Friendship on Fire (39 page)

‘Aw geez Daisy I really don't know how to answer your question,' James said uncomfortably. He couldn't look me in the eyes and shifted on his feet.

‘What's so hard about it? You either know or you don't know,' I demanded impatiently.

He nodded. ‘Yeah I get that. But Roman's my friend. I should be loyal to him and not tell anyone things he's told me in confidence.'

My patience at said loyalty was waning. ‘James, let me break it down for you. This is our friendship here. I can't access him to talk to him. I miss him and I want to apologise.'

‘Don't you think if you can't find him, he doesn't want to be found? Isn't that telling you something loud and clear?' James asked frankly.

His words hurt, but I wasn't going to give up. ‘He might want to hear what I have to say.'

‘He's been busy lately. His life has changed a lot since …' he stopped, debating with himself about continuing. ‘That's all I'm going to say. Sorry.'

‘Please James. Can you tell me anything else? I don't want to beg you, but it's important.'

He avoided my pleading puppy dog eyes. ‘No. I've already said too much.'

‘Can you tell him I miss him then?'

‘Sure. I can't guarantee he'll contact you, though. Seeya Daisy.'

‘Bye.' I turned to go.

‘Oh hey. Before I forget. I know you've been hanging out with Shana heaps lately,' he looked sheepish asking, considering he'd just shut down my request. ‘Do you know how she feels about me? Do you think I'd be in with a chance to ask her out, or am I wasting my time?'

I debated within myself if I should spill to him or not. He should be finding out for himself, like he was expecting me to do. But what's the point of increasing misery? It wouldn't hurt to point him in the right direction.

‘Ask her. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't turn you down,' I said sadly and walked away from the person whose love life was just about to begin.

My heart broke. My supposed best friend didn't want to talk to me anymore. How had his life changed so dramatically in three months?

uys. There's no room for losers on my team,' Corby said with unnecessary seriousness. I rolled my eyes and tried to make eye contact with Nate. I knew he'd be in the starting line up; he was usually most valuable player along with Treston. I had been practising my kick and strengthening my ankles with Nate the last few weeks, but what if Corby didn't give me a run in this final? I'd quit playing on his team, that's what would happen.

After the kick off, I sat on the bench sulking. Cherice was on in my place, ‘for now' apparently. Whatever. Treston had ruffled my hair before running on, telling me not to worry and to cheer for my favourite men instead. Do I look like a cheerleader?

The enemy had beaten us once before, but we'd beaten them once too. It was hard to predict who would win. Nate made a joke on the way to the game, saying he would shag me if we won today. I had laughed nervously, unsure how to take his statement.

Two figures approached slowly to my left. I wondered when they both would cotton on to what I'd done. I'd called James and said Shana would be at the game and wanted to see him. I'd also done the same to Shana. Meeting in the car park saved me time; they would be consumed by each other now. Maybe they wouldn't notice if I made a fool of myself and my team lost, either.

At half time we were two goals down. We had some good runs but couldn't get our teamwork together in order to construct a proper play. Corby was getting frustrated; I could tell by the way he was tearing his hair at the sides of his head. He was starting to look more and more like Wolverine.

‘Warm up, Brooks. You're on second half,' Corby shouted at me. Quick as a flash I strapped my shin pads back on and pulled my socks above them.

Nate came over to me for support. He was dripping sweat and smeared his face on mine after the kiss that was supposed to be encouraging.

‘Gross. Thanks a lot,' I grumbled, wiping it off using my sleeve.

‘You love it. Get used to it,' he winked back. I blushed. Trying to ignore his comment, I started stretching and listened to Corby and Treston dress down the team.

Shana called out to me as I ran on to the field, but I didn't wave. I was trying to focus on my game face. Corby wanted me as a forward, to assist Nate and Treston, or to score myself if a defender left me unmarked. I highly doubted they would, but I did as I was told.

Within five minutes, we caught the enemy off guard and Andre broke free, passing the ball to Treston in time to trick the goalie into coming out of his goal. He threw a giant tantrum at his defenders, to say the least.

The defenders weren't fast learners. They were so busy blaming each other for letting in the first goal that Nate and Tres got our next goal through a corner ball. Their coach wasn't happy about this and made some quick subs. The funny thing was, we couldn't understand a word they said.

Their entire team might have been Serbian; they were all dark haired, bad tempered and took their game very seriously; including the women.

Before I knew it, there was less than ten minutes left and we were still two-all. Nate whispered to me during a throw-in that he wanted me to run as fast as I could towards the goal, when we got the ball again. I tried to argue, but he wouldn't hear of it.

‘Just do as I say. Trust me,' he said, tapping me on the backside as he ran away.

‘Focus on the game,' Cherice teased in passing. I shivered slightly, waiting for my chance to run. What I was supposed to do at the attacking end of the goals, I had no idea.

Treston tackled one of the Serbian players, sending him on to his back and half his team came over to defend his integrity. The ref was getting sick of their antics, deciding to make an example by giving him a yellow card. This only made them worse and me uneasy. I couldn't wait until this game was over.

Nate set the ball back down and looked up, searching for me. I bolted towards goal, looking over my shoulder every few steps in case he kicked it early. I didn't want a repeat of last time when the ball hit me in the head.

In a good position to the right of the goal, I put my hand up briefly to let him know I was ready. Wait, ready for what? I hope he wasn't banking on
me
for our win.

Treston was making his way up the left side in case Nate planned to pass to him. The whistle blew, Nate kicked and I nearly wet myself.

The ball sailed in the air, towards me. Trying to remember my training, I waited until it bounced, checked around me for competition, guarded the ball with my chest and dropped it down to my feet. And I was running. Taking a quick look up, I saw Treston in perfect position in front of the goal, but with players making their way to him, too. I passed it diagonally to my left and thought of stopping right there. He cocked his head to his right, though, meaning he wanted to pass it back in a one-two play. I kept up my pace and waited for his point of return.

Treston slid his pass to me just in time to get tackled and I could see in the corner of my eye he was on the ground. When the ball was in front of me, I tapped it to my right and kicked as hard as I could at the goal, not watching where the keeper was.

My rookie mistake irritated me. I should have known better, but I wanted to get rid of the ball as soon as I could. Looking up, I watched in shock as the ball sailed into the top right hand corner of the net, out of reach of their goalie.

I turned around gasping, trying to find Nate. Within seconds he was at my side, scooping me up and on to his shoulder, my teammates following soon after. Shana and James were clapping from the sidelines and Corby was punching the air. Treston hopped slowly behind our conga line and those who weren't helping to carry me had their shirts over their heads with arms outstretched like aeroplanes.

The other team let out tirades of what I could only assume was abuse at us. It certainly didn't sound like congratulations. They sulked off the field and wouldn't shake our hands. And why would they? We had won the final. We took home the trophies and the glory. Looking down, I rubbed the top of Nate's sweaty head. I got to take home the guy who I was planning to pash for most of the night at the after party.

‘If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to tell anyone? I mean
anyone?
‘ I whispered to Sarah in human biol. I knew I could trust her, but she still had to promise.

‘Uh, sure. What's going on?' she whispered back, writing on her notepad and pretending to work.

‘Nate's birthday is this weekend.' The nerves in my voice showed.

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Yeah, and?'

‘And … well … I want it to be special for him,' I stammered.

‘What kind of special are we talking about here? Making him a mixed tape of love songs, or taking him out to dinner and dessert afterwards?' she grinned knowingly at me and I winced.

‘That too. Kind of more serious. He has told me lately he wants to be closer to me. So do I,' I said, ducking my head.

‘Oh.
Oh.'
She pursed her lips and stuck her pencil into her eraser. ‘What can I do to help?'

We stood outside the most expensive lingerie shop I could find; a boutique with a name I'd rather not repeat.

‘I've never been into a shop for
this
reason,' I said, mouth open in awe and shock.

‘Me either. Let's go in.' Sarah grabbed my arm gleefully and pushed open the jingly door.

Inside were racks of multi-coloured night attire, ranging from bras, not much more than bras, underwear, nightgowns and another section I wasn't keen to look at, partly because I didn't want to know its purpose.

Sarah immediately pulled out garments from their racks and held them up to my body for comparison. My face burnt with embarrassment; this was as bad as buying tampons by myself in a supermarket.

‘Oh stop. This was your idea remember. You have to dress to impress,' Sarah scolded.

‘I didn't say it would be easy, did I? I'm trying to relax, but it's so new to me,' I replied in a low voice. I thumbed the material of the nightgown she had against me. It was beautiful, more beautiful than anything I'd ever felt. It was black satin, with lace around the bodice, but not over the top. I liked its simplicity and plain class.