Love Storm (53 page)

"Oh, god, shoot me now," Zack muttered, the action not slipping past him, wrapping me tighter in his embrace. "Don't cry. Please don't cry. You're going to break my heart if you do."

"Then don't say stuff like that!" I laughed into his shirt, half-hysterically.

He chuckled that low chuckle of his. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Everything," I moaned. "I'm so tired. I overslept this morning and had to run to school…and I have an essay due next period…" The way he was massaging my back was so comforting and soothing, I could have fallen asleep right then and there, standing up. "…and I forgot my tennis stuff at home…" I continued. "Mmm, that feels so good." Then I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"What?" I mumbled, assuming he had done it.

"What, what?" Zack said.

"You just tapped –" I started.

Someone cleared their throat. "Excuse me," an annoyed female voice interrupted.

"Huh?" Zack lifted his head to look at someone behind me, and I reluctantly took my face out of his wonderful smelling shirt to twist my neck around.

Ugh. It was Larissa Kretcher, one of the preppiest, most popular girls of the junior class. She was very pretty. Too bad she was such a bitchy snob.

"Excuse me," she repeated in that girly voice of hers, flipping her shiny, straight brown hair over her shoulder and placing her manicured hands on her hips. "
What
do you think you're doing?" She looked at me pointedly and tapped her foot, encased in its obviously spanking new Converse shoe. She was one of those preps that wore Converse shoes to look cool or whatever, not because they actually liked them.

What? She was talking to me? All I could do was stare at her. Who the hell approaches someone randomly and asks what they're doing?

"Well?" she demanded impatiently. "Who are you anyway?"

"Who are
you
?" I retorted, though I knew very well who she was.

Larissa Kretcher's glossed lips parted in a sneer. "My name's Larissa," she said snottily. "And you're hugging Zackary, which you obviously are not supposed to be doing. So get out of the way."

She sounded so absurd I laughed in her face. From the murderous look in her eyes, she didn't appreciate it. "
Larissa
," I said sweetly, making it a point to wrap my arms around Zack's neck, "You're a very rude girl. Didn't your mother ever teach you manners?"

She ignored me and pouted, changing tactics. "Zackary, who is this girl anyway?"

Zack, unlike Larissa and me, was
not
rude, and said politely, though rather restrainedly, "This is Winter."

"Winter?" Larissa laughed nastily. "
Winter?
That's your name? Like, the season?"

"I think it's a beautiful name," Zack said quietly, which shut her up.

"Zackary," she whined. "Why is she hugging you? She's such a bitch. You deserve
so
much better."

"Well this '
bitch
' is my friend," Zack replied coolly. He was mad, I could tell, because he was using
that
tone of voice.

Larissa glared at me. I smiled brightly at her.

"I'll see you later, baby?" Larissa cooed, resting a hand on Zack's arm. The effect wasn't too effective though because his arm was still around me.

He nodded shortly.

"I'll see you around,
Winter
," she said disdainfully, looking down her nose at me. I didn't even grace her with an answer. Larissa growled, spun on her heel, and left.

I sighed. "That was kind of fun," I admitted.

Zack started laughing really hard.

"Hey, take it easy," I grinned. "You can let go now, by the way."

"What if I like where I am right now?" he teased, though he loosened his arms around me. "You feel a little better now?"

I smiled at his concern. "Yeah," I whispered, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and looking down at my shoes. "Thank you. I feel a little better now. But my headache is still killing me. Zack?"

"Yeah."

"Larissa Kretcher?"

He grimaced. "She's not the worst."

"There's more?" I said disbelievingly.

He chuckled. "Yes," he replied.

"Well that sucks," I remarked.

He laughed again.

"Okay," I sighed. "I better go. I have to work on my essay for English in the computer lab. And I'm going to go see if I can find some headache medicine or something."

"Alright," Zack said. "You sure you're gonna be okay?" His golden eyes gazed at me, so full of anxiety.

I smiled, and he seemed to relax a bit. "Yeah," I reassured him. "Since when am I not okay?" I jested lightly.

He shrugged, nodding.

"Alright, see you later," I said, reluctant to go.

Zack smiled slightly. "Have fun with your essay."

I nodded and gave him a half-wave before departing with my floppy disk in hand.

Chapter 33: "True Love"

-Winter-

"What the hell is wrong with people these days? I mean seriously, is it
that
hard to answer the phone?"

"I dunno, Winter. Damn, what the ––
chill out
man! What's with the killer forehands today?"

"Ugh, sorry Becca, just trying to let out some steam."

"Kay, just try not to kill me, alright? Tomorrow's Wednesday, remember? We're playing matches. Oh, by the way, are you going to the dance?"

"Nah. Are you? With Nate?"

"I dunno. We haven't talked about it yet.
Crap!
Jesus, what a forehand you have. Nice shot!" She called from the other side of the court.

"Thanks," I sighed. Rebecca went to retrieve the ball, which I had hit hard, with tons of topspin, into her left corner. I tossed my racket into the air. It flipped over once and I caught it neatly.

"Hey, Win," she said. She had approached the net with ball and racket in hand. "Don't get too stressed, okay?" Rebecca was speaking at a normal volume, and because I was still at the baseline, I had to strain my ears to hear her. I didn't look at her as she talked, just listened and kept tossing my racket and catching it. Toss and catch, toss and catch. "Eva will turn around eventually. She probably just has some new development in her life that she's worried about. I don't know, maybe she got in a fight with Martin, or she's having trouble with a class or something. She'll come to you in a bit, when she realizes how distant she's being."

I knew Becca was doing her best to reassure me, and I appreciated that. It was a nice theory, but flawed in too many places – Eva couldn't have gotten into a fight with Martin. I saw Martin every day at school; he would have shown some sign if they were truly in an argument. And Eva never had trouble in school. But I said anyway, "Thanks Becks. I'm sure you're right – she'll come around soon."

"Good," Rebecca beamed. "Now let's play some points against Mariko and Rosie. Don't you think we should try out that new fake-poaching thing again? I really want to use it tomorrow in our match."

"Yeah," I muttered distractedly. "Let's try it."

Later, after practice, the team was lounging along the western fence. Everyone was giggling and joking, already hyped up in anticipation of tomorrow's match. Our good practice had boosted team morale. I sat alone with my back against the fence, taking sips of my orange flavored Gatorade. There was a wind blowing, and with the sun rapidly setting, it was becoming quite chilly. I rubbed my arms, feeling the slipperiness of my skin from the mixture of sunblock and dried sweat and grime. I hated that feeling. I wanted to go home and take a hot shower. I pulled off my court shoes and socks, slipped on a pair of flip flops, and gathered all my belongings into my duffel.

"See you guys tomorrow," I called over my shoulder at whoever was listening. Only Mariko and Rebecca graced me with answers.

I trudged slowly to my car, which I had picked up yesterday afternoon from the shop (glaring at it furiously for not being at home yesterday morning when I had needed it), deeply immersed in my thoughts. How could I get Eva and the rest of the Westleys to tell me what was going on? Was it really so hard to let me in on it? We never kept things from each other. I dropped my stuff off in the backseat and was about to get in, then decided to head for the track instead.

When I got there, I was surprised to see the cross country team. I had counted on there not being anyone out here. They usually trained out in the hills by the coast. I climbed to the top of the bleachers and watched the end of their practice – they were doing circuit training today. Five minutes later people started finishing up and doing their cool down, and ten minutes after that they were done. Zack and Gavin were easy to spot; it appeared that they had done their entire work out together in the fast group with Tyler Collins and Nathan. Right on cue, I saw Rebecca enter the track and jog towards Nathan, who seemed so genuinely happy to see her that it brought a smile to my face. How wonderful it must be, I mused, to be able to feel so happy just by seeing someone.

I brought my knees up and hugged my legs to my chest. It was even colder and windier up here at the top of the bleachers than it had been on the courts. I shivered and rested my forehead on my knees, closing my eyes and trying to make myself as compact as possible so I wouldn't be cold. And also maybe as small as possible so no one would see me, so no one would come and even think about braving the cold to talk to me, because I didn't really feel like talking to anyone at the moment.

Huh. I guess
some
people just don't give a damn about what you really feel like doing.

I felt a light tugging sensation on my hair and belatedly realized someone was pulling out the elastic. Automatically my head jerked up and my eyes snapped open, bringing a hand to my ponytail, but it was too late. My hair fell around me in waves and I combed it back with my fingers as I regarded my visitor.

"Gav, can I have my hair tie back please?" I said sweetly, still running my hands through my hair, and wincing – it always got all tangled after playing tennis.

"Nope," he said pleasantly. "You should leave your hair down more often."

I shrugged.

"How was practice?" he asked before I could command him to give the elastic back, stretching his legs out and jiggling one knee.

"Okay," I replied dully. "Yours?"

"It's always fun trying to beat Zack at circuits," he grinned. "Of course I never do, but that's alright. He doesn't like me, you know."

"What?" I exclaimed, stirred out of my stupor. "No way." This was news to me.

"Yes way. It never shows on his face but I can tell." Gavin gestured down the bleachers to where Zack was packing up his duffel. "Take now, for example. He was looking at me when I pulled this," he snapped the hair tie on his wrist, "out of your hair."

"Just because he was looking at you doesn't mean he hates you," I said, frowning. This guy had weird logic.

"Nah, you should've seen the
way
he was looking at me," Gavin said matter-of-factly. "Trust me. It's just intuition. Then again…" He trailed off, squinting his eyes at me.

"What?" I asked, giving him a weird look.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "You doing okay?" He moved closer, reaching toward me to smooth out my hair.

"Hmm? Yeah," I said, smiling quickly. "I'm fine." God, why did everyone keep asking?

"Are you sure?" he said skeptically, resting a hand on my cheek. It was uncomfortably warm.

"Yes, I'm sure," I said with more conviction, pulling away slightly. I was getting better at this lying thing. "Look, I gotta go." He withdrew his hand and we stood up in unison. "Can I have – thanks." He had dropped the hair tie in my open palm before I could even finish phrasing the question. "Well, see ya."

"Later," he said as I left. I could feel his eyes on me as I went along the top of the bleachers, dragging my fingers on the fence, then descending on the side so as to avoid having to encounter anyone else. I walked quickly to my car with one destination in mind, determined now. I took the freeway going north and took the Hampton exit.

xxxxx

"Jeez, what are
you
doing here?" Eva grumbled tiredly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and flannel, plaid pajama pants, barefoot. "I finally get some peace and quiet by sending everyone out of the house, and I get bothered again."

Oy vey. I could've rolled along just fine with something more along the lines of "Winter! (sheepish smile) Sorry about the other day," but at this point I guess I'd have to take what I could get. And anyway, I've had less enthusiastic comments than "Jeez, what are
you
doing here?" directed at me before, so no worries.