Chapter eight—Desperate Measures

I'm sitting on the bench, taking a break from all the pointless running and ball snatching when Katherine Kavanagh comes to sit next to me. I turn to look at her and thank God that it's only her and not Victoria.

"Tired?" she asks, looking at me with a friendly smile.

I silently nod my head, my eyes on the boys but mainly on Christian as I watch him in all his beautiful glory.

"Yeah, I don't know how you guys can stand to play for hours at a time. Honestly, just watching them run back and forth is boring, but I have to admit, I am loving the uniforms," she says with a smirk, her eyes on Drew as he dribbles the ball down the court.

I smile at her comment about the uniforms, considering all but one of them aren't wearing shirts, and different colors of basketball shorts. Gotta agree with her, though.

I look over at her and see her eyes haven't left Drew. "You like him?" I ask.

She turns to me, familiar green eyes gazing at me. "Who?" she asks, playing stupid. She even adds that little head tilt to seem innocent.

I nod my head toward the court. "Drew."

She looks away, a secret smile on her lips. "I mean he's cool, and really nice to me, but I don't know. Why? Does he . . . does he talk about me?" she asks. She's trying to sound disinterested, but I can hear the hope in her voice.

"Umm . . . I don't spend a lot of time with him, but I think so. I mean he looks at you as much as you look at him."

She smirks, but I think I see a little color stain her cheeks. "Really?"

I nod my head. "Yeah. And if you want, maybe I can, you know, um, tell him you like him."

"No!" she almost shouts.

I slightly jump back and gawk at her with wide eyes. "No?" I repeat.

She shakes her head. "No. No, don't tell him I like him. Just, you know, just say something like how you think I'm pretty or something. Or make a comment about how you saw him looking at me. I don't know. Just be subtle about it, okay?"

"Uh, okay."

"Andy!" Kate and I both look to our left and I almost groan when I see Victoria practically skipping toward us.

She plops right down on the other side of me, sandwiching me in between her and Kate, and leans over to give me a hug. I awkwardly pat her back, not really sure what to do.

I catch Christian glancing over at us, signaling me to remember our plan, well his plan. My plan would be to ship Victoria off to places unknown and hold Christian hostage all to myself. That plan is even worse than his!

"Oh my God, I found the cutest dress to wear to the fundraiser tomorrow." Oh, no, I totally forgot that God forsaken fundraiser was this weekend. "We should totally color coordinate! We would look so cute together!" she all but squeals. "Ohh, and my parents will be there, I can introduce you and we could even go on double dates with Kate and Drew when he takes his head out of his ass and realizes what a catch she is! Oh, and look at this!" She begins pulling something out of her bag.

"Victoria," I say.

She doesn't hear me.

"Victoria."

Either she's ignoring me or just too excited to hear anything else but her own wild thoughts. So I lean over and physically grab her hands to get her to stop moving. She looks up at me, her hazel eyes turning darker, and I swear I feel her lean closer toward me. Please don't try to kiss me. I would hate for my first kiss to be with a girl, and I'm sure she wouldn't like the thought of kissing a girl, and potentially falling in love with her when she thinks that the boy she's kissing is really a girl. Oh, no. What if she knows I'm a girl and is a lesbian?

I look at her wide eyes, as she bats her long lashes at me and gazes at me with hope and . . . please don't tell me that's desire.

"Yes, Andy?"

I let go of her and sit back, rubbing the back of my neck. "Um, well, you see, I don't think I'll be able to make it tomorrow. My, um, cousin, yeah my cousin is flying in from Maine, and my mom is kind of making it a mandatory family dinner tomorrow. So you're just going to have to go without me. I'm really sorry." I stand up quickly, knowing she's going to try to persuade me to change my mind, or my mother's mind, but this can't happen. Like ever. "You should ask Christian, though. Okay, I gotta go now. So, um, see you later!" I wave like a dork to both girls and literally sprint back to my dorm.

When I get inside I lean back against the door and take a few deep breaths as I try to calm my breathing and my heart rate. Oh my God, that was the most awkward conversation I've ever had with a girl, and I've had some pretty weird conversations with myself. They're going to think I'm a total weirdo and Christian's going to hate me for failing to make his dumb plan work.

I groan and roll my eyes, then walk over to my bed and fall back onto it. Can my life literally get any more complicated? I groan again when I hear a knock against the door, and then slowly get up to answer it. When I pull the door open I can't say I'm surprised when I see Victoria anxiously standing on the other side. She doesn't even wait for me to invite her in before she pushes her way through the door and stands before me with her hands on her hips and a frown on her lips.

"Why don't you like me?" she blurts out suddenly. She looks like she's about to cry. Looks like someone doesn't have a lot of experience with rejection. I inwardly roll my eyes at that thought. Of course she doesn't have experience with rejection, look at her face and body!

I awkwardly shift my weight form foot to foot as I try to think of what to tell her. "Um, it's not that I don't like you . . . I just—you're not really, uh, my, um, type."

She stares at me incredulously for a moment like she can't believe what I've just said. "Not—not your type?" she mumbles. "But . . .I. . . well then what is your type?" she grounds out. It doesn't look like she's about to cry now, she looks really mad. Oh, God, please no. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned I feel like this one could do some major damage if she really wanted to. She's probably thinking right now how she'd like to hang me from my balls. Thank God I don't really own any.

I shrug my shoulders to her question. I would say Christian but I don't think she'd appreciate that one. "I don't know really. I just—"

Her relieved laugh interrupts me. "Oh, okay I get it now. There's nothing to be ashamed of." Her eyes are shining in realization and she's wearing a self-satisfied smirk now. She takes a few steps closer to me and places her hands on my shoulders. "You know I should have figured it out a lot sooner, but I was just so distracted by those pretty blue eyes of yours that I wasn't thinking properly, but it's all good. I'll show you everything you need to know, and then your realize what type of girl you're really into." She leans down to give me a kiss on my cheek then hugs me and heads for the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? My parents are going to love me being with such an honest boy for once." She winks at me and blows me a kiss, just in time for Christian to walk in with a small towel over his shoulder to see Victoria leave the room.

"Oh, hey, Christian," Victoria says cheerfully and then struts down the hallway and out of our sight.

Christian turns and looks at me with a raised brow just as the door slams closed and locks me in what I'm sure is about to become my very own personal hell of twenty questions.

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