When No One's Watching

“Hey,” Tanner said, surprising me as he wrapped his arms around me. I grinned, and turned to face him. His olive eyes were smiling down at me. It had been three weeks since our first date, and we were taking things slow. There was no need to rush; it’s only high school after all. The most physical contact we had was hugging, and occasionally he would kiss my temple or cheek, but it was sweet, and I savored every second of it.

“What’s up?” I asked as I turned back to my locker, taking books out and struggling to fit as many as possible into my bag. It was Friday, and we had a three-day weekend coming up, and because of this all my teachers decided to lay the homework on thick.

“I’m just heading out, but I figured I’d walk you to the gym,” Tanner smiled.

“Great, I’m about done,” I said, referring to my bulging book bag. The zipper was only inches away from closing and it wouldn’t budge. Tanner took the bag from me and somehow managed to close the zipper completely. “How did you do that?” I asked.

“Super human strength,” Tanner replied smugly. “Don’t deny it.” I lightly hit his shoulder and scoffed.

“Speaking of super human strength, I have weights today instead of practice,” I said, groaning.

“That sucks,” He replied, “I have to start going to weights as well, since the soccer season starts pretty soon.” We walked in a comfortable silence for a while on our way to the gym before Tanner spoke up again, “I’m going out of town this weekend,”

“Oh,” I said, a little disappointed. I was excited for the three days without school, but I would be without Tanner and Kendra. Kendra and her mom were going to Chicago for some mother-daughter bonding time. “Where are you going?” I asked.

“Pre-season retreat,” He responded and I understood. Every year for soccer, they go on a team trip for a weekend. “I’ll miss you,” He finally said. We reached the gym and stopped. Tanner turned to face me. My heart thudded as he leaned his forehead against mine.

“I’ll miss you too,” I replied, looking into his beautiful eyes. Before I had any more time to think, his lips caught mine. It was soft and sweet and better than anything I could have imagined. Just as soon as it had started, it was over. I smiled and hugged Tanner tightly.

“I’ll call you when I can,” He said lightly into my ear. We pulled apart and headed towards the locker room door. Before I went in I stopped and turned to him.

“I’ll see you Tuesday,” I called, and he grinned back before we turned our separate ways.

Since Tanner and I started going out, it has made basketball practice a lot easier to get through. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily make me a better player, as it keeps me thoroughly distracted, but nonetheless, thinking of him makes practice go faster. Today was no exception. The days we spent in the weight room were usually my least favorite, but today, I had so much to think about that before I knew it, time was up and I was free to my weekend. We usually practiced on weekends as well, but we were coming to a close in our season and coach had given us the weekend off.

I shuffled out to my car, mumbling under my breath about the snow. I wasn’t such a big fan of February. I was about to enter my car when I heard my name being called. I looked up, trying to see who was calling me. To say I was confused when Finn walked up to me is an understatement. He was wearing a janitor suit and I recognized him as the janitor I had almost hit a few weeks ago.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying not to sound rude.

“I’m a night janitor here,” He replied.

“But you work at Paul’s,” Nothing was making sense to me.

“I’m a college student remember? I need money. During the day I work at Paul’s, and at night I work here cleaning up after all you slobs,” He joked, the wind tousling his shaggy hair, a crooked smile on his face.

“Oh, okay,” I said, smiling.

“I haven’t seen you at Paul’s in a while,” He commented.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve just been really busy with school and practices,” I admitted, “But I did come in a few times last week, you weren’t working though.”

“Cool,” He responded, “Well, I’ll see you around,” And he began to walk into the school, whistling the whole way.