Part 19 (1/2)

”Good girl. I knew you were too smart for that.” He smacked his ever-present clipboard against his thigh. ”We can't lose a season because a boy can't let go of his pride. Tomorrow, after practice, I'd appreciate it if you made that very clear to Kent. I'm going to need this to end.”

What? What could I explain to Chris?

”To Chris, sir?”

”Whalen, you need to explain to that boy he should stick to flirting with his own girlfriend and leave Parker's alone.”

Oh. Uh-oh.

”I'm not Parker's girlfriend, sir.”

I had no idea what I was, but I knew I wasn't that. Was there a Lost And Confused status I could give Coach? How about Hopeful But Unsure of Reception?

He gazed at me a long moment, studying me with the intensity I'd only seen him focus on the team statistics.

”Whalen.” The word was more of a sigh than my name. ”You need to figure out what you're doing then and do it. This half-a.s.s stuff isn't going to work, and I won't have my team distracted and divided. If you can't take care of this, I'll have to.”

He smacked the clipboard two more times and said, ”Are we clear?”

”Yes, sir. Clear.”

He hulked up and made his way to the school, probably to ensure there still was a locker room. I watched until he disappeared at the top of the hill and gathered my stuff together to escape to Rachel's awaiting car.

The lights on the field flickered out and faded to darkness as I made my way up the steps. Figures. No real surprise that I'd be visible for all of three minutes and not when I actually needed lights. I stood there in the dark, re-embracing my invisibility for a moment.

I was so done. Done with all of it. Luke Parker just humiliated me in front of the entire school before cla.s.ses had even started. I have no idea how one minute you can feel so sure, so excited about something-about someone-and then the next you just want to be left alone for the next sixty years.

I had enough problems with the only guy in my life. My dad.

Yeah. And so I was done with both of them. Boys who played soccer were officially banned from Amy-land.

Stomachs that flipped over. Hearts that stopped. No more!

Unfortunately, I was almost to Rachel's car when I heard the steps speeding up behind me.

”Hey! Amy!”

Not what I needed. I considered pretending not to hear him, but with the speed Luke was gaining on me, he'd overtake me before I got to Rachel's Honda anyway.

”Amy, listen.”

I spun around, finally having an outlet for my anger and humiliation.

”How could you, Luke? Seriously. You attacked your own team member. Your captain. You started a fight to rival... Gah! I don't even know what it could rival it was so big. And you haven't even attended a single cla.s.s yet.” I glanced back to where I was pretty sure Rachel was reaching across the pa.s.senger's seat to roll down the window on our side of her absurdly old car. ”Can't you just let it go, leave him alone? A little effort to get along with him would go a long way. You don't get to just blow up like that for no reason.”

Luke stared at me. Hard. When I finally gave up on him answering me, I moved to step off the curb, to hop into Rachel's car and hopefully back to the house. I had a desperate plan to drown myself in Chunky Monkey while she chitchatted about flirting with a cop that was way too old for her-and not her boyfriend.

As I stepped down, a firm grip fastened around my arm and spun me back toward Luke. Off balance, I stuck my hand out, bracing against his chest. Before I could jerk away, Luke was leaning down, growling in a low, intense voice I'd never heard come out of him before.

”No. No, we won't ever get along. I know it. He knows it. And you need to know it. I want the ”C” on his s.h.i.+rt, his spot on the team, and the girlfriend he's too proud to recognize in public. But know this, Amy.” He came even closer, his nose actually brus.h.i.+ng mine. ”Only the last one matters.”

He released me so abruptly I stumbled a little, b.u.mping into the car behind me. Before I could reply, he was gone, the oversized rectangular taillights of his Chevy disappearing at a speed that made me worry about his safety.

Sinking into the pa.s.senger's seat, I turned to Rachel. ”Did you get all that or do you need a play by play?”

Rachel shook her head, her gaze focused on the road. ”That was by far the most romantic thing I've ever heard.”

A dull throb grew in my head as I contemplated her words. ”Seriously. You're insane. Can we go before Chris comes out and demands something too?”

One of my double-booked conversations was enough for tonight.

Leave it to Luke to knock down the brand new walls around Amy-land, before I had a chance to do all that decision-solidifying stuff I'd planned on. Never in my life had I been so confused. Did I have a boyfriend? Did I even want one if guys were basically crazy? And, if I wanted one, how the heck do you choose between the guy you've loved since elementary school and the guy who just can't stop knocking down the wall around your heart?

I was confused. But more than that, I was tired of being confused.

We drove to my house in silence, the trees casting the almost-full moon's shadow through the sunroof. Rachel didn't ask when we stopped in front of my house, just turned the car off and followed me into the Haven.

It was the first time girl's night was to accommodate my angst, and wouldn't you know? It started to rain. Again.

Chapter 23.

The rain pounded against my window in a heavy, distracting drumming. Dad must have left even earlier than normal, probably as soon as the storm woke him. Or it was just another desperate attempt to avoid me. I hadn't gotten a run in for a couple days, and the amount of water falling from the sky annoyed me.

Typically I loved to run in the rain, especially in the summer heat. The smell of water spitting off the overheated pavement always pushed me farther. But this, this was a blinding curtain of water not even I would go out in.

I switched on the TV and flipped to the local channel, hoping for a break in the clouds.

Not good. Actually, worse than not good.

Storm advisories ran across the bottom of the screen. In the top corner, a map with my house pretty much sitting in the middle, showed a flood warning. And the news continued to get worse.

The call for evacuation was immediate and urgent.

Hopefully, I could wait until my dad got home to form a plan. In the meantime, I kept sneaking peeks out the window to see how much the river had risen. By afternoon, the water sloshed over the banks and engulfed the trees lining the drive.

As little wavelets inched closer, I realized there was more than a good chance the house might get flooded-like good as in primetime-TV-will-have-a-new-reality-show-in-the-fall good chance.

The living room, the one place in the house that hadn't changed in the last six years, was a comfortable shrine to family. My family. My mother's trinkets and memories dotted the room giving it the cozy feeling I longed to hold onto. Each piece of furniture had been hand picked at flea markets and antique sales. The only reason this cottage was more than a cute house was because of the home she had made it.

Starting with the lighter things, I began carrying furniture, knick-knacks and keepsakes upstairs to the spare bedroom. Each trip down, I glanced out the window, eyeing the rising water.

When everything I could easily lift had been moved, I started on my studio in the back room. The paintings and works-in-progress went first, followed by my easel, sketches, and paints. After that, I remembered the den. I grabbed Dad's work papers and the lock box and put that all on his bed.

At the front door, I s.h.i.+vered from the rush of raw air and water streaming toward me. In the background, Channel 5 reported the dam upstream was being strained and that evacuation was upgraded to ”mandatory”.

How could my dad not be home yet? I tried his voicemail again, but the phone kept doing that annoying doo-doo-doo thing and telling me all circuits were busy and to try again later.