I sighed and reached for the volume nob on the stereo. Led Zeppelin was in the tape deck halfway through playing Misty Mountain Hop. It was a song that I tended to listen to when I was angry. I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes, and bobbed my head to the music. When the song was over, I opened my eyes and looked at Chris. He was just looking at me, wide-eyed with a silly smile on his face.
“Feel better?” he asked with a laugh.
“I guess. Let’s go.”
We got out of the car, and I opened the back door to grab my backpack. Chris walked around the back of the car to meet me as I shut the door, then he spun me around and leaned me up against the door with one hand on my lower back and the other on my car. I quickly looked around the parking lot as he leaned in close.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Everyone can see us,” I said with a sudden feeling of embarrassment.
“So?” he replied. “I don’t care what anyone thinks, and you shouldn’t either.” Then he leaned in and kissed me like there was no one in the parking lot but us. “Mmm,” he hummed with pleasure, then he pulled away and reached down to grab my hand. “Come on, slowpoke.”
I lightly shook my head in disbelief, and he tugged me playfully to follow.
As we walked down the sidewalk, I was self-conscious of what others were thinking when they saw us hand in hand, and I kept glancing at Chris to gauge him, but he seemed cool as a cucumber. I wish I were like that. I had never been comfortable in my own skin.
“Patton!” I heard someone yell from behind us, and Chris spun around.
“What’s up, Miller?” he replied, and he bumped fists with the hand that wasn’t holding mine.
Miller looked down at our hand, made a wide-eyed face, and looked back at Chris without saying anything.
“Nothing, man, just saying ‘hey.’ How’s it going? Big game tomorrow, right?” he asked.
“Yep, St. Mark’s. Come on out,” Chris replied.
“Will do. Have a good one,” Miller said, then he continued down the sidewalk.
When we made it to the locker hall, Chris let go of my hand, grabbed the door, and held it for me as I walked under his arm and entered the building. There were already lots of people inside.
“Thanks,” I said, at the kind gesture.
“No prob,” he replied, as he followed me through the door and to my locker.
“Don’t you need to go get your stuff for the day?” I asked.
“Nah, I already have everything I need in my backpack from yesterday,” he laughed.
I wondered what it was like to be so organized. As I looked around the hall to see who was looking in my direction, I saw my sister and Brooke at the other end, watching me carefully.
“Great,” I said, but he didn’t hear me.
I opened my locker and unzipped my backpack, and I could see him looking in the bottom of my bag when I realized what he was looking at. His hoodie.
“Oh. Yeah,” I said, but I otherwise ignored it, looked back at my locker, grabbed my books, and shoved them in my bag. “Ok, I’ll see you later,” I said as I tried to close my locker door, but he held it firmly open. Playfully, I reached up and touched his bicep with my fingertips.
“Are you going to let me shut my locker?” I asked as I tilted my head, and a lock of hair fell into my eyes.
He reached a hand up to move the hair out of my eyes, but didn’t move his other hand from the top of my locker.
“I guess, but it’s going to cost you,” he said with a smirk.
“I know what you want,” I said, and without skipping a beat, I raised up on my tiptoes, kissed him quickly, and then lowered my heels back to the floor.
With a look of surprise, he smiled, pushed the locker shut, and turned to head to his first class. I watched as he walked away, and this time, before he opened the door, he turned back around and smiled. When I turned around to walk down the hall, Amy and Brooke were still watching with dropped jaws, and anger washed all over them.
The entire morning dragged by, and my mind took turns thinking about Chris and thinking about that afternoon’s big game against St. Margaret’s. I went over the plays in my head and revisited everything I knew about their strengths and weaknesses. When the lunch bell rang, I grabbed a piece of chalk from the chalk tray before heading out of the room and making my way to my locker. I was pleasantly surprised to see Chris waiting for me with his back against the wall.
“Hey, Superstar, ready for lunch?”
