I Meant What I Said

The next day

Bree had made it through first class and she was starving for breakfast. She grabbed her things from Mr. MacAlbee's room and walked up to her locker where Alex was waiting for her. “Morning, beautiful,” he said. She smiled and opened her locker. She put away her government book and grabbed the books she would need for her next class.

Alex grabbed her hand as they started walking towards the cafeteria. Out of the corner of her eye, Bree noticed that Jamie was just standing at his locker, texting. Whatever, she thought. She looked at Alex and smiled. His hair looked so amazing today. So amazing. She smiled and thought how lucky she was to be with, well at least hooking up, with a guy that was just so cute.

They walked into the cafeteria and sat down at the table against the windows, where they always sat. Callie, Sara and Max were already there and they smiled as Alex and Bree walked over and sat at the table. “Morning, guys,” Bree said. “Sara, want to go get a bagel with me?” Sara nodded and they got up and walked over to the breakfast line. On the way there, they saw Anna standing with Chase. “Wow, I can't believe they're still together,” Sara said.

“Oh, me either. They had a rough patch the same time me and Jamie did, and they broke up for a while. He's changed a lot though. He treats her a lot better now.”

“Wow,” Sara said. “What happened?”

“Well, it was all some stupid website and she bitched him out and then they broke up, but they never officially broke up. And then she dated some guy for like a week and went back to Chase.”

“Oh, well good for her,” Sara said as she paid for the bagel.

They walked back to the table and sat down. “Hey, I'll be right back,” Alex said. “I have to go talk to Tyler about something.”

“Alright, have fun,” Bree said and smiled. She was so relieved that Alex had a friend besides her. Some male companionship.

Bree and Callie talked for a while. Callie was saying how some girl in her cheering team tried to do a toe touch and kicked herself in the head. She laughed so hard when she was telling the story. “She's just so stupid,” she said. “I can't even figure out how she did it either.”

Ten minutes later, Alex walked back over to the table with Tyler. “Hey, we have to go talk to the soccer coach about something. Come with me?”

“Sure,” Bree said. She grabbed her bags and handed Alex his. The three started walking out towards the gym with Bree in the middle and the boys on each side. Alex reached down and grabbed her hand and she smiled. She got butterflies all over.

Tyler was one of Bree's best guy friends. He always had her back through everything and he always made her hot chocolate the right way when she went to the Dunkin Donuts he worked at. They had known each other since grade school and they'd always been close.

She felt so comfortable with Alex, like this was where she belonged. Her hand fit into his and his arms always felt so right around her. She smiled and felt her face getting hot as she thought about it. Tyler must have noticed because he nudged her. She looked at him. “Shh,” she said and he smiled.

They finally made it to the coach's office outside of the gym. “Hey, guys. What's up?” the coach looked at them and said.

“Well, we wanted to know if we could get Alex on the team. I mean, we're only two games in and he played soccer at his old school.” The coach looked at Tyler, then Alex, then scratched his head.

“We're going to have to talk to the other team captains, Tyler. You can't just put someone on a team with no questions asked.” He turned to Alex. “How long have you been playing soccer for?”

“Since I was 7,” Alex said with a smile.

“What position were you on your other team at your old school?”

“I was a forward.” The coach continued to ask Alex questions about his experience in soccer. Great. Bree understood none of it. She never quite got the point of soccer, even though Tyler had tried to explain it to her lots of times.

“Well, I guess we can try you out. Does today after school work for you?”

“Sure, I'll be here. What time?”

“How about 3. Give the guys some time to warm up to see how you do.”

“Alright.” Alex smiled. “I'll see you then.” He squeezed her hand and smiled. They started walking away before the coach stopped them.

“Oh, hey, Bree. Are you still playing softball in the spring?”

Bree was taken by surprise. “Oh, uh, yeah I was planning on it.”

“Okay, good. You were a real asset to our team last year.” Bree smiled and they walked away. They made it past the gym and almost back to the cafeteria.

“Bree, you play softball? I didn't know that.”

She smiled. “Babe, you don't know a lot about me.” Tyler laughed. “Shut up, you.” She said as she pointed at Tyler. The bell rang that signaled the end of breakfast.

“Ready to go to math?” Bree said as she looked at both the boys. They walked up to the junior wing because Tyler had to get something and he asked them to go with him. Alex took the advantage to push Bree against the locker and kiss her. He finally pulled away and smiled.

“I didn't do it yet, today. I just couldn't resist.” Bree laughed and Alex wrapped his arm around her waist. He pulled her into a hug. “You're just way too attractive.” He smiled and she blushed.

On the way down to math, Alex held Bree's hand and Tyler walked on the other side of her. She was so content with everything right now. As they walked further down the hallway, the expression on Tyler's face changed. “Hey Bree, look over here. Don't look down the freshman hallway.” Bree's curiosity took the best of her. Her eyes were drawn to look down the hallway.

She felt like she couldn't breathe. She felt like someone was sitting on top of her. “Shit,” she said.

“Oh,” Alex said as he saw what she did. “What a pig.” Jamie was leaned up against the locker talking to some little freshman whose jeans were too tight and shirt was too low. She had on way too much makeup and was flaunting herself to him.

“He's an asshole, Bree. Forget about him.” Tyler put his hand on Bree's shoulder and pulled her away. Alex's hand found the small of her back and she felt reassured by it.

“Yeah, he is. Let's go to math.” Bree still felt like she couldn't breathe. Her face must have showed it.

“Bree?” Alex stopped and pulled Bree so she was looking at him. “Bree? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I really am. He's not worth it anymore.” She forced a smile for Alex and he bought it. Tyler shot Bree a look that said 'No, you're not okay'.

They walked into math class and took their seats. Alex took the seat right next to Bree. A moment after the bell rang, a very frazzled teacher walked into the room. He was one of the administrators from the front office. “Morning class. Your teacher is out today, so I will be subbing for you. Unfortunately, I don't have any lesson plans or any idea of where your teacher keeps the lesson plans, so I'm going to treat this as a free block. You aren't allowed to go anywhere, but you can stay in here and do whatever you need to do.” He walked over and sat at his desk.

Lucie and Tyler pushed their desks over to where Alex and Bree were sitting. Lucie smiled and said, “How about a game of truth or dare?”