Remember When #featured #AllStars

Chapter 15

CROSSING THE LINE

I'd started to notice Lisa's increasing frustration with me over the previous weeks, but it wasn't until the day of the homecoming game that I perceived actual disappointment on her face.

Trip had shuttled Lisa, Pickford and me to the field that day. It was a particularly grey and drizzly afternoon, even for the end of November. As we started our walk toward the bleachers, my sneakers kept getting sucked into the mud. Rather than let me try to make the journey by tiptoe, Trip offered a passage by way of piggyback. He was doing an exaggerated slip all over the mud puddles, pretending that he was going to drop me any second. I was cracking up and threatening his life when I happened to catch the disapproving look Lisa shot my way.

I knew something was about to go down as she was getting dropped off afterwards. Trip would normally save me for the last stop, but that day, Lisa asked me to get out at her house instead. I knew we'd been building up to some Big Conversation over the past few weeks, but I guessed she had finally decided it was going to happen right then.

We said goodbye to Trip and made our way into the house. She didn't say a single word to me until we were locked safely away in the sanctuary of her room. "Okay, Layla. This has really got to stop."

I was sitting on her bed Indian-style, picking at the chartreuse marabou pillow in my lap. "What has?"

She rolled her eyes at me for that. "This!" she shouted, sweeping her arms in a wide arc, "This whole, stupid thing with you and Trip! What the hell is going on with you two?"

Her abrupt words caught me off guard. "I don't know," I stammered, while still trying to maintain an air of smugness. "Why don't you tell me?"

I knew Lisa well enough to expect a full-on assault for that, but rather than the verbal tirade I was anticipating, she said, "I know I've been spending a lot of time with Pickford. But he's my boyfriend. What's going on between you and Trip... is just... well, it's disturbing."

That made me puff up a little in defense. "What's so disturbing about it? We're friends. We hang out." And then, just to throw a little salt in the wounds, I added, "You know, kind of like how we used to."

She bypassed opening that can of worms for the time being and stuck to her original argument. "Oh, please. Friends my arse. It's so obvious you're in love with him. Everyone knows it. Just admit it. And seriously, what's the point?"

I didn't appreciate being backed into a corner, but it's not as though Lisa had the situation figured out completely wrong. It was just that it was a little embarrassing to find out that people other than my best friend were aware of how I felt. Shit. Did Trip know?

"It's not like that, alright? Like, okay, yeah, it would be great if he felt the same way. But it's more than that. I really, truly enjoy hanging out with him. We like each other. Why does it have to mean something?"

She joined me on the bed, sitting opposite me and mirroring my pose. "It doesn't have to mean something when two people are really and truly just platonic friends. What doesn't work is when one of you has a big, fat crush on the other."

What did she know? "Big wow. You had a crush on my cousin Sean for like, ever. Where'd that go? Nowhere, that's where."

"Sean Tanner is like twenty-something-years-old and every girl within the tri-state area has had a crush on him at some point in her life! But I'm not so delusional that I'd stop living and pine away for some guy who barely knows my name. Crushing on Sean didn't stop me from dating other guys in the meantime."

"I date."

"You hook up. Big difference. But you haven't even done so much as that since Terrence the Third came to town."