Allergies, Annoying, and Stubborn. Yes, I'm In Love With That.

I stepped off the bus and shivered from the cold air. A few of us – Mr. Carter’s favorites – convinced him that it was too cold for uniforms, and that everyone would be much warmer if we simply wore our own clothing and coats instead. It was true, after all. Well, warmer for everyone else. I didn’t bring a coat.

“This is gonna be a long night,” I told Caleb as we were getting our instruments off the trailer. He looked at me with beads of sweat running down his face.

“Are you kidding? Do you see this?” He pointed to his face. “It’s freaking hot.”

I smiled. It was ridiculous. He was always burning up, face red, and sweat pouring. He was his own furnace. “You should really go see a doctor.”

After everyone put up there instrument cases, Caleb and I shut the doors and started walking behind the group. This is how we were – we looked out for the band. We cleaned up after them, kept them in line, etc. Out on the field, the football team had already ran through the banner meaning we were late. Instead of going out to play the school song like usual, we just went to the stands and took our place.

The percussion set up in front, then up another row was the woodwinds, then the high brass, and then the low brass. The French horn is more considered a woodwind then a brass – weird, I know – but I liked to sit with the brass. Caleb and Erin played trumpets, my least favorite instruments.

Everyone settled in for a long, cold game.

After a two minutes into the game, a heavy thunk sounded next to me. I looked down and saw a tanish-brown coat with a tiny moose on the breast.

“Put it on,” a voice instructed.

I opened my mouth to object but an involuntary shiver ran through my body. “You sure?”

Jack smiled down at me from two rows up. He was in the regular red band t-shirt and his wrangler jeans. Yeah, he didn’t wear the normal loose jeans that most guys did. He wore the dad jeans. “Just put it on.”

I slowly started putting it on. “You’re gonna get cold.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Jack, it’s freezing out here! Just tell me when you want it back, okay?”

He continued to smile and shook his head. “I won’t want it back.”

It was warm and was a little big, but it added to the safe and protective feeling. I felt something stir in my stomach at the thought of wearing a guy’s jacket. I wonder if this is what it’s like when a cheerleader wears her football boyfriend’s jersey. But Jack and I aren’t dating. I didn’t like him like that, and we would never, ever date. The thought was disgusting.

I eyed him down. “You’re going to get sick. You’re so small and fragile. Such a sickly boy.” People laughed.

“Lily, just turn around and watch the game. I’m fine. It’s really not that cold.”

I shrugged, but still felt a little bad. “Fine. But tell me when you get cold!”

Football. Geez, what is there to say? It’s long, boring, and full of cheaters. Baseball was more of my sport. At least the guys looked hot in their uniforms. In football, the boys wore bulky, stuffy uniforms with helmets and mouth guards. Could that be any less attractive? In baseball, their clothing was tight and very, very appealing. And they had cool caps that shaded their eyes, giving them a smoky and mysterious look. It wasn’t just the players that were so great, though. It was the game in general.

Thunk!

I frowned and turned around to see an empty plastic water bouncing behind me. Are you kidding me? I looked up to see Jack looking away, trying hard to fight the smile that played on his lips. He was such a boy! And a bad flirter at that. I shook my head and looked back towards the game.

Thunk!

Annoyance flashed across my mind. Just ignore him. He’ll quit eventually.

But three more bottles later, I was fed up. I turned around and grabbed the bouncing Gatorade bottle and chunked it back at him. “Quit, Jack!”

He laughed and hit the bottle away. “What?”

“You know what!” When he grinned a thought occurred to me. I’d been wearing his coat for most of the game. He was probably freezing! Suddenly, I wasn’t so annoyed, more like guilty. I began to take the warm jacket off. “Jack! I’m sorry, I forgot! You’re cold!”

He shrugged. “I’m okay. Really.”

Everyone around me was shivering in their coats and blowing warm air into their hands. “Okay” my butt! I finished taking it off and noticed the sudden change of smell. It didn’t smell like…sweat? It wasn’t exactly that, though. It was a deep, musky smell. Warm and…whoa! I shifted where I was sitting and slightly blushed. That was an inappropriate feeling for somewhere public.

“Here.” I tossed it to him and he started putting it on. “See. You’re freezing.”

“Yeah, but it was for you.”

I blinked and turned away. I didn’t take things like that well. I simply didn’t know how to. Any intimate emotion someone showed me always scared me. One little word, a tiny action would send me running.

“Here,” Caleb said next to me. “Take mine. I’m burning up anyways.” His face was red from being hot. There was something really wrong with that boy.

I smiled and reached out for the light jacket, but stopped and pulled my hand back. Something felt wrong in wearing his jacket after Jack’s. But I was cold! Just take the jacket, Lily.

I shook my head. “No thanks.”

He frowned and waved it in front of me. “But I’m not even wearing it. Haven’t been.”

Exactly, I thought. Just take it. “Nah, it’s not that cold.”

He withdrew his offer and laid it between us. “Okay, but it’s there when you want it.”

I smiled at him, but my head was so confused. I knew I wouldn’t be wearing it, no matter how cold I got.

BEEP! The game was over. Twenty-one to four; we lost and I was wrong again. Even though I knew it was coming, I still glanced behind me to watch Jack flail his arms around as he counted us off.

“One, two, one two three!”

I couldn’t help but watch from the corner of my eye as he picked up his trombone and began to blast the school song louder than any of us. Such an annoying pain!