The Street Fighter (#Wattys2014)

Chapter 16.

The whole ride, Keeley was tapping her fingers on her legs. It made no noise but I could see her out of the corner of my eye, they twitched nervously from the hand I wasn’t holding, a consistent movement. I gave her hand a light squeeze and she turned her head towards me, a slight smile on her face. My brows furrowed as I saw the worry in her eyes, she couldn’t be that worried about being late, could she?

I wanted to say something, anything to get a smile on her face again instead of this worried look on her face, though I had no idea what to say. I could ask her what’s wrong, but I already had a good idea of what was bothering her. I could tell her she had nothing to worry about, but it would be just empty words.

As I wove through the traffic, I would glance over to Keeley to see her become less worried as we got closer, though more anxious and antsy at the same time, which in turn made me grow more concerned. Friends get concerned over friends, right? Friends... My brain scoffed at me as that word played in the forefront of my thoughts, then a flash of earlier went through my head. Her smiling up at me as my hand cupped her cheek, I had wanted nothing more than to pull her closer. That’s not the way friends think. My mind said smugly, I mentally rolled my eyes at myself.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I could tell Keeley was in her own world, not even realizing we were here. I gave her hand a slight squeeze, trying to get her attention. She moved her head towards me and looked at me questioningly.

“We’re here, princess.” I said with a lopsided grin, watching as her eyes grew wide and she looked out the window. “So, are you going to play in your ballet outfit?” I asked as I looked down at her clothes. She snapped her head back towards me and then down at her outfit.

“Crap... Oh! My bag,” she quickly pulled up her bag shuffled through it till her hand came out with her uniform in her clutch. “Yes,” she said triumphantly.

“You keep a spare softball uniform in your ballet bag?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No, I just happened to have it from practice a couple days ago... thank goodness it was a light practice day.”

“Why? Don’t want to go out there covered in dirt and smelling like old socks?” I chuckled.

“Har har,” she rolled her eyes at me. “You staying to watch?” she asked, about to hop out.

“I might as well,” I said with a smirk. 

“Cool...” she trailed off, then smiled and hoped out and ran towards the bathrooms. I shook my head at her, wondering how she went from lost in confusion to perky and practically skipping. That girl was something else all right.

I got out of the car and shoved my hand in my pocket as I made my way to the bleachers. As I got closer I spotted someone that looked almost like Keeley, who I immediately knew was her mother. She was sitting on the first row, her head scanned around everywhere, obviously looking for her daughter. I knew I was going to kick myself for this later but I sat on the first row, a couple people down from her. I didn’t introduce myself, nor did I do anything to draw her attention to me. If Keeley wanted me to mer her mom, then she would introduce me herself. I wasn’t about to go prying into her life.

I watched Keeley’s mom as she still glanced around, searching for her daughter amongst the player and the crowd around her.  Keeley came running out of the bathroom finally, her uniform in place of her ballet outfit. I saw her glance towards the bleachers as she passed, her eyes catching her mom’s, then she ducked her head and headed towards her team.

As the game continued, I zoned out, only watching when Keeley was on the field. When I wasn’t watching her, I would glance over at her mom, watching how she kept turning around every now and then to make comments to a couple guys behind her.