GAGE
I shut my front door and walked down my cement steps that led to the driveway. I hopped into my truck, starting it up while cringing. He's a bit dirty from the front, I should've taken him in for a car wash. I got my car when I turned sixteen, and I named him Kobe Bryant. He's my favorite basketball player, so it seemed like the logical thing to do. I pulled into the driveway next door, hopping out and ringing the doorbell. I didn't bother calling Belle, considering her mom is a morning freak. She wakes up at like six, everyday. So I knew the whole house was awake, unlike my parents who were still sleeping quietly in their bed.
Belle's mom opened the door for me.
"Good morning Gager! First day of your last year of high school. Oh my God, where is my phone? I need my annual picture!" She ushered off somewhere in the house, and I chuckled.
"Good morning Auntie Julie." I shouted as she went up the stairs frantically.
Blair sat in her favorite chair at the kitchen island and ate oatmeal. I kissed her head and took a seat next to her, grabbing a banana for a quick bite. My stomach grumbled, but I didn't know if that was because I was hungry or nervous.
I had been ignoring Belle all week. I hadn't seen her once. And then when we had that movie night, I forgot everything. I had been on the phone with Dylan for two hours, and I didn't remember to pick up the bag that was filled with snacks, movies, and games. Oops. It had kind of contributed to my plan of being a colossal dickhead, though. She was clearly hurt last night, and I would've sprinted to my house if she wanted me to. That was the problem, I would do absolutely anything for her.
Dylan has been helping with that a lot. I never realized that I barely have friends. Like, actual friends. Not teammates, or people who say hi to me in the hallways. Friends. Dylan was one of them. We hung out almost every day this past week. On Tuesday, I showed her around Boston, and even took her to my favorite frozen yogurt place. On Wednesday, we met up at the dog park and walked around for like two hours, just talking and getting to know each other better. Even Bailey and Charlie, her German Shepard, were being friendly with each other. On Thursday, we hung out at her house, and I met all of her little brothers. All four of them had the same fiery orange hair color as she did. It was her father who was the ginger, apparently. Her mother cursed him everyday because their kids looked just like him and nothing like her. After I met her family, she took me to this soup kitchen. She had found it online, and she needed to fill her community service hours up. It was a good thing I needed to as well, because we spent that afternoon serving food to homeless people.
Over the weekend, I made her come to Fridays closed practice. Coach didn't mind that I snuck her in, even though it was technically against the rules, but that was probably because I was captain. Plus he adored me. If I told him to change his entire starting lineup, give everyone new positions and divorce his wife, he wouldn't even question me. Okay, maybe on the wife part. But we had a really good relationship. Anyways, Dylan had sat on the bleachers. We were only conditioning for that practice, which I probably should've asked about before I brought her in. But, at the end, I convinced coach to let us run a quick scrimmage.
My team, skins, had won by six. And let me tell you, it felt really fucking good to have a hot girl running towards my arms at the end of the game. She didn't mind that I was sweaty, and just jumped on me. I hugged her back and spun her around a little. I really wanted to have sex with her. She was so nice and hot and just awesome. Like she was actually great company.
"You did so good! I like that part when you tricked the guy into thinking you were going left, and you did, for a second! But then, as he went to get the ball from you, you turned to go right and you went to the net! That was so cool!" She shouted happily. I couldn't stop thinking about her moaning my name in that damn southern accent.
"Thanks, that's called a crossover." I told her grinning, taking a quick sip of water as my teammates huddled up. "I'll take you to a basketball game one day and teach you all the terminology" I winked down at her, swallowing more water. She smiled and nodded.
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"I'm gonna take a quick shower in the locker room, okay? Then we can go out." I reassured her. She nodded and sat back on the bleachers.
In the locker room, I had gotten terrorized.
"Dempsey's got a girlfriend!"
"Who wouldve thought?"
"And she's a leprechaun!"
"Does this mean Belle is available?"
I laughed at all of my teammates, not confirming nor denying the questions being thrown at me.
Once I got out of the shower, Miles approached me. He cleared his throat.
"So, Belle is single, then?" He had asked me.
"No. Not to you." I grimaced.
"I see." He scoffed, then smirked. Clearly he wasn't over this. I tried my hardest not to think of him, of him and Belle, and had dinner with Dylan at some fancy place she had yelped in the town over.
Saturday, we hung out at her house. And she told me about her old boyfriend back home. Since I kissed her last night while dropping her off, she felt the need to tell me this. She was still in love with him. She wasn't ready to get into a new relationship. I understood her. I couldn't even be mad, because every single time we hung out, Belle was always in the back of mind. I just refused to think about her. Dylan reassured me that she is getting over him, and that apparently I've been a great big help in that process.
I told her about Belle. Not about how I like her, but about how she was a big part of my life and it was important that if one day we ever were to get into a relationship, I'd want them to be friends. She told me she would be delighted to meet her. That's when I told her about our ride situation and offered to give her one. She's on the way anyways. She agreed, especially since her old car was still in Tennessee. Her brother was supposed to drive it up here next month.
On Sunday, I had skipped brunch. I went to the beach with guess who...Dylan. I meant it when I said that girl was terrific company. We had spent the entire day there, since it was one of the last nice days before summer was over. A lot of people were there too, and I started to get nervous. I just know people were talking about me and this mystery girl hanging out. Probably posting about it on social media. Good thing Belle barely uses her phone.
"Morning, Gage." Belle said. I turned to the stairs as she walked down in a pair of blue jeans that fit her perfectly. They were snug on her waist, and flared out at the bottom. Her top was a tight, white, long sleeve that showed a bit too much cleavage for my liking. Actually, I loved it. I just knew I wasn't going to love it as much when I caught every guy staring down her chest. She took a seat on the couch and started to put her white Doc Marten boots on. I followed her there, taking a seat in the couch across. She had on a bunch of jewelry too, now that I noticed. Earrings, bracelets, the whole shebang. She wore the necklace I got her for her sixteenth birthday. I smiled.
"Good morning Belley. You look nice. Ready for the first day of senior year?" I wiggled my eyebrows. She smiled and looked up at me with those gorgeous, huge eyes and nodded shyly.
"I'm nervous. But excited. I have like, three classes with Didi and two with Santi and one with Miles. Oh darn! We never compared schedules. Here, see if we have any classes." She handed me a white paper, and her breasts were practically staring at me. I gulped and skimmed her schedule.
"We have gym, art and lunch together. That's pretty good. Better than last year." I said. Last year, I didn't have a single class, or lunch, with Belle. It had sucked.
"That's great." She smiled and stood, going to the kitchen to get her water bottle. I followed her over there and sat in my spot. I started to terrorize Blair.
"I got it! We gotta hurry, cause it was dead, and now it has six percent. Picture time!" Belle's mom screamed. Belle looked at me and rolled her eyes dramatically. I shrugged, as if to tell her what could you do about it, and headed to the front porch. Every year, we took pictures here.
Belle and I got into the spots we always took pictures in, with her on the left and me on the right. We wrapped our arms around each other, bringing our faces in together. We had taken a picture like this on the first day of preschool, and her mother had made it seem like we would die if we didn't take a new one every year. It's why I was late to the first day of middle school. I guess I should thank her though, these pictures were probably going to look great in our wedding slideshow.
