One of the Boys

When we got back to Nick’s house we went back to playing football like nothing ever happened. I won that game.

“Well, I see you feeling better,” Nick said.

“Yeah, but I still don’t think you should have given Aaron a black eye. What will your fans think of you?” I asked.

“They’d understand if I told them what happened,” Nick said. I looked at my watch. It was 6:00.

“Do you have to go?” Nick asked.

“Not yet, but I’ll have to go in an hour,” I said looking back up at Nick. Suddenly I heard the back door to the backyard open. I looked and saw Joe walked towards me. He smiled at me and I smiled back at him.

“Hey Alex,” he greeted me. He gave me a hug.

“Hi, Joe.” I said as I hugged him back.

“What are you doing?” he asked me after he let me go.

“We’re playing football, wanna play with us?” I asked Joe.

“Sure, let me go get Kevin too,” he said as he ran back in the house. A few minutes later Joe came out with Kevin behind him.

“Who are the team captains?” Nick asked.

“Alex and Kevin,” Joe said.

“You can pick first,” Kevin told me. I was hoping he wouldn’t say that. Now I have to pick between Joe and Nick. I wanted to pick Nick, but I knew Joe was expecting me to pick him, and if I didn’t he might get suspicious that there was something going on between me and Nick, which there wasn’t, even though I liked Nick, a lot. Suddenly I saw my third option.

“Frankie,” I said. Frankie cheered and ran over to me.

“Joe,” Kevin called out. Joe walked over to Kevin unhappily. I was happy. Now I could have Nick on my team, and not make Joe suspicious. I gave Kevin the ball.



“We won, we won, we won!” Frankie chanted. I smiled at his enthusiasm. We had beat Kevin and Joe, 13 to 9. Joe walked over to me with a smile.

“Great game,” he said. I thought he was going to give me a high-five but instead he wrapped his arms around my waist, leaned forward and kissed me. I kissed him back for a few minutes, then I realized we weren’t alone. I pulled back and saw Kevin, Frankie, and Nick staring at us. Kevin was staring at us with a look of awkwardness. Frankie was staring at us, eyes wide with shock. Nick was staring at us with a crushed look, like someone had punched him in the stomach. He walked back in the house.

“Joe, I-I should get going,” I said.

“Ok, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Joe said. I waved goodbye to Kevin and Frankie and walked in the house. I had to talk to Nick before I left. I needed to know why he looked so hurt. He wasn’t jealous, was he? He said he used to like me, but he said he was over it. I walked upstairs. It wasn’t hard to find Nick’s room, all the doors had the boys names on them and Nick’s room had the sound of guitar strumming from it. I walked to his door and was about to walk in when I heard him start singing.



I walked in the room.

“That was an amazing song, Nick,” I complimented. He looked up with surprise.

“You heard the whole song?” he asked in surprise. I nodded.

“It was really good,” I said. Nick looked mad.

“Go away,” he said angrily. I glared at him.

“You were the one who invited me over,” I said, just as angry. Oh great, Nick was acting bipolar again.

“Yeah, and now I’m uninviting you, so go away,” he said angrily.

“Fine, but don’t expect me to come back!” I yelled back at him. I left his room and slammed the door behind me. I ran to my car and drove away. My head was filled with thoughts and I could feel tears threatening to spill, so I couldn’t really concentrate on the road. Why was Nick so mad at me? All I did was listen to his song, it’s not like I did anything wrong, and why did he have such a hurt expression on his face when I kissed Joe? Was he jealous? He said he was over me, but maybe he was lying.

I pushed all the thoughts to the back of my mind, so I could concentrate on the road. I looked up just in time to see a car right in front of me. I felt myself being throw forward and everything went black.



I could hear a voice, Nick’s voice, but I couldn’t see him or move my body. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I move? I could hear Nick singing to me. He was singing that song he sang before I left his house. Why was he singing that song? I heard the singing and strumming stop and I heard a woman’s voice.

“We think she can hear us, and she might be able to respond to certain voices.” The woman’s voice said. “So just keep talking to her and if she responds or moves let us know immediately.”

“Ok,” Nick said. I felt a warm hand hold my hand.

“Alex, if you can hear me it’s me Nick. It’s all my fault you‘re here. If you can hear me, I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Nick’s voice said. What was he talking about? What was his fault? I remembered him yelling at me before I left his house, but I can’t remember what happened after that. I heard a guitar strumming and I heard Nic singing that song again as I slowly drifted off into unconsciousness.