Caught Up In You (9 page)

Eric beams as if the fact that she’s
noticed is some type of gain. “Yeah, boo thing. It’s a new nickname I’m trying
out for you. Catchy, huh?”

Angelina stares at him for a second
before choosing to ignore him and turn her attention to me. “You want
anything?”

I glance around the room quickly. People
have finally stopped staring at me, no use in attracting attention to myself
all over again. “No thanks, I think I’ll stay here.”

Angelina glances at Eric again as if the
notion that she’s going to have to actually be alone with him now has just hit
her. “On second thought I’ll get your food. What did you want again?”

Eric shakes his head. “Oh no, no, you
were right! I’m coming with you!”

Angelina shakes her head then takes off
in the crowd toward the food court without him. He winks at me then runs off
after her. I watch as their heads get smaller and smaller in the large crowd,
as if gone forever.

Suddenly, I don’t know what to do with
myself. I mean
,
I’m standing in the corner of a
crowded lobby all alone trying to not draw attention to myself. I look down at
myself for about the 100
^th
time since we left the hotel and wonder
what the hell I was thinking. The dress Angelina picked out for me comes down
to about an inch above my knee. It’s tight in all the right places showing off
my curves and making it look like I’m not as skinny as I know I am. My boobs
are pretty much up to my chin and the heels I’m wearing feel like they are
strangling my feet. (But Angelina insisted they made my legs look killer.) My
hair is blown straight and hanging down my back shinning like the top of the
empire state building. Angelina had spent at least a half hour perfecting my
makeup. Bronzer. Blush. Fake eyelashes. Smoky eyes. Red lipstick. I had to
admit I looked pretty damn good. I just didn’t look like I was going to a
basketball game.

Not to mention this outfit didn’t exactly
go with a backpack so I had to shove a notepad and pen into my tiny purse so I
could take notes on Nathan’s game for my article. This had really annoyed
Angelina. Where was I going to put my make up and brush? In case I needed a
touch up! Eventually she had taken my make up and put it in her purse so she
could touch me up if she had to.

I pull my dress down self consciously and
try to stand on my tip toes to see if I can make Angelina or Eric out anywhere
in the growingly crowded room but no such luck.

I pull my phone out from lack of anything
better to do. No new texts. Of course not, everyone I text is somewhere in this
building. I tap out a quick text to Eric.

“How’s it going?” I ask.

The reply comes almost immediately.
“Lines so long, boo thing is getting cranky.”

Great.

I’m just about to click on my
internet
browser to roam aimlessly on the web until they
come back when I feel a presence next to me, a very large presence. I would
have thought that it was Nathan but I had no chills or goose bumps, which
happens anytime I was within a foot radius of the kid.

I glance up from my phone. Not Nathan.

He’s just as tall though. With dark brown
hair and eyes to match, eyes that are fixed on me. “What are you doing in a
place like this?”

I’m taken a little off guard. I don’t say
anything for a second and I see his eyes travel up and down my body. Great, I
was getting hit on. I was going to kill Angelina. I take a step back but it only
backs me further into a wall. I’m literally backed into a corner.

He must like this because he grins and
slings one of his large arms on the wall beside me. Now that he’s even closer,
I can tell just how handsome he is. His skin is flawless, muscles bulging out
from under his shirt, and his teeth look like they belong on a whitening strip
commercial as the after picture.

“Oh, just here to watch the game.” It
comes out as more of a question than a statement.

He grins. “If you look like that to go
watch a game I can only imagine what you must look like when you’re really
trying.”

Okay, so he’s totally over the top and
cheesy but I’m a teenage girl, and he’s completely good looking. Not to
mention, I’m a teenage girl who just got out of a center for troubled teens not
that long ago where the male attention was like non existent besides Eric, who
didn’t count. Even though all I could think about day and night was Nathan, I
couldn’t help it, I was a little flattered. I mean
,
I’m only human. Still, something didn’t exactly feel right about this kid. In
fact, he kind of smelled like alcohol or something. I sniff the air around him
a little and realize it’s not alcohol but some type of horrible girls perfume.
Great, either this kid wears girls perfume or he was recently close enough to
another female that her perfume was able to rub off on him.

“Thanks.” I glance past his shoulder praying
that I see Eric or Angelina. but of course with my luck they’re still nowhere
to be found.

The lobby is getting really crowded now.
People are swimming in and out of the food court, hurrying into the gym, and
waiting in the huge line for the bathrooms. It looks more like the lobby to a
concert than a basketball game. Clearly, I had no idea about what a big deal
games like this were, especially with the championship games just around the corner.

The more crowded it gets, the more people
are staring at me. Geez, hasn’t anyone ever seen a girl in a dress before? And
now I even notice a few kids from my school shooting me nasty looks and shaking
their head at me! Wow, that’s so rude. I mean, they don’t even acknowledge the
fact that I exist in school but have the nerve to be grilling me just because
I’m wearing a dress to a basketball game?

Suddenly, I have a horrifying thought.
What if there’s like some type of dress code? Places have dress codes all the
time! Like restaurants and clubs! Even some gyms! Maybe you aren’t allowed to
wear these types of things to games because it might distract the players or
something!

But don’t the cheerleaders wear just as
little as me, if not less? And I could have sworn that Melissa Rodriguez had
worn her prom dress to a game a few years ago. No one really understood why she
did it. She kept saying something about it being a waste to only get to wear it
for one night.

I’m so caught up in my own thoughts that
it takes me a second to realize that I still have this kid standing in front of
me. He’s looking at me now like he’s waiting for some type of response. Oh god,
he’s been talking this whole time? I haven’t been listening at all.

“So, do you?” He shakes his head looking
real annoyed now.

Do I what? I’m trying to think of a
response that would come off as neutral no matter what he was asking when I
notice some kid who I go to school with whisper something in his dads ear. They
both turn and give me dirty looks. Wow! What is everyone’s problem?

“Sorry, not trying to be rude. It’s just,
don’t you notice everyone looking at me like I’m crazy or something?” I look
around again to make sure I’m not just imagining things but I’m not. In fact,
it seems like the dirty looks are getting worse by the second.

His look of annoyance instantly vanishes
and instead a cocky smirk comes over his lips. “Oh, it’s not you. It’s me.” He
announces it proudly like he’s about to win an award or something.

“You?” I must look as puzzled as I feel
because he laughs at my facial expression.

“Yeah, me.” He inches even closer to me
now. “You’re pretty much hanging out with a celebrity right now.” He moves a
little closer to me very confidently and I can tell by the look on his face
that this line has gotten him places with girls many times before. Ugh, this
fool was getting worse by the minute.

Still, my curiosity got the best of me.
“A celebrity?”

“Yup.” He nods and starts looking around
at the crowd of people still gathering in and out around us. “Most of the
people are here to see me. You’re looking at the captain of what’s about to be
the best high school basketball team in the state.”

I look at him more closely. What was he
babbling on about? I don’t recognize him at
all,
he
wasn’t captain of our basketball team. Unless this kid had transferred or
something when I was away at the wellness center and then taken the captain
spot. That didn’t seem likely, especially because I feel like that’s something
Nathan would have mentioned when discussing all the article details the other
night. But suddenly I’m wishing that was the case because the only other
explanation would be that he was the captain of the other team.

The team we were here to beat. One of the
best teams in the state right along side us. Suddenly, I notice that he’s
wearing warm up sweats but not in the color of our school. I had been so
worried about everyone staring at me that I hadn’t been observing him very
well. I swear it was like trouble just followed me everywhere I went. No wonder
everyone was looking at me like I was a jerk. Here I was looking all friendly
with the captain of one of our sworn enemies! A little to friendly I might add.
Suddenly I was all too aware of how close together we were standing to one
another. It was time to get out of there and fast.

“Well, it was so nice to meet you but I
better be on my way now. My friends are waiting for me.” I make a move to
swerve my body around his and head out into the crowd. I would worry about
finding Angelina and Eric in a second I didn’t have time to think this through
right now.

Only I can’t get around him because he
holds me in place and a little harder than necessary. Geez, he was clearly way
stronger than me, no need to be so rough bro.

“They can keep on waiting.” He’s
practically touching my face now. What was he doing out here anyway? Didn’t he
have a game to be getting ready for? It’s not like I was scared or anything. If
it had just been the two of us I might have been but there’s hundreds of people
all around us. No, I wasn’t scared, more like annoyed.

“Don’t you have a game to get to?” I try.

He takes it the total wrong way. “Oh, I
get it, you need to make this quick.” He glances over his shoulder as if he’s
thinking real hard about his options. “We can go out to my car, if you want, but
that’s kind of far. I think there’s a closet around the corner.”

Wonderful. He thinks I want to hook up
with him in some closet. He’s looking at me expectantly and I come to terms
with the fact that it may not have occurred to him that I don’t want to go hook
up with him in some closet. I mean, if he’s the captain of the basketball team
I’m sure he’s used to girls just throwing their self at him left and right. I
curse Angelina yet again for convincing me to wear this dress. And then I curse
Eric too, because lets face it, he hadn’t exactly helped the situation. In
fact, he had made it worse by getting Angelina all worked up. I could have
maybe handled her on her own. If I was wearing normal clothes I probably
wouldn’t have gotten a second glance from this kid, but no, I had to wear this
dress. I just had to wear it. Actually, if I should be mad at anyone it’s
myself, I knew this was a bad idea.

“Hello!” He snaps his fingers in front of
my face trying to force me out of my daze. Ugh, he looks really angry now.
Where the hell were Angelina and Eric? No way the line for food could be this
long.

I’m considering whether I should try to
tough this out until my friends get here or try again to make a run for it when
suddenly there’s Nathan. Right in between me and the other kid like it’s no big
deal. Like he’s supposed to be there. I feel my heart start to quicken its pace
at his closeness.

“She’s good.” Nathan looks angry, really
angry. So angry that he might hit this kid or something. I sneak a quick look
at him. He’s wearing his warm up uniform too. Only his is blue and I can’t help
but notice how nice his muscles look bulging out from under his shirt. I force
myself to focus my eyes elsewhere.

The other kid looks amused but kind of alarmed
too. “Well, look who it is. Mr. big man on campus with the little team that
could. So tell me, do you have any decent players besides yourself?”

Well, this is dangerous ground. Its no
secret our schools basketball team wasn’t very good before Nathan transferred
to our school this year and turned it around. But still, when Nathan and me
used to talk about it he was all about shaping the team up to be the best it
could, not stealing all the shine for himself.

Nathan smirks, his anger fading for the time
being. “I guess you’ll just have to see today, wont you, Mike?”

Oh, Mike. That must be the kid’s name. I
never caught it, which goes to show you just how full of himself he was.
Thinking I would hook up with him when I didn’t even know his name. Of course,
he could have mentioned it when I was busy getting carried away with my own
thoughts, but I doubt it.

Mike rolls his eyes. “Quit playing games,
Daley.”

Nathan crosses his arms and positions his
body in front of me a little more so I’m pretty much out of sight. Huh, how
rude. “Oh, I invented the game.”

Mike rolls his eyes again, clearly annoyed
at how cocky Nathan sounds which makes no sense since that’s how he is. “Well,
whatever, excuse me, but me and my friend here were just about to go for a
walk.” He peeks over Nathan’s shoulder trying to catch my eye.