“Are you serious?” I said loudly. On the back was a gold number 10 with PATTON in big block letters above it. Why had he put his own hoodie in my bag instead of mine? What kind of game was he playing?
Amy, who knew no privacy, must have heard me because she burst through my door. “Why do you never knock?” I shouted as I quickly hid his hoodie behind my back and dropped it back into my bag so she wouldn’t see it.
“I saw that!” she said with wide eyes and a tone of both surprise and accusation in her voice. “Did you steal Chris Patton’s hoodie! Holy shit, Allie, that is next level, what is your end game?”
Just then, the phone rang, and I froze. Amy stared at me and then walked across my room to answer it. She always loved to answer the phone first.
"Hello?"
“Hi, can I please speak to Allie?”
“That depends, who’s calling?” Amy said. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the phone.
“Hello?” I said, as I motioned dramatically for Amy to get out of my room, and then I shut and locked the door behind her. My Mom had a no-locked-doors policy, but right now, I didn’t care.
“Hey, Superstar.”
I cut in with anger before he could continue.
“Would you like to explain to me why your hoodie is currently on my bed instead of mine?”
“Well, to be fair, I didn’t say I’d leave yours, I just said I’d leave it in your bag. I kept my word. I did leave you a hoodie, didn’t I?” he said, as he laughed softly, clearly pleased with himself. “Plus, I guess it means you have to see me again,” he laughed again. Was he flirting with me?
“You think you’re really funny, don’t you?”
“I think I’m clever, yeah.”
“So where is mine?”
“I’m wearing it.”
I was silent until he spoke again.
“What? Don’t worry, I showered first,” he said. “Your hoodie smells so good. You can wear mine if you want to.”
“In your dreams,” I said, but I’ll admit the idea was tempting. I just didn’t know what it meant if I put it on. What was happening?
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, eager to get off the phone.
“Wait, no!” He cut in. “I have questions about French homework and was hoping you could help me?”
“Yeah, right.”
“You caught me. What kind of music do you like?”
“That’s random,” I replied, then went silent. Was he seriously going to go from stealing my hoodie to asking me about music?
“Is that Dave Matthews I hear? See? We have something in common already! Love that band,” he said. “Wear my hoodie tomorrow. Goodnight, Allie,” he said, and then hung up.
I set the phone back onto its cradle, sat back down on the bed, then picked up his hoodie, held it to my face, and inhaled. It smelled of strongly scented detergent, which my mom would never use. The green fabric was soft and thin, broken in from being worn so much, and I decided to try it on. What was the harm? As I dove my head through the body of the hoodie and pulled my arms through the sleeves, I took in what he had just said. Tomorrow wasn’t a weekend. He wanted me to wear his hoodie, with his name on the back, to school, in front of everyone. I just sat there for a minute, then I stood up and walked down the hall to Amy’s room.
“Amy?” I said, and the door flung open before I could knock.
“You’re wearing it?” She blurted out, as she grabbed me by the arm, pulled me into her room, and shut the door.
“He told me to. He also asked me to wear it to school tomorrow. What do you think that means? I’m not sure if I should, or if I even want to.”
“Allie, honestly? Two hours ago, you had never even noticed boys, and now the hottest guy in school is asking you to wear his soccer hoodie with his name on the back to school in front of everyone. Aren’t you worried that everyone is going to think you stole it from him? Come on, just give it back to him before this gets out of hand.” I couldn’t tell if she was more worried about me or about him.
