Before It Rains

Monday’s rehearsal was the same thing as Saturday. After rehearsal for Max and I, and sort’s practices for the rest, we said goodbye to Asia and met up in Austin and Will’s room to watch a movie. Their room was a mess (Which probably goes without saying). I climbed up onto Will’s bed, one of the only clean sports in the room.

“So… what are we going to watch?” I asked, looking around. Austin was lying across his bed, Ruben was curled up in a chair, Kai and Shane were sitting on the floor, and Will was sprawled out on the half of his bed that I wasn’t taking up. Austin got up and looked on the shelf beside the TV.

“Well, we’ve got Back to the Future, Batman, and um, Finding Nemo?” he said, looking through the choices.

“Finding Nemo!” Kai and Will said in unison. They slapped each other five.

“I thought you were supposed to be tough football players,” I said, giving Will a little shove that sent him tumbling off the bed.

“Sa-am!” he whined, giving my name two syllables, and climbing back onto the bed.

“Speaking of football, you guys are all coming to the big game on Friday, right?” Kai asked. This week was homecoming and the football team was playing against Acadia Valley under the lights on Friday night.

“I don’t get why everyone’s so hung up on football,” Austin said as the previews started. “I mean, the rest of the teams have games too.”

“Tomorrow, varsity soccer game at four. I’ll be there,” I told him. No way was I going to miss my brother’s first game of the season. I may suck at sports, but I was one heck of a cheerleader. “Girl’s varsity Wednesday, field hockey on Thursday, pep rally and football on Friday, and dance on Saturday,” I recited.

“At least someone has a clue,” Kai said. “You guys are all going Saturday night too, right?”

“Do we have a choice?” Max asked. Kai shrugged.

“Some girl from my English class asked me and I said yes. I don’t actually know the girl, so you guys better be there to lighten the mood,” he told us.

“Woot woot! Kai has a date!” Will said. Kai glared back. “Hey, man, whatever, at least you have someone to go with!”

“Does anyone else have someone to go with?” Austin asked.

“Sam, will you go with me?” Shane said out of no where. I raised my eyebrows at him.

“You’re only asking because you don’t want to ask someone else,” I accused.

“So?”

“No way, find someone else!”

“Aw, Sa-am!”

“Shane, if I have to go, I want to go with someone who wants to go with me, not with someone just because they don’t have a date!” I said. This conversation could get really weird, really fast.

“Shhh… the movie’s starting,” Ruben said, pointing. I shot him a grateful glance. Shane shut up, as did everyone else. And the matter was dropped.

The next day, Mr. Samuels announced that due to homecoming, rehearsals would not be happening until Saturday. He didn’t seem particularly happy about the decision, but he made it clear that we need to be off book by the following week. And that was that.

After classes, Max, Asia, and I headed over to the fields. We claimed seats on the home team’s bleachers, where a few students were already sitting. Across the field I could see parents from the Acadia Valley school starting to fill the away team’s bleachers.

Ten minutes to four, I turned to Asia. “Where’s Will and company?”

“I dunno. They should be here. I mean, Will is Austin’s best friend, and it wouldn’t be like him to miss one of his games…” As if on cue, Will, Kai, and Shane came racing across the lawn and climbed up on to the bleachers.

“Hey, where have you guys been?” I demanded.

“Kai and I had a shortened practice after school… and I don’t know where Shane was. We saw him on the way over,” Will explained.

“I was sleeping! Sorry!” I rolled my eyes.

At that moment the ref blew the whistle and eleven players from each team jogged out onto the field. Our colors were blue and white, the other team – orange and black. I leaned over to Asia.

“The colors kind of clash, don’t you think?” She laughed.

The game itself turned out to be thrilling, which I don’t even mean in a sarcastic way. Ruben scored one goal, and one kid who I recognized from my math class, a senior this year, scored a final goal with thirty seconds left to put our team one ahead of Acadia. So of course we won, 2-1.

I ran over to the home team bench as the rest of the kids flooded out back to the dorms or to dinner. I ran over and hugged my brother.

“Yay! That was amazing!” I yelled.

“Thanks,” he said smiling.

I turned to Austin. “Do you object?” I asked.

“To what?”

I grabbed him in a hug. “Congratulations!”

“Thanks, but I’m having a little trouble breathing…”

I let go. “Oh… ha ha, sorry.” He shrugged.

“Well, I’m gonna go get some food. Are you guys coming?” I asked.

“I’ll be over in a couple minutes,” Ruben said. “I’m going to go change out of this.” He pointed down at his uniform, which was streaked with mud, due to the muddy field.

“I’ll come,” Austin said. “Screw changing. Let’s go.” And we walked across the field towards the cafeteria.

We were almost there when Austin said something that caught me a little off guard. “So… I guess we all know now that you don’t want to go to homecoming with Shane. But… I was thinking… would you come with me?”

I hesitated. I was kind of annoyed that he’d asked. I mean, I did kind of want to go with him… or really wanted to go with him. But I hadn’t said yes to Shane’s desperate plead and it wasn’t fair to say yes to Austin just because he didn’t have a date yet either.

“Look, Austin, I can’t. I’m not going to go with you because you don’t have someone else to go with. I told Shane that already. It’s not really fair.”

We’d arrived at the cafeteria doors and I pulled the right one open.

“Yeah, but it’s not what you thi…” I cut him off.

“No, Austin, I can’t okay?” And I headed for the food line. I felt bad about it, really bad, but I couldn’t do it. I piled my dinner onto my tray and went in search of the rest of my friends. I found them at our usual table, and sat in the chair between Asia and my brother.

Five minutes later, Austin came over, carrying a tray and sat on the other side of the table, across from me. He looked like he could start bawling any minute.

“Hey, dude, what’s the matter? You won!” Will said.

Austin just shrugged. “Tired.”

Seeing him so unhappy after his game because of me made me even more upset. I could feel water pricking at my eyes. I finished my food quickly and scooted my chair away from the table. Asia stood too.

“Hey, guys, we’re going back over to my room. See you later!” We walked to the door and back to the girl’s dorm building. Her roommate wasn’t there and we were alone.

“Sam, what happened?”

“I don’t know! Austin asked me to go to homecoming, and I said no and now he’s so sad and I wish I hadn’t!” I could feel a tear sliding down my cheek.

“Did you want to go with him?” I nodded. “Then why didn’t you say yes?” I explained to her about the conversation the night before. “Sam, he really did want to go with you. He was planning to ask you for the past week.”

“Well, no one told me that!”

“Because no one knew. But if you want to go with him, you should tell him now.”

“He won’t want to,” I told her. I’d turned a guy who I might possibly have liked down because I thought he was using me just so he had a date. I’d killed him inside. Why would he want to go with me?

“Just try,” Asia said. “Look, they’re probably back from dinner now. Go talk to him.”

We walked back over to the boy’s dorm and I said goodbye to her at the door since she couldn’t come in. I took the elevator up to my room. Sure enough, my brother was there.

“Sammy, what the hell happened?” he asked me. Crying again, I spilled all the details.

“Go over and see him,” he told me. “Will and Austin walked back from dinner with me. They should still be there.” I shook my head. “Go.” He pointed. I crossed the hall and knocked on the door.

Will opened it. “Oh, hey Sam.”

“Austin here?” I asked, trying to sound normal. I don’t think he was fooled.

“He’s sleeping.”

I looked at my watch it’s not even seven thirty yet,” I reminded him.

“Okay, so he told me to tell you he was sleeping. He’s still kind of, um, recovering, I guess you could say?” he said in a lower tone so Austin, probably not fifteen feet away, couldn’t hear.

“Will, this is important!”

“I know,” he said with a weak smile. “But talk to him tomorrow. The poor guy can only take so much.”

I walked back over to my room as he closed the door. As I reentered my own, Ruben gave me a questioning glance. In response, I flung myself onto my bed and screamed into my pillow.