Truth in Cliche

To say that they were only a high school soccer team was the understatement of the year. I had no idea what I was signing up for when I showed up for the first day of tryouts. We were there for easily five hours running around and doing drills until I thought I would fall over and not be able to get up.

Apparently the team had been state champions for at least six years now, and they weren’t about to lose that title.

The guys were at least nice though. I was kind of hoping that I could make some guy friends so I wouldn’t have to hang out with Kendra all the time. She was nice and all but she had a real problem with everyone, even the people who didn’t seem like bad people at all. Well, that and Kendra complained non-stop about everything. That was the deal-breaker for me really.

One guy, Buckley (his last name), seemed to be very open to making new friends. I starting sitting with him and his friends at lunch (with Kendra because I couldn’t just leave her. And Buckley thought she was cute) and he was funny and his friends were cool, I guess.

This one girl Lara, she was perfect though. She and Buckley had kind of a thing going, but according to Buckley, he could never date her because she simply wasn’t his type. She was too needy. He liked kind of independent girls, which is why I think he took such a liking to Kendra. She was definitely independent.

I ended up making the varsity soccer team even though I was almost positive that I’d be stuck on JV. The coach said that I had potential and that one day he hoped I might be able to take the team to victory while actually playing on the field. I suppose that was the compromise for getting to be on varsity: I was an all-star benchwarmer now.

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I walked into lunch one day to find Benji perched on the chair next to Buckley. She laughed with him and slipped something into his bag. He tucked something into the pocket of her coat. I didn’t say anything, but just sat down across from them in silence. No one else was here yet and it sort of felt as if I was intruding on something.

“Hey man!” Buckley said.

“Oh? You know Cowboy?” she asked.

“You mean Evan?”

“Sure,” Benji said. She looked at me and whispered something to Buckley.

Buckley laughed. “He plays soccer with me.”

“Do you?”

I nodded. My heart was pounding in my ears. I didn’t trust my voice to talk to Benji.

“Well it was nice talking to you gentlemen,” she winked at Buckley, “I’ll catch you around.”

“What was she doing here?” Kendra asked Buckley. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was apparently waiting until Benji left to sit down.

“She had to give me something.”

“Of course.” Kendra rolled her eyes.

If I hadn’t been watching while Buckley and Benji traded items, I probably would have sided with Kendra. But she didn’t know the whole truth, well some of it, like I did, and I certainly wasn’t about to tell her.

Buckley and Kendra flirted all throughout lunch. Buckley denied liking her liking her, but Kendra only blushed and looked away whenever I brought Buckley up, even if I was only mentioning something funny that he’d done.

Lara sat next to me today. She swept her long hair over her shoulder and smiled at me. “Your eyes look pretty today.”

“Um thanks.”

Buckley gave me a thumbs-up. I’d almost thought he was going to be mad about Lara not giving him the time of day. I supposed he was really trying to go after Kendra.

“They’re like a blue-green sometimes and then other times they’re like brown-green.” Lara was still going on about my eyes. Her face was perfect. Like actually perfect. I couldn’t find a single flaw no matter how hard I looked.

I didn’t really know how to answer her, but she just kept talking. “My parents are having a birthday party for my brother and my mom wants me to bring someone and she really doesn’t like Buckley. Would you come?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks so much Evan. You’re such a good friend.” Friend. Welcome to the friend-zone Evan. Just when you thought a beautiful girl actually liked you, she continues to fawn over your best guy friend and you get to morally support her through it.

I went home and told my parents I had a date anyway. My dad would be proud and my mom would be happy.

“Is she pretty?”

“Yeah.”

“Is she nice? Does she make honor roll? What do her parents do?”

“Mom. It’s my first date with her. I. Don’t. Know.”

“What’s her name again?”

“Lara.”

“That’s a pretty name. What time will she be here?”

“She’s picking me up at six.”

“She’s picking you up?” my dad asked.

I nodded.

“Son, if you want to get girls you need to buy yourself a car that is sure to impress.”

Buy myself a car. Yeah right. I could barely afford to support my small video game addiction, let alone a car.

“Okay dad.”