Author's Note: HELLO EVERYONE I'M ALIVE.

Oh my gosh it's so nice to be back at it. I am so so so so sorry. I thought I would have time this summer to write, but then I got a job and took a summer college course and things just did not work out.

So, getting back into the swing of things, this is basically a chapter trying to get back into it, so i'm sorry that it lacks a lot of excitement, the next chapter will definitely make up for it and I'm quite excited for it. The next couple of chapter will definitely finally be addressing the Jake issue, which has dragged on a wee bit too long, but I'm finally ready to get down to it!

That being said, hang in there, enjoy!

Avery

I sit there on my knees at the end of the bed as I watch Derek give me a small smile with a ghost of a smirk mixed in with it. His eyes hold mine for a long, slow moment as he backs out towards the stairs, turns, and leaves my room, shutting the door quietly behind him and leaving me with my thoughts.

When I hear the front door open and the lock turn before he pulls it closed behind him, I let out a breath I absent mindedly had been holding. I sit back on the bed, allowing my knees a rest.

What the hell was that?

I mean, what the hell was that?

I look up through the skylight and stare at the stars as I fall back against my bed.

So far, all we've done is hook up a few times.

But that's the thing; we are just two people who hook up sometimes.

What he did was not what a simple fuck buddy does. A fuck buddy does not show up at your house to apologize to you for hurting your feelings and kiss you goodnight.

With pretty much no experience in this area even I know a fuck buddy would come over, maybe apologize in that sarcastic way where they still don't believe they were in the wrong, and expect everything to just go back to normal, and you know, fuck.

Something has changed.

But then, if something has changed, then what are we? Are we more than 'packmates with benefits' or are we done with the 'with benefits' part?

Is this just a fling to him or could it be more? Or an even more immediate question, is this just a fling to me?

I cover my face with my hands and realize that I won't be getting much sleep tonight.

I spend a few hours just staring up at the stars above, thinking about Derek's eyes, smile, and his straight face. I think about his muscles and his strength as well as his quickness.

I fall asleep thinking about him, still intensely confused about where I stand with him.

The next morning I wake up to the angry sound of my phone alarm going off. I let out a sigh as I turn the alarm off and climb out of bed. I decide today is more of a comfort day, so I throw on some running shorts and a loose fitting athletic shirt.

Within twenty minutes I've brushed my teeth, smoothed out my hair, grabbed my lacrosse bag and backpack and flung them both into my car before climbing behind the wheel.

When I get to school I park my car as best I can and head into the school.

I see Tori on my way to my locker and we have a short conversation I barely remember. She went on and on about the new guy, but I was too focused on the end of the day to really listen.

The entire day slowly trudges by and I desperately try to set my focus on listening to my classes, especially anatomy since apparently the teacher has decided to have a test next week on epithelial tissue and I'm not even sure what that is.

In third period I got a text from Derek reading:

Go home after school, we're coming over around 9, going out tonight.

I stared down at the text, dumbfounded. Who is 'we'? Is this a date? I have no idea what to expect. Where are 'we' going anyway? I could text him and ask, but I didn't want to seem too eager after the way he left last night.

I text back:

Alright, sounds good.

When the end of the day finally did come, I was so relieved. I had been playing over Derek's voice over and over and over again all damn day. It would be a blessing to go out to practice and just use my body instead of my brain.

It's a short walk from my last class to the locker room, and once I'm there I feel like I'm home. The girls all shout and greet me as I walk in. Obviously the first week jitters is slowly fading and they're getting closer to one another. That's always a good thing, but I wonder just how many of these younger girls are going to end up on the varsity team for good.

A lot of times, the older girls embrace the younger ones in the beginning, but when the younger ones take the starting spots from the older ones, things tend to get competitive and the whole team bonding thing gets thrown out the window.

I open my locker and begin stripping down, when I catch Cassie's voice whispering in the far corner of the locker room. She's complaining to another girl about how she should have been made captain, and frankly I agree with her. I've never been a leader, I'm a good player, but being good doesn't mean I'd make a good leader.

I continue changing as I listen to Cassie essentially rip my authority to shreds. I make a mental note to deal with that mess later, in private.

Within a few minutes I'm all dressed, I grab my stick and bag from my locker and start heading towards the door. "Alright!" I call out, catching everyone's attention, "Everyone meet out on the practice field, be there in 10 or we're starting without you!" In the corner of the room, I see Cassie roll her eyes and turn away.

Once on the practice field, we go through our usual stretches and everything is fine. We break into partner passing and something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye.

Stepping out onto the stadium field is the boy's team, but up on the hill looking down right at me is Jake. In an instant, I'm consumed with anxiety. I feel like I can't breathe, I feel like I'm not safe. I turn back to my partner and toss her back the ball, hoping I can work through this horrible feeling in my gut.

My partner, Lola the goalie, follows where my gaze had been staring off to and she also catches sight of Jake. She must've realized what I was feeling because she turned back without a word and quickly passed me back the ball. We went back and forth, back and forth, in an almost quick stick pattern. She was trying to distract me by throwing herself into the motion, just as I was. It worked, and I was never more thankful for Lola's quiet, observant, and understanding nature.

Within five minutes, Coach Hathaway is on the scene, splitting us up into offense and defense and running us through basic 2 offenders on 1 defender drills.

Being the captain and being one of the most experienced defenders, I went first on defense. Luckily enough, Cassie was one of the offenders going first. I smirk to myself when I see that her partner is one of the newbies.

I hold my stick upright between my hands as I bend my knees and position myself to cut off Cassie, who has the ball. Hathaway blows the whistle, and Cassie and her partner take off running towards me. "Got ball!" I call out as I start moving my feet, not wanting to be caught off guard when Cassie passes. She must know better than to go one on one with me.

As Cassie keeps coming toward me, I notice she doesn't even look at her partner, she fully expects to get by me. I smirk again and step up to close the distance between us. She turns her back to me, and tries to roll off my right, but I'm on her too quickly. She tries to spin off my left, but I'm right with her again.

It's always funny to see the 'dumb offenders', always thinking they can do it alone.

She tries one more time to roll off my right, and I notice she dropped her stick head a little too low. As I've done 100 times before, I swoop around and check the ball right out of her stick and run. By the time she knows what's happened, I'm way past midfield and Hathaway blows the whistle.

When I turn around, I notice that Cassie's partner, one of the freshmen, I think her name is April, had set herself up in a good spot near Lola. She was too far out for Lola to intercept a pass, but close enough to fire off a good shot if she had been passed the ball. As far as her mental game goes, she knows how to set up an offensive play. I make a mental note to compliment her on it later.

I hear the girls cheer a bit for me, but my focus is on Cassie's frustrated face. Showing her up wasn't my intention, but she is getting on my nerves. Talking shit about me to my own team and then trying to show me up solo is just stupid.

Practice went by too fast for my liking, I had just gotten into my comfort zone on the field when Hathaway blew the whistle and dismissed us from practice. I quickly gathered my things and headed back to the locker room.

Once back in the locker room, I made eye contact with Cassie for a brief moment before she turned away, looking frustrated and emotional. I roll my eyes. One thing that bothers me about girls is that we can never leave things on the field.

With guys, they can slam each other around on the field all day long and when they walk off the field it's done. Yet just switch up sex parts and we simply cannot get over being bested.

I change as fast as I can and leave the locker room, stopping at my school locker to pick up my school bag and finally head out to my car. From there, I was homebound.

A Few Hours Later

I comb out my nearly dry hair as I look down at my anatomy textbook, reading through the different types of epithelial tissue. I quickly check my phone for the time and see that it's almost 6:00. The anticipation is killing me, and I feel the sudden need to get up and move.

I decide to pick up my tv dinner tray and take it down stairs to toss out. Walking in the quiet, empty house still feels weird, I haven't gotten used to it yet. I open the trash can and toss the plastic tray inside. Suddenly, the quiet is broken by the sound of knocking at the door.

My heart races a bit, it's too early for Derek. I listen closely, "Hey Avery!" I hear Isaac's voice call to me from behind the door. I instantly relax, "Come in!" I call back, knowing that even through the house and the heavy wooden front door, he would be able to hear me.

On que, Isaac and Erica walk through the front door and I meet them in the foyer. Isaac greets me with a warm smile. He's wearing the usual black leather jacket I'm accustomed to seeing him in, with a deep blue t-shirt underneath and a dark wash jeans. "Hey, Ave."

Erica closes the door behind them, and comes to stand next to Isaac. She was dressed in a deep red body-con dress that hugged every curve on her impressive body. Over the dress she wore a similar leather jacket, though it was clearly cut for a woman's shape. She gave a subtle nod to me before she started looking around my house, as if inspecting it.

"So, this is the place, huh?" She says. I nod and give a small smile.

"Yeah, this is it." I try to think of something else to say, "Oh, hey, there's an indoor pool in the back, we should go swimming sometime." Isaac's eyes widened in excitement before Erica chimed in:

"I hope you like the smell of wet dog then." She said in a teasing voice as she walked past me and further into the house. Isaac just rolls his eyes and he follows Erica's lead as she walks through my living room. "Nice." She says, not sounding too impressed.

I just nod as Erica turns back to me after her inspection of my living room. "Why are you guys here anyway?" I ask as I lean against the living room wall.

Isaac gives a smug smirk, "We're here to get you ready." Erica looks me up and down with a dissatisfied look on her face at my athletic shorts and baggy lacrosse pennie on.

"For?"

Erica's eyebrow perks up, and her red coated lips pull back into a wide smile that she's never shown me. "We're going to the Blackmore." Her voice is almost like a purr, and I can't help but be worried about what could have Erica in such a good mood.

"What's that?" I ask dumbly.

Isaac throws and arm around my shoulder and sings in my ear, "The clu-uu-uubbb!" the room goes silent for a second and Erica just stares blankly at Isaac as if saying "Really?" Isaac clears his throat and straightens himself up in an embarrassed fashion before he clutches my shoulders in his hands and steers me down the hall. "Now let's get you sex'd up."

Behind us, I hear Erica let out a both obnoxious and amused laugh.

Author's Note: Like I said, not too much happening as of late. But next chapter should be exciting! I will try my very best to get working on that right away!

I would just like to take a moment and thank everyone for all the follows, favorites, and especially the reviews. I cannot tell you how encouraging it is to hear from someone about how much they enjoy the story, it really makes me feel like I'm writing a quality story and it gets me excited to keep going and also they sometimes remind me that I haven't updated in a while (woops). Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for all you troopers out there putting up with my b.s. lol. Thank you ever so much. Your patience will be rewarded VERY soon!

Also, if anyone has any suggestions of how to improve the story, don't hesitate to mention it!