really? I have to see that display at the house and you bring it here, of all places. I wish to the heaven above I’d never helped you. You’re the world’s biggest asshole!”

  She turns away from me. “Sky…”

  She comes around the counter and jabs a taped-up hand into my chest. “Don’t you ever call me that again. You don’t get that right anymore.”

  “But I…”

  “No, Caleb. I don’t want to hear it. Just go.”

  I’d give anything to make her see how much I care about her. To make her understand how much it kills me to see her like this. And I feel the only way to do just that is to do as she requests. I leave the coffee shop and head to the tux store.

  ***

  At home, I sit on the couch watching the highlights from the other football games that happened last night. The highlights went from Carroll to Daleville and then our game comes on. “Morgan was struggling the first half, leaving the field down by fourteen points. But then after halftime, look at this. It’s like a completely different Bobcat team has taken this field. Derrick Rivers runs into the end zone…” I hear the front door open and I shut off the TV. Skylar walks into the room, spots me, and turns to leave.

  “Hey. Wait a second.”

  “Why? So you can torture me some more? No thanks.”

  “I was there to pick up my tux. Danielle ambushed me and dragged me into the coffee shop.”

  She meets my gaze. “I don’t care. Do what you want. You always do, right?”

  I flinch as she throws my own words back in my face. “Not always.” I walk away from her and up to my room. Slamming the door, I run my hands through my hair. Why did I even let her get to me? She’s just another girl. They’re nothing but trouble. No matter how good they are.

  Around five, Danielle drives over to my house along with Lance and Derrick. Lance elbows me in the kitchen. “Where’s our little dark angel?”

  “Up in her room. She’s pissed off at me.”

  Derrick comes into the kitchen. “These pants are riding my ass.”

  Lance and I laugh. “Dude, that’s too much info,” I say.

  Lance shakes his head. “I’m going to use your bathroom.” I know he isn’t going to the bathroom. He’s going to check on Skylar and that makes me beyond pissed. I follow him, making up some excuse that I left something in my room. He walks past Sky’s room and heads to the bathroom. I pretend to go into my room but go to hers once the bathroom door closes.

  Once I shut myself into her room, a shoe blasts me in the back of the head. I turn and face a very angry Skylar Fletcher. She picks up one of her bats and I wave her down. “Whoa! Whoa! Jesus, I need to talk to you.” She’s not lowering the bat clutched in her grip. “I’m sorry for whatever I did.” I know what that was, but I’m not about to admit it to her.

  I inch forward, and she cocks her bat back like she’s eyeing up a baseball. “Caleb, I swear on everything, I will hit you with this bat if you try to take another step toward me. Just go.”

  I hold my ground. “Can we talk or do you actually plan on beating me with that?”

  “It’s a nice thought.” She smiles as if she’s picturing it. “I don’t want to talk to you right now, so no, we can’t talk.”

  My idiot self should have known better than to think she’d talk to me. She’s not like other girls, and my charm isn’t going to change her or even help her drop her guard. So I nod and conceit defeat. Turning to the door I say, “I’ll leave you be then.”

  I hear her sigh and I glance back. She lowers her bat and shifts her weight. Before I make a total ass of myself I leave her room.

  Leaning against the wall across from her room is Lance. “Are you pissing off my tutor?”

  I shrug. What could I really say? Lance takes a step toward her door. “I’m going to say hi to her.” I nod even though that’s the last thing I want him to do. This whole damn thing’s a mess and effing up my own code: never get too close, don’t get emotionally attached, and never apologize for something you’ve done. I’m officially in unchartered waters, and I have no idea what I should do.

  ***

  On our way to dinner, Danielle presses her lips to my neck and sucks on my earlobe, while Lance, his date, Emily, Derrick, and his date, Mandy, stare at us. The girls look disgusted, my friends have puzzled looks on their faces, and I am drowning in ideas to get Skylar to forgive me. So I just don’t have the energy to give a shit about what Danielle is trying to do to me.

  She pulls back and whispers, “We’re going to have so much fun tonight.” Danielle grabs something from her purse and jiggles it. “Want some?”

  If it helps me go back to the way things were before Skylar Fletcher entered my life, then hell yes. I snatch the flask from her, unscrew the lid, and down the bitter taste of bourbon. Something I’m not really a fan of, but I welcome the burn as it works its way down my throat. Shaking my head a little, I blow out a breath I’ve been holding and say, “Woo.”

  “You gonna share?” Derrick asks.

  Danielle sneers and rolls her eyes. “Um, no. Go get your own.”

  “Seriously, toss it over, bro,” Lance says with a smile.

  I know I shouldn’t piss Danielle off but on the other hand, I don’t care if she gets pissed. I’m actually sick of her trying to boss me around and force herself on me. Passing the flask along with a shrug, Danielle crosses her arms and shoots us all glares.

  When we get to the dance, she’s fuming, stomping her way into the school like a freaking child. Derrick nudges my arm and laughs, “Ohhhh someone is in the doghouse tonight.”

  Lance laughs too, but I’m not chuckling. If Danielle continues to be all kinds of crazy pissed I might be in a world of trouble. And as much as I’d rather let her be all shitty, I can’t. She might sabotage my season in retaliation for sharing her alcohol.

  Entering the commons, which is where the dance is being held, I look around and cringe. The round tables we use to eat on are covered with glit
tery things and lined up in a large U shape. The DJ is all the way at the back near the kitchen area. A bunch of flashing is going off toward the vending machines where the photographer set up some backdrop and couples pose with one another.

  Danielle grabs my hand and pulls me over to a table. “We’re going to sit here.” She sets her long scarf thing down one of the chairs. I’m about to take off my jacket but she shakes her head at me. “Baby, we’ve got pictures to take.”

  I’m sweating my ass off in this penguin suit. I can’t complain though. I’ve got to keep Danielle on my good side. But I’m not certain how much more I can take.

  After pictures and five dances, all I want to do is relax. I go back to the table and slump down in a chair. Danielle pouts, “But baby, you promised.”

  “Danielle, I need a fucking break.”

  She scowls. “Excuse me, but you owe me. Re-member?” she drags out the words like it’s going to make a difference.

  “Danielle, I want to sit down. If you wanna dance, go ahead. No one is stopping you.” I should really control my temper, but she’s grating on my last nerve. The pushy you-will-do-this-and-that crap is getting old. Like two-months-too-damn-long old.

  “Fine.” She smiles. “I’ll just go dance with some other guys.” When I don’t move she huffs and walks off.

  Chapter 35

  Skylar

  At four in the morning, my alarm goes off. I roll out of bed, gather up my workout clothes and school clothes along with my books, then head downstairs and write my mom a note. Five minutes later, I’m in Kayla’s driveway, calling her. A few rings and a voicemail. I don’t know if I should honk my horn or ring the doorbell.

  Two minutes go by and I finally get out of my car and run up to the front door. Kayla answers with her hair sticking up and falling out of a messy bun. Her eyes are barely open. “It’s so early. Give me two more minutes. I gotta get my bags.”

  Nodding, I return to my car. I jam to some Candlebox—“You”—while closing my eyes and resting my head on the headrest. The song is on the second verse when my passenger door opens. I look over at Kayla, as she glances from the iPod resting on the dash to me. “This song is a good wake-up call, but I think we might need some coffee. Do you mind if we hit up McDonald’s? I don’t think anything else is open.” And she’s right. There isn’t much open at 4:15 a.m.

  Pulling up at the drive-thru at McDonald’s, a scratchy voice comes on. “Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order?”

  I almost say, “I don’t know, can you?” but think it better to keep my smartass mouth in check. Plus I just want some coffee, minus the spit. So I order. “Yeah, I’ll have a medium caramel frap.”

  “Oh that sounds good, I want one too,” Kayla says and hands me over a twenty.

  Once the drinks are paid for, we head off to the school. Kayla and I are still walking like zombies, dragging our feet and totally ready to crash any minute. Maybe lifting some weights is something we should do when we’re a little more awake. Going through the only open door, we bypass the cafeteria, which is splattered with gold and dark-brown confetti, glitter, and balloons. “Uck.”

  “Are you commenting on the homecoming decorations?”

  I nod. “Please tell me your old school colors weren’t this awful.”

  Kayla laughs. “They weren’t. I actually liked my old school colors. Neon green, navy blue, and white, but our mascot was a squid.”

  Now, I laugh. “That’s kind of disturbing.”

  “Yeah. No matter how many different poses or squid images they came up with it still looked like a penis with tentacles.”

  My stomach hurts from laughing so hard. It feels like forever since I’ve laughed like this. It’s actually pretty awesome.

  We agree to skip the weight room, and do some land exercises instead, so we head back to the pool area.

  Kayla and I work out for about fifteen minutes and then she and I decide to start our swim workout.

  I pick up a piece of chalk from the board near the pool and write out our workout which is a 500-yard free, 200-yard drill, and 200-yard underwater. That’s just the warm-up; the total yardage we’re going to swim is about 3,000. Kayla’s eyes bulge when she reads the board. “Are we going to swim all that today?”

  I nod. “Yeah. We’re going to increase this by about a thousand yards each week, but we have to build to it. It looks like a lot right now, but once we get through it, trust me, it will seem like nothing.”

  “If you say so.” She sucks in a breath.

  We both get into the pool. The water is chilly, but it feels nice. Right. Wow, I missed this. I push off the wall and start my warm-up. Lap number three I swim around Kayla and we race to the wall. She pauses at the wall, and I do too. “Maybe I should watch your technique,” I offer.

  “Nah, I’m just still tired. Go ahead.”

  I drop it and go ahead of her again. By lap ten, I pass her again and this time I can’t ignore it. “Kayla, I want you to go ahead of me and start swimming.”

  “Oh, okay,” she says a little timidly.

  I smile. “It’s okay. If we’re going to work with each other, I need to know if there is anything I can help you with. Technique, pull, kicking, little things can make a big difference in the end.”

  She nods. “Okay.” She pushes off into a streamline. I make a mental note that it could be a little tighter. She breaks the surface and starts to pull her right arm out of the water, 1-2-3 strokes and then she breathes. Her kick is weak, but it’s an easy fix just like her streamline—however, her stroke is not. That’s going to be more hands-on. She does a flip-turn at the wall and swims her way back.

  Once she reaches the wall, I stop her. “You did good. There are a few simple things that will help you out a lot. One is your streamline needs to be as tight as possible. Press your arms to your ears and hold it there. Keep your fingers closed too.”

  “All right. What are the other things?” I smile at her eagerness to learn.

  “Next thing is your kick. We’ll throw in some kicking drills so we can improve that quickly. But last thing is your stroke. This one I’m going to have to get a little hands-on with you, in order to show you what you need to do.” I chew on my lower lip because I don’t really like getting all hands-on with people, especially girls. It just makes me super uncomfortable.

  I hop back into the water and we swim to the shallow end of the pool. As soon as we get there, I tell Kayla to swim while I walk beside her. When her arm pops out of the water, I grab it and bend it how it should be, then guide it back into the water where I release it. I do this for a full fifty yards.

  I let her practice correcting her stroke by herself in lane one while I move into lane two and finish the workout I made up for us. Hour and a half later, Kayla and I are pretty much finished up.

  Kayla is panting a little and I smile. “You okay?”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever swam this hard before.”

  “Yeah, it’s kind of a rush, huh?”

  She laughs and nods. It’s six fifty in the morning and we’ve gotta get out of the pool. Not only do we have class soon, public swim hours start in ten minutes. In an attempt to make some extra cash, our school opened the pool up to the public from seven to nine or something like that.

  Kayla and I enter the locker room, and a few old women eye us up like we’re delinquents or something. Old people usually don’t freak me out, but there’s one who’s just walking around buck-naked and chatting to everyone. I give Kayla an eerie look, hug my towel a little tighter to myself, and bite down on my lip. Kayla looks as if she’s about to burst into a fit of laughter. She practically runs to her locker near the front exit, pulls out her shower caddy, and rushes back to the showers.

  Little old streaker suddenly makes her debut in my locker area. I’m frozen and at a loss for words. How do you tell some elderly person her whole nudist act is bothering you? She stares at me with crazy beady eyes and says, “Don’t I know you?”

  I
choke out, “I don’t believe so.” I try to bolt with my own shower caddy but the woman has me cornered. I try not to cringe, but jeez it’s almost impossible. If I could rip my eyeballs out of my head in order to stop seeing her wrinkly skin all up close and in my personal space, I would. “Um…may I please go to the showers?”

  “Just a minute, honey. I really think I know you. What’s your name?”

  “Skylar Fletcher.”

  “Ah-ha. I knew I know you. You’re that state winner, aren’t you?”

  I nod and send a silent prayer that this conversation will end right now.

  “You’re so much prettier in person.”

  I know I should thank her but I’m scared she will continue talking to me while being so exposed. “I really must get my shower now.”

  “Sure, sure.” She shoos me away like I was the one holding her up from something. I move around her and hurry into a shower. As soon as I start my water, my curtain opens and Kayla giggles.

  “Dude!” I’m still in my suit, but I don’t want people in my shower.

  She’s still in her suit, thank goodness, because one naked person was quite enough for one morning. Kayla throws up her hands and winces. “Sorry.” She starts to leave.

  “It’s cool. I just like showering alone.”

  She smiles. “No problem. I just wanted to waste some time so my conditioner can set.” She peeks her head out of my shower and then pops back in with a long sigh. “That lady was Mrs. Appleton. She’s kind of famous for, you know.” She does a little cat-like walk.

  “And not using a towel?” I flinch at my own words.

  Kayla covers her mouth and giggles. Then she whispers, “I should have warned you. Sorry. The other girls told me all about her but I thought they were messing with me.”