When No One's Watching

Throughout basketball practice, I was distracted. Tanner had asked me out, and it seemed to have come out of nowhere. I wasn’t complaining though. Tanner’s a nice, funny guy who is way too good looking for his own good. His floppy mess of blonde curls was enough for any girl to die for. I felt flattered that he liked me, causing a bubble of happiness to follow me around the court. This caused some problems as we ran through some drills.

“Sam!” the coach called to me, “What’s going on here?”

“I’m a little out of it today,” I said honestly after missing my third lay up.

“Do I need to send you home or have you sit out?” Coach was concerned, but it seemed her motive was to pick up the pace of the rest of the team, without me.

“No, Coach, not at all,” I replied, though secretly in my mind, I would have loved to go home, but I didn’t want to have to face my father about this.

The day that I quit basketball will be the day my dad disowns me. He was a collage basketball star, and since I’m an only child, he wants more than anything for me to love basketball as much as he did. I’ve never had the heart, or the guts, to tell him that it’s not my passion like it is his.

“Bring it in girls,” coach called and I slowly jogged towards her, “That was an okay practice, and I’ll let it slide this time, but you better bring it tomorrow.” With that we were dismissed and I hurried to the locker room to change. When I was comfortably dressed back into my regular clothes, I exited the gym and headed towards my car to drive home. When I neared the exit of the lot, I had to put on the breaks to keep from hitting a shadowed figure.

“Shit!” I exclaimed as I jolted to a halt in front of the man. He was wearing a custodian jumpsuit, and his golden hair seemed familiar. I didn’t have a chance to see who it was, as he headed towards the back entrance of the school. Furrowing my brow, I let it go and continued my way home.

As I went to bed that night, after suffering through my backbreaking amount of homework, I reflected upon Tanner. I had known him for long enough that I know he is a good guy, and I recognize that he is absolutely gorgeous and funny. Maybe there is a connection there I have overlooked in the past. A knot formed in my stomach as the thought of being on a date with Tanner, but after talking myself through it, I realized I had nothing to fear; it’s just Tanner. And soon my anxiety was replaced with a bubbling excitement.

I let a smile from on my face as I laid my head down. I have a date with Tanner, I thought to myself once again. As I drifted off into my happy dreams, one last thing wormed its way into my tired mind: Finn.