Diamond In The Rough

She slipped into the passenger seat of my truck, and relaxed as if she had been in my car a hundred times before. I hopped in as well, and as usual, I turned on the radio as soon as I started the engine. AC/DC started playing and I grinned. There was nothing better than good music after a good practice.

“I love this song!” Cassidy beamed, turning it up a little bit. She tapped her hands to the beat against her knees, and sung along quietly.

“Yeah?” I asked. Yet again, I was taken by surprise. She wasn’t into pop, or at least, if she was, she also had an appreciation for good old rock.

“Hell yeah! TNT is probably one of my favorite songs,” she smiled. I grinned and followed Claude and Danny out of the parking lot. This was a good day.

When we got to the restaurant (it was Danny’s turn to pick where we ate), Claude immediately made Cassidy sit next to him. For some reason, I was kind of pissed off by it, but I shrugged it off and sat across from her. Her and Claude babbled away in French, laughing, and even drawing a few loud laughs from Danny. I was irked by the fact that I couldn’t understand what was being said, but I bit back my frustration and fiddled with my napkin. Andrej leaned over.

“Dude, why do you look pissed?” he whispered.

“I’m not pissed,” I said.

“You dig her, don’t you?” he asked. I immediately glared at him.

“No…” I said, although it sounded so halfhearted, even I had trouble believing it. Did I dig her?

“So Cassidy…tell me something. You seem so comfortable around a bunch of guys…you weren’t even phased when you walked into a locker room full of half naked men…are you a lesbian?” Andrej asked suddenly. I spit out my water and Claude, Danny, Scott, and Cassidy all stared at him in shock.

“Dude…you can’t just go asking people if they’re lesbians…” Claude said quietly.

“Sure I can, I want to know. If she’s going to be hanging around, I want to know just in case one of us starts to like her if it’s pointless or not,” Andrej shrugged. I was tempted to punch him, but I kind of wanted to know too. Cassidy sighed.

“No, I’m not a lesbian. I have four brothers, all of them older than me. Two of them are Marines, one played football, and the other was a runner, so I’m used to ripped, half naked dudes running around all over the place. Also, I was a swimmer in high school and college, so practically naked guys is a constant in my life,” she sighed. Danny shook his head.

“Okay, cool,” Andrej said before sipping his water. I pulled out my phone and sent him a text.

You’re a dumbass. Way to make this awkward. Andrej read the text before typing a response.

Well I was curious, and if you dig her, it’s better to know now before you’re all love-sick for her and get your heart crushed. I read the response and wanted to shove my phone down his throat.

Stop saying I dig her. Damn dude. I responded. He simply smirked and put his phone back in his pocket.

“Hey Dan, why so serious?” she asked, glancing at me as I contemplated breaking my phone in half.

“Huh?” I asked, looking up at her. Her eyes were locked onto mine, and I swallowed roughly. There was something about those stormy gray eyes that made me squirm.

“You look pissed,” she said.

“I’m not pissed,” I replied quickly. She shook her head disbelievingly, and then turned to Claude. She said something in rapid fire French, and he quickly turned to Danny, who nodded.

“We all agree that you look pissed,” Danny said.

“Everyone thinks I look pissed all the time. Maybe that’s what pisses me off,” I suggested irritably. Truth be told, I was pissed, but I just didn’t know why. Cassidy shook her head.

“Okay, believe what you want Carcillo,” she sighed.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, my temper flaring. She smirked. She knew exactly what to say to get me irritated, and I had known her for less than a week.

“Oh, I think you know,” she smiled. I gritted my teeth and started toying with the paper napkin again, and she started talking to Claude and Danny once more. Andrej and Scott didn’t even attempt to talk to me, knowing how well I conversed after being irritated. The only guy who got worse than me was Pronger, but it took a hell of a lot more to piss him off.

*Cassidy’s Point of View*

He was pretty quiet the entire ride back to the Skate Zone, and I felt like my snarky comments had something to do with it.

“Dan?” I asked.

“Hmm?” he grunted, not taking his eyes off of the road.

“Did I do something to piss you off?” I asked. I saw his jaw clench.

“No…not really,” he muttered.

“So I did, but you just don’t want to tell me?” I asked. He sighed and ran a hand through his mop of hair.

“I just…I don’t like when people start talking in different languages and I can’t understand what they’re saying,” Dan finally said. I frowned.

“I’m sorry. You could have said something. I was just excited to finally get to use my French,” I explained. I saw his grip on the steering wheel ease up a bit, and I smiled.

“Oh…okay. So uh…do you wanna do this again some time?” he asked. I felt something weird flutter in my stomach.

“Sure,” I smiled.

“Cool…I’ll call you,” he grinned as I hopped out of his truck.

“I’ll be waiting,” I smirked before flouncing off to the bus stop. Wait a second, did I just flirt with him?!