Betting on You

32

t h i r t y t w o

I turned my head when I heard the door to the community center open again, sighing when it was a few members of the team that exited but Luke was not among them.

I had found a bench a few feet from his car and had been sitting on it for the past half hour waiting for him. The coldness of the night seemed to have lessened but I accredited that to his jersey that I was snuggling into, not eager to have to give it back.

I was nervous. Whether it would ruin his good mood or not, I knew that I had to talk to him about the feelings I had been developing for him. I didn't want to continue this anymore because otherwise, I would be hurt. This wasn't supposed to happen; this was supposed to last for two weeks. And now, it had been almost three months -- when exactly would Luke Hemmings be 'out of my system'?

It was clear that he wouldn't be, and I should've been smart enough to know it from the start. Now, I was left with either getting hurt because I was in too deep or coming out of this relatively unscathed by telling him I had feelings for him. Then, it would be in his hands. He could either agree that we stop this or... or maybe he felt the same way. Maybe we could-

No. He wouldn't feel the same way. He was waiting for some other girl. Some girl who was his exception. And while I wanted nothing more than to be that girl, I had managed to get a few more details out of Stephanie before she left with the other cheerleaders to go to the victory party. Apparently, Luke had told her that this girl didn't go to our school, but to Evermore West, a high school west of where we lived and close to the beach that he and I used to always go to with Harmony when we were kids.

Oh, and her name was Claire.

Even now I felt my heart sink at the thought. I had been hoping that maybe he was making up this elusive girl to get out of formally dating Stephanie, but now that he had put a name to the figure and a school, I was having second thoughts. He wouldn't have gone through the trouble of naming a girl if she wasn't real; Girls these days, like Steph, could easily look into it to find out if she were real or not.

And, as expected, Steph confirmed that she was.

At the time, four or so years ago, Steph had found a girl from Evermore who she assumed Luke had been talking about, but Evermore had about fifteen Claire's, and none of them liked Stephanie, so she wasn't able to find out which specific Claire it was.

I turned my head at the sound of the door opening again, sighing once more when it wasn't Luke. It was dark out and I was thankful that the bench I was sitting on was directly under a street lamp. Directing my gaze towards the parking lot, I could see that there were barely any cars left in the lot. Everyone had gone off to the victory party that one of the players' was hosting and I now realized that Luke would probably want to attend it as well. He was the star tonight -- not only because of his amazing final shot that allowed for their victory but also because of his leadership. I was proud of him.

I snapped my head to the doors once more when they opened, snapping me from my thoughts. I rose a brow in surprise when I saw Harmony exiting, two other cheerleaders by her side. She seemed to not notice me at all as she sauntered off with the other two girls, laughing among themselves as they headed towards a car nearby, got in, and drove off in a matter of seconds. They were probably going to the party, like everyone else. This seemed to be quite the event, and I was suddenly wondering whether Luke really wants to just turn in for the night or go hang out with everyone.

The door opened for the fourth time and I couldn't help the smile that made its way to my lips at the blonde soccer captain that emerged. He was in black sweatpants and a dark blue zip-up, his soccer duffle bag hung off one shoulder.