This Is What Happens When Love Meets Destruction

"Alright Vinnie," my older brother, Cade, said as I opened the passenger side door and got out, "good luck with your game. I'm sorry I can't stay to watch you," he paused for second, frowning to himself, "works a bitch sometimes."

"It's okay Cade," I said, hitching my bag up higher onto my shoulder as it slipped down, "I'll see you later on tonight when you get home, okay?"

"Alright, I love you sis." He said, waving to me as I shut the door.

Bending over, I peering in through the opened window. "I love you too, Cade." I replied.

With that, I straightened myself out and hurried into the gym while my brother set off downtown to the video store where he worked. Seeing my volleyball uniform, the lady who was running the admissions booth nodded at me, and waved me past the line, letting me enter the gym. Once inside, I saw that the JV game was just finishing up, meaning that within a couple of minutes the varsity teams will be warming up.

I hurried into the girls locker room and slid out of my sandals, putting my volleyball shoes on instead. I unzipped my hoodie and threw it into my bag, as well as my sandals, and then zipped it up. Leaving my bag underneath the bench, I went back out into the gym and joined the rest of my team who were sitting on the bleachers, waiting for their turn to take the floor.

Seeing me approach, Lauren looked up from her stats book and smiled at me. "Hey, there you are." She said. "Everybody was thinking you weren't going to show."

"I was running late." I sighed. "First I could only find one knee pad, and then once I found it, my car wouldn't start. Cade had to give me a ride back to the school before he went to work."

"That sucks." Lauren mumbled, turning her attention back to her stats book.

I watched her tally up the aces, kills, error, and assists for each player, but soon lost interest. Gazing around the gym, I searched for Alex, but frowned to myself when I wasn't able to find him anywhere.

"Uh, Lauren?" I asked.

"Hmm?" She muttered, still engrossed in her work.

"You haven't happened to see Alex around here anywhere, have you?" I asked hesitantly. "He ... he said that he would be here to watch the first game of the season, but ... " I trailed off, looking toward the main entrance as if he would magically appear there.

"No, hun, I'm sorry." Lauren replied. "I haven't seen Alex since this morning during break." She paused from her work and looked up at me. "I'm sure he'll be here pretty soon; you know him, he's probably just grabbing a slushie from 7/11 before he comes over here." She said, giving me a soft smile.

"Yeah," I sighed, "probably." Although I spoke the words, I didn't believe them. If Alex hadn't showed up by now, it's most likely he wasn't going to show up at all. He either showed up a couple minutes early for everything, or he didn't come at all.

Sighing quietly, I turned my gaze back to the court, where the JV teams were gathering their belongings from the bench. Seeing that they were leaving the floor, our varsity team stood up and began to wander toward the bin where we kept our volleyballs to begin warming up. I made a move to follow them when the sound of someone calling my name caused me to stop short.

Looking back to where Lauren was sitting, I saw that Jack was now sitting beside her, waving at me. Sitting on the other side of Jack was our friend Zack, who was in the same grade as Jack, Alex, and Rian, but went to a different school.

"Hey Jack." I smiled. "Hey Zack. When are you gonna cut your hair?" I laughed.

Zack shook his head, causing his shoulder length dark hair to fly about the place. "Never." He smirked.

Rolling my eyes, I suppressed another laugh. "What are you boys doing here?"

"We've come to cheer for you, of course." Zack said, giving me an obvious look.

"And to watch you run around in those spandex." Jack added. "Seriously, you think that we're just gonna stay at home and pass up an opportunity like this?" He teased.

I faked a mean look before I stuck my tongue out at them. Turning around, I uttered the word 'pervs' just loud enough for them to hear. The sound of them laughing together let me know that they heard me.

About ten minutes later, after we had stretched, warmed up, and practiced a little, each team separated to the serve line so that we could practice our serves for a couple of minutes. Grabbing a ball, I went to my usual spot to serve. Before I served though, I paused momentarily to gaze around the gym. There was now a lot more people here for the varsity game than there were for the JV game.

The gym was filled with family and spectators from the community. Many of my friends were there, but of all the faces I was looking at, there was one that was missing. Alex should be there, sitting by Jack, Lauren, Zack, and Rian (who had since joined them). Hell, he was supposed to be there, he told me he'd be there.

But like he had done so many times within these past two weeks, he lied. I think from now on, I was going to have to get used to that fact that I wasn't going to be seeing, or hanging out with Alex a whole lot anymore. It's hard, though, to accept something like that when that someone is one of your best friends.

Shaking my head, I did my best to push any more thoughts of Alex from my mind, and instead focused on the game.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Hey Vinnie, good game." A couple of my teammates called to me as they passed by me in the locker room.

"Hey, good game." I called after them just before they disappeared out the back door.

Sighing softly, I turned back to my locker that was wide open in front of me, and then shoved my shoes and my kneepads inside of it. Kicking it shut, I pulled my sandals and hoodie out of my backpack. Setting my sandals on the floor, I put my hoodie on and then took my socks off, stuffing them into my bag before I slid into my sandals. After I made sure I had everything, I zipped my bag up and slipped the strap over my arm, and then made my way out into the gym.

Almost every one was gone, except for the janitors who were sweeping up the floor, and a familiar figure who was lingering around the exit. Upon seeing me, a smile broke out across his face and he waved to me.

"Hey Vinnie," Jack said, "good game."

"Thanks." I smiled. "I bet you enjoyed the view, didn't you?"

Jack raised an eyebrow in response, and gave me a mischievous grin. "Of course."

I nudged him slightly with my elbow and laughed quietly as we started out the exit, and went out in to the cool night air. "What are you still doing here? I thought you'd be home by now, pigging out on junk food, enjoying the start of the weekend."

"Well, I would be there," he replied, "but, Lauren had to run home real fast, so she asked me if I would be able to give you a ride home tonight instead."

"Aww, you don't have to do that, Jack, I live clear on the opposite side of town as you." I said. "I can just call one of my brother's or something."

"No, it's fine." He insisted. "That is, if you don't mind riding on the back of my moped?"

"Jack, are we both even going to fit on there?" I grinned, eyeing it across the parking lot.

"Yeah, of course we'll fit." Jack said. "When I first got it, I had to escort my cousin Jared around, and he's like ... three times the size of you and I put together."

"Well, okay then." I said slowly.

When we got to Jack's moped, he handed me the helmet he had been carrying. "I only have one helmet so you get to wear it." He said.

"But, what about you?" I asked.

Jack raised his hand, waving it off as a no big deal sort of thing. "I'll be fine." Giving him a hesitant look, Jack laughed quietly and took the helmet from my hands, putting it on top of my head. "I'll be fine." He repeated as he snapped the straps together. "Now come on." He said, sitting down on his moped.

Seeing the uneasy look on my face, Jack rolled his eyes, suppressing a smile before he grabbed a hold of my hand, helping me sit down behind him.

"Hang on," he instructed me as he turned it on, "last thing I need to for Lauren to be giving me an earful about letting you fall off the back of my moped."

Doing as I was told, I wrapped my arms around Jack's slim waist and held on tightly as we zoomed off across the parking lot. The ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I actually loosened one arm from Jack's waist to hold my hand out, letting the wind blow through my fingers as we drove through town. We made it to my house about twenty minutes later; we probably would have gotten there sooner, but Jack had to take a detour as we evaded the cops; if they had seen Jack driving a moped without a helmet, they were bound to pull him over.

Just as Jack slowed to a stop in my driveway, my mom pulled up in her Jeep Wrangler just behind us. Getting out, she smiled and waved at us.

"Hey sweetheart, hey Jack." She said. "How did the game go?" She called over her shoulder as she walked around to the back of her Jeep and opened up the 'trunk'.

I pulled the helmet off and handed it over to Jack before I replied. "It was great. We won; I had eleven kills altogether and six aces."

My mom shut the back of the jeep, and came back into our view, packing a couple bags of groceries in her arms. "That's great, honey. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get off of work earlier enough to stop by." She said sadly before she turned and looked at Jack. "Jack, sweetie, thank you for giving Victoria a ride home."

"It was no problem." He replied.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" My mom asked. "We're having fried chicken and mashed potatoes."

Jack hesitated for a moment, glancing over at me as if he were asking for my permission. Laughing softly, I nodded my head.

"Of course he's staying." I grinned. "Barakat never passes up an offer of fried chicken."

Jack huffed slightly, a fake look of hurt crossing his face. "You make me sound like I'm an overweight teenager, who can't turn down any type of food."

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying." I laughed. "I mean, look at you," I said, motioning to his skinny frame, "totally overweight."

Jack laughed loudly and then stood up, putting his kickstand down before resting his helmet over his handle bars. "Keep calling me fat and I'm going to have to cut you off from anymore joy riding on my moped."

I rolled my eyes slightly, and laughed quietly. "Sure, Jack." I grinned as I grabbed a hold of his hand and led him into the house after my mom.

Once inside the foyer, I shut the door behind us and then released his hand, pointing to the doorway to our left that led into the living room. "Go challenge Casey to a game of Mortal Kombat." I said, speaking of my other brother, who was just a year older than me. "I'm gonna go take a shower real fast; if my mom asks, can you tell her I'll be done in about ten minutes or so?"

Jack nodded his head, and went into the living room without another word, leaving me to head upstairs.

I went directly into the bathroom and hopped in the shower, and was able to wash myself in record time. After I did my stuff, I turned the shower off, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself before I snuck down the hallway and to my room. Quickly, I dried myself up and used the towel to wrap my hair up, keeping it out of my way as I put my clothes on.

Just as I finished getting dressed, there was a softly knock on my door. "Um, Vinnie?" Jack called through the door. "Are you in there?"

"Yeah, its open Jack, come in." I replied.

A moment later, the door opened and Jack emerged, packing our house phone with him. He held it out to me, giving me a hesitant look. "It's Alex."

Frowning to myself, I took the phone from him. Jack shut the door and went to take a seat on my bed, watching me as I held the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?" I mumbled.

"Hey Vinnie." Alex said softly. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the game. I heard you kicked some ass though."

"Yup." Was all I said.

I heard Alex sigh on the other end of the line, and I could almost picture the frown that was clinging to his lips just then.

"So," he said after a few seconds of silence, "you guys are treating Jack to some fried chicken, huh?"

"Yeah, he gave me a ride home on his moped." A little smile crossed my lips as I recalled the trip. "We even ran from the cops." I added, causing both Jack and I to laugh as we recalled the event.

"Oh fuck, I could honestly picture you two involved in a high speed pursuit on a moped, running from the cops." Alex laughed quietly.

"So, yeah, all the running from the cops, and evading the law caused us to work up an appetite." I said.

"I was just thinking, this is the first time Jack's been over to your house for dinner, huh?" Alex said thoughtfully. "Usually I'm the one being invited to stay for dinner."

Frowning slightly at the thought, I mumbled, "yeah, well you weren't there when you said you'd be, otherwise you might have been invited too."

At my words, Alex fell silent.

I sighed softly, and shook my head. "I'm sorry, that was a bitchy thing to say Alex."

"No, no, you're right." He replied quietly. "I wasn't there even though I said that I would be. I missed your first game of the season, I deserved to be bitched at."

Not knowing what to say, I remained silent for fear that I would say the wrong thing, or say something that would come off in a bitchy mood again.

"Well, how about tomorrow we hang out then?" Alex suggested. "We'll go watch a movie or something."

"Yeah, that sounds good." I agreed. "I'll meet you at the movie theater at one o'clock?"

"Sure." Alex replied. "One o'clock, I'll be there."

"Alright Alex." I said.

Alex muttered a few incoherent words under his breath. "I gotta go Vinnie." He said shortly. "I'll see you tomorrow though."

"Kay, bye Alex." I said softly.

"Bye." He whispered quietly before the line went dead.

Sighing quietly, I turned the phone off and then looked up to find Jack watching me with a sorry look.

"You think he's slipping away from you, don't you?" He asked softly.

Slowly, I nodded my head. "Yeah ... we're always making plans to do things, but sometimes I don't know whether or not I can count on him to actually show up. Before he started dating that bitch he was always there when he said he'd be but now ... " I trailed off, shaking my head.

"Now he flakes on you every little while." Jack mumbled, his eyes locked directly with mine.

It was at that moment that it finally occurred to me that Jack was going through almost the exact same thing I was. Well, apart from the trying to get over Alex part, Jack was also being forced to share his best friend with someone he completely hated. Perhaps one of the only guys at the school who saw Amy for who she really was, Jack was just as mad as I was about Alex dating her.

"Maybe it's just a phase." I suggested. "He'll get over it in a little while, and soon things will be back to how they used to be."

"Hopefully." Jack sighed.

Mentally, I agreed with him. Hopefully Alex would come to his senses and get rid of Amy, and hang out with me, Jack, Rian, Zack, and Lauren like he used to do. Hopefully, but we all know that simply hoping for something hardly ever gets you anywhere.