Omega: the Sequel

Chapter Nine

My mind wandered back to the past few weeks, dwelling on Pierre’s words as he left. The thought made me clench my jaw; I firmly pushed it away. Clearly, we were over and done with. Had it ever been anything in the first place? And now Joel was in the picture…could this get any crazier? I was afraid to know the answer.

When we arrived at the gym, he hopped out immediately, swinging his duffel bag over his shoulders. He had a sweatshirt and pants on over his uniform, courtesy of his aunt, and he was nearly jumping up and down as he waited for us to get out as well and follow him inside. After directing us to the ticket stand and informing us that, yes, we did have to buy some, he disappeared in the direction of the locker rooms with a huge grin. I gave Josh a panicked look and he laughed.

“Come on, let’s get these tickets.”

He moved off in the direction of the ticket table as I stood in the hall, looking around me. What was it like to go to high school? Would I be going to this game with a different boy, someone I was dating? Pierre? – but that was ridiculous. I would never have even met Pierre if it wasn’t for Delta. And now he was gone anyway.

Josh gave me a beckoning look from the ticket line, and I shook myself out of my thoughts, joining him. He slung his arm around my shoulder, tucking my hair behind my ears and grinning at me. I gave him the strangest look I could muster and he started cracking up, covering his mouth with his free hand.

“Just wanted to see your reaction,” he managed to say. “It was worth it. You sure we can’t pretend to be dating? It would be so entertaining.”

I shrugged his arm off of me, stepping away. “Enough, buster. Calm your hormones.”

He laughed again as he pulled his wallet out of the drawstring bag he had thrown over his shoulder. Flipping a ten to the bored-looking high school kid, he grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the gym doors. I couldn’t help but laugh as I tugged mine out of his, punching his shoulder.

“Dork,” I muttered, and he grinned again.

We stepped into the gym, immediately blasted by a wave of heat and sweat and excited voices. Some girls’ team was playing on the court, their ponytails bouncing as they sped up and down the court. The bleachers were already packed for their game, but many people looked like they would be sticking around for quite a while. I glanced at my watch; only 9:15.

“Come on,” he said after a moment of us scanning the gym. We glanced at each other, both realizing that we had been doing this unconsciously, and he shook his head with a despairing look. “Would it kill us to be normal for once?”

I sighed, glancing towards the boys’ locker room. Their team was emerging, laughing and shoving each other around. Joel was at least four inches shorter than all of them and yet this was varsity; he had to be pretty good, then. He was jumping up and down excitedly, the others boys pushing him playfully against the padded walls and ruffling his hair with those older-brother looks that were becoming painfully familiar.

His face lit up as he saw us. He said something quickly to his team and then jogged over to where we were standing with a massive grin on his face. “You got in!” he cried, like we hadn’t driven him there and been directed by him to the ticket booth. “I can’t wait to start – this is such a great crowd!” He pushed his blonde hair out of his face so that it stuck up wildly, his blue eyes huge.