My Girl

My fingers wrapped around the putter as a silence once again fell across the crowd watching me. Nick and Joe, the two guys Sylvia and I had met in line, were now standing beside me. Sylvia was muttering something under her breath, but I blocked out the noise.

We were broken off into pairs, with the exception of one group of three, since our team has odd amounts. Luckily enough, Sylvia and I were put with Joe and Nick, which meant we had been spending the entire afternoon with them. And like I suspected, they seemed to be pretty cool, for being…Meadow Wood kids.

I straightened my arms out and shook my knees lightly, making sure my circulation was good. I had this weird paranoia when I was being watched. Every organ in my body had to be running perfectly, I couldn’t have any discomfort whatsoever or my game would be off. This probably explained the impatience I could sense from Joe, who was shifting his weight back and forth on his feet. Nick was standing patiently, staring at my posture, probably criticizing it inside of his head. Sylvia was dead silent now.

With a swing of my arms, the ball glided across the green, having a slight curve from the distractions around me, but it landed in the hole easily, nonetheless.

Out of the quiet applause, Sylvia’s was the loudest. Her annoying ponytail bobbed in the back of her head as she walked up to me, giving me a high five when we approached each other. The smile couldn’t be wiped off her face, not now. That shot had just put us ahead. Although the odds were small, since Nick was up next, and he hadn’t missed a shot this entire morning.

“Good job.” Joe said quietly, nodding his head toward me. I smiled shyly and put my golf club back in it’s appropriate slot and looked over to where Nick was standing, but he had already walked over to where his ball was. His approach was far less complicated than mine, he also took less time.

My hands started to sweat underneath my gloves as he furrowed his brow in concentration, biting his lip lightly as he got in his stance. Sylvia was checking him out too, I could tell, by the way she popped her knee out and rested a hand on her hip.

Like expected, Nick made the hole. He punched the air in front of him subtly, leaning down to get his ball.

Sylvia was the one to bit her lip this time, and I nudged her lightly in the stomach. She laughed quietly, but loud enough for the two boys to hear.

“I think you are the most positive loser I have ever met.” Joe joked, slinging his bag around his shoulder and giving his brother, yes, brother, a high five.

“Well, good game.” I said, rolling my eyes at Sylvia’s ridiculous behavior. I mean, sure. Both guys were stunning, and were great, and they could really pull off the tucked in polo shirt and Bermudas, but there was nothing to swoon over. Ahem.

“Same to you, it was pretty close.” Joe answered, falling in step next to me. Sylvia purposely put herself next to Nick, trying to start a conversation.

I nodded my head, not knowing what to say next. Instead of walking in awkward silence, I listened in on the conversation happening behind me.

“Your really good.” Sylvia had just finished saying. Even if I had only known Nick for a few hours, I’m pretty sure I knew what his facial expression would be to this.

“Thanks. Your good too.” He said instead. I stared up at the sky, which was starting to grow dark patches of grey clouds.

“It looks like it might rain.” Joe said next to me, putting me back into our own conversation.

“Yeah, it’s a good thing we finished when we did.” I murmured, spotting the clubhouse from the top of the hill the four of us were standing on.

I heard my name suddenly escape from Sylvia’s mouth and turned my head slightly. Nick’s cheeks had splotches of red on them, we made eye contact, and he quickly looked away. From the way Sylvia was staring at me, I knew some part of her plan had gone horribly wrong. Especially in the way she started quickening her pace to walk away from Nick, and instead made her way up to the other side of Joe.

I glanced down at my shoe, coming up with a plan, and stopped abruptly, leaning down to “tie” my “untied shoelace”. Just like things were supposed to happen in my picture perfect plan, Nick stopped.

“So, your totally pissed I made your undefeated team lose?” Nick teased, watching me as I stood back up on my feet.

“Totally. Get away from me.” I said, smiling after I spoke. Nick helped me carry my bag down the other side of the hill as we walked down it slowly.

“So how long have you been going to Meadow Wood?” I asked him, changing the topic. Nick rolled his eyes and shifted his bag from one arm to the other.

“Since sixth grade, I hate private schools.” He mumbled, staring down at his golf clubs. I nodded my head in agreement.

“Me too. Before my dad left, I went to public school. It was great, I didn’t have to wear uniform.” I glared down at the ugly uniform I was wearing as I spoke.

“Did your parents get divorced?” Nick asked. It caught me off guard, since most people I talked to already knew the entire situation, I mean, our school was private, it only had a few hundred people. I shook my head and stared out at the darkening clouds as I spoke.

“He died when I was twelve.”

“I’m sorry, I had no idea.” Nick sounded sincerely worried that he had asked, and I just shook my head, smiling politely at him.

“Of course you didn’t, it’s fine.” I partially lied. I mean, I had gotten over the situation, but at times I just missed my dad so much. Especially when I was at one of his favorite places in the world.

A wave of silence fell over us, but it wasn’t awkward. “He loved golf.”

“Who did?”

“My dad.” We stopped at the outside of the country clubs entrance, ignoring the strange glances we got from our team mates from the other side of the glass doors.

“Is that why your in it now?” A few raindrops fell on Nick’s perfectly proportioned face, but he ignored them, still balancing my glance.

“Partially. We used to play it all the time.” I rubbed my hands together through my gloves, feeling a blister start to form on my palm.

“It shows, your really good.” Nick complimented. I was flattered, but scoffed at the same time.

“Please, I saw you judging my swing the entire eighteen holes.” Nick couldn’t help but smile at that. My stomach fluttered as I saw him smile at something I had said for the first time this afternoon.

“Maybe I could teach you.” He suggested, raising his eyebrows at the thought. I shrugged my shoulders and met eyes with a very peeved Sylvia.

“Wouldn’t that be sort of…cheating?” I asked, nodding toward Joe, who was giving Nick the same look that Sylvia was giving me. Nick rolled his eyes and pulled a pencil out of his bag, scribbling down something on the other side of a scorecard.

“I guess they will just have to get over it. That is, if you are willing to hang out with me again.” He handed me the paper. I tried to keep it cool, but when I saw the seven digit code on the paper he handed me, I wanted to scream.

“Definitely. I will call you sometime.” I said, folding the paper and shoving it into my hideous skirt. Nick nodded and smiled again, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, our bus is packing up. I will talk to you soon.” Nick returned his bag to his shoulder and glanced at his team. Joe was the only one looking our way, and he shot one more glance at me before turning on his heels and following the rest of the people out to their bus that was waiting in the back.

When Nick was far enough away, I pulled the paper out of my skirt and stared down at the numbers, then flipping it over to the score sheet.

There our names, Sylvia, Nick, Joe, and Elise, were written in Nick’s handwriting. Next to our names was our scores, kept neatly and legible, showing that my team, indeed, had lost.

A hand shot out across my vision and grabbed the paper from me. “Oh, somebody got the hottie’s phone number!” Sylvia squealed, changing her mood completely from the way she was acting a few minutes ago. She linked arms with me and offered to take my bag. “Sit with me on the bus?”

I nodded my head, she knew the answer to that already, and continued to clutch onto my bag. She stared at it as we walked and gasped.

“I’m not busy Saturday, we should go out and get you a new bag. This one is a little…old.” She flicked the keychain and I moved it away from her.

“I like it.” I argued, shoving it into back of the bus. Sylvia continued to stare, but snapped out of it as soon as I slammed the back door shut. “Are you coming?” I snapped at her, glaring at the back of her head. That stupid ponytail, I swear, someday I was just going to rip it off of her head.

I smirked slightly at the idea, probably looking like a crazy lunatic to anyone who wasn’t inside of my head, which meant everyone, and sat comfortably down in the middle section of the bus.

Taking my phone out of my pocket, I programmed Nick’s number into it and stared at it the rest of the way home.