I return back to my dorm to find it empty. No sign of Zoe anywhere, she's probably out at dance practice until late. I can't stop to seem smiling. I pull out my MacBook from under my bed, open it and proceed to check Facebook. As I do the usual Happy Birthday rounds and liking of statuses I feel my iPhone in my pocket vibrate. The screen indicated there was a text from an unknown number. I unlocked my phone and silently read the text.
'Hey Vi! It's Duke! I wanted to say thankyou for the amazing game today. Looking forward to the next one ;)'
My heart violently started pounding against my chest as I started on my reply.
'Hey you! Yes it was quite amazing! Haha me also ;)'
I nervously typed his name in the search bar on Facebook and go to Dukes page and add him as a friend then I see his relationship status as in a relationship with Paige Conway. I view her profile and hit the 'add as a friend' button as well.
Zoe then bursts through the door with the biggest smile on her face. "I got in!" She screams. I race up and jump on top of her hugging her. I love seeing her so happy. "We have to go out and celebrate!" I say.
She puts on a black dress, grey cardigan and ballet flats. I come out with my dark wash skinny leg jeans, my new floral top and black ankle boots. We start walking down the footpath looking out for any places we could go to seeing as we don't know the area very well.
We finally find a place and sit down and pick up our menu boards. We both agree on pizza and lemonade and ordered our food. "Duke has a girlfriend," I groan. "Darling! I'm so sorry," she says. I start explaining everything he told me to Zoe and then I see Duke walk in with Paige and as he goes to order, she gets a seat. I stand up to go say hi.
"Duke! Hey!" I say. "Hey Vi!" he smiles. We talk for a little while then we both go back to our tables. "Dude, you should've seen Paige, the whole time you were talking to Duke she was just sitting there death staring you!" "What's she going to do? We're just friends," I laugh.
Our pizza arrives and Zoe and I start digging in straight away because we were both starving. We end up ordering an extra pizza and garlic bread. As we are waiting for the bill, I look over at Paige finishing off her bowl of salad and standing to go to the bathroom. I look at her thin slender body, her glowing tan skin and her immaculate cream coloured dress. I noticed she looked more natural then she did the other day in class and noticed how beautiful she really was.
I look down at my grease stained jeans and immediately start to feel self-conscious. Zoe then drags me to the bathroom with her because she needed to pee. That girl goes to the toilet 20 times a day I swear! We enter and I see Paige at the mirror powdering her nose. "Hi," I smile. She just looks at me and then goes back to powdering her nose. "Cow," I hear Zoe mutter from under the cubicle.
Zoe comes out and we go back out into the main area and start heading to the door but then Duke comes over. "Vi! I was wondering if tomorrow after classes you wanted to meet up and practice our techniques?" He suggests. "Sounds great Duke!" I reply. We keep talking about soccer when I see Paige tap Dukes shoulder from behind. He turns around and she grabs the back of his head and full on makes out with him on the spot. I mumble a goodbye and me and Zoe make a speedy exit out of there.
Twenty minutes later, Zoe and I are back in our Dorm. Zoe is fast asleep and I try to go to sleep but for some reason I couldn't so I reach for my mac and log into Facebook. I notice 2 notifications and an email. I check the notifications and see that they are from both Duke and Paige accepting my friend requests. My heart then lurches and I'm hoping the email is from Duke but then I'm disappointed when I see Ava's name there. I quickly skim through her email and reply and then my phone starts vibrating. I see it's a text message from Duke and I get major butterflies. I open it and read it.
'Hey Vi! Sorry about back at the restaurant, I was as shocked as you were.'
'Haha! Don't even worry about it '
'So what are you up to?'
'Just casually being bored! I can't sleep..'
Suddenly my phone bursts into life and my phone informs me that Duke is trying to call me. I go into full on panic mode and I feel as if my heart was slamming itself against my chest. I slowly tap the 'Accept' button and attempt my sexy voice. "Hello?" Damn! My voice was all tired sounding.
"I can't sleep either, can we talk?" He mutters in a quiet whisper. His voice sounds like he is in pain. "Of course" I whisper a protective feeling washed right through me and I was deeply concerned. "Meet me at the soccer fields in 10 minutes?" I was shocked. I thought he wanted to talk to me over the phone and now he wants me to sneak out of my dorm in the middle if the night! "Sure", I squeaked.
"Thanks Vi, your incredible" He whispered then he hung up. I just sat there dumbfounded. He thinks I'm incredible. I break out into an uncontrollable grin and then realise I have to go and meet him. I race into the bathroom and hurriedly start fixing my smudged make-up, glossing my lips and tousling my hair then race out the door down to the fields.
I stand there shivering and looking around trying to spot Duke. Suddenly an arm grabs me and pulls me behind a tree. "Sorry!" He grins, "If we get caught we will be washing windows for like an entire semester!" If I thought this boy couldn't get any hotter I was wrong. He had the 'I just rolled out of bed and left my hair' look and he smelt so good!
"Nice choice of attire," He laughed and I glanced down and was shocked to discover that I forgot to change out of my pajamas! I was still wearing my men's superman boxers and my cropped, grey singlet to reveal my slim, toned body. It also revealed my lack of boobs. I saw him eyeing my body with a hungry look in his eyes and my immediate reaction was to self-consciously wrap my arms around my body and I couldn't help but shiver from the cold, night air. He noted my gesture and took off his large, warm hoodie and put it around my shoulders. "Thanks" I smiled up at him.
"Follow me," he grinned then started walking towards the forest at the side of the soccer fields. We entered the forest and I felt protected having Duke with me. We followed the path and then suddenly came to a dead-end but then he pushed aside a branch and helped me through the clearing. There was a small area there, lit up by the light of the moon. Just casually chilling there was an abandoned picnic table with a small lake near by making soft gurgling noises. "It's beautiful," I whispered.
"I came across it one night and now I just come here to think. It's a place where I can just breathe and not have to worry about the pressure," He simply stated. "So what did you want to talk about?" "Paige," He said. He said her name with such sadness that it made me want to go over to him and hug him as tight as I could.
"What about her?" I asked him. "We had a fight. We always fight. She always accuses me of something that I don't do; she's such a hypocrite." He angrily states. "Duke.." I start to say but then he cuts me off. "Sorry Vi, I didn't mean to make this all about me. I came down here because I was upset and talking to you makes me happy" He smiles and my heart bursts inside my chest. "So you don't want to talk about Paige?" I question. "Nope, I just want to hang out with you."
The cold night air around us got stronger and stronger so I got up off the table and started walking around trying to warm myself up. "Want to race to get warmed up?" I grinned at Duke as he nodded his head in approval. "Race you to the pond at the other end of the school?" He asked. "Yup let's go!" I yelled enthusiastically and raced off.
Dukes long toned legs easily guaranteed his win as I came in after him. He sat on the edge of the lake panting and dipped his feet in the shallow, lukewarm water. I came up behind him and was about to sit down on the spot next to him when my foot got caught in some hole in the ground and I went into the pond.
Duke sat there stunned before roaring with laughter until he was crying. "Shut-up!" I groaned. "Are you okay Vi?" He laughed while wiping away the tears coming from his eyes. "Is it possible to break your ass?" I laughed but made no attempt to get out of the water. Duke suddenly pulled up his trackpants over his knees and jumped in the water.
He held out his hand meaning to help me out of the water but I grabbed it and pulled it so hard that he went flying in next to me. "Vi you bitch!" He laughed then grabbed me and held my arms by my sides then started splashing water in my face. "St-st-op!" I spluttered and then he released me. My heart was pounding about ten million times a second and so loudly that I was sure that he could hear it. His touch made my bare stomach and my arms fill with Goosebumps.
The sun started to rise and I groaned because I knew we had to go back to the dorms now. Duke jumped up and hoisted himself out of the pond and then stuck out his hand to help me out. As I grabbed his hand I just imagined how amazing life would be if our hands could be entwined forever. Walking down the hall holding hands, a quick kiss before class. Stop Viola! He has a girlfriend! I mentally yelled at myself. We walked back to the school talking about how our Biology teacher had the resemblance of a rat and then we reached the buildings. "Bye Viola," He said. I swear I heard sadness in his voice. No I'm just imagining it. "Bye Duke," I quietly whisper and he turns around and starts walking back to his dorm.