SEVEN

  The sun bathed them where they sat, on the bleachers watching the boys run around on the field tossing the football among themselves. Lacey closed her eyes, as did Fay. Lacey's elbows rested on the bench behind and above her with her legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle. It was gym class, but the coach was too busy with his boys to give the girls any attention. She heard a sigh from the girls below her. She opened one eye and glanced their way, then she looked to the field, seeing a group of boys take off their sports shirts and turning them inside out. Realising that was the reason for the sighs, she scoffed and shut her eyes again. "Tate is such a hottie." Stella said, a girl she knew quite well. "Look at him take off his shirt."

     "Yeah, and he plays so well. It's so cool he'll be captain next year." The girl beside Stella stated.

      "co-captain." Stella pointed out. "He doesn't do anything without Tom." The other girl nodded. "Tate'n'Tom, so much power those two. And so hot too."

      "Mm hmm. Did you see that fight last week? They looked soooo hot and in charge." Lacey opened her eyes and spotted the topic of their conversation, patting his team mates back.

    "Oh! Yeah. And Tate couldn't be any sweeter, sticking up for Tom like that. And Tom looked so cool when he stepped up. And then he just... just showed Harold who's in charge." The way the other girl spoke made Lacey feel like the talker was drooling. She nudged Fay who opened her eyes then she darted her head towards the droolers and squeezed her face before smiling, making Fay stifle a laugh. "Uhh! Tate Tate Tate Tate Tate. " the other girl shook her head while saying his name. "He doesn't even need a shirt. They both don't." Clearly she was imagining them shirtless.

     "And to think Tom is single now." Stella clicked her tongue, " Half the girls will be all over that pretty face and body. I'll be all over that face and body." Lacey looked at Fay and they both laughed silently. "Makes me wish for that Date Who's Hot day again."

     The other girl gasped and said tapping Stella's shoulder. "Awww yes." Like she was taking in a lot of air. Lacey turned to Fay with a questioning look on her face. Before Fay could speak Stella turned to them.

      "Lacey you missed it. They had like five boys from each class and of course Tate'n'Tom and Dennis were in." There was excitement in her voice, the other one nodding to everything Stella said. "And they both got like really high bids." She tucked her hair behind her ear and continued, "Tom went for like a thousand and Tate went for a twelve hundred or something."

     Lacey did her best to look excited about the tale. "Yeah but you won't believe this," the other girl continued... Lacey couldn't figure out her name, but she knew she knew her, it felt like the name was on the tip if her tongue. "Abby came late so she missed bidding on him." That could be the reason he thought she tried to cheat. Lacey thought. "So she bid on Tate instead. And then when she found out who bid on Tom, she made her life hell for like a week. What was her name again?" The nameless girl snapped her finger with her head up. Lacey looked at Tom with a smirk.

    "Misty." Fay answered.

"Yes!" Nameless girl continued, "she started calling her Mistress. Not the I'm your servant kind." Lacey nodded.

     "Apparently Abby went looking for them after she got Tate so she could switch but she couldn't find him." Stella spoke again. "So anyway, they got great bids but obviously, Christopher and Bradley got higher... way higher bids. Darin was even among them for his class but he didn't even show up." She shook her head.

     Lacey raised her eye brows sharply. Wondering who could have thought he would participate in such a thing. "Yeah" Nameless decided to take over, "and I heard some of the boys bet that he wouldn't show. Marshal got a lot of cash and Andrea was like she was going to bid on him, well she wasn't the only one but it caused quite the problem and the devil didn't even show up. He wasn't there but the thought of him actually being on stage caused chaos." Lacey laughed and shook her head, she had to tell him she was impressed, living up to his nickname. "You should have been there Lacey."

  "I suppose I missed a lot." She smiled and rubbed her arm.

     Lacey walked through the lunch bar with her head down, her destination being the table her four 'friends' were sitting. Very close to the table she raised her head, only to hear Abby tell some of her friends, "it's not a problem, I'll get him back." Abby noticed her, her eyes making very clear threats as she finished her statement, "I'll get Tom back." Lacey gulped with wide eyes and bent her head again. Regretting looking up. She was trying to stay low. She didn't do anything near what Misty had done, but it was clear she was Abby's next victim unless he got back with her. She took her seat and let out a deep sigh. What was the problem? Why couldn't she just be left alone?

     As the minutes passed by, she couldn't help the tempting desire to look over her shoulder. She knew which table Tate'n'Tom had made theirs and she happened to be backing it. While her friends talked and sipped their drinks her mind wondered to the conversation she had with him in his car. It had been pleasant, and she had to do her best to keep from smiling. If Abby knew she even talked to him she would be in trouble. She nodded when Anita spoke but had no idea what she had said. With her elbows resting on the table and her fingers intertwining she let her chin rest on her shoulder. It felt like the boarder between looking back and looking forward. She did this a few other times while also doing her best to look like she was paying attention to her friends. Once her mind was clear of the only conversation she'd had with him, she couldn't help ask herself why did she want to look his way? It couldn't possibly be because for the past few weeks he was always looking at her. But what he 'claimed' he wanted then was to talk to her. And they did that. With a deep sigh she lifted her head from her shoulder and smiled at her friends. "Oh! You guys Stella told Lacey about that Date Who's Hot thing." Fay felt the need to tell them. Jody gasped, and it began a whole new conversation that she had practically witnessed a few hours ago.

      Abby traced her hand across Tom's shoulders as she took a seat beside him, and scooted close till their bodies touched, then she crossed her legs and placed her hand on his arm. "Hi Tom" She said very close to his ear. "Are we still fighting?" She whined. Tom blinked slowly and looked at Tate. His best friend chuckled and draped his arm over his girlfriend's shoulder.

     "We aren't fighting Abby." He said through gritted teeth. It was all he could do, pulling away from her only made her move closer. Not immediately, but eventually. And he hated it.

     "Then why are you still so hostile?" He didn't answer and she didn't push. He looked ahead, his eyes going over the entire hall, until his eyes landed on Lacey, she had her head on her shoulder like she wanted to turn around, it was the third time she'd done it.     Determination filled his chest, he had to do it. Detention was boring but he had to do it. Because he said he would.

     Twenty minutes into his last class of the day, Tom sank into his seat. The idea he had come up with making him smirk. It was definitely a lot easier than looking for a fight. Slipping his hand into his pocket he took out his phone, typed in the password and began scrolling through the pictures he had on it. After what felt like ages of scrolling and no attention from his teacher, he sat up straight. And in less than a minute he heard the stern clear of his teacher's throat, he looked up and smiled, knowing exactly what would happen next.

     With hands folded behind her back, Lacey made her way into the huge library for the second time, hoping the book she needed for her project was where her teacher said it was. If she didn't see it the first time around, what were the chances she would see it now? She made a right turn like the man had instructed and stood in the middle of two shelves. She turned right again and counted six levels from the bottom and without having to try, the text book was right in front of her. She smiled to herself and pulled it out of its place. If she had voiced her complain about not finding it the first time she would feel a whole lot more silly than she did now. The rushed and loud stomping of feet made her stop in her track. It stopped before she had a chance to look up from the book in her hand. "Where have you been?" Was the question that came after a deep sigh. I've been looking everywhere for you."

     She stood stunned by Tom who looked concerned. "I was in the biology lab." She spoke slowly, trying to hide the growing amusement in her voice.

     "Yeah? And I was waiting for you in Mr. Eddington's classroom." His eye brows creased.

     "Uhh... Ok. What are you doing here? Why were you waiting for me?" She asked while looking around to make sure no one was inside.

He scoffed in disbelief and shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "We had a nice conversation on Saturday, I said I would get detention again if I had to since you don't want to talk to me during normal school hours." He rubbed his forehead. Somehow his nice gesture was beginning to look stupid. Especially since she was looking everywhere else.

      "Really? I thought you were joking." She smiled, her eyes settling on him once she was sure there was no one there. She couldn't be more grateful for the fact that no one has seen her talking to him.

    "I wasn't." He stated. "Coach said I needed to slow down with this detention thing." And thanks to Tate taking the fight with Harold off school grounds, he didn't have to face another month of Saturday detentions.

     "You didn't need to." She shook her head and started to walk pass him.

     "I want us to talk?" He proceeded to follow her.

"You've said that before." She pointed out. "And talk about what? You already know my secrets. Or is it some kind of trick to ma-"

      "Hey!" He grabbed her arm, stopping her from walking out the library or continuing what she was saying. Where her mind was going he would never know. "There's nothing to it. Okay? When you're not upset I like listening to you talk. And smile and for some reason. It takes my mind off of... things." He looked down. It was the truth. She didn't look at him like a wounded animal. Because she wasn't around when it happened. But then again neither did her brother. It must be genetic. He dared to look up, and saw the doubt in her eyes. "I'm not looking for sympathy. I already played that card so now I'm just asking straight out like I did before. Let me take you home Lacey. Please."

      She looked down at his hand still gripping hers. "Okay." She heard herself say. The thought that he would leave her alone after this was comforting. After all his coach had told him to slow down with his attendance in detention.

      The ride was silent and uncomfortable. Lacey did her best to answer his questions and smile when she thought she needed to. If he was telling the truth or not about her presence making him forget, knowing that it could be true made everything all the more uncomfortable. Unable to stand the menacing silence, she decided to try something. As sharply as she could she pulled the band and her scrunchie from her hair. The full locks fell perfectly into place once it was free and the cool air sipped into it. Seconds passed with her enjoying the freedom from the daily ponytail before she remembered the reason it was always kept that way. With wide eyes and as sharply as she could, she had it up again, not as neatly as before but it was there.

     He looked her way for the fourth time since she let her hair down. Seeing it made it hard for him to tear his eyes away from her. Seeing it pulled up again in less than the amount of time it took for him to look at the road and turn to her felt like a very nice birthday gift was ripped from his arms. "Oh! No! What? Let it down, why did you do that?" He caught her smile. "I was beginning to think you were cool around me. Plus you've got great hair."

      She pushed her lips to the side to hide her smile. She didn't have to speak, in less than five minutes she would be home, he would be gone and Becket would pick her up. She looked back to make sure the motorcycle was still behind them, when she saw it she turned back, content. "Come on, let your hair down Lacey, you already let it down before." Her breathing hitched at the way he said her name. "Are you really going to ignore me?"

      She nodded once. He didn't expect that. "You wanted to take me home and you did. Don't ask for anything else." He didn't expect that either. He blinked rapidly, and stayed quiet. Once the car came to a stop, she gathered her books and gripped the side of her skirt. Finally it was over, he would leave her alone. Somehow she didn't want that. But the fact was it had to be done. No matter what.

      Once her hand touched the door handle he called her name the way she liked, she turned to him, startled by the way his body was turned towards her and his arm was resting on the steering wheel. "Would you be my girlfriend?"

     She let the words sink in. "I can't."

He didn't expect that either.