Adam sipped his soda slowly absent mindedly twirling his straw. He had got to lunch early that day so he could finish and have time to go to the rink.
"Hey Banksie, what ya thinkin' about Buddy?" Charlie put his tray down near his friends approached them
Adam shook his head trying to erase his own thoughts, he knew Dwayne would be sitting down any minute now and if he saw him feeling depressed, Dwayne would feel bad.
"Oh nothing."
"Don't tell me you're still hard up for that chick that left you for our resident cowboy." Russ stood at the end of the table
Dwayne made a small noise in the back of his throat. He felt so guilty about what happened, he hadn't even noticed Adam's girlfriend liked him till that day she kissed him after biology. Banks had been furious when he found out, but after some mediation by the rest of the Dusks he realized Dwayne was to kind of a guy to try to steal his girl. Still he felt uncomfortable around the starting center.
"It's not about Nicole." Adam blatantly lied to them. Everything was about Nicole. His entire junior year had revolved around Nicole. He didn't feel whole with out her, so there he sat, handsome, intelligent, rich, talented, a senior and alone.
"You know what Banks, Julie and I are gonna walk right over there and punch her." Connie got up from her seat near Guy with a flourish.
"No thanks Connie." Adam forced a phony smile
Dwayne grinned slightly and with his innocent southern twang asked
"Would ya'll please not go givin' my girlfriend a whippin'?" His girlfriend wow that was weird. Nicole Foster was his girlfriend, sure it wasn't the perfect relationship, she nearly cost him his friends respect but still she was his girlfriend.
Luis was having one of his Latin lover days on that foggy Monday morning
"Don't worry Banks you can have one of mine." He gestured to the table nearby full of gawking girls
"You're such a pig." Julie smacked him playfully
"Hey guys I got next period off, I'm gonna had over the ice, if you need me." Adam just wanted to be alone.
And so he cursed his luck when he saw someone else skipping lunch for some extra ring time.
"Excuse me?" He called dropping his practice gear with an echoing thud. His deep voice startled the girl who was in mid triple Lutz and feel to the ground.
"What?" She snapped getting up from the ice and skating over to him. She was a cute girl with long mahogany hair and smoky gray eyes. But Eden Hall was over flowing with gorgeous girls.
"Can I get some of the ice?"
"Only if you promise not to distract me again." Her tone was cooler then the ice she glided on
"I promise, Adam Banks, senior, varsity hockey."
"Larissa Sanders, freshmen, not impressed."
This girl had a definite attitude and Adam didn't know why, nor did he appreciate it.
"It's not bad enough every guy in the freshmen glass makes goo goo eyes at me, now I got the senior jocks making passes at me."
Oh so that's what it was Larissa had mistaken Adam's friendliness as flirtation. She was so off base it wasn't even funny.
"Oh I wasn't flirting with you I just got over a real bad break up. I'm not even looking at other girls." He explained
That's when the rink door opened again and both Larissa and Adam looked up to see who it was. There stood in all her, leggy, curvy, blonde haired, chocolate eyed glory stood Nicole.
"There you are Rissa I've been looking all over for you. Hello Adam."
"You two know each other?" Banks and Larissa asked at the same time
"Sure Larissa lived across the street from me back home, in fact my brother married her older sister, she's my roommate now. Rissa you remember the ex boyfriend I told you about? This is him. Come on though I want you to meet Dwayne he's such a sweetie."
"That's the guy from Texas."
"Yeah he's such a southern gentle men, let's go."
With that they left, Adam's heart crumbled to hear her describe him as her ex. The way she talked you'd think the ten months they were together meant nothing to her. And it crushed him.