The Hardest Fall

I could definitely understand how the rush of the game…oh, and the uniforms…and, ah, okay, specifically those shoulder pads…and maybe those tight, tight pants affected every girl on campus. I assumed it would be a hundred times worse if you were actually right there in the stadium. I wasn’t about to give in completely and become one of his shrieking fans, but I didn’t see a problem with just watching his games every now and then either…you know, because he and I were on track to become best friends, and best friends kept up with each other’s interests. In fact, as he was rushing out one day, he’d even asked for my phone number, and then later I’d gotten a Hello, roomie. In my book, that meant we really were becoming friends.

Which was exactly what I wanted.

Exactly.

Speaking of friends, as the clock neared eight PM, I picked up my phone and called Kayla.

She answered on the fifth ring. “Hey, Zoe.”

“Hey you. I’m starving. When are we meeting? Are you done with your study session?”

I was planning on begging her to go for pizza, but I wasn’t sure if she was in one of her dieting phases thanks to Keith making random comments about her weight. If that was the case, I knew it would be a no-go, but as I listened to her sigh on the other end of the line, all thoughts of food disappeared from my mind pretty quickly.

“What’s going on?” I asked carefully, even though I could already take a wild guess.

“I can’t make it tonight. I’m so sorry, Zoe. I’ve been looking forward to it, and I haven’t seen you or Jared in days, but I think Keith is coming down with something so I’m gonna have to head home and check on him.”

It was right on the tip of my tongue, but she beat me to it.

“And before you say anything, he actually wanted me to meet with you, but his voice sounded so bad when he called so even if we went out, my mind would be on him the entire time.”

I sat my ass down on the couch and slipped off my shoes. Just minutes before, I’d been ready and excited to meet up with her.

“I wasn’t gonna say anything,” I grumbled. “And I understand, of course. You should take care of him—I’d do the same. Don’t worry about us. I can meet you tomorrow—would that work? I think Jared is free of babysitting duties so maybe he could make it too. Might even work better. Lunch, maybe? My class isn’t until four.”

I could hear her quick footsteps as I waited for her answer.

“I have two classes tomorrow, one in the morning, the other around two. If Keith gets better by then, we’ll go for coffee. That okay?”

“Anything will work. You say when and where, and we’ll be there. I just wanna see your pretty face, KayKay.”

I could almost feel her warm smile through the phone. At least her tone was warmer when she answered. “God, I miss you guys, too. I’m not even asking about Dylan because I need to hear the details of every single day and we can’t do that over the phone—and don’t tell Jared everything without me. I’m feeling pretty left out as it is, and he’ll lord it over me forever.”

“Okay. My lips are sealed until I see you in the flesh but don’t worry, you haven’t missed all that much, although on Saturday after he came—”

“Nope. Nope. You’re gonna tell me everything tomorrow, remember? This is not a conversation you have on the phone. We need coffee and carbs in the form of baked goods.”

“It wasn’t actually that—”

“Oh, Zoe, I’m sorry, Keith is calling. Gotta go. I’ll text you tomorrow, okay? Love you.”

“Okay! I love you—”

The line went dead. I groaned and threw myself flat on the couch. Of course Keith would be calling. If she had ignored him and gone out with me instead, he’d have kept calling her until he made her feel uncomfortable and guilty enough that she headed back. I hoped he was actually sick and in actual pain.

I sighed and quickly texted Jared.

Me: Kayla can’t make it. Apparently Keith is coming down with something.

Jared: Asshole!

Jared: Keith, not KayKay.

Jared: You can come here and let Becky give you a makeover if you want?

Me: Your mom has the night shift again?

Jared: Yeah. Are you in? I promise I won’t post the results of the makeover on social media this time.

Me: No thank you. Getting a makeover from a five-year-old was a one-time thing. It’s off my bucket list. I’ll never make the mistake of falling asleep when she is in the same room as me again.

Jared: Oh but we worked so hard to make you pretty.

Me: I saw how hard you worked, and so did everyone else.

Jared: You coming?

Me: Sure, change the subject. I’ll just stay in and get some studying done. Coffee tomorrow?

Jared: Yes to coffee. Give Dylan a goodnight kiss for me.

I smirked. That little shithead!

I lifted my phone up high and took a quick shot of me giving him the middle finger with a sweet smile. A few seconds later, I got back one of him and his little sister as he scowled into the lens and covered her eyes with his hand.

Becky would make mincemeat out of him. Not only was she hyperactive, she didn’t get that other people needed sleep to function. She was also a little she-devil with the face of an angel. At least he was going to suffer, and knowing that gave me a little satisfaction.

Kissing Dylan good night…I didn’t think so. I was made of tougher stuff.

I knew Dylan had a team dinner and a study group because I’d overheard him talking to his friend on the phone. I wasn’t sure whether it was Chris or not, and it wasn’t like I could ask him either, but knowing he wouldn’t be home any time soon, I got comfortable in the living room and brought my laptop with me to get some studying done. If I could squeeze in some retouching of the last shoot I’d done for Leah’s fashion blog before I hit my bed, that would be even better. From the way things were going with my little photography job, I had a feeling saving up to move out at the end of the year wasn’t going to be as big of a problem as I had expected.

Facing the windows, I sat down on the floor, spread everything out on the coffee table, and got to work. The only break I took was to grab a banana and a piece of slightly burnt toast leftover from breakfast. It was a big letdown after imagining having a delicious cheesy pizza, but what’s a girl to do?

It was around nine o’clock when my eyes started to grow heavy from the school work, so I put in my earbuds and switched over to Photoshop to work on editing the fashion shots. The loud music I put on woke me up pretty fast, and I was able to tune out everything other than Leah’s photos on the screen.

This was what I loved to do. Sure, sometimes I spent more hours in front of my laptop than I did actually behind the lens, but that was how it worked. If everything went according to plan, I was hoping photography would be my future. It didn’t have to be fashion photos per se, but as long as I was using a camera, capturing different faces, emotions, memories, moments…heartbeats I knew I’d be fine.

At one point, my Spotify radio started playing “Gorilla G-Mix” by Pharrell, and in no time, I was belting out the lyrics to my heart’s content because it was one of my favorite sex songs. Everyone had those, right? I’d never had sex while it was playing—it’d be weird if nothing else—but whenever I listened to it, I could definitely see it happening if I closed my eyes.