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“Oh I know! Jett and I will go ‘
park’
when your uncle's on duty and get caught!” I said with
enthusiasm.

“What?” Jett exclaimed.

“I meant necking, you guys are perverts.”

“Oh boy” Nic said “We better get her home
before she really gets slaphappy.”

“Oh I know what if Nic and I break...” Nic
interrupted “That's it, I'm outta here.” I started laughing.

“Yes, I'm feeling a little slaphappy. Hey
Nic?” She turned to look at me before closing the door “I gotta
stalker and you don't.” She slammed the door in my face. She waved
and Declan backed out of her drive.

I put my bag at one end of the seat, laid
down and put my head on it. Detective Grey had given me his
business card, if I can find it, he told me to call anytime. Jett
started talking to Declan “What's up with her? She seems awfully
happy,” in a low hushed voice, pointing his thumb back at me.

“This is how I get Jett, deal with it, I
sometimes get slaphappy!”

On my behalf Declan told him “She's actually
pretty funny sometimes. It doesn't happen often though; not the
funny part, the slaphappy part. Plus, she's pretty sarcastic. Like
I said, a good match for you.”

“Why thank you my dear Watson, I appreciate
the compliment.” I was losing it. “My dear friend, stop at the
nearest bar I need a drink.” I said with a little accent on it.
Sometimes I just couldn't stop myself. Jett and Declan chuckled a
bit. Declan floored it over a hill and I rolled off my seat onto
the floor which would have been funny if I hadn’t hurt my shoulder
again.

“Damn it, that's twice in one day.” The two
of them were laughing, I would have but it just sent more shooting
pains up and down my arm.

“That's twice you fell off a seat.” Declan
said.

“No, that's twice I fell off my shoes. Hardy,
harr, harr, no that's twice I hurt my shoulder.” He slowed down,
“Ooh sorry, I forgot about that. You okay?” he asked as he turned
his head as much as possible to check on me.

I sat up “Declan are you taking me home
first?” – That finished my slaphappy mood. “I was going to take
Jett first” he came back.

“Fine” There was a bit of silence in the car.
Then Jett started “I'll call my Uncle to see when we might be able
to meet with him. We should all be there, I'm afraid I don't have
enough details for him, plus if your shoulder still looks bad he
can see that.”

“Well, if the two of you keep beating me up,
I'm sure it will.”

“What, are you grouchy now?”

“Well yes. I'm female, a teenager and
hormonal! Plus, my shoulder, shooting pain, lots of fun.” I said
sarcastically. “I definitely need a drink now”. I said under my
breath.

We turned into Jett's driveway. “I'm getting
in front.” I announced and Jett gave me his hand to help me out of
the back. He pulled me close to him and asked “Do you need an ice
pack.”

“No, I'll be fine bodyguard,” and I slid into
the front seat. Jett squatted down by me and put his hand on my
thigh, I could feel the heat radiate from him; how could someone be
so warm all the time and it’s winter.

I looked at him “Sorry, I’m in a bit of a
quandary today, my shoulder hurts, I supposedly have a stalker and
now I have a bodyguard. At least he's good looking.” I turned my
head toward Declan and winked.

“Hey!” Jett retorted, “Oh yes, I mean two
good looking bodyguards.” I said. He laughed a little and slid his
hand off my leg, slid it into my hand as he stood and held it
lightly until it fell out and closed my door.

“Take me home James.” I said to Declan. “I’m
exhausted.”

“I believe this has got to be an emotional
roller coaster for you.” Declan suggested as he pulled out of
Jett's driveway. I turned my head toward him and gave him a subtle
smile.

“An emotional roller coaster, huh. It just
makes no sense Declan, why me. I never hurt anyone and I'm not
special.” I closed my eyes.

“Crazy obsessed people don't do things for
any rhyme or reason. You were probably in the wrong place at the
wrong time and he has honed in on you ever since.”

“I guess” I said. “The only good thing to
come of this is I get to pretend I'm dating Jett. Good idea by the
way.” I was slumped down in my seat a bit, I was always very
relaxed around Declan.

“Yeah well, he likes you.” With that I sat up
in my chair.

“How do you know?”

“Well, for one, he was rubbing your neck in
architecture.”

“You noticed that huh? Why else do you
think?”

“I like you and he has the same taste in
girls as me.”

“So you like me?” I squinted my eyes at
him.

“Well, not like that, but I think we would be
compatible.”

I dropped that subject quickly “Maybe he's
dating around, playing the field, I'm sure he has plenty of girls
interested in him.”

“He does have girls after him, but I don’t
think he's interested in any of them.”

“So you know something you aren't supposed to
tell me.”

“Maybe.”

“Why doesn't he just ask me out then?”

“Maybe he will. Don't forget he was really
sick over Christmas break and it really freaked him out he told me
he thought he was going to die.”

I closed my eyes and scrunched back down in
my seat. “He was that sick…”

The next morning, I was in a
good mood. Jett was flirting with me plus we were pretending to be
boyfriend and girlfriend. Even though that's all it was,
pretending, I was fine with it. Since we were all about staying
together Declan picked Nic and I up for the wrestling meet tonight,
which was at Copley. It's where I used to have swim team practice
during the winter months before I was in high school. I was glad to
be here; a familiar place with good karma, at least for
me.

One of us needed to keep
score, and the other needed to video tape the matches. While all
the guys were weighing in Nic and I were in the gym lying on the
bleachers. We were alone except for the custodians setting up the
scoring tables; the main mat and team chairs were already in
place.

Some boys from Copley came
up to us and started chatting. I’m always a flirt; well let’s call
it social, I love to talk to people. It's not my intention but Nic
tells me I'm always overly friendly. Of course, she’s the same way.
There we were talking to a couple guys and everyone was being
'overly friendly.' I had my arms and legs crossed casually sitting
on the bleachers and Nic was standing casually next to the Copley
guys when in came Storm and Declan.

They didn't look too happy
when they came up to us, they looked glum, so I introduced the
other guys to them like they were good friends of ours. They were
short in conversation, darn right rude and acting all grumpy until
the Copley guys left; Storm and Declan stayed. They stood there
with their arms crossed and acted like they were going to ground us
or something.

“What do you two think you
are doing?” Storm replied. I shrugged and Nic said “Making friends,
you didn’t like Jace, Ryan or Sam.”

Storm looked at us like we
were crazy. “What?” he said.

“They were nice and if you
guys hadn't come along I’m sure Addie and I could’ve gotten dates,”
she raised her brow. The rest of the team was trickling in along
with people sitting in the bleachers.

“You two, of all people,
aren't allowed to flirt with the opposing team,” Storm stated,
Declan nodded in agreement.

Nic excitedly told them.
“They aren't on the wrestling team…” We glanced over at our team,
they looked upset with us.

“You know what we mean”
Storm said quietly through gritted teeth. “You're making us look
bad like 'our' girls need to stray. You're supposed to be on our
side.”

“If you guys want us to be
on your side then you're all going to have to at least acknowledge
us and chat with us once in a while. A little flirting wouldn't
hurt. Everyone can come and talk to us a little before and after
their match and help us video tape and score. It's pretty boring
sometimes.” Nic explained and I agreed.

I hope we got our point
across and I think we did because Storm pushed his bottom lip
upward contemplating what we said and replied “I hadn't thought
about it that way. You guys just waiting out here doing nothing
until the match starts and videotaping alone, I've done it, and it
can be very boring.”

“I guess you’re right.”
Declan looked at me and squinted his eyes at me.

“What Declan? I mean body
guard? I wasn't alone, Nic and I were together.” I talked towards
him as he walked away.

Nic didn’t have a
boyfriend, at least not yet, I couldn’t believe she didn’t have one
because she was tall and gorgeous. I would kill to have her long
legs. She was tall enough to be on the basketball team just not
coordinated enough. She laughed when the basketball coach asked her
to try out.

She and I got so chatty
while setting up the video camera that I forgot to look for Jett
when we heard a “hey” behind us, startling us both. It was Jett all
dressed in his wrestling gear, coming toward us. We were
at the top of the bleachers in a second gym setup for gymnastics
that over looked the main gym floor. He didn’t look happy,
Nic said “I'm leaving, I need to go keep score.”

As soon as she turned
around, I begged “Don’t go Nic, he doesn’t look
happy.”

“I'm not mad, just in
wrestling mode.” I smiled a Cheshire cat smile, all my teeth
showing, but Nic kept going.

“Can I talk to you a
minute?” Jett asked.

“Sure.” I mumbled. “I have
to start recording as soon as the first match starts, so you
actually only have a minute.” I continued setting up the camera and
Jett took one of the wires and unwound it for me and plugged it
into the wall. I looked at Nic below and noticed one of the
wrestlers had pulled a chair up next to her to help keep score. She
was introducing the other teams wrestling manager to him, who had
nothing on Nic.

“So what's up
Jett?”

“I like how you say what you
want and you seem to be yourself around me. Other girls can seem
fake.” I looked over at him and nodded. My heart started to race a
bit; this was either going to be good or bad.

“Hold that thought,” I said.
I pointed the camera in the right direction, focused the lens and
started to record. Once in place all I had to do was start and stop
the camera between matches so the wrestlers didn't have to fast
forward through a bunch of nothing. Plus, it saves tape. We walked
away from the camera and watched the match; Jett started telling me
about the other wrestler that he was really good, so it was
important that our guy win, because they were both fighting for the
number one slot at this point.

I held a hand up and
rechecked all the settings to make sure everything was on and in
focus and I walked back over to him. I thought he was going to
break up with me even though we weren't dating. Maybe the fake
relationship isn't working for him. My hands started getting a
little clammy; I thought I was over all this nervous stuff, I wish
Nic or Tori were here to run interference. I was looking at the
floor, then the walls, anywhere but at him. I had my arms crossed
waiting for the bad news to come.

“I only have a minute Addie,
I saw you talking to several boys earlier....”

“Sooo, you were checkin'
them out huh!” I said sarcastically, I always had something smart
to say.

“Okay smarty pants, I only
have a minute.”

“Sorry” I wanted to say it's
been like five, but I didn't.

“This week, you know us
pretending to date? Well, when I saw you with those other guys....
well, I didn't like it..... I didn't think you were interested in
anyone else.”

I interrupted, “I'm
not.”

“Would you just let me
finish. Wait, what did you say?”

“I'm not interested in
anyone else.”

“So you were talking to
those guys to make me jealous?”

“No, we were talking to them
to be nice and we had nothing else to do. It's not like any of our
team is social with us.”

“Yeah that's what Storm
said. Can you maybe not flirt with anyone else until I wrestle,
maybe the rest of the meet? I can't concentrate when you do that.”
he pleaded.

“Okay,” I said with a soft
smile and took a step closer to him. When I did he took one back
and put his hands up. I squinted at him, he explained “I don't
think so, I have to go wrestle with a guy, in this…” he said
pointing to his bibs, “so we'll talk afterwards.”

I agreed “We'll talk later
then.” A lot more things came to mind but I didn't say any of them.
I walked back to the camera to put it on pause. When I turned
around he was gone. I looked at the gym door below and he was
walking in, he looked up at me and gave me a half smile. I smiled
back, he started stretching.

A couple of minutes later
our 98 pound wrestler, Jim, who had just finished his match, came
by me.

”Hey” he said.

“What's up?” I said back. “I
taped your match, it was a good one – does this mean your number
one?” I turned around to turn the tape recorder back on.

“Yes, I think it does. Too
bad I didn't pin him though.”

“But you won.” I replied. We
both started chatting and the next thing I knew Brad, another
wrestler, was up talking to us. I looked at Nic and a new wrestler
was talking to her too. It was nice, they were keeping us company.
I was leaning over the rails along with a couple of other wrestlers
cheering Dean on when I heard a very soft “hey” from behind us. It
was one of Copley's wrestling managers, she had a t-shirt on that
said Copley Wrestling.