Gone

“Frankie, sweetheart,” Manny sighed, rubbing her temples, “did you actually just say that you were going to battle Liam Payne for your heart? Did I get transported into Brave or something?”

“She was an archer, wasn’t she?” I corrected, shifting uncomfortably on her couch. Her mother was in the kitchen one room over, making dinner, but Manny had convinced me that she couldn’t hear a word over the stirring and blending, so I’d told her the entire story without leaving anything out. “But yes. We’re going to have a scrimmage, and if I win, then he’ll leave me alone.”

Manny’s hazel eyes narrowed critically. “But that’s not what you want.”

“It is what I want,” I corrected, my face filling with a flush and my heart starting to race in my chest. “I want him to stop sassing me and start being a team player. Soccer is a sport where everyone has to work as a single unit, and if he jars the flow, then our team is going to fall apart.”

My best friend let out another long sigh. “Okay, stop thinking about your team for a second. Because you are not your team. You are you. You are Francine Nicole Waters, and you are a human being.”

I opened my mouth, but closed it again, deciding against defending my mind’s obsession with my soccer team’s well-being. “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

“I mean that you have to start doing things because you want to do them. Because they feel good. I understand that you want to think about how your decisions will influence your team, but just stop. Your team is not the most important thing in your life. You are the most important thing in your life, and your first priority should be your own happiness.”

I swallowed the emotion that was threatening to bubble to the surface. “And what makes you think that Liam Payne will make me happy?”

“Because I see the way that little competitive edge sparkles in your eyes whenever you talk about him. Your cheeks fill with the cutest blush on the planet whenever he’s mentioned and you’re trying to pretend you didn’t hear. And to be real, honey, if you didn’t like him, you wouldn’t be trying anywhere near this hard to pretend you don’t.”

My mind flashed back to the way we were standing on the porch at the party, centimeters apart, his breath on my face. If I didn’t like him, then why had I been more than willing to experience what his lips felt like against mine? Why had my imagination run away with me, picturing kissing him until I was breathless, our bodies pressed so tightly together that we were basically one?

Oh my God, that girl at the party was right. The two of us were dripping with sexual tension that I had been refusing to see. I’d denied it so much that Liam thought the only way he could get a date with me was by whooping my ass in soccer.

“So what do you think I should do?” I asked in a breathy whisper. “Should I call off the match and tell him that I’ll go out with him anyway?”

Manny let out a snort and crossed her legs. “Absolutely not. Make that boy work for it. Plus, imagine how humble and sweet he’ll be when you kick his ass. He’ll be like putty in your hands.”

I laughed at the statement and shook my head. “Alright. So I’ll make him play me for it. Friday will be interesting.” Then, after thinking for a minute, I asked, “Oh my God. I’ve been so wrapped up in Liam that I didn’t even ask you about that kid at the party. What was his name?”

“Ben,” Manny replied with a grin. She immediately sat up straighter, positioning herself on the couch so she could face me better, clearly excited to discuss her most recent conquest. “He called me on Sunday, and we talked for a while, about, like, normal things. It was so weird. Usually, when guys call me, they want phone sex, you know? But he just wanted to ask me about school, what classes I was taking, who my least favorite teachers were. We talked a little about you and how long we’ve known each other, and then we talked about his best friend. It was just nice.”

I found myself smiling like an idiot at Manny’s story. “Did you guys schedule another date?”

“Not yet. He said that he wants to get to know me better first, to kind of re-start. I don’t think he’s ever had a hookup before, and so he wasn’t really sure how to go from there, so he’s pretending that it didn’t happen and going back to the beginning.”

“That…is the sweetest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.” Way cuter than whatever kind of disaster I had with Liam.

“It is, kind of. I wasn’t sure about it at first, since I’ve never had that kind of experience before, but I think I like it. I’ve been in relationships that are all about the sex since I was fourteen, and I think it’s about time that I had something that’s about more than that.”

“That’s my girl,” I replied with a smile. “Ben seems like a really wonderful guy.”

“He is. And he’s in college, which explains why he’s not a douche like most of the guys at our school. Not including Liam, of course.”

“Liam’s not even from our school,” I reminded her. “He’s from England.”

“Which explains it.”

The two of us laughed for a minute before I cleared my throat and asked a question that had been dancing through my mind for the past couple of days. “Manny, are you sure that you’re okay with me being interested in Liam? I know you were going after him, and I don’t want to let him get any closer with me if it’s going to bother you.”

My friend burst out laughing and shook her head. “I definitely don’t mind. I just lusted after Liam. I mean, I still think he’s totally bangable, and I can’t even imagine how smokin’ he must look in his soccer uniform, but he’s all yours, babe. No jealousy here.”

I reached out and wrapped my hands around her neck, her face falling against my neck. “You have no idea how happy that makes me. Thanks, Manny.”

“No problem. I just hope, for your sake, that he’s as good as he looks, if you know what I mean.” She winked shortly at me before turning her attention to the doorway to the kitchen and shouting, “MOM! When’s dinner going to be ready? I’m about to keel over!”