Hey Girl

That night had gone differently that I had anticipated. I'm not quite sure how I thought it was going to go, but what happened wasn't it. It was the last time Hannah and I were going to see Tyler and Jamie, so of course it was going to be sad.

Cheering our heads off at their game didn't end up being much help because the Stars ended up falling 4-3 to the Devils that night. Tyler had gotten a goal off Jamie's assist to bring it within one with four minutes left in the third and that was really exciting. But even with Lehtonen pulled for the extra attacker, the boys were unable to tie it up and force OT.

Freddy suggested going out after the game and Tyler quickly agreed. Not only was it the Stars' last night in town before leaving on a week long road trip the following morning, but it was also Freddy's last night in Dallas. So Tyler was able to put the loss aside to have a fun night out with a friend that he didn't know when he'd be seeing again.

It wasn't that easy for Jamie.

And that's how I ended up back at the Benn's apartment - just Jamie and I because Jordie had gone out with everyone else - and really separated from Hannah for the first time this whole vacation. To say I was freaking out was an understatement. The most understated thing to ever be understated.

"He's been taking losses a lot harder since he's become captain," Jordie told me when we were standing at Jamie's car after the game. Jamie was over at Tyler's car rambling off excuses as to why he wanted to go home instead of out to Tyler and Hannah. "He's not gonna ask you to go back with him because he's not going to want to take you away from Hannah, but I know he really wants you there with him."

Then, I had gone over to where the three of them were talking and announced that I wasn't feeling well - had a headache or some other bullshit - and asked Jamie if it was okay if I went back to his apartment with him. Jamie nodded and smiled the first smile that I had seen since the game ended, before walking over to his car and getting behind the wheel.

"You going to be okay going out without me?" I asked Hannah. She looked guilty about going separate directions for the night.

"She's got me and we're basically the same person so she'll be fine," Freddy called from the back seat of Tyler's car where Jordie had also joined him, both ready to leave.

"They even saved shotgun for me," Hannah cooed at the them. "How sweet."

Then they were gone and I was in Jamie's car headed home.

"Do you want me to get you something for your head?" Jamie asked while he was slipping off his shoes as soon as we stepped foot in his apartment. I had almost forgotten about lying that my head hurt.

"I don't actually have a headache, Jamie," I clarified as I bent down to pull off my boots. When I looked up again, Jamie was just staring at me with confusion written all over his face. "I just wanted an excuse to be here with you instead of going to the bar. I didn't want you to be alone when you look so upset."

"I'm not upset," he mumbled back, looking down at the floor and refusing to make eye contact. Jordie hadn't told me that he was going to be aloof about how being captain was effecting him, but I should have seen this coming. If managing hockey team's for years had taught me anything, it was how to get stubborn players to open up and tell me about their hockey related problems. So this was one thing I knew I was going to be good at.

"I've only known you two days now, but I've never seen you smile so little," I said trying to make a point, but also trying to remind myself that I've only known Jamie two days.

Not only had it been just two days, but all it was going to be was two days. Jamie left for a road trip across Canada in the morning and then Hannah and I were going to leave to go back home the morning after that. I was getting too attached to a guy that was only going to be in my life for another handful of hours.

"It's been a good two days," Jamie answered with a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

"And why's that?"

"You."

He looked at me like I held all the answers to all the world's problems. I couldn't deal with that. So I did what I did best and manipulated the conversation away from a topic I didn't want to discuss.

"Then let me make this better. I'm going to go use the bathroom and you're going to pick out a movie that won't make you think about hockey or the game you just played or anything, You're upset because you're thinking too much, so that needs to stop."

I didn't even wait for him to respond before I turned around and made my way to the bathroom. I barely had the door shut behind me when I pulled out my phone to start texting Hannah.

Text Message to Hannah:
He said I'm what makes him happy.

I slammed my phone down on the counter with a little too much force and stared at it impatiently waiting for a response. God Hannah, stop looking at the boy's face and text me back. I'm more important.

It may have felt like a million years, but I actually got a response back from Hannah in under a minute.

Text Message from Hannah:
Aww that's cute!

Text Message to Hannah:
No.

Text Message from Hannah:
No. Not at all. Of course not.

Text Message from Hannah:
Why not?

Text Message to Hannah:
Feelings bad.

It took another minute or so until I got a response back, and it came in the form of a call instead of a text.

"I'm in the bathroom, Han. I can't exactly talk," I whispered into the phone upon answering.

"You're hiding in the bathroom, A? Please tell me you're kidding." Instead of answering, I just flushed the toilet. "You little shit," Hannah muttered under her breath before continuing. "You aren't gonna see him after tonight so you have to talk about feelings."

"Or I can pretend I suddenly became mute."

"That's fine. Then you just have to listen to him talk about feelings enough for the both of you because he's not some chicken shit that's scared of having a conversation," she retorted, knowing that she had me beat.

"So...mute and deaf?" I heard Hannah let out a sigh on the other end of the phone and I knew she was disappointed in my behavior. I thought I was being funny.

"You can't do this to him. He's too good of a guy to be a victim of your games."

"I'm not trying to play games, Hannah. I know he's a good guy and I would never do that do him," I tried to explain. The mere idea of hurting Jamie tore me apart inside and it hurt that Hannah even thought that I would do that on purpose.

"Then what are you trying to do, A?" Hannah questioned, raising her voice in frustration. "Because I'm having trouble keeping up."

"I'm finally starting to see what you were saying about him liking me." I could hear her huff exaggeratedly like she was thinking that she would take me to a mental institute if I didn't see it yet. "But how am I supposed to talk about feelings with him? How am I supposed to tell that face that I don't have feelings for him?"

"You don't say that because that would be lying," Hannah replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why would you lie to him like that?"

"Because it's a lot easier than telling him that I like him but I'm a waste of his time because I'm incapable of normal human things like relationships."

"Is this because of Mark?" Hannah accused, the frustration in her voice coming off clear as day. "I told you that you can't let him get it the way of your happiness. It's not like he's your boyfriend; he's just another player back home and you can't let the idea of being with him stop you from letting yourself have something that will make you happy." I've heard this lecture a thousand times. "Jamie will make you happy."

"This isn't about him, Han," I defended. For once, Mark didn't instantly pop into my head and the thought of any other guy.

"So it's because of Brandon," Hannah commented, irritation being replaced with sympathy. I had a protest on the tip of my tongue, but I hesitated and Hannah took that as her cue to continue. "Just because he left, doesn't mean that you're incapable of relationships." Brandon was the player on my team that I had dated last year, but he graduated and moved to Maine because he got an offer to be the strength and conditioning coach for the ice hockey team at University of Maine.

Hannah only knew part of the Brandon story because I was too ashamed of myself to talk about everything that had happened. I didn't exactly have time to explain it all now because I could hear footsteps coming down the hall.

"I have to go. I'll see you soon," I whispered and hung up without waiting for her to answer. Just in time too because not even two seconds later, Jamie was knocking on the bathroom door.

"Everything okay, Avery?" he asked gently. I opened the door to find him standing there, unsure of himself and looking down at me with the doe eyes that were impossible to resist.

"Everything's fine. I was just on the phone with Hannah. She was telling me where they ended up going incase anything happens, but I reminded her that I know nothing about this city so I told her to tell Tyler to text you," I explained and mentally gave myself a self high five for being able to come up with that on the spot. Jamie nodded in understanding. "Did you pick out a movie?" I questioned as I started making my way back into the living room.

The menu screen for 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' was up on the TV when I entered the room.

"I love this movie!" I said and looked up at Jamie with a big smile on my face just to see him smiling right back at me. "Do you have popcorn?"

"Yeah. Set up blankets and pillows how you want and I'll go make some," he answered and placed a kiss on the top of my head before retreating into the kitchen. I sat down on the couch and texted Hannah demanding that Tyler send Jamie the name of the bar that they are at. Thankfully, Hannah and I actually do have a system where we always let each other know where we are when we're out, in case of emergencies, so my request wasn't out of the norm.

Jamie returned just a couple of minutes later with a big bowl of popcorn. As he sat down next to me, he placed the bowl in my lap and then pulled me until I was sitting comfortably in his lap. He pressed play and kissed my cheek before settling in to watch the movie with his arms wrapped around me.

"You're awfully quiet," I commented when we were about halfway through the movie without really saying anything to each other. "Still thinking too much?"

"Maybe," he mumbled in response as he pressed his face into my neck and hid his face in my hair. "I can't help it."

"Well if I can't help by taking your mind off it, can I at least help by listening to you talk about it?" I questioned hesitantly. I knew better than anyone the horrors of talking about things that made you feel weak or inadequate. If Jamie was being so effected emotionally by being captain, he had to be self conscious about it so I didn't want to push too hard.

He pulled back just enough to be able to look me in the eyes and his eyes held so much fear and pain but also so much hope. How could I not give those eyes everything they ever wanted. I reached up to run my hand through his hair, now dry and fluffy from his post game shower. His eyes closed at my touch and let out a breath that I don't think he even knew he was holding. He leaned into my touch and opened his eyes again as my hand came to rest of the side of his neck.

"It's dumb. I'm overreacting," Jamie muttered and dropped his eyes to the bowl of popcorn still in my lap so he didn't have to make eye contact.

"No, Jamie. I never want you to feel like anything you feel is dumb or an overreaction," I reassured and tipped his head up so he was looking at me again. "I'm never going to judge you. I just want to make you happy again."

"You do make me happy," he insisted. "It's just, this captain thing is kinda the best feeling in the world, but also kinda sucks. Everyone is always telling me that I'm so good at being captain and I was born to be a leader, but if I was born to lead this team to the Stanley Cup, why are we losing so much?"

"The team is more than just you."

"But I should be able to motivate them to train more, practice harder, play better. But I'm just not and I don't know how."

"You lead by example. You're fantastic at that."

"What the hell kind of example is not getting a goal in eight straight games, huh?" He tried to scoot me off his lap with the intention of getting up and walking some of his frustration off, but I held on to his shoulders to make sure neither of us were going anywhere.

"You may not have a goal, but you have like a dozen assists in those eight games, making you have more than a point per game. That sounds like an incredible example to be setting to me," I reasoned with him. I wasn't intending to rattle of his own stats to him and come off as a complete stalker, but if he was bothered by it, he didn't let it show. "So you're shots aren't finding the back of the net. So what? You're still making goals happen. Yes, scoring goals yourself is great, but it isn't everything. And you're not going to be stuck in this scoring slump forever."

The corners of his lips started to pull upwards and that smile that I love so much was finally starting to show. I would go on and on about how amazing I thought he was if it meant getting to continue to see that smile.

And then he slid his hand up to the back of my neck and gently pulled me in closer and pressed his lips to mine. I couldn't help but think that I could get used to this kind of thank you as I kissed him back. His hands moved to my hips and repositioned me until I was straddling him and my hands had moved up to cradle his head as I kissed him deeper.

We kept kissing like that for I don't even know how long, and I could hear the movie still playing in the background. That made my mind focus back on the world around me and my head snapped back away from Jamie so fast I was surprised I didn't end up with whiplash.

"Avery?" Jamie questioned with concern as he moved one of his massive hands up to cup the side of my face.

"I can't do this," I replied and moved my face away from his touch. Note to self: climbing out of someone's lap is a lot more difficult when your frantic. Jamie had to catch me before I ended up face planting on the floor. "I have to go."

"A, slow down."

"No, I can't slow down, I have to get out of here and away from you." A hurt expression crossed Jamie's face and I immediately felt guilty. But my guilt only lasted as long as the expression did.

"Where do you plan on going? You're hotel isn't anywhere here," he tried to reason with me, but I was too stubborn for that.

"I'll go meet Hannah and the other's at the bar."

"And where is that exactly? I'm pretty sure I was the one to get the text saying where they are."

"I don't know, Jamie! But I'll figure something out. I'll just go sit in the lobby and wait for them to get back if I have to. But if I spend more time here, with you and those perfect pleading eyes of yours, I'll cave because I have don't even know what the word self control means when I'm around you."

"Cave to what, Avery?" Jamie was now standing in front of me and reaching out to rest his hands on my arms. I hadn't even realized he got off the couch. "There's an entire part of this conversation that I'm missing. Please fill me in so I can make this better."

"You can't make it better. All you can do is make it worse," I replied as I tried to jostle myself out of his grip without any success.

"Can you at least tell me what's going on in this pretty little head of yours? I don't even know what went wrong here." I stared at him and shook my head. I didn't want to talk about it. I'm not good at talking about it. I just wanted to leave. "I opened up and told you what was bothering me. The least you can do is return the favor."

With that he let go of my arms and walked back over to the couch, patting the seat next to him once he sat down. I hated that he was making sense. How could anyone make sense when my mind was so jumbled? I hated that Hannah was right and that I needed to talk about my feelings. But I made my way over to the couch and sat down as far away from Jamie as physically possible.

"So what is it that you don't want to cave to?" Jamie prompted after I had been quiet so long that it was clear I wasn't going to start any conversation on my own.

"You and me," I answered, unable to meet his eyes. "Any of this. I can't let myself give into any kind of feelings for you."

"But you do have feelings for me," he commented instead of questioned, causing it to come off smug. I forced myself to glare at him and there was a confident smirk staring right back at me.

"Did all the kissing not make that clear?"

"Made it crystal clear. I just want to hear you say it."

"That's not going to happen. And if you keep acting like this, this conversation ends now," I said, putting my foot down. The last thing I was going to let happen was letting him feel like he had the upper hand here. If he stepped even toe out of line, I would be out that door.

He looked sheepish as he apologized and asked me why I wouldn't let myself have feelings.

"What's the point of feelings if you're not in a relationship?" I asked in return.

"We could be in a relationship."

"No we couldn't."

"I know I'm leaving tomorrow and you're going to be gone before I get back, but we could make long distance work. I think you're worth it." He started to inch closer to me on the couch, but I put my foot on him and pushed back to make sure he stayed away. This made him rest his hand on my ankle instead.

"Long distance isn't the problem," I argued. I knew he was going to keep pushing for answers that I wasn't sure I was willing to give.

"Then what is? What am I missing here?" And his perfect pleading eyes were back. They were seriously impossible to say no to.

"The relationship is the problem. Relationships are shitty." Jamie just kept looking at me and waited for me to continue. He could already tell when I was started to get overwhelmed and just needed to rant without interruption. He needed to stop being so perfect. "I've only ever been in two relationships and they didn't end well. And the relationships that were the examples for me growing up weren't ideal. I have no background in good relationships, so of course I think they're shitty."

"Well, I'm surrounded by nothing but wonderful relationships, so I'd know how to make sure ours isn't shitty," he tried to reassure me, but I just scoffed.

"I'm not sure you're capable of that."

"Let me prove it to you. Let me prove that not all relationships are shitty."

"No."

"Avery, please."

"I'm not going to voluntarily get in a relationship to watch it fall apart just like every other relationship I have ever seen," I snapped and kicked my foot to get his hand off me before pulling it in close to my body. "I'm not going to let myself get hurt like that."

"I'm trying to tell you that I won't hurt you," Jamie responded and his eyes went from simply pleading to begging.

"How am I supposed to believe you?"

"You just have to trust me."

"I can't do that!" I nearly yelled at him. Trust was one of those words that I didn't like. I had trusted people in the past and they had let me down and ruined the idea of trust for me.

I saw Jamie open his mouth like the was going to say something back, but then the front door went swinging open and Jordie and Tyler walked in. I stood up from the couch and made my way over to the front door to put my boots back on.

"I believe this belongs to you," Tyler laughed as he pushed Jordie in the direction of the couch.

"Don't treat me like I'm drunk. I'm fine," Jordie stated and pointed dramatically at Tyler, then picked up the remote, seeing that the movie had gone all the way through the credits and was back to the main menu, and pushed the play button. "This is Jamie's favorite movie," he mumbled and was already halfway asleep on the couch.

"I can't believe you let him get like this when we have flight tomorrow," Jamie chastised, but with no weight because he couldn't keep the chuckle out of his voice. Jordie simply fell to the side so he was leaning on Jamie's shoulder and mumbled about being fine again. "You okay to drive home?" Jamie asked Tyler.

"Yeah I'm solid. I spent more time laughing at Freddy than I did drinking. He managed to find a girl that looked somewhat similar to Avery here and was convinced that she was Avery and made her spend the rest of the time with us. It was hysterical," Tyler laughed and draped his arm around my shoulders. "He took selfies. I'll have to send them to you."

"Just make sure the girls get back to the hotel safe," Jamie stated as he stood up from the couch and dragged Jordie up with him. "It's gonna be an adventure getting this one to bed safe and it's like twenty feet away."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Chubbs." And with that Tyler escorted me out the door, downstairs and outside to where Hannah and Freddy were waiting in his car.

"So I heard I had a fun night at the bar with you guys," I joked as I got in the back seat with Freddy and started poking at his shoulder. "You should send me all the selfies we took earlier." That got a laugh out of Hannah and Tyler in the front as we pulled away from the apartment building.

"Everything okay with you and Jamie?" Hannah questioned, trying to make it sound as nonchalant as possible.

"Everything's fine," I lied. And Hannah knew it was a lie too, she just knew it wasn't something that I wanted to talk about with other people around.

Less than five minutes into the drive home, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out to find a text from Jamie glowing on the screen.

Text Message from Jamie Benn:
This conversation isn't over. I'm not giving up on this.

Text Message to Jamie Benn:
Well you should. I'm a waste of time and effort.

Text Message from Jamie Benn:
Never.

*~*~*~*

"You can't keep doing this to him, A," Jordie chastised me over the phone. I was sitting at the dining room table of the small townhouse that Hannah and I shared in the suburbs of Detroit, surrounded by books and notes. It was a Tuesday after I had spent a long weekend with my brothers and dad in Florida for my cousin's wedding. I knew going into this weekend that I had a pair of tests and big paper due this week and I should have spent more time on them in my free time down there. But in typical Avery fashion, I closed the books and went to the beach. And now I was paying for it and stressing big time.

"I'm not doing anything to him, Jord," I sighed in response as I held my phone to my ear with my shoulder so I could write a note card and turn the page in my textbook.

"The string you have him hanging on begs to differ."

"Don't start with that. I made it very clear when this whole thing started that there was no string. He can walk away whenever he wants and I'd understand," I explained. The last thing I needed was Jordie making me feel more stressed about Jamie on top of all the studying I was doing.

"And you know he'd never do that, so this is some kind of reverse psychology bullshit," Jordie retorted sounding frustrated himself. I knew this wasn't an ideal situation for anyone, but Jamie knew what he was getting into before I even left Dallas after spring break.

Me not trusting relationships wasn't by any means news. I had only seen Jamie once since Dallas. Not that anyone knew about that. I had flown out to Minnesota when the Stars played the Wild about three weeks after spring break. I had called it a trip to see my mother, but I didn't see her at all the whopping total 27 hours that I was there. Hannah doesn't even know the truth, and that kills me.

But Jamie and I talked every day; texting throughout the day and Jamie calling to talk before going to sleep almost every night. Everyone always reminded me that it was basically a relationship just without the title. That bothered me more than anything. How did I get in so deep without even knowing?

"Do you really think I'm capable of pulling off reverse psychology?" I questioned with an airy laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Then it's some kind of test. If he follows you around like a lost puppy long enough, then you'll decide if he's worthy of a relationship, is that it?" Jordie was yelling at this point. This was really the last thing I needed.

"Of course that's not it, you piece of shit!" I yelled back, throwing the pencil I was holding at the table, wishing that I were throwing something at him instead.

Jordie practically growled trying to contain his anger. I couldn't exactly be mad at him for being so defensive of Jamie. I wished my brothers were still like that with me. Things haven't been the same since the divorce.

"Just," he started but stopped with a sigh to collect his thoughts. "Come to the game on Friday. He needs to see you."

The thing was, I needed to see Jamie too. That just wasn't something I was willing to admit to. Sounded too much like a relationship and feelings for me.

"I told Jamie that I would try, but I have to see how much progress I make on my paper," I tried to reason with him. "It's due Friday night at midnight, so I can't go to the game if I don't have it done before that. I make no promises that that'll happen if I'm sitting here arguing with you."

"He needs promises, Avery."

"I feel bad enough without your help," I sighed in defeat. I was done fighting. People who aren't in relationships don't argue with their not boyfriend's brother about their not relationship.

"Can you at least promise me that you'll open the door right now? Please tell me that you have the AC on."

"It's not hot enough to AC," I retorted with a chuckle. "Wait. What?"

"Just let me in!" Jordie laughed back and I hesitantly made my way to the front door. I wouldn't put it passed Jordie to prank me, but I opened the door and there he stood. I instantly panicked because wherever Jordie was, Jamie was never too far behind. Then, with mock irritation, he pushed his way into my apartment and shut the door behind him, causing my panic to diminish and pure shock to set in.

"I wasn't trying to make you feel bad, A. That's never my intent," Jordie said as he made his way through the house to go sit at the table where all my books were set up, leaving me standing shocked in the entryway with my phone still pressed to my ear.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned, still stunned, standing frozen by my front door with my hand still hanging in midair where it was holding the door open before he has shut it.

"I was just trying to get you to understand how he's feeling and what he's going through." Jordie kept talking like him being here was a completely normal, everyday thing.

"How did you get here?" How did you even know where I live, Creeper 5000?

"I mean. I know Jamie doesn't really have a problem with talking about his feelings, but I thought..."

"Jordie!!" I snapped and he shut his mouth immediately. "What are you doing here?" I repeated now that his attention was actually on me.

"We have a couple days off with only optional skates before we play the Red Wings, so I came up early," he explained, but that only answered half of it.

"Here, Jordie, my house. How did you get here?"

"Airplane and taxi?"

"How thick can you be?" I muttered under my breath but still pretty sure he could hear me. "This address, Jordie. I never told you where I live."

"Hannah told me," he answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You've been talking to Hannah?"

"No, she was just in Dallas but I refused to talk to her or even look at her for that matter," Jordie joked sarcastically with a roll of his eyes and a smirk playing on his lips.

I felt like everyone had gotten to see my best friend more recently than I had. I was in Florida for four days and I felt like the world flipped upside down in that time. Hannah's brother had gone missing, so she had a bit of a panic attack and shipped herself down to Dallas to be with Tyler, Jamie had to be the one to tell me what was happening because Hannah was mid meltdown. Not that I blamed her at all. I was half as close to my brothers as Han was to her's and I would have had a panic attack and meltdown too.

Hannah had gone to Tyler because her parents were away on vacation. But they got back just a handful of days after she got down there and that's where she was now. She had come back to Detroit long enough to pack a new bag of clothes and was gone again before I got back from Florida.

"So she knows you're here?" I questioned and Jordie simply nodded. "Does Jamie?"

"He never would have let me come if he knew. Or at least not alone. He thinks I'm with Jess visiting some family she has in Grand Rapids." Jess was Jordie's girlfriend that I had heard about on multiple occasions from both Benn brothers. I was looking forward to meeting her maybe someday; it seemed like we would get along really well.

"Did you at least bring her with you so she doesn't show up at your apartment looking for you and blow your cover?" I questioned with a small laugh. I always questioned everyone else's ability to pull off a good lie. I was the master after all.

"I would have told her what I was doing so she didn't just randomly pop up," Jordie huffed out like he couldn't believe I was even asking. "But yes, I brought her with me. She is actually visiting her aunt and uncle in Grand Rapids. I'm just not with her."

"Who else knows you're here?"

"Just Coach. I had to tell him where I was going so I could get out of flying with the team. But everyone else got the same story I told Jamie. Not even Tyler knows I'm really here to see you," he replied. "And I asked Han not to say anything to him. He can't keep a secret if his life depended on it." That caused both of us to laugh. There was no truer statement.

"He'd be mad if he knew you were here to visit before he was," I added while still laughing. It was a joke but we both knew it was also true.

"Same with Jamie. He's very territorial with you, ya know." And of course that made me blush and smile bashfully.

"I honestly don't know what I did to make him like me so much," I sighed as I collapsed in to one of the dining room chairs next to Jordie. "I think part of my hesitation is that I don't think I'm good enough for him."

"But he think you are," he tried to reason with me, but that's what everyone said when I confessed not thinking I'm good enough and it didn't really have much affect anymore.

"I don't understand why though."

"He has a whole list of reasons. I could recite it to you, I've heard it so many times," he answered as if so many times actually meant too many times and he was planning to strangle Jamie with his own words if he could. "Don't think it'll be the same coming from me though."

"No, I don't think so," I said back through laughter.

"If he knew that this was what was holding you two back from a relationship," Jordie started and I opened my mouth to correct that it was only part of the reason why I was skeptical, but never got the words out as Jordie just barreled on. "I think he'd be able to change your mind almost immediately." I rolled my eyes in disbelief. "Don't ride me off like that, A. You don't have to see the way he gets all starry eyes when he talks about you. And you don't have to deal with him ranting and raving about you constantly." I let out a frustrated sigh, folded my arms on the table and dropped my head on top of them with a heavy thump. "Seriously, just come to the game Friday and let him try to prove this I'm not good enough theory of yours wrong." Jordie comfortingly rubbed my back as he spoke.

"We'll see," I mumbled into my arms.

"I think he'll blow you away."