Chasing Charming ✔️

11 - My House?

After pulling on a pair of old Adidas shorts and a school gym, I walked to the bleachers and sat next to two girls, Vanessa and Claire.

"Hey, guys!" I said cheerily.

I felt a lot better now than I had earlier.

It helped that Vanessa and Claire were both lovely, and I guess they had not been at the party on Friday, or they just didn't care, because they didn't bring up my botched haircut.

"Alright, ladies and gents! The first half of the class will be fitness, then small games of soccer. So go pick a machine!" belted the gym coach. He seemed like a nice guy if a little bit short-tempered. But aren't all gym teachers kind of like that?

"Why is he always so red? Maybe he needs to stop screaming. I should suggest yoga again," said Claire as we walked over to the exercise bikes.

Vanessa giggled, "As if that would go over well!" She turned to me, "In freshman year, Claire suggested yoga and the administrators liked it so much they made Coach Jeffers try it. Let's just say it didn't go well."

I laughed, "what happened?"

"He tried to do the first pose and ended up dislocating his shoulder. He was fine; apparently, it happened because of an old sports injury, but it sure freaked out the whole class of freshmen." Said Vanessa.

"He made me promise to keep my suggestions to myself from now on," laughed Claire. "I never have, but I've left him alone because I don't think he has forgiven me."

Coach Jeffers walks into the room, and we stifle our laughs. We continued to joke throughout the first half of the class. I don't think we were working very hard on the exercise bikes, but that didn't bother me.

"So I heard you've been hanging out with Eli and his friends," said Vanessa. It was less of a question and more of a statement. My mind flashed back to the last girls who wanted to know if I was hanging out with Eli, and I got a bit nervous.

"Oh um," I said, smiling nervously. I guess Claire kind of saved me because she stepped into the conversation.

"Damn, I want to hang out with Eli. He's sexy," she said, licking her lips.

"And dangerous, he gets into a lot of fights. I mean, I heard it's all because his mom died. But Eli's always been a bit of a jerk." interjected Vanessa.

"Yeah, you're right. Remember when he dated Heather, and he ended up dumping her by leaving her alone at the beach? Something about how he was in a gang, and she found out."

Vanessa nodded as if she knew the story well.

I wanted to defend him, but I kept my mouth shut. They may not have known any better, and it wasn't my place to say anything. Eli wanted people to think of him like this.

Vanessa looked at my grimace and faltered, "He's still charming, though, I hope you get some of that."

I blushed. Dear god. I mean, I guess I wanted that too, but it seemed crude coming out of Vanessa's mouth, especially since she did not seem to like him very much.

Coach Jeffers called us all back over to the bleachers, and we sat there, waiting for instruction. We were going to go to the field to play the mini-games of soccer, which he had already set up for us. That would be nice; I think I needed a little bit of fresh air.

"Okay, get into groups of four, you're going to play mini-games of two on two."

We hopped off the bleachers and started down towards the fields. I walked near Vanessa and Claire, hoping I could be in their group, but before I could ask, I felt myself being lifted off the ground, which emitted a squeal from my lips.