Hookup List (16 page)

There were some good soccer players on the varsity team. There were also a couple great ones. I was better than them all.

I was untouchable on the field. I could tell that the guys were lukewarm to me – Noah wouldn’t even look at me and Bryson kept glaring at me – but that didn’t matter. I was so good that I could make zombies look like pros. During our scrimmage I scored goal after goal and even passed the ball enough times to make me look like a team player. Every now and then I’d glance at Coach Hayworth. I could tell that he didn’t want to like me but there was no hiding the excitement and surprised approval on his face. By the time we were halfway through practice, I knew I had won him over and earned a spot on the varsity team for good.

Overall, I was surprised by the skill levels of the different players. I would have expected Dylan to be the best player given his captain’s status but there were several better than him. He was likely voted captain because of demeanor and capacity for team building. Bryson was, unfortunately, better and, most shockingly of all, a scrawny little freshman boy seemed to be the best after myself. He wasn’t big but he was quick, had fantastic instincts about where the ball was going to be, and he never hesitated to throw himself into any situation. These were skills that always put him one step ahead of the other players… except for
me, that was. I saw how confident the kid was and decided to teach him a little lesson. I was a lot like him when I had been a freshman and the older guys taught me a few things. It was time to pass the favor on.

I waited until the kid got the ball, which didn’t take very long as he had a knack for getting in front of it. Then I attacked. I sprinted directly at him. His eyes flickered up and he saw me coming. He maintained eye contact as he came towards me, not giving any indication of which way he was going. Then he faked right and went left. It was a smart move; he didn’t need to break out anything fancy to get around me when I was going at that rate of speed. At least, he wouldn’t have had to break out anything fancy for any other player.

At the last second before I reached him I slowed for just a second and watched the kid’s hips. The eyes could be misleading and the feet could be tricky but there was no way for a guy to fake where he was moving his hips. The kid hadn't expected me to actually slow as I approached. He didn’t know I was testing him and not really attacking, confident enough in my speed to catch him again if the test failed. It didn’t. The kid did exactly what I would have done at that age and made his move. In the split second I gave myself I saw it and altered course to meet him. I stripped the ball from him and rushed down the field. I was going to score a goal to pound the message home.

I easily
deked my way around the remaining defenders. Sure, they slowed me down long enough for the kid to catch up again, but there was no way I was relinquishing the ball now that I had taken it. I broke out the fancy stuff, faking each way before nutmegging him. When he tried to get back in front of me I showed off by kicking the ball with my heel over my back and his head. I spun backwards, leapt into the air, turned sideways, and booted the ball as it came back down. I landed on the ground as the ball soared into the net

The players couldn’t contain themselves. They went wild. They might not have liked me but no one liked been outshone by a freshman for the past several weeks a lot less. There were cheers, exclamations of “Wow!” and “Dude that was sweet!” and Coach Hayworth was positively beaming.

I took a moment to savor the sounds of congratulation and then started to get up. The freshman kid stepped in front of me and offered his hand.

“Thanks kid,” I said, accepting his hand. The kid pulled me up.
“Hey, sorry about that. No hard feelings.”

“None at all,” the kid said, sounding surprisingly enthusiastic about just having his ass handed to him. “That was pretty cool. Do you maybe want to practice with me sometime? You clearly know what you’re doing and I’m always looking for someone who can make me better. My name’s Cooper, by the way. Cooper Kelley.”

Now I understood why the kid was so good. He didn’t look at a loss as a failure; he looked at it as an opportunity to improve. He had a good attitude – probably a lot better than the one I had as a freshman. His face was earnest and he seemed like the nice, clean cut, impressionable kid that a more experienced player would want to mentor. The name Cooper Kelley sounded a little familiar but I couldn’t immediately place it. “Sure,” I said. “No problem. Maybe we can find some time this weekend.”

“Cool, that’d be great, thanks,” Cooper said excitedly. “Anytime that works for you
works for me. I’ll make it work. I can give you my number after practice and just shoot me a text when you’re free.”

Coach Hayworth called practice not long after that and, after getting Cooper’s cell number, I didn’t waste any time hanging around the field. I knew the guys were not going to want to shoot the breeze with me considering what had happened with Noah and Bryson. There would be enough time for making friends later. For now, I had made an important first step in becoming a member of the team.

“Hey, wait up!” Bryson called. I watched in surprise as he jogged up and fell into step beside me.

“What do you want,” I asked suspiciously.

“I just wanted to tell you that…” Bryson began.

“Hey boys,” a female voice said. I looked past Bryson and saw an angel: Trinity London.

“What’s up?” Bryson asked gruffly. How could he even talk to such an incredible creature? Usually my mind was swirling with all sorts of one-liners and impure thoughts but right now the only thing I felt was awe. She was so beautiful and her face was so kind-looking that I struggled to breathe.

“Can you wait around another 10 minutes or so before heading home?” Trinity asked. “The girls want to take some pictures.” The question was for Bryson but Trinity’s eyes seemed to linger on me. Or was that just my imagination?

“Yeah, but hurry up,” Bryson said.

“You haven’t introduced me to your friend,” Trinity said, still looking at me. “Hi, I’m Trinity.”

She extended her hand and I took it eagerly. It was small, smooth, and soft. I opened my mouth to speak but my tongue didn’t seem to be working. Oh no! I started to panic.

“This is Nate Caldwell,” Bryson said in his same, abhorrently gruff voice. “Ok, see you later.”

“Do you play soccer with my brother?” Trinity asked quickly. Was she just being polite or was she genuinely interested in starting up a conversation with me despite her brother’s impatience? I knew I needed to say something – anything! I opened my mouth, still not sure what was going to come out.

And then someone slapped me right across the face.

“You told Noah that we hooked up?” Darcy demanded.

Where had she come from? I had been so entranced I didn’t even
noticed her approaching. I think my heart stopped beating.

“Well? Did you? Why would you do that?” Darcy said. I saw the confusion and disappointment in Trinity’s eyes. No!

I was trapped. If I said that I did or didn’t tell Noah, I’d be admitting to the sin in front of Trinity. If I denied any knowledge of it, I risked Darcy making an even bigger scene.

“Darcy, what are you doing here?” Noah said angrily as he walked up. Oh, this was just getting better and better.

“I came to see you,” Darcy said. She flipped her hair out of her eyes. “You won’t return my texts and I want to know why.”

Noah looked stunned. “Uh, well, you did cheat on me.”

Darcy was undeterred. “Well yeah, but I did that for you.”

Noah’s face screwed up in confusion. I was right there with him. We were all looking at Darcy in confusion now.

“I’m… I’m not sure I understand…” Noah said.

“You know what we were talking about doing,” Darcy said. When she saw the look of continued confusion on Noah’s face, she said, “For the first time.”

“Oh, yeah,” Noah said, his face suddenly growing bright red.

“I just wanted to get some practice first,” Darcy said, showing no shame at all.
“Obviously. That’s all Nate was. I wanted to surprise you. I love you.”

Noah looked stunned. I didn’t blame him.

Then, unexpectedly, Noah smiled. “I understand,” he said. “Of course. You are so smart!”

Seriously?

“I totally get it,” Noah said. “I love you too Darcy. Just, in the future, maybe you could give me a heads up before you do something like this?”

“I love you so much Noah! You’re my Justin
Bieber,” Darcy cried.

“And you’re my Selena Gomez,” Noah said.

“But… aren’t they broken up?” Trinity asked in confusion, unable to restrain herself.

“Yes, but Darcy thinks they were cute together,” Noah explained.

Darcy couldn’t wait a moment longer. She threw herself at Noah. They fell to the ground and started making out on the grass.

I looked at Trinity, Bryson, and all of the other soccer players that had by now caught up. They looked back at me with mixed horror and amusement. The only one I truly cared about was Trinity, however, and I couldn’t bear to wait around to give her a chance to denounce me. I picked up my bags and walked towards the parking lot as fast as I could.

It was dark out when my alarm clock rang. I hated getting up in the dark. I groaned and hit my alarm clock and thought about going back to sleep. David's promise to come to my house if I didn’t show up worried me, however. He seemed very determined and it might be a mistake to test him.

I rolled out of bed and reluctantly put on my runner gear. I grabbed my backpack and my duffel bag with my change of clothes and headed out to the car. When I got to the high school, David was already there. He was waiting by the entrance and he looked impatient.

I parked and walked up. "I still don't understand why I'm here," I complained.

"You're here because I told you to be here, and that shows you at least have some brains," David said. Then, without waiting another moment, he took off running.

I stared after him in annoyance, groaned, and then ran after him. David settled in at a high tempo that was not was not at all comfortable but was at least something I thought I could manage. At least, I hoped I could manage it. I was in pretty good shape myself. How hard could it be to keep up with one of these cross-country runners?

My mind wasn't fully functioning yet and David didn’t say anything at first so we ran on in silence. Finally, he said, "So what did you think when you first heard that my dad is, uh, your dad?"

"Not much of anything, really,” I said. “It's not like he's truly my dad. He's never been in my life and it's too late for him to be in it now."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," David said. "My dad might have his faults, infidelity apparently being one of them, but he is an ardent family man and he's got a lot of determination."

"Well, it's my decision," I said stubbornly. "No offense to you or your dad, but he sort of forfeited any right to make that decision for me by not being around. I'm not saying it's entirely his fault because it isn’t but he’s not completely blameless either. Any man who gets it on with a woman and doesn't bother to ask anything about birth control or, if he did, at least check in later find out whether she’s pregnant has to face the consequences."

"I get that, "he said. "Fair enough. You're your own man. So if you don't want a father, what is it that you do want?"

The question took me aback. "You mean what do I want family wise?
Or with life in general?"

"Start with life in general," David said. Then he suddenly turned and took off down a dirt trail through the woods. This guy truly had a knack for being infuriating. He was almost as bad as Aaron. Did big brothers have some sort of ingrained biological insight into how to annoy little brothers? I scrambled to change course and run after him.

"I don't know what I want in life," I said when I caught up to David. “I guess I just want to have a decent job where nobody's giving me a hard time." I smiled. "Oh, and a smokin’ hot wife, of course."

David shook his head.

"What? That’s not good enough for you?" I asked.

"There's nothing wrong with what you want in life, or at least what you claim to want in life," David said. "The trouble’s that I just don't believe you."

What was he talking about now? "What do you mean you don't believe me?" I asked. "That's what I want."

"Are you sure?" David asked.

Now he was just being difficult. "Yeah, pretty sure," I said. "What else is there?"

David laughed. "Everything," he said. "Look, I'm a wrestler. My goal this season is to go to state. After that, I want to wrestle in college. After that I'll figure out how good I can get. Who knows? If I can make it into a good college with a great coach maybe I’ll even have a shot at a national team or the Olympics. Those are goals that I have and I am damn sure going to be working towards them. Everything I do is designed to help me achieve those goals. Well, almost everything."

"Ha, sure," I said skeptically. I didn't buy militaristic focus crap for a second. Nobody spent every waking moment working towards one goal.

David look at me sideways and then, astonishingly, picked up the pace. "If you don't mind me saying so, you seem a little lost. Almost like you don't know what you want from life. You should give that some more thought. It’s hard to make progress towards a goal if you don’t know what that goal is.”

As annoying as David was, I suppose his advice made some sense. "What kind of goal do you think I should make?" I asked.

David shrugged. “How should I know?” he said. “That’s hard to figure out. I’m kind of young to be imparting that sort of wisdom. I listen to my dad’s advice and he’s always told me to go find something that I’m passionate about and pursue that. He’s encouraged me to focus on wrestling because he thinks I’ve got a pretty good shot at it and he sees some benefits in getting money for college and whatnot. If I didn’t have his advice, though, I’d be lost. It probably wouldn’t hurt for you to find some mentor like that who has some life experience to draw from and can give you advice.”

I knew that David was suggesting that I ask his dad for advice. I think David hoped that doing so would bring the all of us closer together like some cute little happy family. It wasn’t going to happen, though. Perhaps I needed some advice, but I certainly didn’t need to rely on a father who had been absent my whole life. He was hardly a paragon of virtue who had earned the right to be able to impart advice to me.

After that discussion, David focused mostly on trying to kill me. At times I could have sworn that he was running at a full sprint. And then he went faster. My lungs felt like they were on fire. By the time we got back to the school, I was wasted. I collapsed on the grass and panted.

“Ready for another lap?” David asked pleasantly.

“Go… to…
agh… hell,” I said, gasping between breaths.

“Wrong answer,” David said. He jumped into the air and fell down on top of me with his elbow extended like he was doing some sort of pro-wrestling move. He playfully began reigning light blows down on me and gave me a
noogie.

“Hey, cut it out,” I complained. I couldn’t help but smile as I said it.

David finally left to get changed. I headed back to my car to get my clothes. Despite the cool early morning air, the workout had left me very sweaty. I had taken off my shirt and wrapped it around my hand. The sun was just beginning to rise and a couple cars were pulling into the parking lot. I didn’t recognize any of the drivers but a sudden cat-call behind me caught my attention as I was opening my car’s front passenger door. I turned around instinctively to look for the source of the sound.

“Hey there,
hottie,” Morgan said. She walked up to me as confidently and sexily as if she were on a catwalk. She wore a little smirk on her face.

“
Nuh-uh, you stay away,” I said quickly, backing up against my car.

“Oh don’t be like that,” Morgan said. She stopped when she was inches away from me. She fingered the waistband of my shorts. “I saw you playing around with David. Is he one of your boy toys as well?”

I choked on that. “First of all, I don’t have… I’m not gay,” I said. “Secondly, David is my… never mind.”

“It sure looked like you batted for the other team when I saw you in the locker the other day,” Morgan said. She was running her index finger along the waistband of my shorts now. “Do you want to see the photo to help jog your memory?”

“No, I want you to delete it,” I said. Part of me was tempted to snatch her hand away. The other part… well, perhaps it was just a little turned on by how nice Morgan’s long, tan legs looked in that wonderfully tiny miniskirt she was wearing.

“Have you talked to Sammy about the picture?” Morgan asked. “He seems pretty nervous about it. He was practically begging me to delete it the other day, just like you are now.”

“What? Oh, I’m not begging,” I said. Damn Morgan and her wandering hand. It was so hard to focus with her doing that.

“I’m very glad to hear that,” she said. “So I guess that means you and Sam will be joining me for a little fun?”

“No way, I’m not aahhhh…”

“What’s wrong, Nathan? Cat got your tongue?” Morgan said with an evil gleam in her eye.
 No, a cat did not have my tongue, but Morgan was now fondling a very different part of my body. Morgan pressed her lips against my neck and gave me a soft kiss. Her hand was not alternating between clutching and rubbing the front of my shorts. Thoughts flitted into and out of my head but I couldn’t seem to focus on one long enough to grab it. Morgan put her lips next to my ear. “You still smell so good,” she said. “I’ve got a thing for hot, sweaty men. I can’t wait any longer.” Her hand tightened to drive the point home. “Tonight. My parents are going to be out. Show up with your friend Sam around 7:30 PM. If you’re not there at 7:31 PM I’ll send out the photo to everyone in the school. Oh, and why don’t you and Sam prepare a little show for me? We’ll start the night off with that. A little stripping, lap dancing, and then progressing from there… you get the idea. Two of the hottest boys in school all to myself. This is going to be epic.”

Morgan gave me one final squeeze and then kissed me full on the lips. Then she turned and left, leaving me with a confusing mess of whirling emotions.