A Game Worth Watching (24 page)

Then
she saw the note on her bed.

CALL ME – R

She
dropped onto her bed, picked up the scrap of paper, and crumpled it. This was
one request she couldn’t fulfill. At least not now. Riley had kissed her. She’d
kissed him back. She covered her face with her hands, not knowing what to do.
The world was flipped, turned upside-down, and Emma had no idea how to right it.

She
didn’t need this. She needed to prepare for next week’s games, she needed to
hang out with the guys, and she needed her best friend.

***

It
was difficult to avoid Riley when he was such an intricate part of her life.
Aside from his family’s annual two-week vacation in the summer, Emma couldn’t
remember the last time they’d gone twenty-four hours without talking to one
another. Now, on hour sixty-six, Emma started to think maybe she’d made too
much of things. So, he’d kissed her. Big deal.
Sometimes
friends kissed, didn’t they?

No.
They didn’t. Not like that. How could this have happened?

“You
okay?” Shiloh asked, breaking through Emma’s internal panic. “You seem
distracted.”

Emma
rolled her eyes. “I’m fine.”

Daily
practices with Shiloh, Ashley, and Peyton meant giving them a few basketball
pointers, not dishing out her life story. She knew enough about girls to know
how their gossip thread worked. Fast and inaccurate.

Unable
to concentrate, Emma led the girls through one drill after another to keep them
busy. For all she knew, they could’ve missed every shot they took and dribbled
the ball off their feet a million times. Emma hadn’t noticed. It was only a
matter of time before her and Riley came face-to-face again. What would she
say? What would he say? What would they do? She’d avoided him all weekend, not
returning his calls and hiding out in random places so he couldn’t track her
down. She’d even skipped her Saturday basketball game with the guys, which had
never happened before. At school their paths had only crossed once, but the
bell cut their greeting short. It was only a matter of time. She knew Riley
wouldn’t let her avoid him forever.

Emma
paced the sideline as the girls practiced, eyes staring unseeing at the floor,
teeth gnawing her fingernails. A pause in Ashley’s dribbling caused Emma to
glance up. The kid stared past Emma, her face lighting up with a smile.

“Hi,
Riley,” she said.

Emma
spun around, and sure enough, Riley was making his way across the gym toward
her. Her heart fluttered, and then sped up. Not now, not now, not now. Their
post-kiss reunion should not happen in front of three female witnesses.

“Hey,
Ash,” Riley said, his eyes never leaving Emma’s. No more than ten feet
separated them, but it felt more like a thousand miles. He was mad. Mad at her.
She hated it when he was mad at her.

He
closed the distance between them and she bowed her head, unable to look at him.
He probably thought she was stupid for running away and avoiding him all
weekend.

“Can
we talk?” he asked quietly. He stood only inches away from her. Too close. Way
too close.

She
was only too aware of Shiloh, Ashley, and Peyton listening to them.

“I’m
kind of busy.” How much longer could she keep this up?

He
placed his hand under her chin and raised her face to look at him. “Then I’ll
wait.”

His
blue eyes held hers in a steady gaze, indicating there was no negotiation and
no evading him this time. He would wait, no matter how long it took.

Considering
her practice with the girls had barely started, it would be a long hour and a
half with his eyes boring into her back. She tried not to look at him, tried to
ignore his presence and concentrate on teaching the art of reading the defense,
but her eyes kept wandering over to him, sitting against the far wall, watching
her.

Rather
than continue practicing, the three girls surrounded Emma, shielding her from
Riley’s view.

“Is
everything okay between you and Riley?” Ashley whispered, her eyebrows creased
with worry.

“It’s
fine, why?”

They
all looked at Riley, then back at Emma. Talk about obvious. Shiloh was the one
to speak. “Because you both look like you’ve lost your best friend.”

Note
to self, never ask why again. Emma’s eyes wandered over to Riley. Again. He
looked how she felt all right and exactly how Shiloh described. “We may be
experiencing a little…” Emma paused searching for the right word, “turbulence.”

“Should
we leave?” Peyton asked.

“No,”
Emma said quickly. The last thing she wanted was to be left alone with Riley.
One kiss was bad enough, but who knew what would happen now? Would he kiss her
again? Would he yell? Would he tell her their friendship was over? She couldn’t
lose him.

Ashley
giggled. “Tell me you’re not using us as an excuse to avoid him.”

“Of
course not,” Emma said, rolling her eyes.

Peyton
raised her eyebrows, challenging Emma’s lie.

“I’m
not,” Emma emphasized. “I’m just…not ready to talk to him yet.”

“What
happened?”

Emma
peered at Ashley, hoping her height still held some sort of authority. “None of
your business, freshman.”

Shiloh
looked at Riley and shook her head. “Well, it’s not going to get easier the
longer you put it off, and he doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere without
you, so I’m leaving.” Shiloh looked at Peyton and Ashley. “You two coming?”

Peyton
didn’t hesitate. She followed Shiloh across the gym and with one quick glance
over her shoulder, they slipped through the door and disappeared. Emma knew she
should be grateful they didn’t insist on sticking around to watch, but fear
flickered within her at the prospect of facing Riley alone.

Ashley,
eyes filled with compassion, gave a one-shoulder shrug before turning to follow
them. Emma grabbed her arm as she turned to leave, thinking quickly for a
reason to make her stay. “Practice isn’t over yet, and if you leave early, I
can’t guarantee I’ll stay to help you tomorrow.”

Ashley
squinted up at her. “Are you threatening me?”

“No.”
Emma wasn’t the threatening type. “I’m just encouraging you to make the right
decision.”

“Otherwise
known as threatening.”

Emma
clamped her mouth shut. Getting her way with a freshman should not be so
difficult. “Fine, we play one-on-one to ten. If you win, you can leave. If I
win, you stay for the next hour with no complaint.”

“I’ll
play you one-on-one,” Ashley said carefully, weighing each word. “First basket
wins. If I win, I leave. If you win, you get five minutes, and then I leave.”
She crossed her arms, sealing the deal.

“What
kind of a compromise is that? I lose either way.”

Ashley
smiled. “That’s kinda the point.”

Since
when did freshmen possess negotiation skills? Freshmen were supposed to fear
seniors. They were supposed to follow the rules set by their elders, not make
up their own. Emma may have been older, she may have had the height advantage,
she may have been smarter and wiser and better at basketball, but one look at
the kid made her realize she was not the one in charge.

“Fine,”
Emma growled. At least she’d get five minutes.

With
a glance in Riley’s direction, Emma passed Ashley the ball. It was the least
she could do—give Ashley a chance before she claimed her victory. Emma
anticipated Ashley’s first move to the right, her strongest side. Ashley didn’t
disappoint. She dribbled once to the right, spun the quickest spin move Emma
had ever seen, and headed for the basket. Not bad for a freshman, but didn’t
she know not to drive through the center of the key against someone twice her
size? Emma readied herself for the block, but the kid was good. Securing the
ball between her hands, Ashley lunged toward the basket with her right foot,
selling the shot. Emma bent her legs, ready to jump, but instead of continuing
to the basket, the kid changed direction. Ashley took a huge step sideways,
brushing past Emma, before pushing off the floor with her left foot. Caught off
guard, Emma’s feet never left the ground. All she could do was put a hand in
Ashley’s face as a distraction. It didn’t work. Free from her defender, the
freshman extended her arm toward the basket and flipped the ball off the
backboard. The ball fell through the net, completing Ashley’s
look-at-me-I’m-brilliant move.

The
freshman beat her with the infamous two-step. Emma knew the move well. She used
it all the time against the guys, and they could never stop her. But how in the
world did the freshman execute it to perfection against Emma?

Emma’s
jaw dropped. “Where did that come from?” It definitely wasn’t something they’d
covered or something Ashley had ever attempted during team practices. It was a
move common in basketball, and hundreds of people could execute it, but not the
freshman standing before her.

Ashley
shrugged. “You pulled the same move on the guys at the park a while back, and
it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve been practicing.”

“Obviously,”
Emma said, unable to hide the astonishment in her voice. Until then, Ashley had
never surprised anyone with her basketball ability.

The
smile had yet to leave Ashley’s face as she tossed Emma the ball. “Have fun.”

All
Emma could do was watch as the kid walked out of the gym with a bounce to her
step, like she knew Emma was still trying to figure out how in the world she
lost to a freshman.

“It
looks like your hard work is paying off,” Riley said, appearing beside her.

“Yeah,”
she grumbled as they watched the kid disappear out the door, her scrawny arm
raised in farewell. “Too much.”

Riley
turned to face her. “Can we talk now?”

“Actually,
I—” Her words faltered when he grabbed her hand and led her to the wall
where he dropped to the floor and pulled her down beside him. She tried to
reclaim her hand, but he tightened his grip so she couldn’t slip away.

They
stared at the basketball court in silence. It was the kind of silence friends
shared when waiting for words to come and dissolve the tension. Usually, she’d
have been able to predict what Riley would say, how he would act, how much
she’d have to grovel to get out of trouble, but in the current situation, she
had no idea about anything. Their friendship had crossed over into something
else, something foreign to Emma both as a friend and as a girl. So she remained
still and quiet, waiting for him to start speaking. He didn’t like to let
things simmer until they faded or were buried and lurking in the shadows of
time passing. But what would a conversation about the breach in their
friendship entail exactly? There could be yelling or arguing or—

“I’ve
missed you.”

Or
the simple confession of a guy who missed his best friend. And just like that,
Emma’s defenses crumbled. “Me, too,” she whispered. She felt the weight of her
admission, and it scared her. Scared her because she realized how much she
relied on him to be at her side. What would she do when he left for college?

She
glanced at their hands, still clasped in Riley’s lap, and knew she couldn’t
avoid him any longer.

He
took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m not sorry for kissing you, Em. My
only regret is not doing it sooner.”

So
much for thinking he spent the weekend regretting the kiss. “Riley, I—”
she started, not knowing exactly how the sentence would end. Before she could
add words to what would surely be a string of babble, Riley spoke.

“I’m
scared, Em.”

His
voice was low and anxious as words tumbled out of his mouth, dragging her along
beside them. “Next year I’ll be leaving everything I’ve ever known and heading off
to some college. Call me crazy, but I like high school, I like my friends, and
yes, I love my parents. Next year at this time everything will be different. I
mean, what if college basketball isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? What if I’m
not good enough to make the basketball team? What if I fail all of my classes?
What if I’m stuck in college forever because I don’t declare a major? I don’t
have any idea what I want to be when I grow up.”

She
could only imagine what it would be like to leave everything she knew and start
fresh without everyone knowing her entire history and punishing her for it. She
supposed things were different for Riley since his life was perfect already,
but everything would work out for him. It always did.

Emma
squeezed his hand. “You’ll be fine, wherever you end up. You’ll have basketball
and new friends and—”

He
fixed his eyes on her. “But I won’t have you.”

Her
breath caught in her throat. How in the world was she supposed to respond to
that?

He
shook his head and laughed a helpless laugh. “I feel like time is slipping away
from us, and I don’t want to lose you after graduation. I know you think our
friendship is one-sided, but you’re wrong. Em, you mean more to me than
anything. I can’t do this without you. Ever since the day I met you, I’ve
dreamed of us going off to college to play ball and meeting up with the guys
during holiday breaks to swap stories and seeing where life takes us.
Together.” His eyes never wavered from hers. “I won’t leave you behind. I
can’t.”

She
didn’t know what to do. Should she throw her arms around him and never let him
go, or should she walk away and force him to embrace a life without her? No
matter what they said now, neither one of them could guarantee the future.
Taking a deep breath, she forced a smile. “Riley, I’ll be fine.”

He
shook his head. “No, you won’t. You’ll slip into the same lifestyle your family
did. I’d hate myself if I left you here, went off to college, and came back to
discover you’re wasting your life away. You deserve so much more.” His voice
was frantic, pleading. She’d never seen him like this before. “I know this
thing with the girls’ team is hard, but it’ll be worth it. As soon as college
scouts see you, they’ll be knocking down your door to sign with them.”