Playing For Love Page 9

  “The park?” Corra asked.

  “Yeah, Moore Park is right next to where the bus picks us up,” he said simply. “And this way we don’t have to risk being late or anything.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” I shrugged, glad I'd have a chance to hang out with Jordan a bit before we got on the bus and drove to the game.

  After dropping off all of our school stuff at my house and chatting with my mom a bit about how my legs were feeling after a long week of hard soccer practices, we loaded back up and headed to the park. When we got there, I notice that Skyler, Torri, and a few of Ross’s other friends were already hanging out and painting faces. They were doing cute green hearts on their cheeks, so I made sure to get one before Corra, Beth and I found a spot to hang out on top of the playground structure. It was the first time we were alone since Taylor unloaded all of the dance news on us and we needed to chat!

  “It’s so weird that she didn’t come tonight either,” Beth commented when I it all up.

  “Yeah, she said she has homework, but we’re in most of her classes and don’t have any,” Corra said with a shake of her head. “Do you think she's grounded or in trouble or something?”

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “I just don’t know what else it could be.”

  “Maybe she’s a spy,” Beth suggested. “Like she is living a double life and her parents are actually secret agents and they are uncovering national secrets!”

  “You watch way too many movies,” Corra laughed.

  “Sorry,” Beth laughed as well.

  “I’m glad we can still have fun even if she’s not here,” I said with a smile. “We can send her photos so she feels like she's still here too.”

  “Great idea!”

  Hearing something behind me, I suddenly screamed and turned in shock to see Jordan behind me. He had climbed up the outside of the play structure and when he spoke it scared me for sure! I think I jumped about a foot off the ground and almost dropped my phone. Not to mention my scream had both Beth and Corra cracking up!

  “Sorry,” he laughed as my breathing went back to normal. Climbing up a little more Jordan swung his legs over the railing and hopped onto the landing where we were sitting. He then sat down right next to me with a smile and asked, “Did I hear we’re taking photos now?”

  “Sure,” I shrugged, then proceeded to lean closer to him with my arm out in front of us. “Are you guys getting in this one?”

  “No,” Beth said with a smile. “You guys take one and then we can all be in one.”

  I nodded, my face blushing immediately. But, I did my best to take the photo and smile like nothing was making me nervous or embarrassed. Once I snapped the photo, Beth and Corra both scooted around to be in the photo as well. They were on either side of Jordan and I, actively smooshing us closer together. Jordan wrapped his arm around me to allow us to be a little closer and in that moment I thought I might faint! instead, I snapped a few photos then started scrolling through the ones we had taken so I had an excuse to look anywhere but at Jordan, who still had his arm around me at this point!

  “That one’s perfect,” Jordan said to me. It was only then that I noticed his head was practically touching mine as he looked at the photos as well.

  “I’ll upload them right away,” I smiled, my face getting even warmer than I thought possible.

  “Is the pizza here?” Beth asked, coming to my rescue.

  “Oh yeah,” Jordan said with a chuckle. “I was going to tell you guys that, but then I got distracted.”

  Jordan finally removed his arm from around me and stood up. But, then he turned and offered me a hand so I could stand up. Beth and Corra had already stood up when the photo was over, so I took his hand and held on tight as he helped pull me to my feet. I thought I was going to faint then, between the rush of suddenly standing up and also being so close to Jordan. But, instead, I took a step back and slowly let go of his hand. I gripped the railing behind me and tried to just smile it off as Jordan and my friends began climbing down from the playground. I took the long way down the steps while Corra and Beth used the rope net and Jordan used the slide. By the time I made it to the open pizza boxes resting on the hood of Trey’s car I had mostly calmed myself down.

  We had a little time before the bus arrived so we did what any high school kids would do...we played tag on the playground! When the bus finally pulled up I was laughing and tired from the game, and excited to sit on the air conditioned bus for the ride to the stadium. Thankfully since we had arrived so early our group was the first to load the bus. Without missing a second of time standing around, we loaded up and headed right to the back of the bus to claim seats. Plopping down across the aisle way from Corra and Beth I thought my heart was going to burst when Jordan took the seat next to me. I knew I would be sitting with someone, but kind of figured it would be Ross. Thankfully Ross had gotten on before me and was already sitting with Skyler.

  “I feel like this ride's going to seem like a lot longer than an hour,” Jordan pointed out as the rest of the bus began to slowly fill up.

  “My mom told me I should just work on homework and on the way so time will fly by,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

  “Did you even bring your book?” he asked, laughing at my expression.

  “Nope,” I said evenly. “Oops.”

  As Jordan laughed at my deadpan response, I noticed Corra and Beth shooting me grins across the aisle. They were clearly very happy I was getting the alone time with him as well. Okay, so it wasn't really alone time. We were on a crowded bus heading to an even more crowded game. But still, sitting next to him was nice.

  We chatted for another few minutes about the game and then Jordan realized he didn't get his face painted yet so he traded seats with Torri so he could get the same design he had last game. After the time taking pictures and snuggling so close to him on the playground I didn’t let hit bother me too much. After all, I was pretty good friends with Torri, and it was fun to talk about our dresses for the dance. As expected, her dress is a green and grey flowy number that will look perfect with her short black hair. It was looking more and more like my blue dress would help be both stand out and also catch Jordan’s eye!

  We arrived at the stadium with just a half hour until kick off. It gave us time to find a place to sit in the visiting side stands and before we knew it the game was starting. It was then that the night really starting speeding by! The game ended up going into overtime, and it looked like the other team was about to score a winning touchdown when we intercepted and got the ball within field goal range. Any small amount of my voice that was still remaining at this point was instantly lost as I yelled and jumped around with my friends! The game was so intense, and so much fun, I didn’t even find myself worrying about where Jordan was most of the night. In fact, the only time I even looked for him was when we wanted to take a group selfie and I needed him to help get a good shot.

  Climbing onto the bus after the game, everyone seemed to finally come off the high they had been on through each play of the game. After some cheering and shouting as we drove to the highway, people began to settle down and the noise level on the bus hinted that a lot of people were falling asleep or enjoying quiet conversations. I was sitting with Ross now, too tired to even care where Jordan was. Corra and Beth were across from us and appeared to both be falling asleep. That was all the cue I needed. Leaning on my big brother's shoulder I closed my eyes and was asleep in seconds.

  When I woke up, we were pulling to a stop in front of Moore Park. It took me a second to realize where I was and what was going on, the moment even more confusing by the rain that was slamming into the bus windows outside. It also took me a second to realize I was no longer resting my head on Ross’s shoulder. Instead, my shoulder was resting on none other than Jordan.

  “We’re here,” he said with a smile as I sat up and tried to rub the sleep from my eyes without completely removing my makeup.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, really embarrassed that
I had been using Jordan as a pillow.

  “So worries,” he said with a shrug. “I think I was leaning on you while I was sleeping too.”

  With that, he stood up and for the second time in the evening offered me his hand to help me stand. I once again was grateful for his help, especially in my confusion after waking up so recently. Glancing around us I saw mostly everyone else was also standing and heading off the bus. I spotted Ross behind me in the mass of people and noticed that both Corra and Beth were awake and moving as well.

  Climbing off the bus, I forgot about Jordan instantly as I wrapped my arms tight around my body in hopes of staying warm and dry. Once we were safely inside the car Ross suggested we head to the school to cheer on the team as they exited the bus. He said it was a tradition for away games, so without much thought we agreed to the plan as well. We had the ride over to the school to warm up, but when we arrived the rain seemed to be falling even harder and it felt like it had gotten even colder outside! We stayed in the car until we could see the bus pulling into the parking lot, then got out and ran over to stand by the locker room entrance where other fans were already standing with signs

  I stood there jumping up and down a little on the spot to warm up, not even caring if I looked crazy. It helped that I wasn't the only person who was moving around in an attempt to stay warm. As the team finally exited the bus, we cheered and clapped for them while the cheerleaders waved their pompoms and tried to lead everyone in our school fight song. Then, once the last player had entered the locker room, we turned and ran. I was too cold and wet to bother trying to say goodbye to Jordan or anyone else, so I just instead focused on getting back into the car. In all, we were only out in the cold and rain for about 10 minutes total, but it seemed to be enough.

  It was a little later, as we sat in my room under blankets drinking hot cocoa, that I started to notice that my nose was runny and I was starting to cough a little bit. I don’t know if it's just my body working to get all the chill and everything gone, or if I might actually be getting sick. Either way, it was worth it!

  SEPTEMBER 28TH-SUNDAY

  Beth and Cora had all of their homecoming stuff at my house so when we woke up yesterday, we started getting ready right away. We did facials, painted our nails, did our hair and makeup, and made sure to take the time to send Taylor texts about it so she was still a part of everything. It took a long time, but we managed to get all ready before my dad arrived to drive us to the banquet hall that had been rented for the dance. Beth’s dad was our ride home, so we packed everything into my dad's car and dropped things off at her house before we headed to the dance.

  The doors opened right at seven, but everyone was usually there nice and early to grab a good table and then get on the dance floor as soon as possible. Thanks to the extra stop we made on the way, we walked in a few minutes late which meant we had a table pretty close to the bathrooms. This wasn’t super bad, but at the same time it meant we were a long way from the dance floor and on the other side of the room from where most of the seniors sat. That also meant Ross and Jordan were going to be a long way from where we were sitting. And sure, I knew I was still going to see them and could go sit with them and everything, but it was still a bummer to not get a table closer all the same.

  One thing that made up for the not so great seats was everyone's comments on my dress. Even people I didn't know were coming up and telling me how great I looked. I was so happy I went against the grain and didn’t wear gold and green! Sure, gold and green looked great on all the girls at the dance, but my choice to stand out was getting me noticed by everyone. And that, of course, had me hopeful that I would also be noticed by Jordan. Beth and Corra clearly knew that was the plan so once we got settled into our table and enjoyed some of the snacks the PTA had catered in we decided to head to the dance floor. Every song they played was super high energy and loud and crazy and had us all jumping and moving and have a great time!

  Before too long, however, I was exhausted from dancing and was basically coughing more than anything else. So, I headed to our table and tried to calm down and drink some water. Even sitting didn't seem to help too much after all the dancing I had been doing. The water I grabbed on the way to the table was nice, but once it was gone, I was still struggling to get my body under control. This was no way to enjoy the dance, especially when my friends were on the dance floor having fun. Thankfully, the night was about to get a lot better!

  “Need more water?”

  Those were the words that changed everything! I was too busy coughing and looking at my friends to notice when Jordan come to the rescue. I was in the middle of a lot of coughing when he asked the question, so in reply I kind of nodded and took the water he was holding out to me. It was nice and cold thanks to some ice floating around in the cup, and it seemed to help a lot more than the water I had been trying up until that point.

  “Thanks,” I managed to croak.

  “Are you feeling sick too?” he asked, sitting down next to me casually.

  “I was doing okay until I started dancing. Now I can’t stop coughing.” As if on cue I had a bit of a coughing fit again, this one not too bad thankfully.

  “Ross said he was feeling sick earlier but more or less slept all day,” Jordan explained.

  “Yeah, the whole time I was getting ready with my friends he was asleep on the couch,” I nodded, suddenly wishing it was as easy for us to get ready as it was for my brother. “Standing out in the rain after being outside for so long before that was clearly a bad idea.”

  “Well, was it worth it?” Jordan asked, leaning back in his chair like he was planning to stay for a while. “The game I mean.”

  “Of course!” I grinned. “It was so much fun! And the way we pulled out the win in the end was amazing!”

  I was glad we started talking about the game then since it was easy and didn’t make me think too much. And, since Jordan said he hadn’t been online yet, I pulled out my phone and showed him all of the photos I'd taken and already posted. He leaned in really close while I showed them all to him, and I got this huge whiff of his cologne. It was amazing! Way better than the stuff I always choke on after Ross is done getting ready for going out with his friends. I've been close to Jordan before and never caught this scent, so it was clear he was wearing it for the dance. It made it feel like the night was even more perfect. It also helped that he looked really cute in his black dress pants, light grey dress shirt, and black tie. Combine that with the way he smelled and it was enough to make me weak in the knees!

  “I think this one's my favorite,” Jordan commented, flipping through my photos to pull up the one I had already set as my profile picture. And yeah, Beth and Corra were in it, but Jordan and I were leaning really close together too. I could only hope it was that aspect of the photo that made it his favorite.

  “Mine too,” I agreed easily, glad I didn’t have to be the first one to say it.

  “So, are you going to try dancing again?” Jordan finally asked after we were done looking at all the photos and re-capping the fun from the away game. “I bet a slow song wouldn’t make you cough as much.”

  At that moment, I wanted nothing more than for someone to pinch me to make sure it was real. It had almost sounded like Jordan Peterson had just asked me to dance! Now, I didn’t want to assume he meant I should dance with him, but it was really hard not to read into it! I was just about to say that no slow songs were being played when suddenly the music changed. It was like Jordan knew it was coming or something.

  “Okay,” was all I could manage.

  Jordan stood up and offered me his hand. I prayed my hand wasn't covered in snot or something from my coughing, or sweaty from how nervous I was, but since Jordan didn't pull his hand away immediately after I took hold of it, I can only assume it was okay. Just in case, I looked at his face to see if he was grossed out or anything, and it felt really good to see it was quite the opposite. Again, I don’t want to read into it, but I was watching Jordan’s face a
nd he kind of looked me over with this like grin on his face. It was like he saw how good I looked, and thought it was suddenly perfect that we were about to be dancing together. That was how I felt at least!

  Jordan let go of my hand once I stood up but then he put an arm around me and sort of led me to the dance floor. I was certain I was going to trip and land right on my face. But, I did really good and somehow managed to stay on my feet. When we got to the dance floor, Jordan lead me into the crowd a little bit before turning to me and taking one of my hands. Now, I danced with a few guys last year at homecoming and MORP, but usually they would have their hands on my waist and I would rest my hands on their shoulders and we just kind of swayed back and forth. Jordan, however, took one of my hands in his and put his other hand on my waist. It was like the fancy way people always dance in movies and stuff. And, it made me feel even more special than I already did.

  As if that wasn't amazing enough when the song ended, Jordan just gave me this really sweet smile and kept dancing with me as the next slow song started. I didn’t know what to do, it was too amazing! We talked a little bit, and then sometimes we would even chat with the people dancing near us. But for a lot of it we just dance together, sometimes looking at one another, sometimes not, while Jordan lead me around the dance floor. Like, really around the dance floor. Not just side to side really stiff and awkward like, but actually around the whole dance floor.

  It was bittersweet when the second slow song ended and a faster song started after that. I was really enjoying dancing with Jordan, but at the same time it was making me nervous that I was going to say or do something stupid. When the faster song started, Jordan started dancing with me again to the new music, but it wasn't the same. It was a really fun song and everything, but there was something so special about slow dancing with him that went away when we were dancing to the faster song and interacting with people around us more.