Achieving Unbroken
Chapter Nineteen

—

"Real friends, good friends;
Hard to find, let's face it"
Connection | OneRepublic

—

Lilla
[Friday, January 14th, 2017]

"Swear to God, if I catch one more West Cove wannabe look at me like that, I'm gonna shit myself," Bianca drones on, casually tossing some popcorn in her mouth.

"That'll make 'em stop staring 'like that'," Piper says under her breath before taking another drink of her Coke. "But it won't make them stop staring." To hide my smile I bow my head. I'm suffering while trying not to laugh.

"Well Bee, if you didn't cut your Bringham shirt in half and wear fishnets under shorts in January, maybe you wouldn't be drawing so much attention." Shayla jumps in, stealing some of Bianca's popcorn and mixing it in her mouth with M&M's. "And I don't know if any of you noticed, but tall, dark and handsome keeps looking over here, and I'm trying to figure out who he's looking at."

All of our heads flick in the direction that Shay is looking, and we see a pretty tall guy doing a free throw shot during warm-ups. He glances over to us when he grabs a his ball and dribbles to the back of the line, but who he is staring at is vague. The five of us are standing in a tight-knit group.

He keeps shooting us these little flirty stares, and it makes me feel... I don't know, put on the spot? He probably isn't even looking at me, but his gaze in our direction is giving me the same feeling of being onstage with hot stage lights beating down on me.

"Shay," Piper and I say in unison.

"Hey!" Bianca instantly yells. We laugh at her.

"You've been getting enough attention tonight, do you really want more? What happened to shitting yourself?" Allison inquires, inhaling a bag of Sour Patch Kids. She had been pretty quiet this whole time, being the less talkative one of the five.

"I'll take anything from him anytime," Bianca uses her best sultry voice. "Now, what about you, Ally? My vote is on you."

"I'd rather not be included in this. I'm kind of 'thinging' with someone right now, and even if I wasn't, I'm not even interested in him. Or, any guy for that matter, in case you have forgotten."

I slightly zone out of the conversation when Allison mentions she is kinda seeing someone. Why didn't she tell us earlier?

"Thinging?" I ask. She pauses.

"Yeah. It's new, so I don't know where it is going to go, but I'm... Really happy right now." I watch her eyes flicker to Shayla and back to me throughout the span of her sentence. The five of us get intensely quiet, and Piper, Bianca and I share a knowing look.

We always wondered if Ally and Shay would get together, but Shay has always seemed to direct a lot of her attention towards men. She'd make a comment here and there about an attractive girl, and we knew she was bi — but a fling with Allison is new to our knowledge.

"Anyways, my bet is on Piper... Or Lilla." When Allison says my name, my head perks up. I look at Piper, and shake my head.

"Oh, I doubt—"

"You might be onto something, Triple A," Bianca stops, and we all stop, so we're just standing awkwardly court-side and earning stares from the players and select members of the crowd; mostly West Cove kids. "Piper, hilarious, charming, always-there-to-kick-our-asses Piper: Is he attractive to you?"

"He's pretty, I'll give you that, but I'm more into the endearing, sweet guys; not a guy who would literally crush me in bed." We look to Bianca, who has taken charge over this calm debate, and she nods.

"Okay, Lilla. Badass, classy, always-there-to-save-our-asses Lilla: Is he attractive to you?"

I don't answer immediately, choosing instead to give him another long look. He's tall, or at least he looks tall. Gorgeous dark skin, strong jaw, and — Oh my God, he just smiled at a teammate and his smile is stunning. But, in an effort to keep my cool with the girls, I shrug.

"I'd be down," I say, carelessly. Bianca develops a mischievous smile, and her face lights up at something happening on the court: When we all look, we see Mystery Guy and Vincent talking and laughing like old friends. I note to myself that Mystery Guy continues to peek over at us while talking to him.

"Oh, this is perfect!" Shay squeals, her thinking matching Bianca's. Piper and Allison smirk, nodding.

"Oh God," I groan. "Please don't tell me you're gonna—"

"Vince!" Piper blares, but most of the noise goes directly into my ear. I wince at her volume.

Vince hears her, looking in our direction from his position next to Mystery Guy and excusing himself. He jogs over to us, blue and yellow jersey bouncing with every step, and approaches us with a stark white smile.

"Good evening, ladies. Thank you for coming out to watch."

"Yeah yeah, go Grizzlies, kick the Tigers' asses. Who was your little friend over there?" Bianca goes off. Vince chuckles.

"Wow, Bee. I'm about to go and play our biggest rivals and all you can think about is sex. I'm offended," Vince remarks.

"I'm asking for a friend, you ass. And just for that, I'm gonna boo you the entire game."

"Jesus, you two. Make your point or get an effing room." We all look at Allison, and she rolls her eyes. The girl makes a good point.

"In his dreams," Bianca mumbles before excusing herself to go grab us a good spot on the bleachers. That leaves the four girls and Vincent.

"Well, in light of Bee's interrogation about that guy, I have a message to deliver." We look at Vince curiously. "Lilla," he says as he turns to me.

"I win!" Ally quickly chimes in. He looks at her with confusion, but shakes his head and lets it go.

"His name is Maxwell, and he'd like to talk to you after the game."

"What does he want to talk to me about?"  I challenge. He stares down at me and smiles.

"Well, the way he was talking, he sounds interested." I glance around Vince to look for Maxwell (hot name too) and stare at him for a few seconds while he practices.

"Did you tell him that I was a raging bitch?"

"I told him you're one of the greatest people I know."

I throw my hands in the air just before I bury my face in them. What if I actually find I'm interested in this guy?

Vince is looking at me like I'm crazy, and I give him a soft look, grabbing his upper arms.

"Thank you for the good word. Now go kick some ass or I'll kick yours."

"Aye aye, Cap," he mocks, saluting, and then runs back to the court.

"Well, this is gonna be a hell of a game," Shay laughs. I just sigh.

—

"Everyone's going to the car, but I'm gonna stick around, 'kay?" Piper checks with me after the game ends. Bringham won, which continued our winning streak, and everyone was hyped. But, with the end of the game came my meeting with Maxwell. Pip wanted to hang around just to make sure this wasn't some predatory trap, for which I was thankful.

"Sounds good, babe." I wrap an arm around her to give her a half hug. "See you in a minute."

She waits until the guys start flooding out of the locker rooms to excuse herself, and I see Maxwell is one of the last guys to leave. When his eyes find mine, he smiles, and I start internally screaming.

"Hey," he says when he reaches me, slightly breathless.

"Hi," I hum, looking up at him.

"So, uh, this might be a little weird. But I just saw you before the game, and you're beautiful, and I would really like to go out with you sometime." Maxwell is shifting, and I can tell he's really nervous, which is cute. "Just coffee. That's all I'm asking for."

So far, he's nice. He's attractive. Is anything really grabbing me about him? Not right now. But a coffee wouldn't hurt.

"Okay," I smile. "Coffee. I can do that."

We exchange numbers and he insists on walking me out of the gym and to my car. But, we reach the lobby, and Piper is right there, so I wish him a goodnight and her and I walk arm in arm out of the gym.

"So? What do you think?"

I pause for a moment, thinking about how I want to answer.

"I don't know yet. Maybe something will come of it, but... I don't know what."

She nods, and then chuckles at a thought that she has.

"Jeez. We gotta find someone who lives up to those standards of yours."

"That's a chore I'm not sure you want to take on." We laugh about it, and I give her details about what he said to me (word for word, she insisted). The chill of the night clips at my nose and ears, so her and we wrap our arms around the other and try to provide each other some warmth.

Even if I never date in high school, I have these girls. And I couldn't ask for any more.